Mum’s The Word Where This Queen Is Concerned

At age 94, Queen Mother Elizabeth - Queen Elizabeth II’s mom is taking the younger royals’ shenanigans in stride, says her former private secretary.

“The Queen Mother is aware that in her lifetime the Prince and Princess of Wales are going to divorce,” Lord Charteris, now retired, told the London weekly The Spectator. “She can and will withstand the shock.

“You don’t reach 94 without surviving a number of shocks, and Her Majesty is built of stern stuff. Probably because she is a bit of an ostrich … What she doesn’t want to see, she doesn’t look at.”

As for Prince Andrew’s estranged wife, the former Sarah Ferguson, Charteris said: “Quite simply, the Duchess of York is a vulgarian. She is vulgar, vulgar, vulgar and that is that.”

Jerry Lee Lewis, to an interviewer from the music magazine Q: “You mention Elvis Presley to me again and I’m gonna kill you, so help me God!”

What big-haired, glittery-suited singer was born on this date?

David Bowie turns 48 today.

Come to think of it, the idea of Chas with any woman is ludicrous

That bundled-up babe the cameras caught Prince Charles kissing at a Swiss ski resort turned out to be Alexandre “Tiggy” Legge-Bourke, a childhood friend and nanny to his sons. Said an aide: “If the picture shows he gave her a peck on the cheek, then so what? The question of anything more - it’s ludicrous.”

Just between us, what exactly did Newt say about Connie Chung?

Scheduled guests for the debut of “The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder” Monday night: Robert and Kathleen Gingrich, parents of the new House speaker, live by satellite from their Pennsylvania home.

It could be the biggest embarrassment since Bill the Carter

Congressional Republicans are demanding that President Clinton reimburse the treasury for the cost of a Socks Fan Club that answers the 50 or so letters the first feline receives each month. “Don’t get me wrong, I love animals,” said Indiana Rep. Dan Burton. “But I cannot imagine the justification for spending … taxpayers’ dollars to fund a return-mail operation for a cat.”

Just like dad, always on some sort of mission to alter history

Former first daughter Amy Carter, now a graduate art student at Georgia State University, makes her film debut this spring in “Slack Trek: The X Generation,” a science-fiction comedy about futuristic types who recruit slackers on a mission to alter history.

After pork rinds, there wasn’t much of an image left to protect

George and Barbara Bush, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday, are in Nashville today as special guests at a Grand Ole Opry charity concert. Said an organizer: “Here was a powerful person who didn’t care who knows he loves country music. That went straight to the heart of people around here.”

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino