Bankers, politicians and inept BBC executives who may have been hoping to escape a grilling from the Grand Inquisitor John Humphrys now he is turning 70 cannot sleep soundly in their beds.
For just 24 hours after the Today presenter laid into his new boss Lord (Tony) Hall — having already turned his predecessor George Entwistle to toast over the Lord McAlpine scandal — I can reveal that the broadcaster has signed two new contracts with the Beeb.
The Mastermind host has negotiated a new deal for his BBC2 quiz programme that will keep him posing the questions for the next three years.
New deal: Despite laying into his new boss Lord Hall, right, John Humphrys, left, has negotiated a new deal with the BBC
And — despite suggestions that he might be finding the 3.30am starts for Today too arduous at his age — he has also just renewed his agreement with Radio 4.
The latter will run for nine months. Humphrys, who began his BBC career in 1966 as a district reporter in Liverpool and the North-West, will have clocked up 50 years on the payroll when the deals conclude.
Only Question Time host David Dimbleby and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough have been at the Corporation longer.
Humphrys is not thought to have taken a pay rise. In fact, last time he renewed his contracts, in February 2011, he took a cut of almost 20 per cent in common with other high-profile presenters.
He is understood to earn around £375,000 to present 150 editions of Today — £2,500 a programme — plus around £200,000 more for each Mastermind series.
A father of three — he has two children by his first wife, Edna, and a 12-year-old son by BBC presenter Valerie Sanderson — Humphrys has been happily living with Sunday newspaper columnist Catherine Bennett for the past three years.
Says one BBC executive: ‘John will leave when he wants to and on his own terms — he is too highly prized and popular with listeners.
‘The interview he did with George Entwistle, which finished him off and caused huge embarrassment for the Corporation, only serves to prove he is untouchable.’
Ben and Jemima's romance blossoms
Wonderful trip: Ben and Jemima
Unlike lothario Sir James Goldsmith, who famously said ‘When you marry your mistress, you create a job vacancy’, his younger son Ben prefers his women one at a time.
Financier Ben, 32, has just returned after whisking off his girlfriend of six months, Jemima Jones, 25, to Morocco.
‘Things are good. We’ve just returned from a romantic trip and it was wonderful,’ says Ben.
He parted acrimoniously from his wife Kate Rothschild — mother of his three children — two years ago after she ran off with rapper Jay Electronica.
His elder brother, MP Zac, 38, made Kate’s younger sister Alice, 26, his second wife two weeks ago.
Ben and Jemima were at the Holland Park home of the Duchess of Cornwall’s pal Lady Amabel Lindsay for the launch of Charles Glass’s book, Deserter. Glass tells me: ‘I’ve just met Jemima. She’s very beautiful. I’m very fond of all the Goldsmith children. My son, George, went out with Ben’s sister Charlotte.
‘In fact, it was Charlotte who gave me the idea for my book — she asked me how many British World War II deserters there were, but I didn’t know. It all started from there.’
Charlotte, 29, is the daughter of Sir James’s third mistress, Parisienne Laure Boulay de la Meurthe.
Why there's more to Chantelle
Chantelle Pidgley
Some parents might balk at the thought of a boob job for their 21-year-old daughter, but it was quite the opposite for model Chantelle Pidgley, whose mother, Denise Hewitt, has herself undergone three such ops.
Chantelle, granddaughter of Berkeley Homes building tycoon Tony Pidgley, has a £1 million trust fund thanks to Denise’s divorce settlement from Tony Jr, and she tells me she has spent £5,500 on the surgery.
‘Mum’s been really supportive,’ she says with no hint of irony.
‘I suppose I could have spent the money on a car but changing my breast size has been something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. I have changed from a small A to a full C.’
Chantelle, the face of cashmere chain Brora, adds: ‘They look very natural. I paid a bit more for teardrop-shaped implants instead of round ones.’
Why has Born Free actress Virginia McKenna never received an honour higher than OBE?
Could it have anything to do with her refusal to hand over a painting that caught the eye of the Duke of Edinburgh?
Explains Virginia: ‘There was a Buckingham Palace policeman called Ted Chicken who was a brilliant artist.
Actress and wildlife campaigner Virginia McKenna
He painted a watercolour of one of the Queen’s rare Scottish red squirrels and my late husband Bill Travers bought it for me.
‘But when the Prince saw it, he thought it was so lovely he asked if he could buy it for the Queen. Philip was extremely disappointed when Ted had to tell him it had already been sold as a present for me.’
The painting has hung ever since in Virginia’s Surrey drawing room.
So, no chance of a Damehood then, Virginia?
Fifty years after she attended the funeral of John F. Kennedy, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire has abandoned plans to commemorate the anniversary of his assassination this year.
Debo, as she is known, celebrated her 93rd birthday on Sunday at Chatsworth.
She has been in failing health and is not thought to be strong enough to travel to London or the U.S.
She remains close to the Kennedys after Billy, the brother of her late husband, married JFK’s sister Kathleen.
‘Debo’s extremely absent-minded, but remains in good spirits,’ says a friend.
The Duchess of Cambridge hosts the National Review of Queen’s Scouts at Windsor Castle on April 21, an event that used to be the preserve of the Queen.
Kate will meet 400 youngsters in the castle quadrangle before a service in St George’s Chapel.
The timing couldn’t be better.
It’s the Queen’s 87th birthday, so Kate can pop in and bring the monarch up to date with the perfect gift: all her pregnancy news.
The Duchess of Cambridge plays basketball yesterday
Most awards end up gathering dust in people’s downstairs loos.
But recipients of Lord Bragg’s Sky Arts South Bank Show gongs last year should be extra careful with the silver fruit bowls they received.
They were designed by sculptor Anish Kapoor and are worth thousands, I am told.
Playwright Michael Frayn, when he learned of the value of his outstanding achievement award, promptly had it insured for £100,000.
In fact, he was obliged to insure two — his wife, Claire Tomalin, received a Kapoor for her biography of Charles Dickens.