JOOLS SET TO PLAY AT DUNSTONE’S WEDDING
GOOD news for fans of City gossip: we can reveal more juicy details about what is fast shaping up to be the hottest social occasion of the year, Carphone Warehouse tycoon Charles Dunstone’s wedding to PR executive Celia Gordon Shute on Saturday.
Heading down to the Inner Temple Garden on Embankment yesterday for a bit of a snoop, The Capitalist found an enormous reception marquee already standing proud, and a whole raft of busy bees chattering away about the rich and famous soon to appear in their midst.
I hear music maestro Jools Holland has been enlisted to head up the entertainment line-up at the event, which already has sweeping security cameras installed to keep an eye on things as the night unfolds.
And boy, are they going to need them. Guests will include Dunstone’s best man, advertising supremo Johnny Hornby (brother of novelist Nick), and his three ushers – M&S boss Sir Stuart Rose, Credit Suisse banker Russell Chambers and former chairman and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse David Ross.
A raft of celebrities are also expected to show up to wish the happy couple well, including Girls Aloud’s Sarah Harding and her fiancé, DJ Tom Crane (who also happens to be Dunstone’s godson), as well as former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Sounds like the City is in for a stonking good do.
FOXY GENTLEMAN
Guy de Blonay really does seem to have it all. The Henderson New Star fund manager – whose family owns an ancestral castle near Geneva – is blessed with brains and beauty, having come in fourth place in The Capitalist’s rundown of the top ten hunkiest gents in the City, published over the summer.
But I hear the accolade came as no surprise to the industry, who were chuckling about the award at a recent party.
Apparently, de Blonay’s Facebook wall is continually inundated with posts from lovely ladies, presumably hoping to be swept off their feet.
“Whenever you look at his wall, there’s a backlog of about 50 women writing on it at any one time,” chuckles one chum. “It’s sickening, really.”
PERSONA NON GRATA
An invitation pops into my inbox, singing about the launch party for a new book called “The Credit Crunch Diaries”, a satirical take on the crisis by Odey Asset Management partner Nick Carn and former financial hack David Lascelles.
The email contains a couple of choice quotations from reviewers raving about the tome, which is customary with these things, though one of the lines did rather catch the eye.
“Please could you remove the following person from your database as they no longer work for the RBS Group: Sir F Goodwin,” read the quote, ostensibly from the RBS Group Document Services Cash Logistics and Contract Management Department.
I call up the book’s editor to find out what the whole thing is all about.
“It was an email received by us in reply to a standard enquiry that went out last year, connected to our usual dealings with the banks,” comes the reply. “We thought it would be amusing to put it in as a gag – we wanted a quote from Goodwin himself but he’s obviously not too keen on speaking to the press at the moment…”
RACING AHEAD
ICAP chief Michael Spencer was licking his chops on Tuesday evening as he collected the prestigious Ernst & Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year award at a ceremony at the Park Lane Hilton. Spencer must now be fancying his chances in May next year, when he’ll go on to compete globally with over 40 country winners in the global competition in glamorous Monte Carlo – which, happily for him, is also the month when the city hosts the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix. A fine chance to kill two birds with one stone.