PRINCESS Alexandra's trip to the border last week caught one of her minders short.
As the Princess was admiring the Shenzhen skyline, Brett Free, editor of the police newspaper Off Beat, sloped away to answer a call of nature. He popped into a nearby toilet and as he performed the necessary, Free noticed how prettily decorated it was - stylish floor covers, lace-covered table and a flowerpot. By the time his eye lit upon the Perrier water someone had thoughtfully provided, the awful truth dawned.
Just then the door swung open and a royal bodyguard stared in disbelief. 'This is the Princess' toilet, and she's coming here RIGHT NOW !' Free rushed out of the toilet, then ducked back in, heart racing. In a flash he wiped the seat in case he had left any tell-tale signs and flushed. He escaped through the door just as a pair of royal feet clattered down the staircase.
WELL, possums, it seems that doing it nine nights on the run was a bit much for dear old Dame Edna Everage. By the seventh night, on Thursday, the audience in the Lyric Theatre was about as thin as the hairs on her silken legs - leaving the star of the first part of the show, Sir Les Patterson, no choice but to phone Hong Kong Today the next morning to plug the fact that plenty of seats were still available for the last two nights. Spooky, as you-know-who might say.
LAW graduate, racing driver and TVB's Eye On Hong Kong presenter Oliver Tan (picture) is set to concentrate on another field this month when he says farewell to Hong Kong to try for an acting career across the water.
Half Chinese and half Scandinavian, Tan is confident the current Hollywood craze for Eurasians (Keanu Reeves, Russell Wong, et al) will stand him in good stead with agents and producers. He has enrolled in acting classes in Vancouver and hopes to move south to Hollywood to find fame and fortune.
We trust Tan will have better luck in Tinseltown than he did with the Gerard Depardieu film being shot in the territory. Having sorted out dates and fees with the company, Tan found himself dropped from the cast days before the production started.