Firebrand New York restaurateur Keith McNally's rages at London cafe: RICHARD EDEN

He memorably opined that James Corden was a ‘hugely gifted comedian but a tiny cretin of a man’, before banning him from his acclaimed New York brasserie, Balthazar, for allegedly screaming at staff after finding a hair in his food.

Since then, Keith McNally has kept the pot bubbling by publishing an uninhibited memoir in which he disclosed that, in his youth, he had a five-year romance with playwright Alan Bennett.

But now he’s yearning for incineration – not of food or reputations but an entire cafe/restaurant in Sloane Square, Chelsea. ‘I’m praying the place burns to the f***ing ground before Christmas,’ rages London-born McNally on social media. The target of his ire? Colbert – favoured by everyone from Dame Joan Collins to Kate Moss.

McNally, 75, decided that it was the right spot for a late breakfast, starting at 10.45, with an old friend.

75-year-old restaurateur Keith McNally expressed his rage after his experience at a restaurant in Sloane Square. ‘I’m praying the place burns to the f***ing ground before Christmas'

They’d been there an hour and ten minutes, McNally says, when a waiter asked them to pay the bill ‘in the next five minutes because, he said abruptly, our table was booked for another customer at noon. I replied that I was in the middle of a conversation with my friend, whom I hadn’t seen for 12 years, and needed at least ten minutes to finish up the conversation.

‘Seconds later, a manager appeared and demanded we “vacate” our table immediately as another customer had booked this specific table and was waiting to be seated,’ McNally says. ‘I became enraged and told him to give the customer another table as we definitely weren’t leaving for another five minutes.’ Another manager then arrived to ‘throw us out’, McNally says. ‘I’ll never return.’

A spokesman for Colbert says McNally booked online and received two emails confirming his table time, which it extended at his request.

‘Jagger of the Aga’ Marco’s son celebrates fatherhood

Marco Pierre White's eldest son, Luciano, 32, has become a father, thanks to his fiancée, fashion designer Stephanie Beard, 35, who’s given birth to a girl

Acclaimed in BBC2 documentary Rise Of The Rockstar Chef as ‘the Mick Jagger of the Aga’, Marco Pierre White is celebrating.

The superstar chef, who turns 65 next month, has another grandchild.

His elder son, Luciano, 32, has become a father, thanks to his fiancée, fashion designer Stephanie Beard, 35, who’s given birth to a girl.

‘Our little princess!’ Luciano says online, giving her name as Paloma Blu Pierre White. The happy news comes after a difficult period for Luciano, whose Surrey restaurant was closed down last year, owing £100,000 to the taxman.

Head over heels... Dame Emma’s girl falls for ice skater

Dame Emma Thompson's daughter Gaia Wise posted photographs online from a romantic New York getaway this week, including one of Luis Douglas planting a peck on her cheek

Gaia Wise clearly isn’t skating on thin ice when it comes to matters of the heart.

I hear that the daughter of Oscar-winner Dame Emma Thompson has found love with a former professional figure skater. Gaia, 26, is going out with Luis Douglas, 33, a Glaswegian who was a principal performer for Disney On Ice. He now works in marketing.

The couple posted photographs online from a romantic New York getaway this week, including one of Luis planting a peck on her cheek in front of a ‘kissing’ graffiti art work. Gaia – whose father is Dame Emma’s second husband, former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Greg Wise – declares herself ‘outrageously happy’.

Earlier this year, I disclosed that Gaia had split up with Swiss actor Basil Eidenbenz.

Last year, Gaia landed her big break, voicing Hera in The Lord Of The Rings cartoon, The War Of The Rohirrim. She previously played the younger version of Dame Emma’s character in a film produced by her mother, The Dead Of Winter.

It's not just some men who behave badly in the showbusiness world. Jeremy Kyle reveals that he witnessed a female star throw a pizza at a young runner. 

The presenter, 61, says: ‘There was a really, really quite famous female who was on the television a lot some years ago, and we were on a show and a young runner came in to get the order for lunch, and she was very brusque. 

'When she duly finished filming, he brought it in and she took one look at the pizza and went, “This is eugh, eugh,” and threw it at him.’ 

Back in 2019, Amazon Studios signed up Phoebe Waller-Bridge after the success of her BBC comedy series Fleabag in a ‘golden handcuffs’ deal worth a staggering $20million (£15million) a year. 

However, seven years later the only content that has been broadcast is two-part documentary Octopus!. Yet the money keeps rolling in. 

Accounts for her company, PMWB, disclose she now has more than £47million in retained earnings. The Londoner, 41, paid herself £2.7million in dividends last year. Phoebe has written a TV series, Tomb Raider, starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, for which filming began this year 

Page has axe to grind with Collins 

Phil Collins is due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame today in LA. Led Zeppelin legend Jimmy Page won’t be leading the applause.

‘Well, he’s not getting the award for Live Aid,’ the guitarist tells me acidly at the Music Industry Trusts award at Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair. 

Page is referring to Collins’s guest appearance on drums at the 1985 charity concert in Philadelphia. ‘It was disastrous. That was such a disappointment. He flew all that way not to know when to stop and start for the songs.’