EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Sabine Getty will get down for her fortieth birthday

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was the theme of Sabine Getty’s 40th, with guests inspired by the 1988 film in which Sir Michael Caine and Steve Martin play conmen competing to swindle an heiress out of her fortune.

Sabine’s husband, Joseph Getty, copied Caine’s slicked-back hair and moustache at the bash, held at his father Mark’s Wormsley Park home in Buckinghamshire.

Tablescape designer Alice Naylor-Leyland and PR manager ­Petrina Hesketh wore matching black velvet dresses, while Lady Alice Manners enjoyed her ‘dirty rotten habit’ while smoking a cigarette.

Whatever would Sir Keir Starmer say?

Meghan Markle’s new lifestyle brand in a jam

This is awkward: the Duchess of Sussex’s much-hyped new lifestyle brand has been hit by an embarrassing setback before she’s sold a single jar of strawberry jam.

I can disclose that Meghan has been refused permission to trademark the name of her brand, American Riviera Orchard.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has informed Prince Harry’s wife that the term ‘American Riviera’ is too vague and needs clarification.

It’s a reference to the expensive stretch of California where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex live in Montecito with their two children, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet.

Documents published last weekend declare that: ‘Registration is refused.’

The official body says ‘American Riviera’ is ‘a common nickname for Santa Barbara, California’.

It states: ‘The purchasing public would be likely to believe that the goods originate in the geographic place identified in the mark because the attached evidence shows that applicant’s founder, ie Meghan Markle, resides in the geographic place identified in the [trade] mark.’

The descriptions provided for the items she wants to trademark were considered too vague, including items such as ‘cocktail napkins’, ‘pans’, and ‘cooking utensils, namely, strainers, spoons, forks, spatulas, tongs, spreaders, whisks’ along with ‘soap dispensers’.

The former actress has been given a three-month period to address the office’s concerns. She has been warned that not responding could lead to her application being dropped.

Meghan was also told that she must pay an additional $700 (£532) to continue with her trademark application after initially failing to pay the correct fee.

The Duchess launched the brand in March by setting up an Instagram page which showed nine images revealing its name. It also featured a gold logo, a faux heraldic ‘ARO’, and the word ‘Montecito’, where she and Harry moved after stepping down as working royals.

A video was posted showing a woman’s hands arranging white and pink flowers. It then faded to reveal Meghan in a kitchen, whisking something in a bowl.

Meghan posted the video the day after I contacted her office for comment on her plans.

An insider said the brand would focus on ‘things that are close to her heart’ and would be an extension of her former lifestyle blog, The Tig.

Meghan has sent products including jam and dog biscuits to some friends but plans are now afoot to start with a rose wine.

A source with knowledge of the launch said the plan is to sell Meghan as a beacon of inspiration, aspiration and attainability.

Her style will be sold as affordably elegant, and her image centred on her status as both a family-oriented and ‘regal’ figure.

Customers will be urged to embrace their innate elegance, and to ‘elevate the everyday.’ The brand is also set to offer drinkware, serving ware, bar essentials and other products related to hosting and entertaining.

Netflix has now turbo-charged the plans for American Riviera Orchard – taking over all executive roles and delivering deals with wholesalers, designers, growers and retailers.

Netflix sources say the cookery show Meghan has filmed to accompany it – which is as yet untitled – won’t be ready for transmission for months yet as it has to be edited and then subtitled for release around the world.

Meghan has previously spoken about her love of food, launching a charity cookbook with the Hubb Community Kitchen in 2018 to help families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.

In a foreword for the book, she wrote: ‘I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together.’

Stop bullies, says Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs

We’ve heard of women’s #MeToo experiences in showbusiness, but is it time we heard from some men, too?

Jason Isaacs, who played evil Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, says women can be just as bad.

‘I tell a lot of young actors to avoid bullies on set,’ he tells me. ‘It’s not only male directors who bully as there’s also women.’

Isaacs, 61, adds: ‘It’s a very hierarchical thing, film sets. You’re given power if you’re sitting on top of the pyramid. I’ve seen it really badly abused by people who, for them, it’s less about the art of storytelling and more about needing to shore up their own fragile egos.’

Laura Hamilton toes line on safety drill 

Laura Hamilton once admitted that showing Britons round holiday homes in the Mediterranean or Florida as presenter of A Place In The Sun had left her needing cosmetic work on frown lines caused by prolonged exposure to the sun.

If she isn’t careful, she’ll end up needing treatment for damage to her feet, too. Instead of wearing a pair of steel-toed boots while working on a house project in Majorca, Hamilton, 42, sported beachwear. ‘I’m not renovating in flip-flops,’ she insists.

Why Helena Bonham Carter’s family are not happy?

Author Robert Harris apologised to Helena Bonham Carter and other descendants of PM Herbert Asquith for holding the launch for his book Precipice in the David Lloyd George Room at the National Liberal Club.

‘Unfortunately there wouldn’t have been room for us in the Lady Violet Room next door,’ he observed in an oblique reference to the bad blood between the two families ever since Lloyd George helped topple Asquith in 1916.

Precipice dramatises the romance between Asquith, 61, and Venetia Stanley. 

However, a member of the Bonham Carter clan at the event confided: ‘We’re not entirely happy with the novel which suggests a physical intimacy not supported by the evidence.’

Mary Berry’s love confessions

Dame Mary Berry is on a slippery slope with her latest confessions. ‘When I was skiing, I was always falling in love with the instructors because they were so handsome, and they’re all so brown,’ admits Bake Off’s former judge, happily married to retired antique book seller Paul Hunnings for nearly 60 years. ‘That was about it for holiday romances.’

Florence Pugh’s new mystery leading man  

Does Oppenheimer star Florence Pugh have a new leading man off screen? The Oxford restaurateur’s daughter, who split up with photographer Charlie Gooch last year, turned up at the London premiere of The Perfect Couple with a new man. 

And Florence, 28, apparently went to great lengths to keep his identity secret. I hear that photographers on the red carpet were asked not to capture the pair. ‘I saw them holding hands at the after-party at The Hoxton hotel,’ a fellow guest tells me.

An alumna of £40,000-per-year St Edward’s School in Oxford, Pugh is a former girlfriend of Scrubs star Zach Braff.

Gemma Arterton ‘too sensitive’ for reviews

In forthcoming film The Critic, Gemma Arterton plays an actress stung by reviews of her stage performances written by

Sir Ian McKellen’s character, a journalist. In real life, Arterton can’t read her write-ups.

‘I’ve stopped reading reviews because in the past I used to hold on to the silly trivial things that would bug me,’ she tells me at the premiere at the Curzon Mayfair.

‘Nowadays, I don’t even read them, as I’m too sensitive. I just ignore them.’

The former Bond girl, 38, adds: ‘I have a wonderful family that would tell me, “That’s absolutely not true”.’