Lewinsky joins Clarkson and his blonde for Goldsmith bash
SOCIETY matriarch Lady Annabel Goldsmith has, for time immemorial, hosted her annual summer parties at her Grade II-listed Ormeley Lodge near Richmond, where she has lived for nearly 50 years.
This year, however, the 83-year-old mother of Tory MP Zac, financier Ben and socialite Jemima broke tradition by moving it to Mayfair celebrity haunt, No 5 Hertford Street.
‘It was a one-off because my son Robin [Birley] was celebrating the club’s five-year anniversary,’ Lady Annabel tells me.
‘He asked me if I would, just for this year, join up with him. I was a bit reluctant at first because I love having it in my garden with all the children running around, but I also knew it meant a lot to him.’
Lady Annabel was married first to entrepreneur Mark Birley — by whom she had Robin, India Jane and the late Rupert — and later financier Sir James Goldsmith. She was joined by all her children.
Other guests included former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, 57, sporting a rich tan, and his girlfriend, Lisa Hogan, 46, who wore a thin white dress and scarlet heels. Rumours of a romance with Hogan were first confirmed in March when the pair went to Barbados.
Mother-of-three Hogan split from her ex-husband Steven Bentinck in 2005. She was ‘discovered’ in the Nineties by John Cleese, who gave her a minor role in his film Fierce Creatures. Also in attendance were Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, who wore a dress featuring prints of white rabbits; Bill Clinton’s ex-lover and former intern, Monica Lewinsky, a firm friend of Jemima’s; and Sarah, Duchess of York.
‘There was a live jazz band and people danced downstairs,’ adds Lady Annabel.
‘I didn’t do much dancing because I’m not a very good walker at the moment, but I was playing with the children.
‘It was a great success. I left after midnight — long past my bedtime!’