He’s already directed the likes of Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain in a succession of award-winning productions, both in London’s West End and on Broadway.
And this summer, he unveils yet another blockbuster, at the Palladium, where he directs Evita, with Snow White star Rachel Zegler in the title role.
But Jamie Lloyd, who has three sons with his wife, actress Suzie Toase, 45, best known as Alecto Carrow in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, and other films in the boy wizard series, has consistently suggested that, however compelling the drama he contrives for audiences, it can never quite compete with the intensity of his own life.
‘You couldn’t script my childhood,’ he once observed, recalling that, when he was five, his mother, Joy, owner of a fancy-dress shop, split from his father, Ray, a truck driver, and took up with the first of Lloyd’s stepfathers, a clown whose stage name, Uncle Funny, belied his menacing presence and taste for violence.
And now Lloyd, 46, has shown that no one could predict his path through adulthood either.
Yesterday, he took to social media to post a photograph showing him kissing American dancer and actor Brandon LaVar, beneath the LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana. Lloyd left it uncaptioned, but LaVar was more forthcoming, writing, ‘You mean the world to me J. I love you JL’, adding ‘my man’ three times in quick succession.
LaVar posted the same image on his own social media account, writing: ‘With my beloved.’
The actor appeared in Lloyd’s award-winning production of Sunset Boulevard on Broadway last year.
Jamie Lloyd took to social media to post a photograph showing him kissing American dancer and actor Brandon LaVar
Jamie Lloyd has three sons with his wife, actress and Harry Potter star Suzie Toase
Lloyd declines to comment. But perhaps he was hinting at impending upheaval when, in 2020, he spoke of his fondness for tattoos – and his increasing willingness to parade them, rather than obscure them as he had when he began his meteoric theatrical career.
‘I guess it’s partly getting older,’ he reflected. ‘You can’t pretend to be someone. You’ve got to be who you really are, in every way.’
His mother’s name is tattooed on one of his arms. Poignantly, so, too, is that of his wife, Suzie.
Diamond girl Lily in gems warning
Naomi Campbell admitted in a war crimes court that she had accepted ‘blood diamonds’ from former African dictator Charles Taylor.
And now Downton Abbey star Lily James says women in the public eye should make more effort to find out whether their gems are sourced ethically.
‘It’s our responsibility to see how [jewellery] businesses our impacting the communities and the eco-systems around it,’ she tells me.
The actress, 35, is a global ambassador for the Natural Diamond Council and recently travelled to Canada to hear first-hand how natural diamonds have affected the Northwest Territories positively.
Lily James leaving the Diamonds, A Canadian Love Story conversations and exhibition held at Canada House in London
Lily James says women in the public eye should make more effort to find out whether their gems are sourced ethically
She posed for a chilly phot-shoot there. ‘I lay on the ice for a very long time because I would do anything for a good shot,’ the Mamma Mia 2 actress says at the council’s event at Canada House in London. ‘We couldn’t really stay out for more than three minutes because I would have got frostbite.’
The life-changing trip was tinged with sadness for Surrey-born Lily, who admits she fulfilled one of her late grandmother Marinette’s unfulfilled wishes.
‘My granny always wanted to see the Northern Lights and sadly never made it. I felt like this feminine ancestral kind of power as I stood there looking at the Northern lights, thinking of my grandma. It’s no surprise to me that the oldest diamonds in the world come from this land. It took my breath away.’
No kidding, Dom’s playing goat polo!
A fresh– and rather gory – adventure awaits The Crown star Dominic West, who once trekked to the South Pole with Prince Harry.
I hear West, pictured, is due to travel to Kyrgyzstan with broadcaster Alexandra Tolstoy, 51.
She says: ‘Dominic is a fantastic person – he’s interested in history, loves riding, and he can bring so much attention by doing a travelogue.
The Crown star Dominic West is about to embark on a journey to Kyrgyzstan in central Asia
Broadcaster Alexandra Tolstoy is set to accompany West on his journey across the country
‘So we’re going to do this amazing trip crossing the country by horseback.’
Tolstoy, who met her first husband, Cossack horseman Shamil Galimzyanov, during a trip along the Silk Road, is a tourism ambassador for the Central Asian nation. West, 55, who is married to aristocrat Catherine FitzGerald, will certainly experience Kyrgyzstan’s wild side.
Tolstoy tells the Travel Secrets podcast: ‘He doesn’t know it, but he’s got to play goat polo – a terrifying game. You’re on a horse, playing with a dead goat.
‘You can have up to 500 people playing… and you have to bend right down to the ground like a Cossack and pick up the goat.’
Craig revels in mystery of Bruno’s Strictly exit
Promoting a forthcoming stage tour in which he’ll discuss his life and times, sharp-tongued Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood insists audience members can ask him anything they like.
He adds: ‘I will answer any question. Whether it’s Strictly, my personal life, anything. I don’t care.’
Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli alongside Arlene Philips on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010
Former colleague Bruno Tonioli’s ears will be burning, though. Craig, 60, says mischievously: ‘I’ll be delving into why Bruno left. No one knows that, do they? Although it might have been for money.’
Long-time judge Bruno blamed his decision on the gruelling travel schedule between Britain and the US, where he appeared on Dancing With The Stars.
Nick Shymansky, the music executive who discovered a 16-year-old Amy Winehouse, managed her for seven years and brought out her debut album, Frank, only to be sidelined afterwards, has finally given his view on Back To Black, the biopic starring Marisa Abela – and he isn’t impressed.
‘It was just total b****cks,’ he says. ‘The guy they cast was better looking than me, so I didn’t mind that, but the film was so lazy.
‘Amy was so bright, charismatic and brilliant – the writing made her sound like someone from Love Island, this moody, angry, heartbroken damsel in distress, and that’s not what Amy was.’
Liam Gallagher’s mansion has become a mecca for local Oasis fans – after they discovered that if they got on the top deck of the local bus they could peep through his windows.
The 11-bedroom home that Liam, 52, rents for £19,000 a month in the Cotswolds is situated just yards from the main bus route through their village.
The house is not visible to car drivers or pedestrians.
But from the top deck of the Stagecoach Gold bus there is a clear view of the four-storey house and gardens.
One fan tells me: ‘We take trips as a group round the bus route occasionally and play Oasis music on the bus – it’s a kind of pilgrimage.
‘The bus route has never been so busy.’
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