MILIBAND JOINS IN THE FAMILY MAKEOVER
MUCH has been made of the image transformation undergone recently by Justine Thornton, Ed Miliband’s long-term partner, who stepped out at the Labour party conference last week sporting a fresh make-up style and new elfin haircut.
But not much has yet been said about the woman responsible for said makeover – who The Capitalist can reveal is none other than Charlotte Cave, hairdresser to the stars. Cave, who travels to her famous clients’ houses when she’s not working at her low-key new salon in Clapham, has previously shorn the locks of actors Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Spacey, Gemma Arterton, Claire Danes and Daniel Craig, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and former S Club 7 star Rachel Stevens, among other luminaries.
A little bird tells me she didn’t stop at Justine, either. Ed Miliband’s barnet also came in for the chop – and I hear that his aides were left chuckling for days afterwards by his celebrity hairdresser’s no-nonsense approach to deciding the correct style for the new Labour leader’s locks.
“I’ll do the hair, you stick to the policies,” Cave told him, sternly.
EXPLOSIVE STUFF
Another day in the deliciously irreverent life of Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.
Boris was busy yesterday outlining the future of the Olympic Park after the London 2012 Games – renaming it the “Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park”, creating 11,000 new homes, you know the drill.
The worthy cause didn’t stop him from making a few of the usual quasi-deliberate faux-pas, though. First came a description of the ArcelorMittal “Orbit” tower, the centrepiece of the new Park, as an “incredible mutant trombone”, and then, when discussing architecture through the ages, a rather less than savoury examination of London’s 1950s/1960s tower blocks.
“A lot of them are in need of blowing up,” Boris boomed, deadpan.
AFRICAN ADVENTURE
Those who know Colin Grassie, Deutsche Bank’s UK chief executive, will be aware of his penchant for competing in gruelling Iron Man challenges across the world, but our man is off on an even more unusual adventure this morning, I hear.
Grassie is flying out to northern Ghana with around 45 of the bank’s employees to spend the better part of a week living and working in a remote village on behalf of Afrikids, one of Deutsche’s two charities of the year.
While there, the lot of them will be working in fields and schools and will be immersed in traditional ways of life, including living with people in the village. Grassie himself (above) will be staying with the chief of the village, a man renowned in the area for his influential work in preventing infanticide in the region among children affected by birth defects or any other kind of disability.
A noble cause, though it’ll be no five-star luxury break – Grassie will live in a mud hut with a thatched roof and no running water. Still, it’s the only one in the village with a long-drop toilet, so he’ll be counting his lucky stars.
FACING THE MUSIC
Harsh words for Terra Firma, the private equity owner of troubled music group EMI, courtesy of singer Lily Allen. Mouthing off in this month’s GQ magazine, Allen rants: “I hate Terra Firma. They’re w**kers…They don’t know how to run a creative business. They are killing us, frankly.”