THE Prime Minister finally found time yesterday to meet Lord Coe, chairman of London 2012, but the question remains when Coe will find time to meet Linford Christie.

Christie, the Olympic 100m champion, has been left off the list of ambassadors signed up for the campaign. And he’s not happy about it.

Lord Coe has approached Prince William and the French footballer Marcel Desailly who, not surprisingly, is backing the Paris application.

Christie, 44, believes that his absence from the list is a deliberate snub by Coe, with whom he publicly clashed over his views on corruption in the sport.

A source close to the sprinter said: “Linford feels that it is no coincidence that Lord Coe is putting together the list and he is not on it. It is well known that they have disagreed over issues to do with the sport and Linford believes this snub is an extension of that. He would make a great ambassador and is struggling to understand why he has been left out.”

A spokesman for London 2012 said that they had written to Christie a few months ago. “We haven’t had a response so we haven’t taken anything any further. We may think about writing to him again,” he said.

When asked if the decision not to include Christie had been influenced by his two-year ban after he failed a drugs test for anabolic steroids, the bid spokesman did not deny that it had been a factor, saying: “We are looking for everyone’s support. I am not going into the ins and outs of the drugs ban.”

Christie’s agency, Nuff Respect, said that it had not received the letter and that the sprinter had never mentioned being approached. “The letter must have got lost.”

Bashir gets a bashing from US viewers

MUCH to the surprise of his bosses at ABC News in New York, their new star reporter, Martin Bashir, has taken only a couple of weeks to make the headlines.

The stalwart from Tonight with Trevor McDonald is not loved by US viewers. The trouble, of course, is that ITV special fronted by Bashir, which tore to shreds Michael Jackson, who complained that he had been stitched up.

It seems that Mr Jackson’s fans are among the world’s more persistent lobbyists. Internet petitions calling for his dismissal are growing by the day: petitiononline.com, for instance, already has 400 signatures, and there are more angry comments on sites, such as celebrityjustice.com One said: “He is a dishonest creep and he won’t last. After what he did to Jackson, most celebrities do not trust him.”

Another put it more succinctly. “Get off our TV.”

Town and new gown

FASHION shows are a rare sight in the cloistered towers of academia at Oxford University. But the imminent arrival of John Hood, as Vice-Chancellor, has caused a sartorial stir, as the New Zealander is the first not to hold an Oxford doctorate — which means that he requires a different gown from previous holders of the post. A new gown has been designed for Dr Hood’s installation in the autumn when he arrives from Auckland University as the first outsider chosen to lead the university in 900 years.

At the University Council meeting models paraded in various style options, prompting questions such as: “Ooh, should it have gold on it?” The topic took up 45 minutes of debate, leaving only 15 minutes for the somewhat weightier issue — student hardship. Bet he will look the part.

Winner and loser

SIR ALAN AYCKBOURN, whose classic A Chorus of Disapproval opened in his home town of Scarborough, has taken great delight in being rude about the cinematic skills of the director turned restaurant critic Michael Winner, who made a film version in 1988. “I’m not a precious theatre person, but it wasn’t anything I recognised by the time I saw it,” Ayckbourn told his local newspaper. “I never really told Michael what I thought about it. I just said I didn’t want to do anything with him again.”

Halle Berry, at a press conference in Los Angeles to promote Cat Woman said everything changed when she donned the comic-book heroine's feline suit. "I felt a sense of surreal power. People didn't know whether I was going to kiss 'em or kill 'em, smack 'em or hug 'em"

PS . . ..

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