RICHARD JOHNSON: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle complain about mistreatment at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, say pals
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s friends in London are whispering that the former royals have been complaining they were snubbed and mistreated at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
They both whined that the family wasn’t as welcoming as they should have been.
Harry is now in L.A. rewriting the last chapter of his autobiography to include the palace intrigue around their trip to England for the funeral of his grandmother.
Insiders say that Penguin Random House paid more than $15 million for his story and they want it to contain scandalous, headline-grabbing news. Members of the royal family hope that Harry will not attack his family as insensitive racists the way Meghan did during the Oprah interview.
The publication date of the highly anticipated book has been pushed back for Harry to add the new chapter and make additional changes.
Insiders fear the book could bury any reconciliation between Harry and Meghan, and the Royal Family.
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The sleazy corruption of the music business is exposed in “The Circle Broken,” a debut novel by Dorothy Carvello.
Carvello — who wrote a hard-hitting memoir, “Anything for A Hit: An A&R Woman’s Story of Surviving the Music Industry” — said fiction is harder.
“I had no idea it would be this tough,” she told me.
One of the protagonists in her story is an Australian rocker who will be recognized as Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS who died in a Sydney hotel room in 1997.
Hutchence, 37, had hanged himself.
“The music business takes beautiful people like Michael, consumes their creativity, and spits them out,” Carvello said. “The money is obscene, and it makes people act in obscene ways.”
But Carvello believes Hutchence was brain damaged after a 1992 trip to Denmark with model Helena Christensen when he got into a fight, and a man shoved him and he hit his head on the cobblestones.
“He lost his sense of taste and smell and it stripped him of his identity,” Carvello said. “I witnessed the decline of a friend, his behavior so erratic and taking drugs.”
Hutchence once told Carvello, “I turn over a lot of money for a lot of people, and I’m the smallest fish in the pond.”
After he died a major label executive told her, “He’s worth more to me dead than alive.”
“Fans only see the outer shell, the rock star prancing on stage in the spotlight,” said Carvello, who is represented by Adam Chromy.
“They don’t know what happens when the rock star gets back on the bus and must deal with an industry that is heartless and cruel and focused only on the bottom line.”
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Steven Seagal is still a big fan of Vladimir Putin, and wished the Russian autocrat a happy birthday on Twitter.
The former action hero, who was born in Michigan, has been spending more and more time in Russia and even Donbas, the Ukrainian territory illegally annexed by Russia.
Seagal has been accused of sexual harassment by various Hollywood actresses. Said one source, “In Russia there is no such thing as sexual harassment, so he must enjoy his time there.”
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Scott Barnhill, the male model who was with Giselle Bundchen before she hooked up with Leonardo DiCaprio and then Tom Brady, is also a musician.
Barnhill has just released an album “Vida and the Heartbreak.” Vida was the Yorkshire terrier he shared with Gisele before they split.
Barnhill is also working with Gus Van Sant on “Prince of Fashion,” based on a visit to Paris Fashion Week by Michael Chabon and his 13-year-old son. Will Ferrell will star.
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Art-collecting heiress Libbie Mugrabi had a bit of a kerfuffle at Annabel’s, London’s poshest private club.
Libbie arrived in head-to-toe Balenciaga and a white trucker hat of her own design with her octopus logo covered in real diamonds.
Annabel staffers looked aghast at the designer’s street chic chapeau and asked Libbie to doff her one-of-a-kind $25,000 hat or they wouldn’t let her in.
Libbie was in shock because the recent Paris couture shows were filled with baseball hats. Balenciaga even paired a baseball cap with a wedding dress and Leonardo DiCaprio goes everywhere in his baseball lid.
Ever the lady, Libbie took her hat off and went in for a dinner celebrating the success of her Fashion in Motion show with South African designer Thebe Magugu at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Among the regulars at Annabel’s are Naomi Campbell and Rihanna.
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Filmmaker Alexandra Vino is making her big debut as a features director with a dark comedy on showbiz, “Hollywood Movie.”
Vino won several awards on the film festival circuit for her short film “The Green Kola.” She also acted with Mark Wahlberg in “Spencer Confidential.”
She will be in New York in November filming fashion photographer Antoine Verglas and Katherine Wallach, Eli Wallach’s daughter.
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Elvis was in the building.
Casa Cipriani “Night Of Stars” honored icons like Presley, Michael Kors, Dionne Warwick and other fashionable folks. Fashion Group International hands out the honors.
Strutting the red carpet this year were Iman, Mariska Hargitay, Candace Bushnell, Deepak Chopra and Huma Abedin.
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New York Giants star Kayvon Thibodeaux and Miss New York, Heather Nunez, will host the unveiling of Charles Fazzino’s artwork depicting a giant Christmas tree, a marching band, and the American flag for the 75th Anniversary of Toys for Tots at Carlton Fine Arts on Nov. 7.