But I am being very cautious about the consumer overall.”When faced with the prospect of higher mortgage and credit card repayments and a slowing housing market, cancelling gym membership is an easy item of spending to cut.Ciaran Barr, the chief economist at Deutsche Bank, said: “Household incomes are being squeezed and the first thing people look to cut is their discretionary spend, which would include things like gym membership.”Why pay to spend hours as a slave on a treadmill or exercise bike? After all, if you want to keep fit, a run in the park is free. James Wheatcroft, at Investec Securities, said: “At the moment, it is easier for people to drop their membership rather than for operators to persuade people to join.”Whether the consumer is set to become even more nervous about parting with cash hangs on the prospects of the labour market. Economists are divided on whether or not employment levels will remain steady. Should they fall, this will prove another negative blow to consumer spending ability.Until these latest signs of a possible dip in spending on gym membership, the health and fitness sector has been one area of consistent year-on-year growth.Membership numbers have risen steadily from fewer than 2 million in 1998 to nearly 4 million this year. One person in 10 is now a gym member and recent figures from the research group Mintel show consumer expenditure on health and fitness activities rose 73 per cent between 1994 and 2004.It is this growth in the industry that is largely responsible for the current trading difficulties. In the health and fitness boom of the Nineties, operators came to market and tapped investors for capital to expand around the UK.

But economic worries after 2001, when thousands of suddenly unemployed City workers could no longer afford membership fees, exposed the overexpansion of many operators and damaging price wars set in. Holmes Place, Cannons, Esporta and Fitness First went into private hands, and LA Fitness is now in the midst of a private equity takeover.The overcapacity in the gym sector still exists which, combined with slowing consumer spending, is making for an extremely competitive market and tough trading conditions.But public health messages on fitness will not go away. Innes Kerr, of the Fitness Industry Association, said: “Our latest research on the industry shows the penetration of gym membership in the population is rising. In every newspaper and magazine there is something on how physical activity improves health. The emphasis has changed away from the vanities and faddish nature of fitness to genuine, general health concerns. The fitness industry will be reacting to that.”The glut of high street clubs must be cut to bring the market in line with demand.

Once this happens, and providing the labour market remains stable and continues to act as a prop to spending ability, health and fitness looks set to become a consumer staple.. Dr Rowan Williams is Lambeth Palace’s most media-savvy inhabitant in recent history, but the forces of spin do not always sit comfortably with the demands of high spiritual office. This would, it claimed, make him the first head of the Church of England to attend such an event since the Reformation.Although the claim was repeated by several national newspapers, it happens to be untrue. In fact, Dr Donald Coggan travelled to Rome to attend John Paul II’s inauguration in 1978.Lambeth Palace eventually retracted the incorrect press release, but not before it had intrigued religious observers.

They see it as evidence of a hasty – and botched – attempt to “muscle in” on the recent coverage of papal affairs.”There has been an air of desperation, as if Lambeth Palace must remind people it exists,” reports one church correspondent. “Rowan Williams was not involved, but he’ll be furious about this. It makes him look stupid, as if he’s tried to take credit where it isn’t due.”Dr Williams’ spokesman yesterday blamed a cock-up rather than a conspiracy. “It’s certainly not true to say we were trying to muscle in,” he said “It was just a very embarrassing mistake. Our archives contained information on two inaugurations in 1978, and we unfortunately checked paperwork relating to the wrong one.”Victoria Wood’s first visit to the West End for more than a decade is going to be rather shorter than we might have hoped.Her new musical Acorn Antiques – which Wood both wrote and takes a regular minor role in – is to close next month after a run of just 16 weeks.Although the show received some positive reviews, it attracted unwelcome publicity after it emerged that tickets for some performances were on sale at £65, one of the highest prices in West End history.Despite that controversy, Wood’s producers, Phil McIntyre, deny that this was responsible for Acorn Antiques’ demise. They say that their cast, led by Julie Walters and Neil Morrissey, were only contracted until 21 May, and that no one has been found to replace them.”Getting the principals together for this amount of time was a feat in itself,” they said yesterday.”Ticket sales have been excellent, but the show was only ever going to run until May.”Julia Roberts is helping Paul Newman and Robert Redford to make one last film together. After more than 30 years apart, the Hollywood veterans – pictured as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – have embarked on a screen version of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.I owe this nugget of information to the former Blue Peter presenter Tim Vincent, who now works for NBC in Hollywood.He interviewed all three at the recent Tribeca film festival, and tells me: “It hasn’t been broadcast yet, but, in a nutshell, both Redford and Paul Newman confirmed that the project is a goer.

Its line of business is not mentioned, but a firm of that name does run a string of “gentleman’s clubs” across the south-east. Could this be the Tory donor in question?”I don’t know,” Rosindell tells me “I’ve no knowledge of lap-dancing. The donation came from a Romford businessman, who wanted to help with a civic pin badge project. It was a community thing, and nothing political.”Strip joints are all the rage in Tory circles: the other night, Rozza’s political hero, Baroness Thatcher, visited Peter Stringfellow’s eponymous club in London’s West End.pandora independent.co.uk. “Rumours of my death spread as far as New York newspapers,” says Richard Pryor. “It’s a bitch to be watching the nightly news and see the mother fuckers talking ’bout you in the past tense.”

“Rumours of my death spread as far as New York newspapers,” says Richard Pryor.