The dastardly Mr Deedes

Ryanair’s chief operating officer Peter Bellew, has returned after just a year in charge of Malaysia Airlines, and is touted as a possible successor to boss Michael o’Leary. The unabashed o’Leary, 56, says there’s a ‘50-50 chance’ he won’t seek another contract when his deal expires in 2019. Couldn’t willie walsh do worse than bring o’Leary in to sort out the pig-ugly mess at British Airways?

Over to the High Court, where Lloyds shareholders are suing the bank over its disastrous 2008 takeover of HBOS. The court yesterday heard about the involvement of ex-Merrill Lynch banker Matthew Greenburgh, 56, who also advised on the equally disastrous RBS/ABN Amro deal. Richard Hill QC’s wry observation that ‘Mr Greenburgh has advised on two of the most catastrophic decisions of recent years’ hardly needing pointing out. But it brought the house down, all the same.

oily ex- environment minister Lord Barker is unlikely to be perturbed by criticism of his appointment as chairman of tycoon oleg Deripaska’s firm En+, so soon after standing down from Parliament. The millionaire bachelor, 51, is not one of life’s Humble Herberts. As an MP, he irritated colleagues by warming his sausage dog otto’s cushion in the office microwave.

Sir Richard Branson is described in Jenson Button’s autobiography as being ‘very drunk’ in Melbourne’s Nobu restaurant in 2009, where the Virgin tycoon flirted with the Formula One star’s girlfriend Jessica Michibata, 32. Beardie, 67, also chose to recount this embarrassing incident in his own recent memoir, adding that he gave up alcohol for six months afterwards. Getting his excuses in early?

The Financial Times has chronicled movie mogul Harvey weinstein’s downfall with zeal. It invited him to speak at a summit in Qatar in 2010, agreeing to his requests to be flown first-class from LA and put up in the Four Seasons. No word if he demanded special bath-time favours.