As a springboard to success based on a pleasing physique and self-belief – or a lavish streak of narcissism, depending on your point of view – Made In Chelsea is surely second to none, as the careers of past stars, including Pippa Middleton’s brother-in-law, Spencer Matthews, and Radio 1’s Jamie Laing, amply demonstrate.
But it’s evidently possible to grace the show and still come a cropper.
Take Miles Nazaire, whose restless romantic adventures earned him a ‘bad boy’ reputation as he ricocheted from one woman to the next, even re-establishing contact with ex-girlfriend Maeva D’Ascanio after she’d married his former best friend, fellow Made In Chelsea alumnus James Taylor.
But those are now in danger of seeming almost incidental details, given that Nazaire’s ‘performing arts’ business, LGI Productions Ltd, owes His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs £47,000 in unpaid VAT – and a further £38,000 in overdue corporation tax.
But that’s not all. The company, set up in 2022, also owes accountancy firm Sobell Rhodes £11,000, bringing its total debts to just under £100,000.
The dire performance has persuaded Nazaire, 29, pictured, who’s half-French, to snap into action – he’s placed the company in voluntary liquidation. However, good news for creditors is likely to be scarce. Preliminary analysis suggests that, even after every penny in the company’s possession has been scraped together, there will be a shortfall of £82,100, so most of its debts – including what’s owed to taxpayers – will go unpaid.
In recent years, Nazaire’s television appearances have extended to Dancing On Ice and a Channel 4 documentary entitled Obsessed With My Muscles. Now said to be lined-up to star in Love Island USA, he declined to comment on his firm’s travails. Intriguingly, he has just established a new company, Maison Naz Ltd, in the ‘performing arts’ category – just like the old one.
Rosie’s SW19 snap with pal Jack Draper
He may have been defeated by former US Open champion Marin Cilic at Wimbledon yesterday, but Jack Draper had the consolation of a cuddle with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
The 38-year-old model and wife of Hollywood hardman Jason Statham looked thrilled to meet Draper, 23.
The pair know each other through their work for Burberry. They were pictured together earlier this year in an ad campaign for the luxury goods firm.
Stunt left film star in a jam
Priyanka Chopra suffers for her art.
The Indian actress, 42, who hasn’t been seen with her friend Meghan Markle since the duchess quit Britain in 2020, had to undertake some challenging stunts as MI6 agent Noel Bisset in the new Prime Video film Heads Of State.
‘I was out of my comfort zone when I was rolling around in fake tomatoes,’ she tells me at a screening at the BFI Soutbank. ‘It was not fun to have cold jelly [jam] rubbed on me, but I was still grateful that it wasn’t rotten tomatoes.’
I’m Strictly single, says show pro
Her love life has been the source of constant speculation, yet Nadiya Bychkova insists she’s happy with no man by her side.
‘Look at me – being single is beautiful,’ the Strictly Come Dancing star tells me at the National Film Awards at Porchester Hall in London. ‘I’m enjoying it, especially in summer.’
The Ukrainian dancer, 35, ended her relationship with fellow Strictly pro Kai Widdrington last year. ‘I’m in a really good place and I’m really happy,’ she says.
However, Nadiya, who has a daughter, Mila, eight, with Slovenian footballer Matija Skarabot, says she’s been left ‘tired’ by rumours about her friendship with presenter Dan Walker, with whom she was partnered on Strictly in 2021.
Best known for his novelty group The Wombles, which featured musicians dressed as characters from the children’s TV show, Mike Batt is composing a symphony in aid of Ukraine. ‘I wanted to write something not aimed at the commercial market,’ he tells me. ‘It will be four ten-minute movements.’ Batt, 76, is raising funds for the recording via the platform Kickstarter.
Everett: ‘Wokery’ has made cinema boring
Despondent about the state of the film and television industry, Rupert Everett complains: ‘I preferred the world of entertainment when it was a little bit less puritanical.
‘I feel that now we’ve got into a world where everybody’s so easily offended by anything anybody does that the result is everything is completely predictable, and as a result quite boring.’
The My Best Friend’s Wedding actor adds: ‘There’s just this horrible political movement of a kind of cinematic wokery.’
I got married and my taste changed: Shaw
Fiona Shaw says falling in love with a Sri Lankan woman has spiced up her life in more ways than one.
The Killing Eve star, 66, has been married to economist Sonali Deraniyagala, 60, since 2018, and credits her wife with transforming her taste buds.
‘I’m now introduced to a whole world of Sri Lanka, which has really opened up my life at the very moment that I might have been closing it down,’ says Fiona. ‘It’s been great.’
The couple met in New York over a decade ago, while Fiona was performing The Testament Of Mary on Broadway. Since then, a lot has changed. ‘I am quite a good cook, but I’m married to a Sri Lankan, so I’ve given up. The best dish is cod cheek curry.’
She adds: ‘A roast chicken is never a roast chicken any more because there’s lots of garlic and spices. My palate has changed because of that.’
