New twist in tale of Aspers the trickster

The unedifying row over whether millionaire gaming figure John Aspinall was a cheat astonished London clubland.

It was fired by Lady Annabel Goldsmith, whose late husband Sir James Goldsmith was a regular at Aspinall's tables, when she cast doubt on the claims Irish-born gambler John Burke makes in a new book.

But now the dispute has escalated. Choosing his words with great delicacy, Burke, who once dated model Sandra Paul - now wife of ex-Tory leader Michael Howard - says of Lady Annabel: "She seems to have had a lapse in memory."

In the book, called The Hustlers and written by Douglas Thompson, it is claimed that Aspinall, who died seven years ago, ran a lucrative scam with cards at his Mayfair casino, The Clermont Club, above Annabel's nightclub on Berkeley Square, and netted thousands of pounds from unsuspecting punters.

Much of the book is based on the testimony of Burke, who has played his cards close to his chest about illegal chemin de fer games in Belgravia in the 1960s.

Protecting Aspinall's reputation, Lady Annabel dismissed Burke as a mere employee. But Burke, now in his 80s, tells me: "I was a founding director of The Clermont Club. There were two of us - the other was John Aspinall."

He alleges that before the club was established, Annabel, then married to Mark Birley, lent him and Aspinall their home in South Kensington "where we hosted one of our illegal games".

He adds: "Annabel used to come to our games. If her memory is going, I have all the records - I know how much she won and lost. I have all the paperwork about that and my days at The Clermont." He says he has furnished the book's publishers with certified copies.

Burke, who made a fortune as a commodities broker in the 1970s and whose father was a celebrated master of the Tipperary Foxhounds, says he finds Lady Annabel's reaction "puzzling".

Not least because he dined with her ex-husband at Mark's Club, around the corner from The Clermont, last year.

Meanwhile, the widow of missing peer Lord Lucan, whose gambler husband was another Clermont regular, tells me: "I remember John Burke very well. He was one of the original founders of the club, but his involvement ended early on - there was some kind of disagreement."

Emily keeps an eye on her crooning king

Any groupies hoping to woo handsome crooner de jour Michael Bublé away from his girlfriend Emily Blunt during his world tour should think again.

The 24-year-old Devil Wears Prada star has been keeping a firm eye on Canadian-born Bublé. She was with him in July at the beginning of the tour in Reno, Nevada, and, according to friends, is planning to remain at his side while he travels through the U.S. and Europe until his last concert in London in December.

"I spotted Emily on the tour bus this weekend in Boston," says my mole. "She was with Michael when he came off stage and was dressed down in faded jeans. I wondered if she was finding life on the road weary as she was bleary-eyed and pale."

Luscious Emily met Bublé, 31, three years ago backstage after one of his concerts and now lives with him in his Vancouver mansion.

She even accompanied him on his album version of Billy Paul's Me And Mrs Jones, but the couple will not appear on stage together during the tour.

Brocket's girl drives a hard deal

Given that his love of fast cars landed him in jail - via a £4million insurance fraud, for which he was shopped to police by his first wife Isa - it may raise eyebrows to find that Lord Brocket's second wife Harriet is trying her hand in the car trade.

For after selling her husband's Audi A8 recently, Harriet, 32, tells me she is trying to find a buyer for a friend's 1963 Bentley S3.

"I have a good contact list on my computer," says Harriet, who married divorcee Brocket, 55, in the South of France last year. "I sold Charlie's Audi by e-mailing everyone on it, so I thought I would try again with this car. It's blue with with cream leather seats and a bargain at £24,950."

But does Harriet think it's wise to be entering a trade that led to the downfall of her husband, who was jailed for five years in the 1990s after claiming falsely that three Ferraris, as well as a Maserati, had been stolen?

"I think he can be trusted now," says photographer Harriet, who spent yesterday at the Bentley factory in Crewe taking pictures of a Le Mans race car for an article Lord Brocket is writing for a hotel magazine. "Anyway, his problem was Ferraris. And he's very much in demand from magazines who want him to write about classic cars as he is so knowledgeable."

Victoria Beckham may need to be on the end of the phone to dispense some marital advice to her favourite designer, Roberto Cavalli.

According to reports, friends of the wrinkly Italian couturier and his glamorous wife Eva are gossiping that their 20-year marriage is in trouble. They claim the relationship has been put under strain by former Miss Universe runner-up Eva's friendship with businessman Tommaso Buti, who founded the now defunct Fashion Cafe in New York.

The rumours come after father-of-three Cavalli, 66, bought a £2million apartment in South Kensington because he wants to raise his profile in London. A love triangle should do it.

The wedding between Dame Edna creator Barry Humphries's dapper son Oscar and his stunning fiancee Sara Philippidis has been postponed yet again.

Originally the lovebirds, who are both 26, were planning a big ceremony in Greece, where Sara's family is from, with a glossy magazine picking up the bill. Then they decided to tie the knot at St Luke's in Chelsea. But after baulking at the cost of a London wedding, the couple opted instead for a small ceremony in Sydney this Christmas. Now I hear those wedding plans have been put on hold.

"Sara and Oscar are still very much engaged and are still planning to get married, but there is no wedding date set at the moment," says a chum.

In March, Oscar's stepmother Lizzie, the daughter of late poet Sir Stephen Spender, was given a clean bill of health after treatment for breast cancer.

Amid the plethora of books marking the tenth anniversary of Princess Diana's death, one stands out for its kindness.

Called The Day I Met Diana, it tells the stories of ordinary people who met the Princess, how they were touched by her down-to-earth approach and how their lives were transformed for a few moments by the encounter.

Some meetings were fleeting, others were longer and a number were with people who were ill. Yet all felt better for the experience.

London's restaurant scene is a little less vibrant today following the death after a long battle with cancer of the colourful entrepreneur Andrew Leeman, who was behind some of the country's more iconic names.

The original greeter at Langan's Brasserie when it opened in 1976, father-of-two Leeman was a co-owner of Morton's on Berkeley Square, brought tacos to the capital with the Texas Lone Star restaurant on Gloucester Road, acquired the Feathers at Woodstock and owned Bishopstrow House in Warminster. He was 61.