RICHARD EDEN: Sarah Ferguson raises €100,000 for charity by offering to entertain super-rich bidder at Royal Lodge she shares with Prince Andrew

King Charles is said to be determined to evict his brother Prince Andrew from Royal Lodge, but the Windsor residence has lost none of its cachet. 

For I can disclose that Sarah, Duchess of York, who lives at Royal Lodge with her ex-husband Andrew, used the 30-room mansion to lure a plutocrat into donating 100,000 euros [£84,000] at a charity gala on the French Riviera this week.

Fergie berated the audience at the Knights of Charity Gala at the Chateau de la Croix des Gardes, in Cannes, for lacking energy on Monday evening. 

She then helped top auctioneer Simon de Pury raise money by volunteering to entertain a super-rich bidder at the royal residence which used to be home to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

'What I'm offering is a unique experience with me, wherever you want to go in the world, whether it be Samoa, or whether you come with me in one of my charity adventures, or it could be in London or at the Royal Lodge,' she told guests, who included the Hollywood star Orlando Bloom. 

'Anywhere you want to go. You don't know where you're going to end up, but it'll always be something different.' 

The duchess, 64, wore a monochrome gown complete with black opera gloves, which she said was a style tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 film To Catch a Thief, which starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. It was filmed at the chateau where the gala was held in partnership with Ulyssia.

'I like the theme, you know, of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly,' she tells me. 'And I can wear my gloves. No, I don't feel hot in them, I love them. I think it's rather nice to keep up with this. I just like wearing gloves.'

Fergie will resume her Australia book tour in November, after cancelling her scheduled appearance at a literary festival in Perth the previous month because she didn't want to clash with the King and Queen Camilla's visit Down Under.

KISS says thank you for the music

KISS legend Gene Simmons, 74, feels the cultural exchange between Britain and the US is uneven when it comes to rock music.

'For me, England is holy ground,' the American declares. 'The Beatles changed life on Earth. And then you had the Stones, The Who, Queen... You guys gave us Led Zeppelin, and we gave you the Grateful f***ing Dead!' 

Lady Dye

Princess Diana was drawn to a style of dress that was forbidden in the Royal Family, says fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes, whose outfits she wore. 

'She was very shy,' Dame Zandra tells Saga magazine.

'She would come into my shop in Mayfair and go through the rails. 

'Sometimes she picked something in black, which the royals weren't allowed to wear except at funerals, so we would make it in her size in a different colour.' 

Diana memorably wore a black 'revenge dress' by Christina Stambolian on the night that Prince Charles admitted to adultery on TV.

Dua pops to the bank with £51.6m after gigs 

Dua Lipa's top billing at Glastonbury last month failed to impress some festival-goers, but the pop princess is dancing all the way to the bank. 

I hear that the singer, 28, made £141,000 a day from her concerts last year.

Newly published accounts show that she raked in £51.6 million from performances — on top of the £24.5 million she made the year before.

It meant that she was able to pay herself £10.7 million in drawings from the business, Radical22 Live LLP, which, after other costs, is still left with £21.8 million

Waugh scion Alexander dies of cancer aged 60

His grandfather, Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh, was a brilliant novelist, while his father, Auberon, was a genius satirist. 

But, after dissecting the pair's relationship in his acclaimed book, Fathers And Sons, Alexander Waugh concluded that 'all family life is tragic'.

That seems cruelly true following his death from cancer on Monday, aged 60. Married to Eliza Chancellor, a first cousin of actress Anna Chancellor, Alexander nevertheless loved his father. 

A favourite memory was of Auberon standing for the Dog Lovers' Party in 1979, against Liberal Jeremy Thorpe, who'd been acquitted of an attempted murder in which a dog was shot instead of Thorpe's lover, Norman Scott. Auberon recorded a campaign song. Its chorus? 'Jeremy! Jeremy! Wuff! Wuff! Bang! Bang!'