ALISON BOSHOFF: David Beckham set to get Hollywood Walk of Fame gold star

He’s still waiting for that knighthood – despite years of good works and lending his support to the Royal Family. He even queued with the masses for nearly 12 hours to see the late Queen lying in state in Westminster Hall in September 2022.

But David Beckham is about to receive a significant honour in the form of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There are six categories: motion pictures, TV, audio recording or music, radio, theatre or live performance, and sports entertainment.

They allow around 20 to be honoured every year, but if you are selected then you have to stump up $75,000 for installation and maintenance. A spokesman for the scheme declines to comment on who paid.

Life, death and a ‘gift’ of a role for Moore 

Julianne Moore had been ‘praying’ that Spanish director Pedro Almodovar would make a film in English so she could act in it – and her dreams finally came true with The Room Next Door.

Speaking in London over the weekend she said: ‘Like every English-speaking actress in the entire world, we have all prayed that someday Pedro would make a film in the English language and you might possibly be cast.

‘For me I never imagined it would be possible. Then one day I opened up my email and there was one from Pedro saying: ‘I am making this film with Tilda [Swinton, her co-star] and would you like to be involved?’

‘It came completely out of the blue and was a tremendous gift.’ The film, which has at its core the debate over assisted dying, stars Tilda as a war journalist who is terminally ill. She reconnects with an old friend, played by Moore, whose help she asks for in taking charge of her impending demise. It’s in cinemas from today.

Meet the Mitfords: the rebel ‘Fleabags’ of their generation

The Mitford sisters – society It-girls of the 1930s – are presented as ‘six Fleabags’ in a big-budget period drama, Outrageous.

Producer Liz Kilgarriff, of Firebird Pictures, says: ‘We talked about it as sort of six Fleabags [after Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s TV comedy]. There’s something fascinating about six women who all refuse to do what they are supposed to, which is marry well and bring money into the family. It’s the rebellion.’

Nancy Mitford wrote The Pursuit Of Love and Love In A Cold Climate. Diana, a great beauty, divorced Guinness heir Bryan and married British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley (played in Outrageous by Kylie Minogue’s ex, Joshua Sasse). 

Unity was a friend of Hitler, while communist Jessica, or ‘Decca’, eloped with her second cousin Esmond to join the Spanish Civil War.

Pamela was referred to as the ‘Rural Mitford’ by her admirer, the poet John Betjeman. She divorced her millionaire physicist husband and lived for much of the 1960s with Italian horsewoman Giuditta Tommasi. Deborah became the Duchess of Devonshire and developed stately home Chatsworth House.

Pooch had on-screen incentive to lick Ryan Reynolds face 

Making on-screen smooching look real is a challenge for the best of actors. But thespian dog Peggy – who played Dogpool in Deadpool & Wolverine – had an added incentive to lick Ryan Reynolds face so crazily in the film: salmon paste. 

Owner Luke Middleton – speaking at the launch of the Fidos (aka For Incredible Dogs On Screen awards) – said: ‘There were various things they tried to get her to lick him. The thing that worked was putting copious amounts of salmon paste in his [Ryan’s] mouth.’

Five-year-old Peggy, a Chinese crested-pug cross, started on her path to fame after being crowned Britain’s ugliest dog in a contest in 2023. The Fidos will be given out in February, at Bafta time. 

Their continental counterpart, the Palme Dog, happens around the Cannes Film Festival.

Is Coleen Rooney is headed for the jungle?

Coleen Rooney is preparing to leave her four kids behind when she goes into the jungle, as is rumoured, for I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here!.

Her sons Kai, 14, Klay, 11, Kit, eight, and Cass, six, are all at school, but I hear she has organised family help and is hoping they can join her for at least a part of her month in Australia.

One of the highlights of the Disney+ documentary about the Wagatha Christie affair was watching Coleen prepare to go to London for the trial, leaving behind neatly pressed and labelled uniforms and sports kit for her brood.

Hugh Grant is secretly a star cricketer 

Hugh Grant’s passion for golf is well-known, but it turns out he’s also good at cricket.

Comedian Arthur Smith says: ‘Hugh Grant used to play in a cricket team I ran. We were called The Dusty Fleming International Hairstylists XI. 

He was quite a useful bat – I think he might have hit a 50 once. He wasn’t much of a bowler. But all the girls fancied him.’