The dastardly Mr Deedes
Why was urbane Soho House founder Nick Jones, 54, at the royal wedding? Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first date was at one of Jones’s private clubs, perhaps the Prince felt he owed him. Interesting, too, that Jones’s wife Kirsty Young, 49, preferred to front the BBC’s coverage rather than join her hubby in the congregation. A BBC source explains: ‘Kirsty needs the airtime – she’s desperate to present Question Time when Dimbleby finally shuffles off.’
Re the royal wedding, US networks certainly splashed the cash on covering the event, not least NBC which took over the whole of the Macdonald Windsor Hotel. Well worth it, though. Media analyst Richard Broughton of Ampere Analysis estimates a 30-second advertising slot during the event would have fetched nearly £1m.
D-Day for Deutsche Bank chairman Paul Achleitner on Thursday, with some shareholders hoping to oust him at the AGM. Many of them feel he should have carried the can for the bank’s woes rather than recently ousted chief, likeable Yorkshire-born John Cryan. They’ll also be unimpressed to learn that when news broke of Cryan’s impending dismissal, bearded Achleitner, 61, was enjoying a cruise down the Amazon.
Droll exchange over at Southwark Crown Court where former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo is accused of Libor rigging. Dome headed Palombo, 39, who denies wrongdoing, insists his vice- president title while at the bank was misleading, comparing his role to ‘the guy who serves you at McDonald’s’. Prosecuting QC James Waddington’s response: ‘You weren’t paid £400,000 for being a tea boy, were you?’
Never one to hide his light under a bushel, deposed advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell addresses this autumn’s Names Not Numbers conference, organised by busy media networker Julia Hobsbawm. The marathon groanfest, which also features broadcaster Simon Schama and human rights nanny Baroness Kennedy, is billed as ‘two days and two nights of stimulating conversation, debate and polemic’. Tickets are an equally stimulating £995 plus VAT, if you can bear it.