SHRINKING violet she wasn't. For 15 years Sally Coates was front-of-house at Skippers, fabled Leith waterside restaurant when it was owned by Ronnie Corbett's brother Alan and wife Jan.
Ronnie would pop in occasionally and she'd always call him Uncle Ron. An even greater claim to fame: when Andy Williams one night arrived for dinner she startled customers, and Andy himself, by dancing him round the tables to his signature song Moon
River, the story goes.
The personable Sally, who was also linked with Jack Nicholson – apparently she startled him too – passed away this month after a lengthy struggle with ill health.
Calm down, Nige Stay out of violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy's way if you should pass him on Edinburgh's streets this next week or two, he could be girny.
On about money-grabbing, power-hungry conductors, he's saying: "How many will develop an orchestra rather than feeding off its achievements? They're straight off for the dollar, round the corner to get a better job.
"All they're interested in is strutting about, wielding a bit of power. A conductor can galvanise the troops and evolve an artistic programme and identity of style. If they only give five or ten weeks a year to an orchestra, how can they do that?"
Blooming crazy Coming to a hospital near you? Frenchay Hospital in Bristol has been preventing patients from placing get-well-soon cards on bedside tables. The area has to be kept free of clutter for cleaners.
What, you don't believe it? You've got to believe this, too ... flowers are banned there for "health and danger reasons". What next? A bedpan ban? Where are you Florence Nightingale, now that we need you?
Afterwords . . . . . Take me home, Zandra Rhodes. Says the fashion designer: "I don't have any children, so I don't really care about the future as such, but we all have a responsibility to make things last. I use my bathwater to water the plants on the terrace." A good citizen, then. No complaints from the plants, far as I know.
The full article contains 347 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
