Netflix's big-budget royal drama The Crown has been a money-spinner for the streaming giant, but are its increasingly controversial plotlines leading to casting problems?
For I hear it was still advertising for an actor to play a teenage Prince William as late as last Friday, even though his scenes are due to be shot this month.
The role will be a highly contentious one, because it will involve William's reaction to the breakdown of his mother Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles.
Casting: The Crown was advertising for an actor to play a Prince William last Friday, though his scenes are due to be shot this month. Pictured: Princess Diana, William and Harry in 1995
Drama: The role will involve William's reaction to the breakdown of his mother Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles. Pictured: Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana
The series will also portray how the BBC's disgraced reporter Martin Bashir convinced Diana to film her explosive Panorama interview.
The Duke of Cambridge has begged for the interview not to be shown ever again.
'A lot of parents would think twice before letting their son appear in such a drama,' a source tells me. 'It's going to be a harrowing role that will create a major backlash.'
Famous moment: The series will also portray how the BBC's disgraced reporter Martin Bashir convinced Diana to film her explosive Panorama interview (pictured)
The job description said Netflix was seeking: 'A boy aged between 13 and 15 years old to play 13-year-old Prince William in the next series... talented, intelligent and sensitive boy who can rise to the challenge of playing this famous character alongside leading British acting talent.'
The part was previously played by Timothee Sambor, who's 11. Dominic West will be Charles, to Elizabeth Debicki's Diana.
A Netflix spokesman insists: 'We are well into the process and all is well. Child casting in general just takes longer.'
WHY MILLEN HAS NO DESIGNS ON MARRIAGE
Design queen Karen Millen has revealed she will never wed her long-term boyfriend, Ben Charnaud.
'We've been together ten years but we won't get married,' she tells me at a Mayfair party.
'I commit to someone and that's it — I don't have to prove it. Besides, most people I know who got married are now divorced.'
No wedding bells? Design queen Karen Millen has revealed she will never wed her long-term boyfriend, Ben Charnaud (both pictured in April 2019)
Millen, 60, who sold her eponymous High-Street brand in 2004, now runs interior design company Homemonger, with the help of Australian-born Ben.
'He did want to marry me, but he's resigned himself to the fact that I'm not the marrying type,' adds Karen, who has three children with ex-business partner, Kevin Stanford.
'I've never put a ring on it, and I don't intend to
