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As the former girlfriend of Sir Tim Rice, the lyricist behind hit musicals including Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita and The Lion King, Laura-Jane Foley knows a thing or two about West End dramas.

This week, the writer and singer was, however, caught up in shocking real-life scenes in the west London district.

Laura, 44, who has a nine-year-old daughter with Oscar winner Sir Tim, 81, confronted a woman who stole her mobile phone in Soho.

'I managed to steal it back,' she says, explaining that she was sitting at an outdoor table of a cafe when the thief approached her.

'It was an old-style, sleight-of-hand theft,' Laura tells me. 'She thrust a giant menu under my nose, invading my personal space and making me recoil.

'I knew she must be taking something, so I grabbed underneath the menu and snatched a phone from her waistband. Luckily, it was mine.

Laura-Jane Foley says she has come to the 'sad realisation that we must be quick-witted in central London'

'Then, I tried to alert people around me by shouting, 'Thief, thief, thief' extremely loudly. I screamed it over and over again in the loudest, banshee-like voice imaginable.'

This frightened off the criminal. 'She ran away, terrified,' says Laura, who was left shocked by the lack of response from passers-by. 'No one stirred,' she says. 'I found that non-reaction the most incredible bit of the whole thing. No one else batted an eyelid.'

Laura says she has come to the 'sad realisation that we must be quick-witted in central London'.

She's not kidding! In April, I disclosed that TV impressionist Ronni Ancona had her phone snatched in Soho. Last year, I reported that socialite Amanda Cronin had her mobile stolen while she was out in Belgravia.

And the Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour was left with severe anxiety after she was assaulted while bravely fending off a thug who attempted to rob her at a cafe on Kensington High Street, west London.

Tamzin left speechless after show

Former EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite as Beverly in the West End production of Abigail's Party

Tamzin Outhwaite left her voice on the West End stage after a gruelling first night as Beverly in black comedy Abigail's Party.

The former EastEnders actress powered through her performance at London's Harold Pinter Theatre in front of stars including Sienna Miller, Simon Pegg and Susan Hampshire. But Tamzin, 55, was left barely able to speak afterwards, whispering to me: 'My vocals have gone and I can't speak. I need to rest my cords.'

She spent the rest of the night mute at the production's after-party at The Londoner hotel, repeatedly pointing to her throat whenever anyone tried to speak to her.

Lucy Boynton is happy to let the Fab Four shoulder the weight of expectation surrounding Sir Sam Mendes's ambitious quartet of Beatles biopics.

The actress, 32, who plays Sir Paul McCartney's Swinging Sixties ex-girlfriend Jane Asher, admits she's relieved the films' success will rest largely on the leading men: 'I feel at a safe distance from the Beatles films because it'll be all on those four boys.'

Romeo Ray Winstone – the great pretender!

Ray Winstone, who is a drug lord in Netflix's The Gentlemen and was a Boston mob enforcer in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, also enjoyed playing a baddie off screen.

'When we were young men, we'd save up a few quid and go and have a drink at the Harvey Nicks [bar at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge],' says the Hollywood hardman, 69.

'The girls would be from Sloane Square, you know, with the pearl necklace and all that, and the geezers would be from the East End, and you would tell them you were bank robbers.

'They loved that.'

Is Hugh Grant angling for a role in the next Mamma Mia film? The foppish actor, 65, and Swedish wife Anna Eberstein have been enjoying a holiday at a luxury resort in northern Greece. The Four Weddings star fell in love with the country after snapping up an £85 package holiday when he was 18. Once asked why he was so attractive to Greek women, Grant replied: 'I'm sorry ladies, I just can't help it.' No need to be so modest, Hugh.

Schiffer's mini-me...

Clementine Vaughn in a turquoise swimsuit...

...and mother Claudia Schiffer in New York in 2019

Claudia Schiffer's elder daughter, Clementine Vaughn, seems determined to prove that she has what it takes to follow her mum into modelling, if this photograph from Greece is anything to go by.

Wearing a turquoise swimsuit in the holiday snap posted online, Clementine, 21, looked uncannily like her supermodel mother, 55, pictured in New York in 2019. Clementine, whose father is Kingsman filmmaker Sir Matthew Vaughn, has acknowledged her fortunate background but is keen to make her own mark, once declaring: 'I've seen the end of success. I want to see the start of it.'

Royal wedding DJ's struggle with fat jabs

He overcame a 28-year drug addiction that nearly killed him, but DJ Fat Tony is now battling an obsession with weight-loss jabs.

The 60-year-old, who DJ'd at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2018 wedding and Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz's nuptials in 2022, says he became 'skin and bones' earlier this year.

'Six months ago, I took it too far,' admits Tony, real name Tony Marnach. 'My skin was hanging off me. Even my mum was like, you look like a skeleton.' He says the Mounjaro jab he was taking eventually 'wasn't enough', so he sought stronger, unregulated drugs from 'places that I shouldn't be getting it'.

Tony is now weaning himself off the medication under medical supervision. Referencing his pal Kate Moss's diet mantra, he adds: 'The famous line, 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' is such a load of crap.'