Few if any institutions fuse social standing with spirituality quite like the Knights of Malta, the oldest chivalric order in the Roman Catholic Church.
But that does not insulate the knights – whose past presidents have included the 5th Earl of Gainsborough and Prince Rupert Loewenstein, financial adviser to the Rolling Stones – from the trials and tribulations which afflict their less exalted contemporaries.
Indeed, the knights are, in some respects even more vulnerable, as many of them are ruefully acknowledging, following what I can disclose is the abrupt resignation of one of their most senior figures.
The Grand Prior leads a part of the Order of Malta whose hierarchy, as its website explains, is headed by knights who have ‘made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience’ and are known as ‘Knights of Justice’.
Fra’ Max Rumney, Professed Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, who recently served as the 58th Grand Prior of England
Until very recently the role was held by Fra’ Max Rumney – the prefix Fra’ being an abbreviation of the Italian word ‘frate’, meaning brother. At the time of his appointment in 2022, the Catholic Herald welcomed the ‘tall, gentle’ Fra’ Max, as it reflected that ‘there are few grander titles than the Grand Prior of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’ – and almost certainly none with ‘more fabulous regalia’.
But Fra’ Max’s days of dressing up in full rig are now over. ‘The Order of Malta in Great Britain has communicated to its members that Fra’ Max Rumney has stepped down from the role of Grand Prior for health and personal reasons,’ Philippa Leslie, the Order of Malta’s director of communications, tells me.
Fra’ Max , she adds, ‘indicated this in a formal letter to the Grand Master of the Order, who has accepted his resignation. At the request of the Grand Commander, immediate religious superior of Fra’ Max, the Procurator of the Grand Priory of England will work with Fra’ Max to decide his future in the Order of Malta and the religious life’.
A friend of Fra’ Max, who describes him as ‘a very gentle soul, a charming man’, tells me that his departure has ‘caused quite a furore’.
Fra’ Max, 58, a member of the £1,700-a-year Travellers’ Club, does not respond to my calls – evidence, perhaps, that he has now taken a vow of silence?
Why Odyssey star Morton turned down X-Men role
Odyssey star Samantha Morton has revealed she turned down a string of Hollywood films because she found their older-man, younger-woman romances implausible.
The actress, 49, says she rejected a role in the X-Men franchise in the early 2000s while also refusing films that paired male stars with much younger actresses. ‘There was a time in my career, when I was in my early 20s, living in Manhattan, and the scripts would arrive,’ Samantha, 49, says. ‘I would question some of those movies today: should they have been made? And I questioned it then.’
The Nottingham-born star adds: ‘It wasn’t just turning down X-Men, because I don’t know what X-Men is.
‘I read the script and I didn’t understand it.’
Is it time for a siesta for pals Lily and Billie?
Best friends Lily James and Billie Piper are enjoying a holiday together in Spain
Best friends Lily James and Billie Piper have reunited for a holiday in Spain.
The Mamma Mia! 2 star, 37, who appeared in Billie’s 2019 film directorial debut, Rare Beasts, shared a sweet photo of them enjoying lunch at a restaurant on social media.
No word on whether the packet of cigarettes on the table belongs to Billie.
The actress and film-maker, 43, has tried to quit smoking various times over the years – ever since trying her first cigarette, aged 15, while sharing a dressing room with the Spice Girls on Top of the Pops.
His father, Richard Caring, could be forgiven for uncorking a magnum of champagne or two after selling a majority stake in his nightclub empire for £1.4billion. But he won’t be indulging in that kind of behaviour at the club his oldest son, Jamie, is about to launch.
Long Lane, Jamie’s venture in 55 acres of West Sussex, is a teetotal ‘wellbeing’ establishment. If bellinis are off the menu, biometric and DNA methylation testing are on it. The younger generation, Jamie, 53, tells the September edition of Tatler, are ‘not smoking, they’re not drinking or taking drugs. They’re not even having sex’. Sobering.
It’s not unusual for oldies to rock on, says Sir Tom Jones, who told audience members at the Palace Bowl Presents in London that he was just getting started. ‘I went to LA to celebrate Willie Nelson’s birthday,’ he says, referring to the 93-year-old Texan country star. ‘Willie is in his 90s and he’s still singing, and I’m only 86. I thought to myself, “He’s in his 90s, so I’ve got something to look forward to”.’
Camera-shy Sian is not ready for her close-up
Fleabag star Sian Clifford described how she has problems with being camera shy
This is problematic: Fleabag star Sian Clifford has become camera-shy. The actress, 44, plays a fame-hungry aristocrat Lady Isabella, who dupes a struggling, opportunist director to film her in a new mockumentary The Lady.
‘I am the opposite of Lady Isabella,’ she says at a screening at the BFI Southbank in London.
‘I would rather hide from everything. But definitely a camera. It’s something I have been told by every director I have ever worked with that I physically turn away from the camera. It is becoming a problem.’
Forget plagiarism! Smith sparks sartorial scandal
Cambridge university’s new chancellor, Lord Smith, was seen in the alumni magazine wearing comically oversized shirtsleeves which reach down to his knuckles
Cambridge’s alumni horrified by the scandal of Professor Jason Arday, who’s resigned following claims of plagiarism, are almost as intrigued by an odd photograph of the university’s new chancellor, Lord Smith.
The picture in alumni magazine Cam shows the former Labour minister Chris Smith wearing a shirt that is at least two inches too long for him in the arm. Its sleeves reach down to his knuckles.
The chancellorship carries no salary but could Cambridge not find a tailor for the poor old boy?
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