Dumped candidate posts an angry letter to old colleagues

Ever since David Cameron consigned Nigel Hastilow's political career to the scrapheap, the ousted Tory candidate has resisted calls to pass judgement on his former master.

Instead, he's decided to save all of his vitriol for his former friends and colleagues at The Birmingham Post, the newspaper he once edited for seven years, over their coverage of the article he wrote in which he claimed Enoch Powell was right on immigration.

In an angry missive to his successor in the editor's chair, which has been seen by Pandora, Hastilow accuses the paper of publishing letters which, he claims, they must have known "are almost certainly the result of an organised write-in by the Labour Party".

Furthermore, he then accuses one of the paper's reporters of making damaging assertions, including: "Nigel is quite happy to maintain his position that all non-white faces are a threat to our sense of Britishness"; "When Hastilow refers to immigrants he's really referring to anyone who isn't white" and that: "The Enoch-esque Hastilow is stirring up cultural fear, suspicion and racial hatred."

Strangely, the letter was sent off before the weekend yet, despite Hastilow's plea that he should at least be given the right to reply, it failed to appear in the paper's letters page yesterday morning.

"It was just an oversight. The paper is prepared to give Nigel his say on the matter," I'm assured.

"His letter will definitely be going in on Tuesday [today]."

Hopkins admits: I never knew the full story

I do hope that impending old age isn't beginning to zap away at Sir Anthony Hopkins's enthusiasm.

Making a rare chat show appearance on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross last week, the 69-year-old Oscar-winner said: "I live my life and don't think about acting at all. It doesn't preoccupy me any more."

A case in point appears to be his latest film Beowulf. At the film's London premiere on Sunday, Hopkins happily told reporters that not only had he not read the book, but he had only bothered to look at the parts of the script featuring his character, Hrothgar.

"No. I never read the book," he said. "The script is good but I have to admit I only read part of it – I only read my part."

When asked about the large chunks of his precious work that Hopkins opted to skim over, the film's scriptwriter Roger Avary replied diplomatically: " With Sir Anthony, I don't question his methods. He has earned his keep."

Emily gets a dressing-down

Emily Mortimer has spent the past few years pounding the Hollywood treadmill, sometimes with mixed results.

Mortimer, daughter of Rumpole's creator Sir John, was chuffed to find herself pictured in one of Tinseltown's numerous supermarket tabloids. " I opened one of them and there I am," she says. "I've never been in one of them before. It's me in a blue dress on the red carpet. I'm thinking, maybe I've arrived."

Closer inspection, however, revealed it wasn't quite the glowing endorsement she was hoping for. "Then I look up at the top of the page and it says 'Fashion Disasters'," she adds. "There's a caption underneath which says: 'Why did Emily Mortimer choose to leave her house dressed as a smurf?'"

Hip Harriet

There is a (dare I say it?) funkier side to Harriet Harman's mumsyish image as the headmistress of New Labour.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Harman professes to being a big fan of the American hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, and says she longs for abdominal muscles like the band's gyrating singer, Fergie.

"Who wouldn't?" she says. "She must work hard to get them."

Harman clearly has a taste for edgy music.

Next month, she's holding her Christmas party in Leicester Square's Sound nightclub, the West End sweat box that had its license revoked three years ago after a series of violent incidents.

Henson hailed the 'new Seve'

Like his role model, David Beckham, the Welsh rugby star Gavin Henson likes to change his hairstyle more often than he waxes his glossy perma-tanned legs.

Lately, he's taken to sporting a raffish new fringe, much to the merriment of the home crowd at his club, the Opsreys.

"We all chant 'Seve' whenever he gets the ball, as we reckon his hair makes him look a ringer for Seve Ballesteros," says one season-ticket holder. "Sadly, he never acknowledges us when we do it. I don't think he finds it funny."

Clearly. Being a sensitive sort of chap, I'm told Henson has since resumed combing his hair back using several blobs of Brylcreem.