Madonna is praised by the fickle Mr Grant

As oleaginous off screen as he is on it, Richard E Grant has been heaping praise lately on Madonna who has given him a part in Filth and Wisdom, the film which she is currently directing.

"She is somebody who is so determined to stretch in every direction and I really admire that," the star of Withnail and I simpers. "Believe me, the number of directors that I have worked with who don't have half her ability makes me believe she has a real talent."

Mandrake wonders if this could possibly be the same Richard E Grant who cheerfully retailed tittle-tattle in his 1996 memoirs about the singer's "embarassing" behind-the-scenes rows with her then boyfriend Tony Ward, how she swore like a trooper, looked over his shoulder while she talked to him and made him "feel like a wretched five-year-old".

The actor even felt at one point that Madonna warranted a "quick call to the Capone School of St Valentine's Day Messages" for upstaging a friend at a nightclub.

For good measure, he says that he asked Ward how he "coped" with being "Mr Madonna". Ward had replied "****ing insane, man." Mandrake trusts Mr Grant's performance in Filth and Wisdom will not now end up on the cutting-room floor.