Liz Smith sure loves the UK Telegraph! Not that you'd know it from reading her columns, but it's true. Take for example her Sunday the 24th lead item about Queen Elizabeth and email.
'GOOD LORD! You use e-mail?" This is what the popular and good-looking Elizabeth Saltzman of Vanity Fair was overheard saying to the queen of England at a recent garden party in honor of the Household Cavalry.
Elizabeth II had just said to Ms. S.: "We must keep in touch. Let me give you my e-mail address." The queen had added as an aside that she does use e-mail, "but I don't write them myself. I dictate them."
The queen is surprisingly agile when it comes to the 21st century. She is known to use a mobile phone given to her by Prince Andrew, and she also has an iPod. The queen did complain to Howard Stringer, after she knighted him, that she found the buttons on the Sony remotes "difficult."
Interesting use of the dreaded passive. Probably because the Telegraph published that item nine days earlier and Liz forgot to mention it:
The Queen's latest foray into the world of modern technology has led her to setting up her own email account, it has emerged.
The Queen; You've got mail, your Majesty
Belying her age, the Queen also has an iPod and a mobile phoneBut, in true majesterial fashion, she does not actually type her emails herself - rather she dictates them.
The 81-year-old monarch, already the proud owner of a mobile phone and an iPod mini, revealed her aquisition of an email address at a recent Buckingham Palace garden party.
At the end of an animated conversation between the Queen and Elizabeth Saltzman, editor of Vanity Fair, the journalist said: "Look, we must keep in touch"".
"Absolutely!" agreed the monarch. "Here, let me give you my email address."
"Good lord, you use email?" replied a stunned Saltzman. "Oh yes," continued the Queen. "But I don't actually write them - I dictate them all, of course."
Buckingham Palace refused to comment on whether the Queen had her own account. But, sources said that the Queen is in regular email contact with her grandchildren, though she does still apparently rely on her aides to show her how exactly to send them.
In June 2005 it was reported that the Queen had been bought a six-gigabyte mini iPod. Amongst some of the music stored on it is said to be The Last Night of the Proms.
And she seems keen to let the world know of just exactly how technologically aware she is.
Last year she made her Christmas Day message available for the first time as an podcast. She is also said to use her mobile to send text messages to Princes William and Harry.
Perhaps it was an omission, but Liz is getting more than just that one story from the Telegraph's Spy column. Liz ended today's column with this:
THE BRITISH press is betting Tina Brown's next book, following on the heels of her massive hit "The Diana Chronicles," will be about the departing Prime Minister Tony Blair. But Tina says she hasn't decided anything yet. This week Blair meets with the pope, and the other guess is he will become a Catholic, like his wife, Cherie. Blair couldn't convert while in office where he had to appoint bishops for the Church of England.
While she does mention "the British press", she should have credited the Telegraph and this item from June 22:
Tina Brown has already gained critical acclaim for The Diana Chronicles, her new book about Diana, Princess of Wales, which was published this week.
She interviewed more than 250 of the late princess's family, friends and associates for the book, which was launched with a star-studded party at the Serpentine Gallery on Monday night. But one who was absent from the party could well be the subject of her next project: our very own outgoing Prime Minister.
"Tina has been approached about doing the same kind of book about Tony Blair," I'm told.
"It's a great offer, but she's mulling over whether or not she should take it up, since she has been living in New York for most of his premiership and hasn't experienced his leadership first hand. She'll make a decision some time soon."
Nice items Telegraph! Here's hoping you get the credit you deserve.