Trans comedian and politician Eddie Izzard has announced a new name, saying she wants to be called Suzy from now on. “I’m gonna be Suzy Eddie Izzard”, she announced at a recording of The Political Party podcast last night. “I’ll put Suzy there and then Eddie and then people can choose what they want and no one can go wrong”.
“I’ve wanted to be S, U, Z, Y since I was 10,” Izzard said in a Q&A with comedian Matt Forde.
On her political ambitions, Izzard vowed “I’ll keep going until I get in”. She unsuccessfully ran to be a Labour candidate in Sheffield last year.
Determined to be an MP, Izzard also seems to have her sights on the Cabinet, joking “Do I have to be backbench?”, and added that having studied accounting would help with public finances. She says she will give up stand-up comedy if elected and will only do infrequent charity gigs.
Clarkson inspires at the BBC
Researchers at the BBC are looking to an exciting new on-screen talent for new ideas: Jeremy Clarkson.
A new BBC audience research team email points out that his show for Amazon Prime about life as a farmer, Clarkson’s Farm, is “resonating with some audience groups who are less likely to feel that the BBC is ‘For Me’”. They wonder if the BBC could make similarly “warm, entertaining stories about life across the UK”.
Of course, there are reasons not to copy Clarkson. He had to resign from Top Gear after punching his producer in the face, while a column he wrote last year saying he wanted to see the Duchess of Sussex paraded through the streets naked while people threw “excrement” at her has put his deals with both Amazon and ITV at risk.
How Vanessa Feltz dealt with heartbreak
Former BBC London host Vanessa Feltz broke up with her partner this year after he cheated on her, but she’s staying upbeat. “At some point that broken heart is going to knit together,” Feltz said on journalist Elizabeth Day’s Instagram, having a Bloody Mary and advising those in the same position to focus on positives like “the spring, the sunshine, and flowers”. It’s minus 15 in some places, but we get her point.
New group to replace XR?
Superglue stocks have been replenished since Extinction Rebellion said “we quit” in January. But now another group of direct-action environmentalists, Fossil Free London, are on the scene. The group disrupted nine fossil fuel-related conference events in London last week and plan to do more. The Intercontinental Hotel on Park Lane, where one of the events was held, ended up fencing off its entrance to keep them out.
Sir Keir’s trip to BAFTA HQ
Labour leader Keir Starmer joined Emily Maitlis at the Turn The Tables dinner for Cancer Research UK at Bafta Piccadilly yesterday. Also chatting to Maitlis was Gillian Anderson, who is playing the journalist in an upcoming film about her Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew.
In town too was Keanu Reeves, who sheltered from the rain at the premiere of John Wick 4, and Elle Macpherson, at a launch for Atelier Romy’s new Goddess necklace.
Elsewhere, presenter June Sarpong and actor Anna Friel were at the KTW & The Wick Monday Muse Dinner at Mayfair’s Mount St Restaurant, and at the Bake Off musical, last year’s finalist Sandro told us he’s backing Jo Brand to replace departing host Matt Lucas. And over the weekend, model Jodie Kidd tried out attraction F1 Arcade for a party during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
