AN E-MAIL doing the rounds of the BBC’s soon to be diminished 28,000 staff alleges that Mark Thompson, the Director-General and architect of 6,000 job cuts, has a history of blood-letting.

“I was standing next to him . . . and he was sitting reading his horoscope in the Daily Star,” wrote Anthony Massey, a staffer while Thompson was editing the Nine O’Clock News in 1988.

“Before I could say a word he suddenly turned, snarled and sank his teeth into my upper left arm . . . I pulled it out like a stick out of the jaws of a Labrador.” He added: “I didn’t want to rock the boat. And in those days dinosaurs ruled the earth, and it seemed quite acceptable for senior people to bite junior colleagues.”

Coincidentally, of course, the e-mail was circulated the day after the latest cuts to staff at the corporation were announced.

A BBC spokesman said: “The incident was a bit of horseplay that was misunderstood.”

Massey, who still works at the BBC, had taken the day off when I tried to contact him yesterday — presumably in case of further toothy reprisals.

Weighty matters

WHILE Labour contents itself in knowing the numbers of journalists’ passports and driving licences, Charles Kennedy’s team wants to know the physical stature of reporters attending Lib Dem election press conferences. So will shorties such as Jonathan Dimbleby be excluded?

Mountain to climb

AS THE crews prepare for the Boat Race on Sunday, Richard Staite, who rowed for Cambridge in the 1990s, will be training for his ascent of Everest following the same route as Mallory and Irvine, who were lost in 1924. Irvine, an Oxford Blue, is still revered by Dark Blue crews.

Ps

Ashton Kutcher, 27, partner of the 42-year-old Demi Moore, clearly gets on well with her former husband, Bruce Willis. “I don’t think people know how close we are,” Kutcher said. “He’s literally, like, worn my underwear.” Willis borrowed the offending articles after his car became bogged down in a river.

people@thetimes.co.uk

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