AMANDA PLATELL: Time to stop this absurd bowing and curtseying to the royals

Last week, a casually dressed Prince William took his older son George and daughter Charlotte to the sold-out Taylor Swift concert in London.

Afterwards, they posed with the superstar and her boyfriend Travis Kelce for selfies sent round the world. Even without Kate or little Louis, it was a joyful tableau of a modern royal family. William had even been bad dad dancing to Taylor's hit Shake It Off.

Travis later revealed on his podcast that William's aides briefed the singer and her beau that there was 'no need to bow' to our future King.

Hallelujah, I thought. I'm an ardent monarchist but would humbly suggest this should become the rule in future — and not just for stars but for every 'commoner' who meets a member of the Royal Family.

The arcane tradition of grovelling to royals is out of touch with the present-day monarchy King Charles tells us he is seeking to establish, one that reflects a diverse society and treats everyone equally. I've long held this view.

The arcane tradition of grovelling to royals is out of touch with the present-day monarchy, writes Amanda Platell

Last week, Prince William took his older son George and daughter Charlotte to the sold-out Taylor Swift concert in London

They posed with the superstar and her boyfriend Travis Kelce for selfies

I even told the late Queen of it in the 1990s, when I was among 10 lucky Australians granted an audience with her in the White Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace.

With the witless naivety of a 30-something I said: 'Your Majesty, I am honoured to curtsey before you having never curtsied to anyone before — but I will never do so again, unless it is you.'

She looked bemused, thanked me for supporting the Commonwealth before moving graciously along. Yet I meant it then and I mean it now. In a world in which we are supposedly blind to the privileges of class, no woman should curtsey to another, nor any man bend the knee.

If King Charles really wants to modernise the Royal Family, he could stop this forelock- tugging nonsense and, as Taylor might sing, 'Shake Off' the age of deference.

Bewildering that the Australian government spent $520,000 flying WikiLeaks's Julian Assange back to Oz to a hero's welcome. But then, this is a country that still romanticises the renegade outlaw and killer Ned Kelly.

Mane reason why I miss the 1980s

Generation-Z, now in their 20s, say the 1980s is the decade they would most want to have lived through, citing leg warmers as part of its charm.

As someone who did live through that decade they're forgetting the most important things: women having great careers for the first time, massive shoulder pads and — most crucially — huge, empowering hair, like our idol Farrah Fawcett.

Crikey, all that hairspray must have burnt a forever hole in the ozone layer.

American actress Farrah Fawcett had huge, empowering hair

England footballer Phil Foden is hailed a hero for rushing home from the Euros to be with partner Rebecca Cooke for the birth of their third child.

It makes a change from when he was sent home in disgrace from the Nations League in Iceland four years ago, kicked out of the England team for breaking Covid rules by sneaking a model into his hotel while Rebecca was caring for their first child.

Westminster Warning 

Five days before the General Election and the only decision we despairing lifelong Conservatives must make is what we can do to stop a terrifying Labour supermajority.

As the Mail's poll showed yesterday, one in ten voters, four million of us, are still undecided. I'll be putting my bitter disappointment with Sunak's government behind me and voting Tory.

I want a future in which the party I worked for and believe in — because I share its values of decency, hard work and low taxes — isn't annihilated.

I urge you to do the same. Just hold your nose and vote for the Conservatives.

Stripping off again for the Disney+ TV series of Jilly Cooper's best-selling bonk-buster Rivals, Aidan Turner, 41, say he doesn't think his shirtless scenes will have the same impact as him topless scything in Poldark nearly a decade ago.

Au contraire! Any woman with a beating heart is already swooning in anticipation.

Aidan Turner, 41, will strip off again for the Disney+ TV series of Jilly Cooper's best-selling bonk-buster Rivals

Donate for Debs 

Two years after her death from bowel cancer, Deborah James's family release details of where the astonishing £16 million she began raising has been spent.

Already, £4 million has helped develop early detection blood testing and £5 million has gone into global research studying causes of the cancer.

Deborah's mum Heather says 'Bowelbabe' Debs would be 'thrilled to know so much money has been raised' — and then in her next breath adds 'let's make it £20 million by Christmas'.

A tenner from all of us to her charity could make that wish come true.

Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk, says that as a straight actor he wouldn't be allowed to play a gay character today. Which is a shame, as most of us would never have heard of Harvey Milk were it not for Penn.

Sheen's kudos goes for a Burton

Two Richard Burton movies — and a TV series — are in production to celebrate the centenary of his birth next year, one of them with Michael Sheen as the fiery, burly, Welshman.

Oh dear, a sexless prawn who looks as if he was left too long on the barbie pretending he could play muscular Mark Antony. Cleopatra wouldn't have given up a kingdom for that little shrimp.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film Cleopatra

Two hopes for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday: that Andy Murray recovers from an operation to play, giving us a grand exit. And that the Princess of Wales feels well enough to present trophies on Centre Court.

Great British Bake Off co-presenter Sandi Toksvig spoke for many women when she said she quit the show out of utter boredom.

Wishing no disrespect to those who love baking, she said, watching a meringue dry bored her so much she thought she was going insane. After enduring just one half of one show, I felt the same.

Status Quo's Francis Rossi, 75, says their August Bank Holiday weekend gig will likely be their last. Maybe it's because, unlike their contemporaries The Rolling Stones who are on the U.S. leg of a world tour, they're no longer rockin' all over the world.

The August date is in Taunton, after a sell-out show in Wolverhampton.

Experts want ultra-processed food such as white sliced supermarket bread to carry the same horrendous images as on cigarette packets to deter people from eating unhealthily. Not sure how that would work. There wouldn't be enough room to fit the fatties' pictures on the packets.

Batter Slovakia's dumplings, lads

I'm as dismayed as the next England fan at our boys' performance so far in the Euros, yet we have to back our team against Slovakia tomorrow.

Surely with our population of nearly 56 million we can beat a country with 5.4 million, famous for not much apart from mountains and potato and sheep's cheese dumplings drenched in bacon dripping?