Since James Bond bosses announced that Danny Boyle would no longer be directing their next film, the showbusiness world has been agog with speculation about the reasons for the dramatic parting of ways.

Now a former Bond villain has suggested he knows why Boyle, who staged the opening for the London Olympics, was not trusted with the highly lucrative 007 franchise.

Jonathan Pryce, left, who played the baddie in Tomorrow Never Dies, tells me mischievously: ‘They obviously couldn’t take a socialist Bond.’

Danny Boyle in 2013, 'they obviously couldn’t take a socialist Bond’ said Jonathan Pryce

He adds: ‘You see, there are the Dannys of this world and then there are people who do the blockbusters.’

Republican Left-winger Boyle used the Olympics ceremony to celebrate Britain as a ‘modern progressive’ country, but his extravaganza was denounced by then Conservative MP Aidan Burley, who described it as ‘Leftie multicultural c***’, while other critics branded it ‘Marxist propaganda’.

Trainspotting director Boyle, 61, who won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, is said to have wanted to make the Bond film, which was due to start shooting in three months’ time, more topical and include a Russian baddie. He was also said to want to ‘help the franchise evolve in the #MeToo and #TimesUp era’ of political correctness.

The comments come from former Bond baddie in Tomorrow Never Dies, Jonathan Pryce

Daniel Craig as 007. Jonathan Pryce said Danny Boyle wouldn't suit the role of director

Speaking at the Raindance Film Festival Auteur Award at The Dorchester, Pryce warns that politics should not intrude on film-making. ‘You do bring some kind of personal sensibility to your work, but it shouldn’t be too obvious, unless it’s a film which is overtly political,’ he says.

He worked with Boyle on a Nineties TV drama, Mr Wroe’s Virgins.

Asked why they have not worked together since, Pryce replies: ‘You tell me. I like him as a man and as a film-maker.’

Cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard appears in a forthcoming film, The Flip Side, but left his co-star Emily Taheny with a rash after their kissing scene.

‘Eddie has got quite a pronounced chin,’ says the Australian actress, 41, a little unkindly. ‘It was so bad that my chin literally peeled off. It scabbed. It was a palm-sized scab on my chin. It was so awful.’ Luckily, she was able to conceal the injury.

‘Make-up did a great job.’

Peaky Blinders star Annabelle Wallis, who courted Coldplay singer Chris Martin for two years after his ‘conscious uncoupling’ from Gwyneth Paltrow, has sailed into a new romance with Hollywood heart-throb Chris Pine.

Chris Pine and his English actress girlfriend Annabelle Wallis on holiday in Positano, Italy

Annabelle, 33, who played gangster’s wife Grace Burgess in the BBC drama, was seen frolicking with the 37-year-old American aboard a yacht off Positano, Italy.

Star Trek actor Pine previously courted rocker Lenny Kravitz’s actress daughter, Zoe, 29.

Showing off their gym-honed physiques in a black strapless bikini and brightly coloured swimming trunks, the couple soon abandoned their gin palace for dry land, where they enjoyed a kiss and a cuddle.

The Great British Bake Off presenters Sandi Toksvig (left) and Noel Fielding

Bake Off’s Sandi Toksvig is still struggling to impress her children’s pals. ‘My stepdaughter had a party, and I was driving one of her friends home,’ says Sandi, who succeeded comedienne Sue Perkins on the hit show.

‘She’s sitting in the back of the car saying, “I cannot believe I’m in the Bake Off lady’s car!” She rolls down the window, shouting out in the street, “I’m in the Bake Off lady’s car!”

‘She does this for about 15 minutes. I get her home, she gets out of the car and says, “Night, Sue.”’

Social media is usually seen as a way for celebrities and other ‘influencers’ to make a fortune from endorsements.

But petrolheads Jeremy Clarkson, Richard ‘The Hamster’ Hammond and James May are losing millions.

The Grand Tour presenters started a social media network, DriveTribe, for motoring enthusiasts in 2016 and newly released figures reveal that it’s costing them dear. Their company Digital Tribe Holdings lost a staggering £8.34 million last year, almost double the £4.24 million reported in 2016.

The loss was triggered by £7.73 million in administrative expenses, with 44 staff costing £3.83 million.

Let’s hope the money is now rolling in: a going-concern note with the accounts reports that the group did not earn its first revenues until the first quarter of 2018.

They have both been through difficult times, but Lady Annabel Goldsmith and Sir David Frost’s widow Lady Carina know how to enjoy a good holiday.

Lady Annabel, 84, whose daughter-in-law, Lucy Birley, recently died aged 58, gives a wave as she reclines alongside Lady Carina, 66. They were at the Goldsmiths’ 1,490-acre estate in the mountains above Marbella, Spain.

Publishers take note. ‘I could write a four-volume book on the one week I spent filming with Roseanne Barr,’ Joanna Lumley revealed at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Lumley and Jennifer Saunders appeared as their Absolutely Fabulous characters, Patsy and Edina, in a Roseanne Halloween episode. Barr, axed from her own sitcom after sending a racist tweet, bought the U.S. rights to Ab Fab, but her mooted reboot with the late Carrie Fisher never got off the ground.