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Your support makes all the difference.* Here's a scandal to give Jack Straw sleepless nights as he settles back into the daily grind at the Foreign Office. Independent auditors have been called in by the Foreign Press Association - a trade body representing foreign journalists in the UK - to investigate rumours of financial corruption involving members of its governing committee.
* Here's a scandal to give Jack Straw sleepless nights as he settles back into the daily grind at the Foreign Office. Independent auditors have been called in by the Foreign Press Association - a trade body representing foreign journalists in the UK - to investigate rumours of financial corruption involving members of its governing committee.
Straw, right - who subsidises the FPA, and lets it occupy one of the Foreign Office's grandest buildings on Carlton House Terrace - learnt of the move after the FPA president Catherine Mayer wrote to members, saying her organisation's AGM had been postponed until the investigators could finish their report.
The letter added that Uday Bajekal, the FPA's treasurer, had unexpectedly resigned. He became the second senior scalp in recent months, following the resignation of Mohammed Ben-Madani from the FPA's governing committee.
Ben-Madani's resignation letter - leaked to Pandora last month - made allegations concerning shoddy book-keeping, cronyism and theft at the organisation. The missive was copied to senior Foreign Office staff.
Mayer, a correspondent with Time magazine, acknowledges the row is getting increasingly messy. It may even threaten the FPA's annual press awards, one of Fleet Street's biggest events.
"Several members have written to protest about the delay and request information," reads her letter. "We fully understand their concerns and share their frustrations. However, we are advised by our solicitors not to comment on the investigation until it is completed."
* As a fully paid-up member of Hollywood royalty, Bruce Willis is entitled to expect junior co-stars to treat him with a degree of deference.
Not so Jessica Alba, who is currently in London promoting her role as Willis's love interest in the new film noir, Sin City.
Asked by Pandora about her on-screen kiss with the middle-aged super-stud, Alba said: "It was boring and pretty uncomfortable, to be honest.
"Having to give a full-on kiss to a stranger is certainly not my idea of having a good time.
"It's not like I got to know him during the film, either, as he and Mickey [Rourke] would keep themselves to themselves; they're pretty serious. I preferred to hang out with the make-up people instead."
It wasn't all hard and unrewarding work for the half-Mexican actress, mind.
"I had to learn how to lasso for the part, so I was sent to a private instructor in Texas for some lessons," she added. "It was pretty fun and wild."
* Fresh from skipping across a BBC picket line, Terry Wogan has crashed into another taboo. Despite a life-time of anchoring the Eurovision Song Contest, he has announced he's sick and tired of the event.
Told that Pandora had missed coverage of Saturday's Eurovision, won by Greece, Wogan replied: "You missed nothing."
He even has the temerity to suggest that the competition cannot continue in its current format. "They (the other nations) hate the English and the Irish and any other small countries based off shore," he says.
"The four biggest funding countries in terms of what they contribute - France, Spain, Germany and us - finished in the bottom four places. You've got to ask how long we're going to carry on like that. Unfortunately, other countries don't take the competition seriously: they just vote for each other."
* Alan Titchmarsh found himself on the other side of the cameras at the Chelsea Flower Show this week when he attended a launch by David Austin Roses - of a bloom named after himself.
At first sight, Rosa 'Alan Titchmarsh' (a pink, frilly number) appears to be the very antithesis of its manly namesake. But scratch beneath the surface, and quite the reverse is true.
Asked to explain what qualities he shares with the flower, Titch - housewives' favourite, erotic novelist, and a former winner of the Bad Sex Award - told Pandora: "The rose is healthy and robust, it's got a pleasant scent and just like me, it's very good in a bed."
* At last, Tom Jones has solved that most enduring of show business mysteries: why (despite his advancing years) he always chooses to wear black in public.
In an interview with a newspaper from his native Wales, Jones says it's a pragmatic measure to prevent him suffering from sweat patches.
"It's to hide perspiration," he reveals. "I tried wearing colours but perspiration makes them change colour."
The 65-year-old singer is not averse to a bit of perspiration, mind. "I have a gym in my house in Los Angeles, and do crunches and push-ups," he adds.
"Image is still important, but I'm not a fanatic about it. I don't diet but I try not to eat too much - you shouldn't look like a slob on stage. But as long as I'm fit, I'm fine."
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