Granny Takes A Trip was the legendary King’s Road boutique where the Stones, Beatles and Jimi Hendrix picked up their velvet jackets when the Sixties were really swinging.

It closed its doors in the Seventies, but was relaunched in spring 2024 as an online shop, with the blessing of the original founders – and the financial backing of Rolling Stones Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.

Shoppers could buy new and vintage pieces and could also rent them. Prices were high – monthly rentals of £465 for a skirt, £235 for a vintage bomber jacket and £75 for a lace T-shirt.

Sadly, the business now appears to have closed, with the website not operational.

Visitors are greeted with the message: ‘This store is currently unavailable due to maintenance. It should be available again shortly. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.’

A source said: ‘Mick is said to have invested £1million in the business last year, in a bid to make a go of Granny Takes A Trip. But the prices were too high, and I don’t think the launch was handled very well.

‘It was not marketed very well, either, and now I hear the business has floundered. As well as Mick, it was supported by a consortium who were involved in Exhibitionism – the Rolling Stones exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.’

A spokesman for Jagger did not wish to comment. But another source cast doubt on the claim that the famously ‘careful’ singer would have stumped up quite so much.

The CEO of the venture, Marlot te Kiefte, has not responded to requests for a comment on Granny’s fate. But she and the business’s lead designer, Phoebe Button, have recently set up an enterprise called Parasite Ventures.

On LinkedIn, te Kiefte notes that her involvement in Granny lasted from November 2022 until August 2024.

The shop was started in 1966 by graphic designer Nigel Waymouth, vintage clothing collector Sheila Cohen and mod tailor John Pearse. They would scour markets and upcycle their finds into flamboyant new looks.

Waymouth said: ‘Often we would find an old roll of fabric we loved, and then figure out what to make with it.

‘Everything we created was unique, and we didn’t separate men’s from women’s, so you’d have everything on one rail, which I think allowed people that sense of individuality and freedom.’

The business was sold to entrepreneur Freddie Hornik in 1969 and he opened outposts in LA and New York before shutting the shop in the 1970s.

Investors tried a few times to talk Waymouth into allowing the name to be used for a new Granny.

In an interview before the relaunch he said: ‘I have always been of the mind that it was a moment in time that could never successfully be created again.

‘But Marlot was insistent on respecting Granny’s history, without trying to repeat what we did.’

Practice makes perfect for Timothee

Huge reactions to the surprise premiere of ping pong movie Marty Supreme, starring Timothee Chalamet, this week.

The film was shown at the New York Film Festival and critics called Chalamet’s portrayal of table tennis champ Marty Mauser his ‘career-best performance’.

It sets us up for a clash of the heartthrobs: Timothee versus One Battle After Another star Leonardo DiCaprio, at the Oscars next spring.

Marty Supreme is based on the true story of Marty Reisman, a great of New York’s table tennis scene.

Chalamet prepared for the movie by starting ping pong lessons in 2018 in New York. During Covid he put a full-sized table in his apartment.

He called practice his ‘secret’. ‘I had a table in London, while I was making Wonka. On Dune 2, I had a table in Budapest, (and) Jordan. I had a table in Abu Dhabi. I had a table at the Cannes Film Festival for The French Dispatch.’

The picture opens here on Boxing Day.

I’m playing Fergie – but I won’t promote her

Actress Natalie Dormer has announced she’s not doing any promotional work for forthcoming ITV drama The Lady, in which she plays The Duchess of York.

And she’s handing her fee to charity because she is so appalled by Fergie’s links to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But I can reveal the network won’t shelve the project. A source says Dormer isn’t the lead; that’s Mia McKenna-Bruce, who plays Jane Andrews, Fergie’s ex dresser who was jailed for murdering her boyfriend Thomas Cressman.

The drama was filmed by Left Bank Pictures, who made The Crown, and will go out next year. The makers are in touch with the family of Cressman. I’m told: ‘Nobody can really understand why Natalie decided to do this, as everyone knew about Fergie and her links to Epstein.’

The Game Of Thrones star, 43, (left) said in a statement ‘new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson’s behaviour’ and ‘I will not be taking part in the promotion of the project’.

She added: ‘In keeping with my commitment to the wellbeing of children I have donated my entire salary from this project to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.’

Hollywood’s nastiest divorce just took a bizarre new twist

The nastiest divorce in Hollywood just got personal – Ioan Gruffudd is going to represent himself in court as the fallout continues from his break-up with actress Alice Evans.

On October 2, Gruffudd filed a ‘substitution of attorney’ notice at the Superior Court of LA which makes it clear that he will be representing himself.

In August Gruffudd’s lawyer Matt Russakow filed a motion to be ‘relieved as counsel’ because of an ‘irreconcilable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship’.

Russakow had been representing the Welsh actor in his bid to extend a DVRO (Domestic Violence Restraining Order).

Gruffudd had an order made against Evans after she sent him hundreds of text messages and tweets in 2022.

He wants to extend this, claiming she has continued to harass him, bombarding him with a further 5,000 social media messages – which she denies.

Russakow quit after Gruffudd made public a series of text messages, ostensibly from his daughters Ella and Elsie, accusing him of not helping them when they were being evicted from their home due to unpaid rent. Gruffudd contends the messages were written by his ex.

In one, Ella, 15, apparently wrote: ‘You left us and now you can’t provide for us.

‘You need to get a job daddy. Looking after your girlfriend is not a job. You are a father who has abandoned his children and doesn’t see them or talk to them. You don’t even send Christmas presents. It’s pathetic and everyone sees you. Ps if there is enough money for us never to become homeless then why aren’t you helping us out? You hate mummy more than you love us.’

There will be a mediation settlement conference in December and possibly a full week in court next year if the pair cannot reach an agreement on child and spousal support and whether the restraining order gets scrapped or extended.

(Gruffudd does still have an attorney representing him on the financial front.)

The Fantastic Four and Hornblower actor, 52, attended court last month with new wife Bianca, 33, who is pregnant.

He left Alice in January 2021 and he and Bianca went public with their romance in October that year. Bianca strongly denies any romance between them before the separation.

Ioan and Alice met on the set of 102 Dalmatians and have been legally divorced for two years. Alice, 57, has custody of the children and the three of them live in modest circumstances in California’s San Fernando Valley.

Corre starts with hearts of gold

Coronation Street’s nonagenarian stalwarts William Roache and Barbara Knox are to be honoured by the showbusiness charity Variety with Gold Heart Awards.

On October 19, Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since the first episode in 1960, and Knox, who has played Rita Tanner since 1964, will receive the awards for outstanding contribution to television at a ceremony in London presented by actor Mark Wright and TV presenter Katie Piper. Roache (above with Knox) is 93 and has an OBE. Knox, 92, has an MBE.

Also being honoured are Ant and Dec, Sir Stephen Fry – and singer Petula Clark, who is 92. The Variety charity, chaired by Professor Jonathan Shalit, celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and works to improve the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children.