Pandora

'Fake Sheikh' threatens to sue over unauthorised book

Mazher Mahmood, the News of the World's "Fake Sheikh" undercover reporter, is so familiar with receiving threats from criminals and the odd celebrity victim that he dresses in Arab robes and employs a menagerie of heavies to protect him - one guard owns a gob of gold teeth.

Now Maz has resorted to issuing his own menaces, proposing a libel action against the author of a forthcoming book questioning his methods. News of the world? Fake Sheikhs and Royal Trappings, by the ghostwriter Peter Burden, denounces and mocks Mahmood, his sacked colleague Clive Goodman and their former editor Andy Coulson, now David Cameron's communications wallah.

"The readers of the News of the World have been hoodwinked," says Burden. "I try to show how several Mazher 'stories' come from nothing to make a front-page splash; how they wasted police and court time; how some practices have been dishonest." He refers to the "red mercury" terrorist [sic] trial, ending in acquittal, and the Victoria Beckham "kidnap" trial, which collapsed.

Maz - releasing his own memoirs in September - rang Burden's publisher yesterday to demand a copy, sending a courier to collect. He did not return text messages last night but a News of the World colleague said: "Maz wasn't approached, he didn't co-operate and he has found big chunks that are libellous. He is considering legal action."

Burden says he didn't approach Maz "because it was pointless, he wouldn't have talked". He adds: "I have my own legal advice."

BBC defends 'Juno' Jane: she's no New Jersey teen

The BBC's film division yesterday pant-wettingly revealed that Ellen Page, left, will take the title role in a new adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, about the plain-faced English governess.

It's a coup: Page, 21, was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her unexpectedly pregnant teenager in Juno. Born in Nova Scotia, Canada, however, she is not the obvious candidate to play an English orphan brought up in Gateshead. This year's big-screen turkey The Other Boleyn Girl, remember, was criticised for its casting of Yanks Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as the Tudor sisters.

Neither Mr Rochester nor a director has been found. Shooting begins this autumn. "It's not to say British actors won't be cast in other roles," says a Beeb spokesman. "It's not final yet, but I can say unequivocally: she is attached to the project. Don't worry, we won't turn Jane Eyre into some New Jersey teenager."

Nadine lashes the jobsworths

Step aside: the resident House of Commons ball-crusher, Nadine Dorries, is on the warpath, and has swapped waving her lacy knickers (Pandora passim) for a tomahawk.

The high-kicking, ululating member for Mid-Bedfordshire, right, pens a vituperative attack on the parliamentary authorities after a jobsworth stopped her press conference about lowering the abortion limit to 20 (from 24) weeks.

"I arrived in the room just as a security guard from the Himmler school of charm and diplomacy called the Palace of Westminster police to escort the cameramen off the estate," she writes. "Just who are these faceless people who ... tell an elected MP sent to Parliament by the people that I can't film in a room... Who has the right to run this place? The people or the bureaucrats?" [Continues.]

Don't you know who she is?

Out in the wash

Fear and washing-up liquid in Knutsford. It emerged last month, after a Freedom of Information battle, that the Shadow Chancellor and wallpaper heir George Osborne claimed 21,532 of public dosh in 2005 to run his Cheshire home, including 18,360 mortgage interest and 670 cleaning.

Ozzy has broken cover on the echinate issue of MPs' expenses in an interview with The Knutsford Guardian. He defends the second- home allowance, "created so people from every walk of life can enter Parliament", and adds: "I didn't spend money on the so-called John Lewis list. I don't claim for council tax or heating or phone bills."

His 2,300 bill for food and provisions was not lavish, he insists. "It includes a lot of things like washing powder and washing-up liquid." How many plates can an MP and his brood use?

Beauty and the Labour beasts

Dirty tricks! That's the cry from the camp of Miss Great Britain - the buxom Gemma Garret, 26 - who, as Pandora disclosed recently, is fighting the parliamentary seat of Crewe and Nantwich which became vacant following the death of the Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody.

Aides to Ms Garrett, who is an independent, claim Labour activists are casting aspersions on their gal's intelligence. "Gemma signed the condolence book and the middle-aged Labour woman standing with Jack Straw and Tamsin Dunwoody [daughter and Labour candidate] read Gemma's handwriting, which had got a bit smeared, and accused Gemma of being unable to spell Miss Great Britain. Gemma had just come out of Crewe's finest hair salon and suggested that the woman could do with a visit herself."