Jemima Khan is 'unimpressed' by 'childish' Hugh Grant

Telegraph UK - If Hugh Grant hoped that he would impress his former girlfriend Jemima Khan with his Neanderthal behaviour at a birthday party at Annabel's nightclub, he appears to have been sadly mistaken. Yesterday, Mandrake disclosed that the actor previously known for his foppishness had become involved in a fracas with Matthew Freud, the PR executive, because he was upset that stories had appeared linking Sir James Goldsmith's daughter to Guy Ritchie, whom she had met at a party at Freud's house in Notting Hill.

"Jemima thinks the whole thing is very childish," says one of her chums. "She doesn't need anyone dishing out right hooks on her behalf."

Grant, 49, allegedly punched Freud after the PR man had smeared chocolate cake over his shirt. The actor is said to have provoked the incident by using a four-letter word to describe Freud.

Model of refusal

The BBC has made a most unlikely martyr. April Ashley, who was Britain's first transsexual, has taken a stand against what she sees as its excesses.

"I have just been fined for not paying my licence fee because I refuse to put any money into the BBC," she said at a screening of the film I Am Love at the Electric Cinema in London.

"I don't care about the fine – the biggest part was a donation to charity. But Mark Thompson [the BBC director-general] earns £1 million a year to put this appalling drivel on my screen. I am not paying his salary."

The former Vogue model, 74, added: "I watched a Jonathan Ross interview with Charlotte Church and all he spoke about was his genitalia and what he does on the lavatory. Is that supposed to be edgy? Ross is a disgrace.

"I love the likes of Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson, who has interviewed me. I wouldn't be seen dead on Ross's show. It is very sad that personalities are so devoid of talent these days."