Slowhand squares up to Brown

For years he lived the rock 'n' roll high life to the full, but when the excesses of drink and drugs took their toll, Eric Clapton changed his ways.

And, unlike his fellow rock panjandrums who exploit their absences touring abroad to claim tax exile status and accumulate yet more riches, Clapton has used his fame to help others.

His charity auctions have raised millions - but now he finds himself at loggerheads with the Government: In particular, Gordon Brown.

Slowhand feels the Scrooge-like Chancellor has seriously shortchanged his charity and failed to fulfil a commitment to contribute financially to Crossroads, the drug rehabilitation centre that 60-year-old Clapton founded in Antigua.

Six years ago, the former addict, who lives between London and America with his graphic designer wife Melia McEnery and their three daughters, sold part of his guitar collection for more than £3 million. It included the 1956 Fender he used to record his most famous anthem, Layla. Then last year he held a further sale at which his Stratocaster guitar "Blackie" was bought for £600,000, becoming the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. In all, he raised a further £4million.

All the money gained went to the Crossroads project, and Clapton was hoping for a huge boost to this fund from the Treasury, through its much-trumpeted Gift Aid scheme, which is supposed to top up charitable donations by about 20 per cent.

But a close friend of the musician tells me: "The Gift Aid money hasn't happened. A lot of people, not just Eric, are pretty fed up that members of the Government get up and spout things that seem jolly reasonable, yet the delivery is not quite the same as the rhetoric.

"Eric has donated millions and he feels aggrieved that the Government has yet to match its words with deeds. Instead of putting in the money promised, people are dragging their feet and even asking questions about the charity."

Says Mike Warburton of specialist tax firm Grant Thornton: "I'm not surprised at what has happened to Eric Clapton's charity. Contrary to what Chancellor Gordon Brown says in public, he has taxed charities to the tune of £500 million in exactly the same way he has been taxing pensions."

Might the Queen express her displeasure at the man who has presided over years of unhappiness at Westminster Abbey by not awarding him a retirement honour?

Traditionally, outgoing Abbey deans receive a knighthood, which is announced well ahead of their retiring. But some 15 weeks after announcing his decision to stand down after eight years, there is speculation at the Abbey that Dr Wesley Carr - dubbed the "sacking dean" - might be overlooked.

"There is a lot of chatter that there is royal disapproval over the unrest that has occurred on Wes's watch," says a chapter source. "He goes early in the new year, but there's still no news of a gong."

No Body blow to the Roddick girls

Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick's daughter Samantha is unconcerned about her mother's decision to give away her £51 million fortune. "That's only half of it," she joked. "Dad hasn't said what he's doing with his half!"

Entrepreneur Dame Anita - who founded the 300-strong chain of shops with her husband Gordon - revealed that she plans to cash in her shares and give the proceeds to charity rather than let Samantha, 34, and her sister Justine, 36, one day inherit them. Speaking at her erotic emporium Coco de Mer, where she was launching an unusual, adults-only Santa's grotto, Samantha said: "Anyway, I don't think of my mother in terms of assets. She's someone to love and argue with."

From nasty shock to lovely surprise

It was the unexpectedly perfet end to a less than auspicious weekend for alluring classical

musician and TV presenter Myleene Klass.

For, just days after she was shoved to the ground and had a bag of chips emptied over her head by a gang of youths - who further humiliated

the star by taking pictures of the incident with their mobile phones - Myleene received a much more welcome approach: A proposal from her boyfriend Graham Quinn.

Ireland-born Graham, who began dating Myleene three years ago when he was a bodyguard for her now defunct pop band Hear'Say, went down on bended knee on the romantic Spanish Steps during a surprise break in Rome.

Myleene, 27, a Royal Academy of Music graduate whose fingers are insured for £1 million, had thought she was going to Italy to do a photoshoot for a newspaper, but in fact Graham, 30, had secretly planned the trip himself with the help of her agent Jonathan Shalit.

Now the couple, who live together in the Docklands area of East London, plan to wed next year.

"I'm completely over the moon. I've just had the

most romantic weekend ever," coos Myleene,

delighted with her sparkling diamond engagement ring. "He's definitely the man I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Rosamund's Wright move

The matchmaking Mrs Bennet couldn't have planned it better herself, it seems. English rose Rosamund Pike, 6, who played the oldest

Bennet daughter Jane in this year's cinematic adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, has moved in with the film's director Joe Wright, 33, just

six months after their offscreen romance began.

But despite their cosy living arrangements in Islington, North London, the loved-up couple are having to make the most of any snatched moments together, thanks to a hectic work schedule that saw Wright in three different countries last weekend.

"Joe flew in from the States and Rosamund was waiting for him at the flat," I'm told by

a friend. "They went out for walks around the area together, hand-in-hand, and Rosamund bought

some dresses from a fashionable boutique nearby.

"They looked so in love and were constantly laughing.

"They were briefly separated when Wright had to go to a meeting in the West End, though."

A more prolonged parting came when Wright flew to Italy at the end of the weekend, leaving Oxford graduate Rosamund - who recently turned heads as Johnny Depp's wife in another, somewhat saucier, period film, The Libertine - behind at the lovenest.

PS Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will settle into the royal box at the opera tomorrow. The opera? Anthony Minghella's wonderful production of Madam Butterfly for the ENO at the Coliseum. With its "three people in a marriage" storyline, the plot should be a familiar one.