Londoner's Diary: Lion of Inquiry - Thandie Newton tackles London Zoo statue

Thandie Newton is currently on our screens playing corrupt DCI Roz Huntley in BBC drama Line of Duty, but she is proving to be a force for good in real life. The award-winning actress is taking on London Zoo over a statue that, she suggests, enforces questionable representations of race.

Yesterday, Newton, right, took to Twitter with a photograph of a statue in the Regent’s Park landmark. Depicting an African man in a loincloth bearing a primitive weapon and sparring with a lion, it is not what she was hoping to see on show at a zoo.

“In these times I wonder if this should be in a public space,” she wrote yesterday afternoon. “It saddened me to see. Representation is important. Thoughts?” Many of her fans agreed with her. “Not suitable,” one said. “Horrible and aggressive,” added another. The statue was created by Dutch sculptor Henri Teixeira de Mattos, and was gifted to the zoo in 1906.

This is not the first time that Newton, whose mother is from Zimbabwe, has called out such behaviour. Last year she slammed a London branch of Starbucks that used a statue of a black child for display purposes. They quickly apologised and swiftly removed the item.

The complaint is the latest in a long list in recent years. The Rhodes Must Fall movement in Oxford has lobbied for the removal of all statues of the imperialist politician Cecil Rhodes, and only this week it was announced that Colston Hall in Bristol is to be renamed due to the “toxic” legacy of its slave trader namesake Edward Colston.

The Londoner contacted London Zoo this morning to ask if they had a response to Newton’s concerns, but they are yet to comment.

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The Royal Academy’s chief executive Charles Saumarez Smith decamped from Mayfair last night and settled at the Devonshire Club in Bishopsgate, to launch his new book, East London. Saumarez Smith confessed that much of his initial research cut some corners. “Several people were kind enough to point out that most of the information came from Wikipedia,” he said with a chuckle. “The internet’s a wonderful thing!”

Heated exchanges over Cool Britannia

This week’s New Statesman front cover has Tony Blair in bed with Patsy Kensit, in a doctored version of a classic 1997 Cool Britannia Vanity Fair cover. Yesterday, the actress told us her original partner, Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, was better in bed than the former PM, and now representatives of Lorenzo Agius, the photographer who took the picture, have been in touch to say they’re not happy with the reproduction. “We are absolutely furious!”, his manager Terrie Tanaka tells us. “They do not have permission to use Lorenzo Agius’ image.” Liam, get in touch with your thoughts.

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Quote of the day: 'Smell my spaniel'

Tim Farron unwittingly creates the catchphrase of the election while on the campaign trail yesterday. We’d rather not, Tim.

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We’re under politicians’ spell, says McKenna

Look into my eyes... Spectator Life magazine held its fifth birthday party at The Hari hotel in Belgravia, with hypnotist Paul McKenna among the guests. “I influence the influencers,” he said, explaining that he has coached powerful politicos using neuro- linguistic programming. “Tony Blair, he’s an expert in NLP,” he said. “I analysed recordings of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Adolf Hitler, and they were all using the same structure. Politicians talk about freedom, liberty, justice, tackling crime, stronger education, lower taxes, whatever, but Left or Right, they’re all saying the same thing.”

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Mary Poppins returns for Christmas next year, with Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep lighting up a much-anticipated sequel. But there will be no return from the original magical nanny Julie Andrews. Popbitch reports that producers approached the actress for a cameo as an unnamed balloon seller, offering her $8 million. She turned down the offer. So Angela Lansbury was added to the cast who, we’re told, took a far lesser sum. Still more than tuppence, we imagine.

America’s starving artists

American writer Bret Anthony Johnston, pictured, scooped a cool £30,000 last night, as he was named the winner of The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. Johnston used the occasion at the Stationers’ Hall to criticise his home country. “You may have noticed that America is going down the toilet,” he said. “That man, whose name I will not utter, is starving the arts and artists.”

There were loud cheers from the assembled guests, who included novelists Sebastian Faulks, Kazuo Ishiguro, Rose Tremain and Sarah Waters, as well as former arts minister Ed Vaizey, wistfully remembering with fondness his six years as arts minister, and perhaps wondering who might have the job after any post-election reshuffle. Also there was Edna O’Brien, 86 years young but still looking after her interests, plugging the Chichester stage adaptation of her book Country Girls to those around her.

The prize was given away by broadcaster and writer Mark Lawson, though with an unfortunate slip of the tongue he was introduced by Sunday Times literary editor Andrew Holgate as Dominic Lawson. You say potato...

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Tweet of the day: 'Ed Balls'

Today’s the sixth anniversary of everyone’s favourite Twitter mishap, when Ed Balls tweeted his own name. Politics were simpler then.

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One writer grills another at lunch

A meeting of great minds at The London Press Club Awards at The Corinthia Hotel yesterday, where Prince Andrew picked up The Queen’s Londoner of the Year and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, pictured with Rachel Johnson, won Print Journalist of The Year. Was he grilling Johnson over her switch to the Lib-Dems?

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Articulation of the day: English National Opera is recruiting diction coaches because subtitles for the audience are making singers sloppy with their elocution. It’s not over till the fat lady mumbles.

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