AMANDA PLATELL: More attention is now given to Cowell's scowl, Amanda Holden's nipples and Alesha Dixon's barely clad thighs than to the real stars - the ordinary folk following their dreams

AMANDA PLATELL: Standing defiant and alone on a rocky outcrop on the cover of Time Magazine, she looks out over a world in peril that she is seeking to save.

AMANDA PLATELL Was J.K. Rowling channelling her fearless hero Harry Potter when she took on the trans rights lobby?

AMANDA PLATELL: Of all the pictures published in this tumultuous week for the Royal Family, one stood out for me.

AMANDA PLATELL: Ant has treated you appallingly. But every tweet you post keeps you nailed to the cross of this broken marriage. You have to break away.

AMANDA PLATELL: It was a bracing moment when I read that the Church of England, my Church, declared that loving, long-term couples in civil partnerships should not have sex.

AMANDA PLATELL: Jennifer Aniston appears on a magazine cover wearing tiny Yves Saint Laurent leather hotpants a supermodel might struggle to get away with - and we gape in awe.

AMANDA PLATELL: I was struck by one thought after Carrie's Instagram announcement: I cannot imagine how Marina, his loyal wife of 27 years, must have been feeling, nor their four adult children.

PLATELL'S PEOPLE: Students had cancelled the event because of Ms Rudd's links to the Windrush scandal, in which Britons of Caribbean heritage were wrongly deported.

AMANDA PLATELL: One week ago, Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, was at home with his mum, six brothers and sisters, doing what we're all doing, watching TV, isolating at home.

AMANDA PLATELL: Can it be only a few months ago that the Monarchy was facing down Megxit, in what appeared to be one of its worst existential crises since the abdication?

PLATELL'S PEOPLE: What a shining example of selflessness we have been given this week from a woman who is among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus plague.

AMANDA PLATELL: We have always been a nation of curtain twitchers. But, who'd have thought nearly 200,000 people would report their neighbours for breaking lockdown rules?

AMANDA PLATELL: We learned that they have chosen as their LA hideaway, a Tuscan-style mansion amid 14 acres in a gated community in one of the most sought-after areas of Hollywood....

ANDREW PIERCE: The Labour Party suspended Lord Lea of Crondall last week after the House of Lords' standards watchdog found he sexually harassed two women working in Parliament.

Four men and two women, will today sit in judgment in an anonymous office in the Whitehall edifice that houses the Treasury on the most contentious set of peerage nominations for a generation.

Despite being repeatedly tipped as a 'prime minister-in-waiting' since entering the House of Commons less than five years ago, Rishi Sunak has always been better known in India than Britain.

ANDREW PIERCE: In an interview with student newspaper Varsity in 2002, when he was chairman of the Labour group at Cambridge University, he backed the UK joining the euro.

ANDREW PIERCE: Social media posts can be ever so revealing. Who is the unlikeliest fan of ­Labour's new leader Sir Keir Starmer?

ANDREW PIERCE - Trust rust is key when talking about ambitious ministers who might one day fancy a permanent shot at the top job. He may be wooden, but Dominic Raab has Boris Johnson's backing.

ANDREW PIERCE: As countries across Europe start to ease themselves out of lockdown, there is a growing recognition in Boris Johnson's Cabinet that it, too, will have to make some hard decisions

CHRIS MURPHY IN EPERNAY: Geraint Thomas slipped behind Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal in the Tour de France pecking order on stage three after losing five seconds in Epernay.

CHRIS MURPHY IN NANCY: Elia Viviani won stage four of the Tour de France in a sprint finish in Nancy as Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mate Julian Alaphilippe retained the yellow jersey.

Dylan Groenewegen of Holland - who crashed on the opening day of this Tour de France - took the third stage win of this year's race for the Jumbo-Visma team on Friday.

Geraint Thomas breathed a sigh of relief at the finish of stage eight of the Tour de France after he survived a team pile-up at the bottom of a fast downhill section on the approach to Saint-Etienne.

Geraint Thomas and Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal profited hugely as French rival Thibaut Pinot was caught in a group who lost 100 seconds on the 217.5km stage from Saint-Flour to Albi.

Geraint Thomas and Team Ineos had every reason to be satisfied as they reached the first rest day of the Tour de France in an enviable position. He is in second place in the general classification.

Tour de France organisers are looking to launch a women's equivalent of the most prestigious race in men's cycling, they said on Friday.

MATT LAWTON IN PAU: The sight of Julian Alaphilippe rising out of his saddle and powering up the steep ramp that came at the end of this individual time trial is sure to trouble Geraint Thomas .

Trentin won by 36 seconds, while there was no change at the top of the general classification, with Julian Alaphilippe still leading ajnd Geraint Thomas trailing by 95 seconds.

MATT LAWTON IN GAP: Team Ineos go into three massive days in the Alps that will determine the outcome of the most mesmerising Tour de France in decades, without captain Luke Rowe.

Team Ineos sporting director Nicolas Portal has tragically passed away at the age of 40. A statement from Team Ineos said that the Frenchman died at his home in Andorra on Tuesday afternoon.

The Tour de France's organisers are focusing on a postponement of this year's race rather than a cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic. 'Le Tour' was set to roll out of Nice on June 27th.

The extra cash injection and prospect of thousands of new jobs comes as the firm is set to announce Jaguar and Land Rover production in booming China.

Beloved of intrepid explorers and school run mums alike, the one millionth Land Rover Discovery rolled off the production line today before embarking on an epic 8,000 mile fund-raising expedition miles to China.

Ray Massey does a mini test drive on the latest model and he is impressed by the sporty style of the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.4 TB MultiAir 170bhp TCT Veloce.

Sultry pop star Lana del Rey took the wraps off Jaguar's flashy new F-Type sports car, pictured right, as a string of new British vehicles stole the Paris Motor Show from under the noses of the French this week.

It accelerates from rest to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds and will cost around £77,000 when in showrooms early next year (for delivery in summer).

Production of the third generation Octavia started this month at the Mlada Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic, ahead of its March launch in Britain.

It will be in showrooms this spring, priced at £160,000, following its global unveiling at the Detroit Motor Show on January 14. Bentley describes it as its ' performance flagship convertible'.

Major car makers including Vauxhall, Nissan, Citroen and Volvo will exhibit a range of their latest and yet to launch vehicles as well as providing test drives at the Future Drive Motor Show.

What would you splash out on if your numbers came up? According to new research, for British car fans, nothing but a Bentley will do.

Mailonline has had an exclusive first drive of the astonishing new ‘green’ super-frugal car offering 2p a mile motoring that could swiftly put Osborne and the Treasury out of business.

The French maker promises up to 61.8 mpg from the car, which was unveiled at the recent Geneva Motor Show.

The British car maker is marking its big day with a striking display of its heritage and future technology, proving that although it's 65, the car won't be pensioned off.

That rare shaft of sunshine this week was enough for British supercar-maker Aston Martin to launch a blistering £200,000 flagship soft-top, a highlight of its centenary year.

All roads lead to Germany next week as the Frankfurt Motor Show gets under way. Mercedes-Benz will be showing off its first-ever SUV.

Just in time to add to your New Year wish list comes Mercedes-Benz's latest version of its C-Class compact saloons. And what a high-tech feast it is.

What better way to banish the blues than to contemplate - subject to a lottery win - having some fun behind the wheel of the new Lamborghini Huracán?

Ray Massey, motoring editor, gets to grips with the award-winning family car, Nick Clegg's push for electric cars and the biggest dangers on the road.