ALISON BOSHOFF: The Crown gives Prince Andrew a free pass for his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

The royal family usually has to take the ‘brace’ position every November, when a new series of The Crown is released by streaming giant Netflix.

This year, however, may see a sigh of relief – at least from Prince Andrew – as the upcoming sixth and final series may be revealed not to feature his friendship with convicted billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Instead, I’m told it focuses on Charles and Camilla’s relationship and Prince – now King – Charles’s efforts to get the Queen, his teenage children, and the British people to accept their love.

The show kicks off just before the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, and will – controversially – show both the aftermath of the crash and the funeral that followed.

Sources say the overarching theme is how everyone involved tried to heal after the tragedy.

The series ends with Charles and Camilla’s wedding in April 2005 – a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall followed by a blessing at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The Queen was not present at the civil ceremony, but was present at the benediction and reception afterwards.

Charles is played by Dominic West and Camilla by Olivia Williams. Imelda Staunton is the Queen.

Newcomers Rufus Kampa and Ed McVey play Prince William in his early and later teens; and Will Powell and Luther Ford play a young and slightly older Prince Harry.

Prince Andrew (played by James Murray) first met Epstein in 1999 through his friend Ghislaine Maxwell and invited them both to Balmoral for a shooting weekend that year. The following year, the three of them went to Royal Ascot.

In 2001, the now infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his hand on the waist of masseuse Virginia Giuffre was taken at Maxwell’s London home. She claimed that Epstein traded her to the prince.

Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations and says he does not remember ever meeting Giuffre.

Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to prostituting minors in 2008. After his release in 2010, he and Andrew were photographed in New York’s Central Park. Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in 2019, having been charged with further sex trafficking offences.

Prince Andrew retired from public life after a disastrous interview with Newsnight in 2019.

Giuffre filed a civil suit against Prince Andrew, which was settled out of court in February 2022. A month earlier, the Queen stripped him of his patronage and military titles, effectively banishing him from public life. He also lost use of the HRH title.

Actor Murray, who took on the role of Andrew in the latest series of The Crown, said: “Don’t judge me on this, but I quite enjoy playing challenging or polarizing roles, or certainly scenes that can divide an audience. because I think that’s fun. We do TV drama and it’s not a documentary. So from an actor’s point of view, it’s a joy to play.’

Meanwhile, that Newsnight interview is being dramatized in the Netflix TV movie Scoop — starring Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew. Emily Maitlis is played by Gillian Anderson and TV fixer Sam McAllister is played by Billie Piper. The film has already been shot and is expected to be released in early 2024.

When Harry met Idris and let him DJ at his wedding

Actor and DJ Idris Elba is clearly not the sort of man to put on ceremonies, revealing that he and Prince Harry made friends after saying ‘Yo’ to each other in nightclubs.

Elba told the Smartless podcast, “I was DJing at all these clubs where Harry would show up and he was like ‘Yo!’ and I’m like ‘Yo!’ And then at one point he thought, “Listen man, I’m getting married.” I was like ‘Yo! That is amazing.’

“He says, ‘I want you to DJ.’ Harry continued with a request. “I was like, ‘I don’t do requests!’ Elba recalled. Maybe not . . . but he did attend the wedding in 2018, and then he DJed at the reception.

Former racing driver Naomi Schiff is at the wheel of Channel 4’s new car show Bangers: Cars Of The People.

Schiff, who is part of the Sky Sports Formula 1 commentary team, has created a four-part show that puts some less exotic cars – such as the Renault Espace and Citroën Saxo – to the test.

Musician Tinie (formerly known as Tinie Tempah) is her co-host.

Papa is smitten, but Anais is in trouble on Vinted!

Anais Gallagher (pictured), whose father Noel is worth £60 million, earns spending money by selling cheap clothes through the Vinted app.

So far, the 23-year-old has earned £110, but she’s received a string of one-star reviews for being slow to send the items by first class mail.

Six out of seven reviews get one star due to automatic feedback classifying the sale as “not completed.”

