THEATRICAL LORD TURNER PROVES HIMSELF A NATURAL ON THE STAGE
MY, OH my, but our Lord Turner isn’t half one to soak up the limelight.
Commanding the stage at yesterday’s annual public meeting, the FSA’s chairman put a sweating, red-faced Hector Sants to shame under the lights as he fielded questions from the floor with panache, authoritatively pointing out the chosen ones like the best of seasoned auctioneers.
In fact, such was Turner’s dramatic poise that The Capitalist couldn’t help but wonder if he had ever done a turn in the theatre. Naturally, his spokespeople remained mute on the subject, but luckily, a little bird at his Scottish public school, Glenalmond College, was more forthcoming.
“His passion is for opera and he founded the opera society, as well as editing the school newspaper, which received an award from the editor of The Scotsman,” she tells me, evidently proud of a star pupil. “But there is no mention on records that he was a member of the drama or debating societies at Glenalmond.”
Must be a natural, then.
BLACK BELT
We all know a dose of healthy competition is supposed to be good for the market, but aren’t actual fisticuffs taking the whole concept a bit too far?
A “challenge” pops up in my inbox from the lovely Krista Waddell, chief executive of jewellery-for-cash party organiser Ounces to Pounds, who wants to take on arch-rival Jeff Aronson, boss of newly-launched postal gold firm Cash4Gold, to a duel. Literally.
“He may look big and scary, but I’m no match for him,” claims Waddell. “I’ll take him out in 5 seconds flat…”
Aronson shouldn’t let that cutesy blonde exterior fool him, though: our gutsy lady is actually a black belt in US military close combat Target Focus Training, which is used by the US Navy Seals and FBI Hostage Teams. Are we looking at the new “City superwoman”?
HOLD YOUR NOSES
If you’re wondering about a terribly pungent smell wafting this way from the direction of Millennium Bridge, allow The Capitalist to put your mind at rest.
I hear new City eaterie High Timber has just introduced the smelliest cheese in the world onto its menu – and the specimen in question, a Vieux Boulogne semi-soft cow’s milk cheese, is so pongy that it actually has to be kept locked in a box.
“The Vieux Boulogne is an exceptionally tasty cheese but one that’s not widely available due to its distinctive, salty taste and strong aroma,” owner Neleen Strauss tells me, with a delightful touch of understatement. “It really is powerful – it has to be experienced to be believed…”
But despite the intense odour, there’s been no shortage of brave souls wanting to try the delicacy – including one chap who even tried to finish an entire cheese by himself in a fit of misguided bravado.
Boys will be boys.
STAR STRUCK
The Capitalist came over all starry yesterday after happening upon the filming of a new political movie right on the doorstep.
The makers of “Special Relationship”, directed by “The Queen”’s Peter Morgan – in which Dennis Quaid stars as ex-US President Bill Clinton and Michael Sheen steps into former PM Tony Blair’s well-trodden shoes for the third time – were lurking around Cannon Street station trying (and failing) to avoid excited Square Milers.
Mind you, this sort of thing is becoming almost de rigueur in the City, after a spate of new films have been filmed recently in the area. Just last month, a fledgling film producer announced plans for a new romantic comedy about a couple who meet on the steps of a City office having both been made redundant (a sign of the times if ever there was one).
Next thing you know, it’ll be Brad and Angelina coming to town.
STERLING STUFF
Congratulations to Sterling printers boss Simon Pearson-Miles, who has just returned from a gruelling fundraising climb of the highest mountain in Europe, along with colleague Matt Cope, Rothschild’s Richard Blackwell and Evolution’s Simon Edwards. The trio – who City chums can sponsor at www.justgiving.com/Simon-Pearson-Miles – apparently got within 40 metres of the summit, only to be beaten back several times because of snow storms and 100mph winds.
Still, having reached a height of 6,000m, it’s hardly too shabby an effort, especially as “PM”, as he’s known in the City, has had “a wheezy fat boy chest infection” (his words, not mine), for most of the year.
Perhaps all the exercise will help get him back in shape to model the firm’s famous personalised pants, which regular readers will remember are emblazoned with Sterling’s lion logo and “Grrr!” across the rear…