A well-oiled Halloween for some at Raffles
A HAIR-RAISING Halloween bill this morning to make you feel better about the weekend’s excesses, which no doubt pale in comparison to one group’s £40,000 cork-popper at Chelsea members club Raffles last week.
The Capitalist hears one regular, a energy trader, was pleasantly surprised when actor Benicio del Toro planted himself on a neighbouring table during the club’s Halloween bash.
However it appears nothing challenges a trader’s manhood more than an A-list Hollywood bad guy. Our man clearly felt the pressure and upped his game with a spectacular spending display for his group to enjoy.
The most notable items on the tab were the three Methuselah bottles of Dom Pérignon and seven of Dom Pérignon Oenotheque 1996 (of which the thirsty team drank the house dry!)
Nice to see he also got into the Halloween spirit with some special Zombie-themed cocktails, despite not having quite entered the festive spirit entirely – he didn’t change out of his office attire for the evening.
■ AVID BBC Radio Four fans who tuned in to Kirsty Young’s Desert Island Discs programme yesterday were in for an eggcellent (pardon the pun) anecdote from Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam. The “man from the Pru” was not only selecting his top eight castaway songs, but also gave an insight into some less-than-enjoyable moments at the insurer, telling listeners that he once went to his firm’s AGM with two suits because his security team feared he would have eggs thrown at him on the way in. Thiam told listeners: “I have taken it as an indicator of improvement that I now go to AGMs with one suit.” Thiam is one of just a handful of the UK’s biggest business figures to grace the show in its 60-year history, following in the footsteps on WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell and ex-M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose. Between choosing records by Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra and Charles Aznavour, Thiam also revealed he was once invited to become the Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast, where he grew up, but turned it down as: “I don’t believe in violence in politics”.