Influencer Anais, who split with her boyfriend Julius earlier this year, explains she’s “getting rid of it” and promises to send the goods by first class mail next week.

Her father divorced his second wife, Sara MacDonald, in January of this year. They have two teenage sons.

Anais is Noel’s daughter by first wife Meg Mathews.

Hugh must be joking with the £10,000 Colin jibe

Who doesn’t like a joke – but would you pay £10,000 to make one? That’s how much Hugh Grant’s very public prank against old frenemy Colin Firth cost him. Grant paid late last year to have a plaque placed in Bafta’s newly renovated Princess Anne Theater. It reads: ‘In loving memory of Colin Firth. Not dead yet, but it looks like it.’

Bafta is a charity that relies on fundraising to support its scholarships and grants.

Grant and Firth, both 62, played love rivals in the first two Bridget Jones movies, and had a famous on-screen fistfight (as well as a spot of competitive dieting off-screen to get in shape for their roles).

Firth once said of his screen rival, “I get on really well with him. I like the man, despite his excessive rudeness towards me. It’s a running joke, and we do it to each other. I always hear him proclaim that I’m too old to go to the cinema.’

O Paddington! What on earth will Aunt Lucy say?

Ben Whishaw is beloved by family audiences, thanks to two recent appearances as Paddington bear – and another film is due this summer.

But his latest film is very different in content and tone. Whishaw is the star of Passages, which has its UK premiere tonight at the London branch of the Sundance Film Festival.

In the picture, he plays Martin, the husband of self-obsessed film director Tomas. Tomas has an affair with teacher Agathe, played by French actress Adele Exarchopoulos.

Critics have described the gay sex scenes as “unattached,” and a friend who watched the film says there are times when Aunt Lucy’s marmalade sandwiches would curl. Last but not least, there’s some frontal nudity from Whishaw, unthinkable even in darkest Peru.

The film belongs to writer-director Ira Sachs, who says she was inspired to make a film about intimacy during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the lovable bear’s next outing – Paddington in Peru – will begin filming later this month, an unbelievable six years after the second film in the series (which has grossed £400m at the box office so far) was released.

Sally Hawkins steps down from Ms. Brown for this role and is replaced by Emily Mortimer.

In a statement, Hawkins said: “For me it felt like the right time to hand over the reins to someone else. Emily Mortimer. . . will embody the essence of Mary Brown while still making it her own.’ Hawkins’ loss is offset by the arrival of Oscar winner Olivia Colman, who plays a character who runs a bear shelter in Peru.

These dragons are still a little too close for comfort

The second series of Game Of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon is currently filming in the UK – and star Matt Smith has been spotted at the Chiltern Firehouse on a night off this week.

In the show, he plays Daemon Targaryen, who marries his cousin Rhaenyra, played by Emma D’Arcy (both pictured).

She says, “If we want to show this relationship and we want to do full justice to it, the ick factor has to be there, because that’s fair.”

Smith says, “Obviously we are dealing with events that are hundreds of years old and the morals were different then. But in the end, it’s important to the story. So that’s why Daemon and Rhaenyra are doing their thing.’

Will Russell call it quits the day after Goering?

Actor Russell Crowe says he’s considering wrapping it up at just 59 years old.

Crowe said this week, “You stand in front of the mirror and say, ‘Who the f*** is that?!’ I’m in that period now.

“I take (85-year-old director) Ridley Scott as my role model: he is still discovering new things in his work. Or I’ll just quit and you’ll never hear from me again. I haven’t decided yet what it will be. These are two very valid choices.’

Crowe will soon be seen on screen as the father of Kraven The Hunter in the big budget Sony film of the same name; and has also been signed on to play Hermann Göring in a new movie called Nuremberg.

Göring, a World War I fighter pilot who rose to power within the Nazi party, committed suicide by ingesting cyanide in Nuremberg in 1946, on the eve of his scheduled execution, after being convicted of crimes against humanity .