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I sat silently striving to come up with a definitive answer. All I managed was: “I think it depends on the context.” What I meant was that a boss remarking on the “smell” of a junior

employee might evoke all manner of uncomfortable feelings. Yet a couple of colleagues on equal footing could happily comment on each other’s perfume without the least fear of retribution.

The comment made with a lascivious leer and directed by an older man at a much younger woman could be seen as inappropriate. Yet the remark uttered by a 30-year-old to a contemporary

wouldn’t even cause the tiniest ripple of ill feeling. I knew my response was too vague to be helpful but I didn’t dare utter a gung-ho, “Of course he can and while he’s about it he can

fling in the observation that her hair/shoes/dress are fabulous if he feels the urge” because nothing is that simple any more. Will Weinstein’s legacy be offi ces transformed into silent

sepulchres, cold and humourless, devoid of banter as workers button their lips, too scared to speak lest their innocent observations be served up to HR as heinous crimes? Or will he bequeath

a new and vital level of awareness of what is grossly insulting, what is vile and base, what is demeaning and inappropriate and what might seem hilarious in the privacy of your own bathroom

but travels badly into the workplace? FYI, asking guests to my radio show this question elicited a perplexing variety of answers. Ruth Cadbury, Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth,

described the comment as “weird”, brow furrowed, expression horrified. Aisha Ali-Khan, of the Women United Blog, herself the target of sexual harassment at Westminster, called it, “OK if

it’s not said in a lecherous manner”, while a taxi driver said he tells women they smell gorgeous all the time and has never yet provoked an irate response. --------------------- SOME PEOPLE

ARE HANDS-ON... The Crown star Claire Foy has taken pains to make it clear she was not affronted by actor Adam Sandler putting his hand on her knee not once but twice during The Graham

Norton Show. Although fellow guest Emma Thompson appeared to be looking daggers at Sandler as Foy emphatically removed his hand and put it back on his own knee her representative stated “it

caused no offence to Claire”. Could that be because Sandler is simply an exuberantly “touchyfeely” character who is so unselfconscious about clasping knees or gripping shoulders he felt not

a jot of compunction about doing so live on telly? Some people are handson. They’re raised that way. They do exactly the same to everyone. They’re incapable of saying “good morning” without

clutching your forearm or offering you a short-bread without giving you a pat on the back. They mean nothing by it. They’re not trying to cop a feel. Let’s hope Sandler’s behaviour was no

more than unaffected exuberance and Foy appreciated his lack of malicious intent. --------------------- RED FACES ON THE RED CARPET Could someone please pass Gillian McKeith an urgent guide

to etiquette on the red carpet? Instead of marching along she is said to have lingered and loitered for 97 minutes – longer than the duration of the fi lm being premiered – attired in a mere

leotard and diaphanous dressing gown. Gillian, please take note. Make sharpish progress up the scarlet material. If you crawl along snail-like you’ll block the entrance of Meryl Streep or

Tom Cruise and look like a prize plonker. Perfect the wave and walk. Do both simultaneously. Practise in the privacy of your bathroom until you get the hang of it. Stop posing for

photographers before they have enough of you. Don’t overstay your moment in the limelight until they beg you to shove off. Optimum time spent making the perfect entrance – two minutes max.

Any longer and you’re chronically over-egging the pudding. --------------------- KATIE PRICE REVEALS SHE OFFERED TO GIVE HER MUM A LUNG NEVER TOO OLD TO BE A MUM My favourite story this week

bar none is 98-year-old Ada Keating moving in to the same old-age home as her son Tom, 80, so she can keep a motherly eye on him. Ada cuts straight to the nub of parenting when she says:

“You never stop being a mum.” She and Tom love playing board games and watching Emmerdale together and sometimes she still tells her boy to behave. Heart-warming photos show Ada smiling

blissfully as she gives her son a maternal cuddle. I keep telling my adult daughters I feel exactly the same urge to kiss them, smooth their unruly locks, fi ght their oppressors and give

them a clip round the ear when they’re out of line as I did when they were tiny. Maybe the saga of Ada and Tom will prove I mean every word? --------------------- GETTY The toilet brush is

set for extinction Siting in for Jeremy Vine last week I found myself sitting opposite Aggie MacKenzie – of How Clean Is Your House fame – as she poured scorn on the loo brush and those who

wield it. Far more hygienic, she insisted, is leaning in and using some wadded up toilet paper and washable rubber gloves. In vain I tried to persuade her that the beauty of the loo brush is

the handle. It keeps you at a distance from the bowl. She was having none of it. The toilet brush, I am told, is set for extinction. Hang on to yours. It might end up netting you a fortune

on Antiques Roadshow. --------------------- SIMON COWELL GIVES A THUMBS UP AFTER HOSPITAL SCARE TUMBLE FOR BOTH BODY AND SOUL Simon Cowell is known to all as a powerhouse, a driven,

manically motivated work machine. He’s been bi-coastal for decades. The very thought of his daily itinerary is enough to drive most of us to collapse upon the nearest chaise longue. He works

through the night. He convenes meetings in the early hours. Until his recent fall down the stairs he has given every impression of being not just constructed of Tefl on but positively

immortal. Not only have onlookers believed in his indestructability, he must have believed in it himself. To be suffi ciently incapacitated not to be able to appear on The X Factor must have

come as a rattling shock to Simon’s system. He will be grappling with a new-found vulnerability that won’t sit with his normal sense of self. His fans worldwide wish him not just a speedy

recovery but a heightened appreciation of the fact that fl esh is weak and even stars have to take it easy occasionally. Be well Simon and please be warned. ---------------------