He has had to witness his favorite couple endure harsh criticism in the media, being described as ‘the most entitled, disingenuous people on the planet’ by a neighbor in Montecito.
After reading Vanity Fair’s portrayal of Prince Harry as ‘lost, out of his depth, and naive’ and claims that working for Meghan led some former staff members to seek ‘long-term therapy’, Omid Scobie may have his own challenges to deal with.
I ask because Scobie’s company, MeYou, has been closed down after being on the receiving end of a compulsory strike-off notice in December.
Despite these concerns, Scobie, who recently relocated to California and is now just a two-hour drive from Harry and Meghan, appeared unfazed by the potential implications.
In consequence, MeYou, which Scobie established in 2016, and of which he has always been the sole director, has been dissolved. This means that it ceases to have a legal owner, with the result that its bank account is frozen and any assets are passed to the Crown.
It’s a peculiarly piquant fate for an author who has had an intense, if changeable, relationship with the Royal Family. Back in 2020, he described his reporting of the monarchy as ‘celebratory’, adding that he’d challenge ‘anyone to find a negative story’ he’d written about the Windsors.
Omid Scobie has had an intense, if changeable, relationship with the Royal Family
Three years later, he struck a much less ‘celebratory’ note, saying it was important to write ‘a full story’, without ‘fear or favour, regardless of the consequences’.
While always a tireless cheerleader for Meghan – and, by association, for Harry – Scobie appears to take a splendidly aristocratic attitude to bourgeois niceties such as paperwork required by Companies House.
December’s compulsory strike-off notice was the fourth issued against MeYou. Back in 2022, the company dodged being shut down by filing three sets of annual accounts in a single day in April that year.
This may, of course, simply be because Scobie can appear ill at ease with numbers – even the number of birthdays he’s celebrated. In 2020, he assured an interviewer that he was 33. In fact, he was 38.
Now 43, he declines to comment on the fate of MeYou. But I can disclose that the Crown’s treasure-chest is not about to swell: the company had just £359 in its coffers when Scobie was troubled to file its accounts.
Beautiful in blue, Bowie’s widow defies her 69 years
The striking 5ft 9in model in vibrant blue outfit with black platform shoes
She turns 70 this year, but Iman could pass as decades younger.
David Bowie’s widow showed off her remarkable physique as she modelled tailored denim jeans from her new Iman Global Chic range.
The 5ft 9in model looked even more statuesque than usual in black platform shoes.
‘I come from Africa,’ Iman has said. ‘We celebrate getting older.’
The model hasn’t remarried since Bowie died from liver cancer in 2016 aged 69. The couple had been married for 23 years.
Saldana loves a Full English
Nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her performance in Emilia Perez, a musical about a transitioning Mexican drug kingpin, Zoe Saldana finds comfort in hearty British cuisine.
‘The food here is so delicious,’ she tells Table Manners podcast.
Saldana, 46, whose parents are from Latin America, adds: ‘I love an English breakfast, the bangers, and whatever you call it.
‘I like when things are different. I’m a very curious person, and I feel like you get to know a lot about a culture and people through their food.’
No shopping basket is safe from Joanna Lumley, it seems. ‘I was in my supermarket and some people were buying things called white grapes. And on the shelf, and more expensive, were cotton candy grapes,’ says Dame Joanna, 78. ‘And I gripped those two women loosely around the neck. And I said, “Do me a favour – promise me you won’t buy the white grapes, and buy these once, just to see if you love them.” White grapes, you can just eat them and they’re nothing. These, you savour each one. I saw those women six months later, and they followed me into the supermarket. I changed their lives.’
Hugh invited Emily to Peru?
Cast as Sally Hawkins’ replacement in Paddington In Peru after her fellow British star chose to give up the role of Mary Brown, Emily Mortimer insists she owes a debt of gratitude to screen husband Hugh Bonneville.
‘Apparently it was Hugh, who plays Mr Brown, who said, “I think it should be Emily Mortimer”,’ she reveals cheerfully. ‘So he anointed me Mrs Brown.’
Emily has helped others along the way herself. After writing the script for the BBC drama The Pursuit Of Love, Emily, 53, daughter of Rumpole Of The Bailey creator Sir John Mortimer, cast her mum, her children, two nephews, her brother-in-law, her bridesmaid and a horde of showbiz pals.
Oh boy, it’s catwalk Cara!
Model in gingham shirt and tie, plaid trousers and a cropped brown suede bomber jacket
Cara Delevingne’s penchant for masculine dressing appears to have influenced her outfit choice at Thom Browne’s New York Fashion Week show.
The model and actress, 32, wore a red-and-white gingham shirt and a striped navy-coloured tie, which she paired with high-waisted brown plaid trousers and a cropped brown suede bomber jacket.
Cara, whose girlfriend is musician Leah Mason, has said: ‘I am a “she” right now. But I also like dressing up as a man and being a “he”. You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself about what you are, who you are. Whether it’s masculine and feminine, it’s just who I am.’
Robbie Williams failed to entertain many cinema-goers with his biopic Better Man, in which he’s played by a chimp.
But the Take That singer still has an eight-figure reason to be cheerful as he turns 51 today.
I can reveal that he raked in £75million at his firm, You’re Not Famous. Its latest accounts show it made a profit of almost £42million in 2023, when his Netflix mini-series Robbie Williams was released. He also performed at least 79 concerts around the world.
He got the nickname ‘Mr Tinder’ as the most right-swiped man on the app. Now Stefan-Pierre Tomlin, 34, is using AI to help singletons get results at Celebrity Love Coach, his dating agency. It links a chatbot to clients’ social media to ‘do the chatting for them’ with potential dates. It even sends pictures. If things get steamy, a notification asks, ‘Would you like us to send a racier picture?’ What could possibly go wrong?
