Money makes you feel really at home
THE RICH, as F Scott Fitzgerald observed, are different from you and me. Though he was rather vague about the particulars. It’s not simply that they have more money, better teeth or bigger cars. Another indicator of being in the filthy rich club is that they all appear to stay at each other’s houses or on each other’s yachts. Their world is one giant sleepover where celebs, freeloading politicians and that mysterious community of anonymous billionaires pass their homes around like parcels.
Harry and Meghan holed up to plan their daring escape in a waterside mansion in Canada.they didn’t book it on Airbnb, they didn’t search online for self-catering breaks. It was loaned to them by whoever owns it, though the Sussexes won’t say who that is. If I knew I’d fire off an email asking to borrow it myself, maybe for a couple of weeks in May if convenient.that’d be nice.
Being rich greases the wheels of hospitality. If you have several homes then you can lend one out and never have to see your guests at all. If you have a big enough home, with a guest wing, then you don’t have to see them either.and if you have staff then they’ll change the sheets and towels when the visitors have gone.
That’s why those of us in humbler circumstances can be reluctant to stay in other people’s homes or to issue invitations. It doesn’t take long to outstay your welcome if there’s only one bathroom.
The Italian press used to call Tony Blair “Lo Scroccone” which means “the scrounger” because he stayed so often at an estate belonging to Prince Girolamo Strozzi, a member of an old banking family. That is, when he and the family weren’t holidaying at Sir Cliff Richard’s place in Barbados.
The Sussexes were not only flown to the South of France on Sir Elton John’s private jet last summer, they also stayed at his villa, Castel Mont-alban, perched above Nice. Prince Andrew (remember him?) stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s vast house in New York even when he’d made the trip to tell his host that they couldn’t be friends any more. You’d have thought he’d have booked into a hotel to avoid any awkwardness. But no.
Last summer the Beckhams stayed at Casa Costanera in the fancy Miami district of Coral Gables which belongs to their friend Marc Anthony who was Mr Jennifer Lopez
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ONE OF them almost certainly (a few details in Netflix’s The Crown are accurate) had a fling with the man the other married and is also the sister of the man that the other one had a lengthy affair with before she married him – having divorced the man that the first one had the fling with.
Yes, it’s sisters-in-law the Duchess of Cornwall and the Princess Royal, looking like the best of old friends as Anne receives an honorary Doctorate of Law at Aberdeen University where Camilla is the Chancellor.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” joked Camilla to the audience, “we shall have no talk of rivalry today.” After two pretty eventful lives, peppered with drama, divorce and scandal, they look very jolly and comfortable with each other. And it’s a reminder – which we could all do with amid the current hysteria over the Royals – that all things pass.
for five minutes. It has 12 bedrooms, three kitchens and its own boat dock. “Mi Casa Costanera es su Casa Costanera” as that bloke doesn’t quite say in Pulp Fiction (“my house is your house”).
Nobody mentions anything as vulgar as money, though it could well be that money
does change hands. Rich people are often notoriously tight.and at the very least you’d assume the celebrity guest would pay for any broken glasses, replace loo rolls and put out the rubbish before they leave.
Or maybe not. As I mentioned earlier, the rich are different from us.