In brief: RBS pays Zara Phillips £90,000

Zara Phillips, the horse-riding daughter of Princess Anne, is receiving £90,000 a year as a “brand ambassador” for the Royal Bank of Scotland, despite the bank receiving billions of pounds from the taxpayer. The sponsorship deal requires that Phillips promotes the RBS logo at sports events and acts as a spokesman for the bank ............ Cheryl Cole, the Girls Aloud singer and X Factor panelist who reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at the weekend in a celebrity climb for Comic Relief, has topped the society magazine Tatler's 'best dressed' list of 2009. Kate Moss, last year's number two, failed to make the top 10, as did 2008's number one entry, fellow supermodel Agyness Deyn............. Leila Deen, the climate change protester, has been arrested for throwing green custard at the Business Minister Lord Mandelson last week...........Cuban-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who co-starred with Sean Penn in the 1988 film Colors, has said the Oscar-winning actor "should shut up about what he doesn't know". She was referring to the positive article he wrote after meeting the Venezualan president Hugo Chavez.  Alonso said Penn "has no clue at all what's going on in Venezuela. He's been praising Hugo Chavez, who is a dictator and a killer"............ Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, the husband and wife day-time television duo, may soon bring their long-running on-screen partnership to an end.  Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he said: "It's been 20 years of doing the same kind of thing. I think we both feel we have done pretty much all we can do as a partnership in terms of the talk shows, but I think probably we both feel the need to diversify."........... ·