TALK OF THE TOWN: Cate Blanchett is planning to splash out on an outdoor swimming pool at her £5m East Sussex mansion

Cate Blanchett looks like she has a surprise in store… and I know what it is.

The double- Oscar-winning actress has submitted plans to splash out on an outdoor swimming pool at her £5 million East Sussex mansion.

Cate, 52, already has a ‘circular meditation room’ in the sprawling property, which also boasts seven bedrooms and five reception rooms. 

But designing her dream home seems to have been a bit of a nightmare: last year she and her husband, Andrew Upton, had to pause demolition plans after surveyors discovered a colony of rare bats.

Council planners are expected to decide on her pool next month.

Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett, pictured, wants to build an outdoor swimming pool at her £5 million East Sussex mansion

Council planners are expected to decide on the pool application next month

Is Nick set up for top Eton job? 

He’s already chairman of the V&A and co-chair of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Now I hear that Nicholas Coleridge has his eye on another plum Establishment role – Provost of Eton.

Nicholas, 65, who held a number of senior positions at glossy magazine empire Condé Nast before stepping down in 2017, is apparently among the contenders to take over from former Tory Cabinet Minister William Waldegrave as the person responsible for the ‘good government’ of the £45,000-a-year school when Waldegrave steps down next year.

Nicholas declines to comment on the role but one of his supporters assures me: ‘He’s worked out his game-plan and is coming up fast.’

As his close pal, columnist Charles Moore, once observed: ‘Nick is a supreme tactician. He takes only calculated risks and does nothing by mistake.’

We’re BFFs: Baby Friends Forever

It was the ultimate insult (in 2017 they unfollowed each other on Instagram!) but Naomi Campbell and Rihanna have put paid to any lingering rumours of a rift by forming a close bond – over babies. 

The pair were invited to Vogue editor Edward Enninful’s star-studded wedding last month at Longleat and a guest tells me they got on famously. 

Naomi introduced her nine-month-old daughter to the world in a Vogue interview last month, while Rihanna is expecting her first baby with rapper ASAP Rocky – showing off her bump in a series of daring outfits. 

Naomi Campbell and Rihanna have put paid to any lingering rumours of a rift by forming a close bond – over babies

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