That’s one hell of a date, Elle

KIM KARDASHIAN did it, so did Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and of course Sarah, Duchess of York, along with Goldie Hawn, Geri Halliwell, Ivana Trump and Joan Collins. Now this year it is Elle Macpherson’s turn.

What is it, I hear you cry? Some fantastic treatment involving yak afterbirth and hot needles to improve the ageing or heavily freckled complexion?

No, silly. These ladies have all accepted the cheque and signed up for the dubious ‘honour’ of attending the Vienna Opera Ball on the arm of construction billionaire Richard Lugner. Every year the old toad pays a celebrity to accompany him to the social event of the year in downtown Vienna. And while it might be for charity, it is still rather creepy.

A few years ago, Lugner paid £376,000 plus expenses to have Miss Kardashian by his side, but they fell out even before the goulash got cold. ‘She was very hard to please,’ moaned Mr Lugner.

Perhaps he is not sordid, just lonely? Maybe! In 2014, the 85-year-old married his fifth wife, a Playboy model called Cathy who is 57 years younger than him.

‘It was a whirlwind romance,’ he said. At his age, it would have to be. Elle’s bells, what has she let herself in for?