EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Happy Valley star James Norton pops the question to actress lover Imogen Poots
All those fans who have swooned over James Norton should brace themselves, as I can exclusively reveal the dashing actor, tipped to be the next James Bond, has got engaged.
The 36-year-old star of Happy Valley, Grantchester, War & Peace and McMafia is now off-limits after proposing to his leading lady of the past four years, actress Imogen Poots, 32.
An insider tells me: ‘They’re over the moon about their engagement and have only told close friends and family. Imogen was totally surprised and is looking forward to being Mrs Norton.’
The pair have been inseparable since they appeared together on stage in Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse in 2017.
Imogen Poots and James Norton met performing in Belleville at the Donmar Warehouse in 2017
Imogen Poots and James Norton, pictured at the Moscow premiere of Nowhere Special on January 25
The couple rarely talk about their relationship. But, before she moved in with James, Imogen confided that the long-distance element (she was commuting between New York and London) was ‘all I’ve ever known’.
The couple pictured together in New York
‘I’ve never known something to fall apart because of distance,’ she added. ‘Sharing a bathroom, however, is quite another matter.’
But in 2020, Imogen, who was in the films 28 Weeks Later and The Father with Anthony Hopkins, moved into James’s London pad in Peckham, and the couple have often been seen cycling around the district.
However, they won’t be in the SE15 location for long, as my source reveals: ‘They’re looking for a marital home in upmarket locations in East London.’
Norton has previously said his 2020 film, Nowhere Special, in which he played the dying father of a three-year-old boy, had kicked off his ‘broody barometer’ and he was keen to become a dad.
Bradley’s ex ready to face the music
Suki Waterhouse, 33, with her former partner Bradley Cooper, 47
Suki Waterhouse’s venture into musical stardom has been a long time coming as the actress, 30, reveals she couldn’t share her music for seven years due to a ‘toxic public break-up’.
She split from Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper, 17 years her senior, in 2015 after two years.
‘I started writing in a depression I went into at about 23,’ she says.
Though she does not directly mention Cooper (right with Suki), she adds: ‘That break-up was the first one that was so public and with someone older, and it was very toxic. I was young and reading the most hateful things about myself.’
Suki, who is dating new Batman Robert Pattinson, says she is now ‘able to be vulnerable enough to share what I’ve written’.
The price of a VIP ticket to this year’s prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition preview party in June would have van Gogh turning in his grave. It has increased by a whopping 26 per cent to £850. Perks include champagne and canapes, a copy of the exhibition programme, access to the VIP party and the opportunity to buy works. Don’t all rush at once.
GB News’s Isabel eyes up the glitterball
She’s already stepped into Loose Women panellist Ruth Langsford’s shoes by working alongside Eamonn Holmes following his exit from ITV’s This Morning.
Now I can disclose that GB News Breakfast’s glamorous host Isabel Webster wants to follow in Ruth’s footsteps again by competing in Strictly Come Dancing.
I spotted the former Sky News presenter, 39, deep in conversation with the BBC show’s head judge, Shirley Ballas, earlier this week at a BAFTA breakfast event.
‘Shirley told me to go for it,’ Isabel tells me.
‘Getting up at 3am each morning to present a breakfast TV show isn’t the most glamorous of routines. So it would be a nice change to get involved in a bit more glitz on a Saturday night. And I’m sure Ruth would give me a few tips on how to deal with [Strictly judge] Craig.’
Your move, BBC producers.
Belfast boy Jamie praises city’s true grit and humour
Rarely does Fifty Shades Of Grey hunk Jamie Dornan get turned down for roles, but the Northern Irish star reveals his genealogy is so deeply rooted in Belfast, it was deemed not interesting enough for one TV show.
‘They did research on me for one of those Who Do You Think You Are? programmes,’ says the 39-year-old. But it was considered ‘boring because everyone was from Belfast, so there was no real point in putting it up on the screen’.
But the father-of-three — who is currently starring as a dad in the Oscar-nominated Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s film about growing up in the Northern Ireland city in the late 1960s — thinks the TV producers missed a trick.
‘I am Belfast through and through, so there’s so much of my own understanding of what that means, who those people are, what they’ve been through and how they use humour and resilience.’
TV comic Ed Gamble fears the reason he hasn’t been called back to the Royal Variety Performance is due to a scatalogical joke he told in front of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Diabetic Ed, 35, who has just gone on a UK tour, is renowned for his obsession with bodily functions.
‘I made a joke about passing wind after eating roast dinner. After the show Meghan said: “I’m glad you didn’t eat a roast dinner before meeting me tonight!” I haven’t been invited back yet.’
Mind you, Meghan is having to become accustomed to unpleasant aromas — now her home in California is engulfed in a stink apparently emanating from a nearby bird refuge
Lily’s hubby indulges in a his ’n’ hers spa day
Emily in Paris star Lily Collins, 32, and her husband Charlie McDowell, 38, indulged in a his ‘n’ hers spa day
Couples who do face masks together stay together. Well, that’s certainly what Emily In Paris star Lily Collins and her filmmaker husband Charlie McDowell think.
The normally glamorous actress, 32, and the 38-year-old son of A Clockwork Orange actor Malcolm McDowell looked like they had come straight out of a horror film.
And Charlie concurs — ‘Terrifying’, he says about his wife’s unmoving face.
But Lily, the daughter of musician Phil Collins, thinks it’s romantic: ‘I love you and our DIY spa sessions almost as much as the fact that you love a face mask as much as I do.’
Despite being worth £40million, Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden admits to being too frugal when it comes to clothes. ‘One top and one dress — that’s all I’ve bought in two years,’ she tells me. At the end of 2019 she made a pledge to not buy new clothes for a year to reduce waste — then renewed it. ‘When it came to buying [the dress], I struggled because I didn’t want to break my record. But I thought, “I can’t go on like this for the rest of my life”.’
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