BEHIND THE SCENES FOR OSCAR HIT’S LEGAL FIXER
PAUL RENNEY, a lawyer at Keystone Law, almost collected the Bafta for The King’s Speech – except the film’s producers were faster out of their seats than he was.
Renney, as the hit’s legal adviser, was a stand-in at the event for screenwriter David Seidler, who was “annoyed” at not being flown over from the US by the organisers – this was before the Windsor family drama swept the board at last year’s Oscars. “I texted him to let him know he had won, though – that was when the heat started to build up,” said Renney, the behind-the-scenes agent credited with making the film possible.
The former entertainment partner at Theodore Goddard – the firm whose founder advised King’s Speech anti-heroine Wallis Simpson – was introduced to Seidler by his client Joan Lane at a reading of the play at Islington’s Pleasance theatre. From there, he went through the “arduous” process of agreeing the rights contracts and advising Seidler on Royal protocol, which made it into the screenplay as “the odd deferential pause”.
The original play of The King’s Speech is currently showing in Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, directed by Adrian Noble, the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and starring Charles Edwards as George VI and Jonathan Hyde as Lionel Logue.
There is one notable departure from the film, notes Renney – the background music when the newly non-stuttering King addresses the nation in the final scene has been changed from Beethoven to the more patriotic Elgar.
WHAT GOES ON TOUR…
MUCH mirth for City workers yesterday afternoon, after a list of rules for a Hooray Henry trip to Dubai found its way into inboxes across the Square Mile.
The four young City boys going on the rugby-watching tour describe themselves as “the G4”, “known for its density of oil and its capability to dominate social, political and economical [sic] spheres”.
The tour rules, of which there are 13, make for interesting reading. Mentioning parents’ salaries once a day comes high up the list, as do “compulsory chants” about “how oily and rich we are”. Cheating on girlfriends is encouraged but calling them is frowned upon, reinforced by the fact that “everyone has each others’ backs”.
The list quickly went viral around the City, finding its way into the inbox of workers at Clifford Chance, Barclays Wealth and Linklaters, much to the shame of the culprits. But The Capitalist is feeling kind, so we will spare the blushes of the four charmers.
To recap more generally, however, the president of the “G4” is an insurance broker, the captain works in marketing but has spent time “scrutinising EU justice”, the vice captain is a Singapore-based lawyer, and the senior vice president is “tipped to be the next big thing in the world of shipping”. Just as long as his bosses see the funny side of this latest episode…
INDEPENDENCE DAY
A DECLARATION of independence from Nigel Farage yesterday, as the UKIP leader received the Freedom of the City of London – amusingly, on the twentieth anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty, which paved the way for the euro.
Unsurprisingly, there was no tribute to the exchange rate mechanism when Farage (pictured left) was inducted as a freeman. Instead, he swore an oath to “maintain the franchises and customs of the City, and to keep this city harmless”.
“I only wish that all members of parliament would swear the same,” added Farage. “Or at the very least anybody involved in setting Treasury, trade or European policy, as it seems apparent that keeping the city ‘harmless’ is the least of their concerns.”
HUMMING BIRDS
SYLVIA ANN Hewlett is an economist, author, and the chair of the imaginatively named Hidden Brain Drain Task Force – a global body “committed to fully realising female and multicultural potential”.
And it was with this role front of mind that Hewlett addressed a City audience at Eversheds on why keeping the engines of the BRIC economies “humming” is increasingly dependent on women.
In these countries, as Hewlett pointed out with back-up from fellow speakers Helen Wyatt of Unilever and Eversheds’ Audrey Williams, female earnings are increasing twice as fast as male earnings, and women now control two-thirds of consumer spending.