Stella Vine parts company with Jefferies - over red dots

In June, I revealed that Vine, near right - Britart's woman of the moment - had adopted Jefferies as her agent and "muse" after being introduced by George Michael's partner, Kenny Goss.

Now, the two are going their separate ways, amid rumours of arguments over questions of finance and artistic control.

Yesterday, Vine said she'd ended her relationship with Jefferies, far right - who achieved fame dating Claudia Schiffer - and would no longer be represented by any one gallery.

"I was a bit besotted with Tim, and I think he found me neurotic," she said. "We fell out over red dots: I walked into the gallery and saw them all over the walls. I don't want people looking at my work and thinking: 'sold'. I want them to think about the art.

"The gallery thing didn't work for me, and if going independent means losing sales, then so be it."

Vine won't exhibit again until February when she puts on a one-off show at Goss's Detroit gallery.

Bizarrely, she hasn't yet informed Jefferies. "We're still representing Stella and will continue to do so," said his spokesman yesterday.

* Nothing quite so irritates the right-thinking football fan as "fairweather" celebrities, who latch onto their team as soon as it starts winning.

Heartening, then, that Alessandro Nivola - the Boston-born hubby of Emily Mortimer, together, left - should stop supporting Chelsea, thanks to Roman Abramovich's reign.

Nivola, who stars in Goal, a trilogy of football films featuring David Beckham and Michael Owen, no longer feels an affinity towards the Russian zillionaire's pet club.

"When I came to the UK, it was 1999, and Zola was playing for Chelsea," he told me at the Edinburgh Film Festival. "He comes from my dad's home town in Italy, so I started supporting them.

"It started to go wrong when my wife outbid some skinhead at a charity auction for lunch with him.

"Before we could have that meal, Zola transferred to Caligari. Then Abramovich took over and my heart went out of it.

"I just didn't feel I had a legitimate interest in the club any more; my favourite players had all moved on."

* Who'd have thought it? The actor Samuel West - 39-year-old scion of one of Britain's greatest theatrical dynasties - still has to pester his "rentals" for occasional pocket money.

I owe this minor scoop to West's own father, Timothy, who was asked in a Q&A session at the Edinburgh Book Festival if all the actors in his family ever get competitive.

"Not at all," came his reply. "We try to be supportive to each other when we can. For example, Prunella [Scales, his wife] and I sometimes have to dig into our pockets to help our son, especially when his tax bill comes through."

Samuel was recently given a job running Sheffield Theatres. Might he now repay his dad's financial assistance with a cushy job? Says Timothy wryly: "A call from him. Now that would be nice."

* Bill Wiggin MP - the shadow Welsh Secretary, and part-time farmer - entered a prize cow in the recent Monmouth Show.

The strapping beastie won first prize in its category, thereby qualifying for the grand championship later that day in the main ring. And then, disaster struck.

"No sooner the cow walked into the ring when something spooked it, and it charged off," says a witness.

"Wiggin held tightly onto its lead, and was dragged around for several laps on the arse of his trousers, at about a hundred miles an hour."

The buckaroo eventually calmed down, at which point an onlooker announced loudly that it wasn't the first time they'd seen a Tory MP dans la merde.

* First, Patsy Kensit landed a part in Emmerdale, then Sir Ian McKellen did Coronation Street. Now I hear putative plans for yet another prime-time TV cameo.

Lemmy, lead singer of the heavy metal troupe Motorhead, is angling for a part on Last of the Summer Wine. He made this shock admission during a backstage interview at the recent V Festival.

"For some reason, we got talking about TV, and Lemmy said that the only thing worth watching these days was Last of the Summer Wine," I'm told. "He watches it every time he can, and has asked for a cameo as a chum of a character called Clegg."

Although Lemmy is thought to prefer Scotch to cups of tea, he'd suit a role in the OAP's favourite show. Not only does he hail from Yorkshire, he already owns the requisite facial fungus.

pandora@independent.co.uk