Branson’s boy unveils new look at the polo
There’s no event quite like the polo to bring the royals, celebs and business bigshots together in droves, is there?
After the 24th Cartier International Polo day at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park yesterday, guests flocked to the Chinawhite tent for Rock the Polo, the event’s afterparty, where they were treated to a set from DJ Mark Ronson along with dancers and giant helium balloons.
Among the rich and famous trawling the halls was Alex Pettyfer, the Stormbreaker actor and Levi’s model whose relative new-kid-on-the-block status became clear when it emerged he’d hired a Ferrari to arrive at the party in style, only to be banned from taking it by his PA, who had found out he’d got over an insurance hitch by booking the car in her name. What a rookie.
Sam and Holly Branson also made an appearance, though The Capitalist isn’t sure what their tycoon father Sir Richard Branson will make of his son’s new look – Branson junior turned up sporting a Mohican hairdo and a wooden stake earring through his ear.
At least he was getting into the rock spirit of things, I suppose.
Pensioner’s Club
Being snubbed by the Rolling Stones would be a severe blow for any self-confessed rock devotee, but for Guy Hands, it’s bound to hurt more than most.
Hands, who I’m told has a specially designed den built into his Kent mansion to blast out heavy metal rock music, landed his dream job when he became chairman of EMI after his private equity firm Terra Firma acquired the record giant last year.
But despite the waves of controversy which have washed over EMI since Hands took the helm – including a spat with Robbie Williams, who pulled out of releasing an album with the label in protest at proposed job cuts – the Rolling Stones switching labels to sign a contract with EMI rival Universal Music, a deal announced last Friday, must be up there with the best of them.
Still, a small consolation for Hands might be on the cards: Stones frontman Mick Jagger turned 65 on Saturday, entitling him to draw a paltry £90.70-a week pension to add to his multi-million pound fortune if he so wishes, and he’s on his way to join chairman Doug Morris, a fellow sexagenarian, at Universal.
At 49, theirs is a club Hands won’t be joining for a while.
Potty Training
A daily update arrives in my inbox from Blue Oar Securities’ Mark Brumby, the leisure analyst who unfailingly manages to entertain the market every day with colourful anecdotes about everything from his little daughter’s antics to global warming.
Friday’s offering in particular must have tickled a good few recipients – apparently, one of the ladies toilets back at Blue Oar HQ has recently been reclassified as gents, and the male contingent have been having a few teething problems with the changeover. To the chaps’ astonishment, they found a jade plant actually living and thriving in the loo – and although it rapidly started to wither, some kindly soul decided to water it.
“A vision of a caring individual lovingly cupping handfuls of water into the pot came to mind but, as the plant continued to expire, I began to suspect that the liquid was not necessarily coming from the sink,” says a sceptical Brumby.
“It may, indeed, have been coming from somewhere altogether different and, as the plant was finally carried out last week, completely lifeless, I think I was right to suspect the worst.”