The dastardly Mr Deedes
Boyish advertising boss Johnny Hornby, 50, hosted his Christmas drinks in Mayfair’s chi-chi Mark’s Club this week, where guests included rough diamond Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish, 52, reality TV Z-lister Trinny Woodall, 53, and ITV flibbertigibbet Robert Peston, 57. Also in attendance, posing for selfies: Lord Mandelson, 64, who as first secretary was once accustomed to schmoozing with world leaders and FTSE 100 bosses. Suddenly, I’m reminded of poet Ernest Dowson’s haunting line: ‘They are not long, the days of wine and roses…’
Standard Chartered’s £3.4m-a-year boss Bill Winters, 56, whinges to the BBC about Brexit, though admits: ‘It is not the worst thing that’s happened to Standard Chartered in the past ten years.’ Indeed not. That’ll be the £300m fine for breaching US sanctions on Iran. Or possibly the £180m fine for failing to improve money-laundering controls. Or maybe the links to South Africa’s odious Gupta family…
Ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond’s precocious daughter Nell, 27, posts a picture on social media showing her and pals getting ear piercings. Couldn’t she convince her old man to take the plunge? Hip-hop lover Bob’s experimented with a crewcut and a rakish beard this year. The dastardly Mr Deedes
Sad moment for Chelsea Building Society, which has been reducing its presence since merging with Yorkshire Building Society in 2010. The society is closing its branch outside Chelsea football ground, leaving it without a foothold in the area for the first time since 1875.
US hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones, who’s worth £4bn, defends his support for porcine sex pest Harvey Weinstein.
Tudor Jones, 63, who emailed Weinstein that the scandal surrounding him ‘will go away sooner than you think’, now informs staff: ‘Harvey was a friend I believed too long and defended too long.’ Sounds a lovely specimen, doesn’t he?
Wall Street’s a hotbed of intrigue at the moment, what with the markets still digesting Donald Trump’s tax reforms. There’s also fevered speculation over the Murdochs’ seismic sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney. I’m roosting there all next week and can’t wait to report on all the comings and goings.