Blur star Alex James invited to party at Buckingham Palace with Princess Beatrice and the Duke of York "I'm writing a book about myself," the star of Dynasty tells Mandrake at the private view of Ballgowns: British glamour since 1950 at the Victoria & Albert Museum. You could call it an autobiography. Collins, who turns 79 on Wednesday, has already published two memoirs. Since her last, Second Act: An Autobiography, she has, however, enjoyed a colourful acting career and married her fifith husband, Percy Gibson, who is 32 years her junior. She is keen to stress that the new book will not be salacious. "I don't know what you mean by juicy," she says. Juicy is how I'd describe a fruit. Tables turned Sir Bobby Charlton was invited to a reception at the Japanese embassy, where he met Emperor Akihito. The World Cup winner was thanked for his support after the tsunami last year. He had helped to build a football training centre near Fukushima which had to be closed down because of the earthquake. The party had an optimistic feel to it, but the Manchester United director seemed subdued. Asked if he thought that his team would regain the Premier League title from Manchester City, he said: "I can't really say right now. To be honest, I'm still trying to come to terms with what happened this year. Never too late Sir Tim Rice was so upset by Andrew Lloyd Webber's "tasteless" and "tacky" televsion contest to cast the leading role in a new stage version of their show Jesus Christ Superstar that he declared he would not work on another musical with the composer. He now appears to be having second thoughts. This week, he took out a full-page advertisement in the programme for the Ivor Novello Awards, where Lord LLoyd-Webber was honoured with a fellowship. It read: "Never say never again. Congratulations Andrew. Love Tim.