The Londoner: Passenger's fury at Mary McCartney photo

Mary McCartney in trouble for photographing stranger / Alex Ellis was once 007 / Pippa Middleton attracts attention over ice tea dress / Victoria Beckham was a 'gracious' wedding guest 
Told off: Mary McCartney:
Getty Images
29 May 2018

Mary McCartney has revealed that she got into trouble with a member of the public recently, for taking their picture without permission while on the Tube.

McCartney is a professional photographer (as her mother Linda was) and has been working on a project entitled #someone, for which she photographs strangers who are striking or well-dressed on her phone.

Normally she asks for permission before taking the shots, she says, but while on the Tube recently she saw a woman and secretly took her picture before approaching her. McCartney (left), speaking at the National Portrait Gallery last Thursday as part of the PHOTO London show, said that the passenger was incensed by what she’d done.

“You’ve already taken it so why are you asking me now?” she said.

McCartney says she apologised profusely, but the woman refused to accept her apology and was only satisfied when McCartney deleted the photograph from her phone.

Taking pictures of strangers — particularly on the Underground — has become a controversial issue. There was huge outcry when a website featured photos of women eating on the Tube. It was described as sexist, intrusive and debasing.

McCartney says she found her encounter shocking but that usually members of the public are positive and happy to be pictured.

Her website and Instagram feeds both feature multiple portraits of members of the public, including a man with a skateboard, white trousers, and black shirt with flames on the arms that was taken on the Tube and a person lying stretched out at a train station with their shoes off and face obscured by a waiting room wall.

Among McCartney’s well-known subjects are the Blairs. She took the first official portrait of Tony, Cherie and their son Leo in 2000.

The daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney has also photographed her sister Stella, the fashion designer whose dress the Duchess of Sussex wore to her wedding reception on Saturday.

Romantic Mandy’s republican jolly

How times change. Peter Mandelson was so moved by the royal wedding he says he is now considering marrying his long-term partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.

But when Prince Charles wed Lady Diana, the life peer was one of a group of trade unionists who got on a ferry and sailed off on The Republican Away Day.

The event was described as “an alcohol-fuelled trip to Boulogne for those who so despised the patriotic crowds lining the Mall that they could not bear even to be in the same country”.

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Alex Ellis, director general at the Department for Exiting the European Union, once appeared on Brazilian TV dressed as James Bond. Ellis, then ambassador to Brazil, appeared on a show called The Noite in 2015. He entered to the 007 theme tune in a tux then “shot” a cameraman. An international man of mystery.

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Pippa Middleton’s royal wedding dress attracted a lot of media attention in the US. Her pale-green outfit adorned with pink blossoms — by design brand The Fold — turned heads but Americans compared it to a popular drink: the floral pattern and green shade made her look uncannily similar to a can of Arizona iced tea.

Charity-shop look for Emma and Lily at their own unique royal wedding bash party

Actor Lily James joined broadcaster Emma Freud for a royal wedding party like no other over the weekend. The pair decided to spend the day dressed in wedding gowns purchased from Oxfam.

Freud, journalist and partner of screenwriter Richard Curtis, later spoke of her “terrible” decision to don a “1970s nylon nightie” for the occasion. “What was I thinking?” she asked.

The well-behaved brides were initially pictured in front of the television, patiently waiting for the ceremony to begin. But within a few hours, they were swigging from champagne bottles and filling up on party food. “We let ourselves down. I know this now,” added Freud.

The party included cardboard cut-outs of the Queen and a Beatles/ wedding “mashup” cake created by Norfolk bakery El's Cakes. The “All You Need is Love”-themed cake was made for the cast of Curtis and Freud’s new Beatles movie, which James is starring in.

SW1A

Boris Johnson (below) has been conducting a series of humorous photocalls while in South America — perhaps to counteract what seems like more veiled challenges to Theresa May over Brexit. One involved posing with a manatee. The author Antoinette Moss remarks: “Not surprising that Boris feels at home with the manatees. They are animals which stay afloat by farting.”

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World leaders may have stayed away from the royal wedding but Parliament had one representative: Sir Nicholas Soames, MP and grandson of Winston Churchill. He was seated next to David and Victoria Beckham. “It was the most memorable, moving, touching, never to be forgotten, sun-lit day in which there was not a false note,” Soames says. “Perfectly done. So truly privileged to be there.” And how was sitting next to Posh Spice? “She was very gracious.”

Quote of the day

‘This dress enhanced the Meghan-ness of the new Duchess, rather than transforming her into someone else’

Former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman gives her verdict today on the Duchess of Sussex’s Givenchy dress

Tucker’s top of agenda at Campbell talk

Alastair Campbell:
Mike Marsland/WireImage

Alastair Campbell’s notoriety as Britain’s most famous spin doctor has been superseded — by a fictional character. The audience at a Mind fundraiser he addressed in Guernsey on Friday were far more interested in his take on Malcolm Tucker, the foul-mouthed character in TV comedy The Thick of It, than the real New Labour years. The audience were invited to submit questions. The number on Tucker outstripped anything on Blair or Brown. Campbell offered a signed book for the wittiest question. The winner? “Do you like Jeremy Corbin? [sic] and, unrelated to this, “What are your views on assisted dying?”

Sarah Jane and Henry share royal wedding tips

Before the big day on Saturday, did Henry Conway give Sarah-Jane Mee other a pep-talk? The pair were at the launch of The Little Blue Door on Thursday evening and Conway, something of a royal expert, must have given Mee some encouragement before she headed to Windsor to cover the event.

The venue, found at the Parsons Green end of Fulham Road, is a new bar and restaurant with a flatshare feel.

Henry Conway and Sarah-Jane Mee at the Little Blue Door

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