Poverty tsar" Alan Milburn makes a million Milburn will be on the Labour leader Ed Miliband's strategy team for the next general election, along with fellow Blairites Lord Mandelson and - unbelievably - Alastair Campbell. Chockablock The organisers of a debate at Conway Hall in London entitled "how equal are men and women?" promised it would be a lively affair, and, sure enough, it was. In the feminist corner, Vanessa Veltz, the radio personality. Weighing in for the men: Demetri Marchessini, the financier and author. He posited the case that women possess "commonsense, but not logic." Feltz, however, took the view that women can match the men brain cell for brain cell - and then some. Rather than debate with her, Marchessini inquired if she liked chocolate. "Yes, sometimes, I do," Miss Feltz replied, bemused. "Well, if you shut up for a bit, I will give you some," he retorted. Feltz stormed out. Marchessini will hopefully not try to make amends by sending her a copy of his book, Women in Trousers: A Rear View, which consisted of photographs of women looking awful in tight trousers, accompanied by bitchy comments. Touching wood Simon Russell Beale was aghast when someone uttered the name of the Scottish play in his presence the other day. Robert Lindsay and Samantha Bond, the stars of the forthcoming show Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, appear to be even more superstitious. "My dressing room will be full of lucky items," she says. Lindsay, for his part, says he is "from gypsy stock" so it won't even be possible to swing a black cat in his. It's Lady Nancy Had Nancy Dell'Olio and Sir Trevor Nunn made it up the aisle, she would have been entitled to call herself Lady Nunn. Dell'Olio has, however, found a way of being honoured if not in this land, then at least in her own. I hear that she has received the title of Cavaliere al meritò della Repubblica Italiana. "It is the equivalent of a knighthood in Italy, my home country," says Dell'Olio. Her headline-making private life - before she was courted by Sir Trevor, she was the girlfriend of Sven-Göran Eriksson - and her stint on Strictly Come Dancing have tended to obscure her passion for organisations such as the British Red Cross and Accademia Apulia UK.