Alexandra Shulman’s Notebook: They’re not the Beatles but the new boys look fab

The actors cast in the upcoming Beatles biopics being directed by Sam Mendes are a brilliant illustration of how ideas of physical attraction change over time.

The new Fab Four – Paul Mescal as Paul, Harris Dickinson as John, Barry Keoghan as quirky Ringo and Joseph Quinn as George – are some of the most fashionable and desirable young actors around. But they look nothing like the original Beatles, who, pictured in their prime with their moptop hairdos, appear faintly ridiculous to the modern eye.

It’s intelligent casting. The physical attraction of performers is often linked to how they have previously appeared. Would Mescal have the same allure if it weren’t for his winning turn as the love interest in the BBC’s Normal People?

Mendes needs his crew to have contemporary sex appeal to avoid being a pastiche of the past. That’s not to say John, Paul, Ringo and George weren’t extremely alluring.

During one Liverpool television news meeting, the editor announced he had been offered an item about The Beatles. ‘The Beatles? The Beatles? I’ve had it with the Beatles. How about you?’ he asked an attractive female colleague and girl about town. ‘Three of them,’ she replied unabashedly.

Lauren’s giant leap for womenkind

Say what you like about Lauren Sanchez, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ pneumatic wife-to-be, but you have to admit she’s got chutzpah.

The women-only crew she has gathered to launch into space on her husband’s Rocketship NS-31 mission includes broadcaster Gayle King, singer Katy Perry, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and rocket scientist Aisha Bowe. Sanchez says she wanted to ‘expand what explorers look like for the next generation’.

They certainly redefined the look on Elle magazine’s cover, styled in leather corsets, towering stilettos, plunging necklines and clinging pantsuits – channelling the team leader’s overt style.

They’ll probably have to ditch those outfits for the actual flight, but even so it’s refreshing to see a group of successful women daring to delight in fashion. When I was at Vogue, I hoped to encourage women in a range of professions to talk about fashion and beauty. In the Elle interview, they joke about whether their eyelash extensions will stay on in space.

I wish them all the best when they take off on April 14.

Perhaps Lauren will come back inspired by the incredible view of the Earth to urge her husband’s pal Donald Trump to take a more generous attitude towards the rest of the globe.

Trump is getting nothing out of me

To be honest, I hadn’t thought about tariffs until Trump’s Liberation Day, which prompted me to work out what I buy from the US – and decide whether to boycott it. It turned out nothing in our household is American, apart from several pricey James Perse T-shirts.

I scoured our kitchen cupboards and came up with a single jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, and even that is now owned by British multinational Unilever.

I’ve never owned an American car and we don’t buy American alcohol (except for a bottle of Jack Daniel’s at Christmas for Phil, our plumber).

The only area where the US has infiltrated my bank account is tech. We’re an Apple and Amazon household, and Netflix and Disney+ presumably count, too. Perhaps it’s time to switch and put my money where my mouth is and dump the Amazon habit.

Meghan’s £16 jam is a tariff too far

Liberation Day will not be very liberating for Meghan Sussex, who has just launched her For Ever range.

With the new impetus to buy British, I suspect anyone here who had been waiting to snap up her £16 raspberry spread might decide Tiptree’s £3.80 version, farmed in Essex, will do just fine.

I’m Zapp-happy – even on my sick bed

It’s expensive being stuck in bed these days. I’ve been laid up with suspected food poisoning, but it wasn’t enough to stop me doing a spot of online shopping.

As well as purchasing a new dress I hadn’t previously felt I needed, I experimented with Zapp, a grocery delivery app I wish I hadn’t discovered. It’s lethal.

My dodgy tummy left me craving bread, bananas and honey, none of which we had in the house. So I tapped them into Zapp.

Hey presto, within half an hour all three arrived – and only fractionally more expensive than if I’d waited and added them to my next Ocado order.

Deliveroo offers the same service, but it just doesn’t have the same appeal. Zapp tempts shoppers with a well-designed carousel of high-end produce alongside the basics. There’s Daylesford soups, Fortnum & Mason teas and, should it take your fancy, vintage Dom Perignon 2013 at £299.99.

Or there’s the option of improving life by adding a pricey but delicious Cire Trudon candle to the basket, or a box of Charbonnel and Walker sea salt truffles. It’s hard to add lustre to shopping online, but Zapp has achieved it by creating something with the fun of old-fashioned window shopping.

Not grand – but a premium return

By the time you read this I will no doubt have lost money on the Grand National.

Every year I place my bets and every year I come out the loser. It’s hardly surprising, since I make my uncharacteristically slapdash decision based on names rather than form.

This year, though, I will take consolation from having won on my Premium bonds four months in a row. It’s not made me wealthy – and, frankly, if the money were invested somewhere else the return would be higher – but there’s something cheering about waking up to an email saying: ‘Alexandra, you’ve just won…’

It’ll take the edge of knowing the bookie has got the better of me once again.