Spotted this week at the Victoria & Albert Museum summer party was Bianca Jagger, one time wife of legendary aging rocker Sir Mick Jagger. Guests commented on Bianca's rather remarkable new look that is reminiscent of the famous (or infamous) Margaret, The Duchess of Argyle as our pictures show. Whispers met the Duchess several times and once dined at her rather splendid home in Mayfair with the late Lady Edith Foxwell.
The daughter of a multi-millionaire businessman Margaret married the Ian Douglas Campbell the Duke of Argyle in 1951 but the marriage only lasted a few years after the Duke accused her of being unfaithful. The subsequent divorce case scandalized 1960's Britain when Polaroid photos of the Duchess were produced in court with her in flagrante delicto wearing nothing but her regular pearls. Rumours spread around town as the identity of her paramour - from cabinet minsters to the movie star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. She died in 1992 keeping her secret. These days, Bianca Jagger serves as a Council of Europe
goodwill ambassador.
a present to us from Danny DeVito-pic of his foot!
The dame who put the Fear of God into Fleet Street's finest has resurrected herself in the form of writer Victor Olliver at the excellent British web-site www.Anorak.co.uk
Best to click this link and read his excellent pieces but in the meantime below is a fab video illustrating his article on a TV Scientology doco. It's BBC reporter Alan Johnson losing his rag when confronted by a Scientology heavyweight. It's wonderfully schizophrenic as Johnson seems to switch between rage and calmness in a flash.
Regular Shuttlers will recall our piece on the late London society hostess Lady Edith Foxwell when we encountered Scientology founder L.Ron Hubbard at one of her cocktail parties in London and she informed the Shuttle that he always brought crates of French champagne when he came visiting. ## Whilst on interstellar matters-next Tuesday we are looking forward to the party at Omega's swish Castlereigh boutique to meet the second man to walk on the Moon-Buzz Aldrin (left)-or depending on your beliefs, one of the co-stars of the conspiracy to fake the Moon walks.
We've had to promise the PR we won't grill Buzz on the conspiracy as he's likely to physically lash out even though he has found God after his space trip.
On Wednesday ace jeweller Stefan Canturi who is now wowing them with boutiques in New York and on Rodeo Drive launches his new perfume at Bennelong Restaurant in the Opera House and Saturday night brings the ever so genteel Black & White Ball with it's Debutante's Derby ( we'll be filming it for the new tSS video channel) with special guest Christian the Lion author John Rendell. above :Stefan Canturi & Barbie
The words 'high camp' could have been invented for her and she's been a Hollywood stalwart for decades with her 'Hello Darlink" greeting in her Hungarian accent. Sadly the wonderful Zsa Zsa Gabor is quietly slipping away according to her ninth husband Frederick Prinz von Anhal.
At 93 years of age, 2 days ago Zsa Zsa was admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after a fall following hip surgery. Today she summonsed a priest to perform the last rites.
Born Sári Prinzessin von Anhalt in Hungary in 1917 into a Jewish family with 2 famous sisters, Eva and Magda, Zsa Zsa began her show business career as an opera singer in Vienna before Hollywood beckoned and along the way, a string of husbands. She had one child to her 2nd husband, the hotel baron Conrad Hilton (great grandfather of Paris Hilton) which she claimed was the result of a rape by Hilton.
Always tongue in cheek, Gabor has never taken herself seriously and is famous for some of her quips. Once asked during a TV interview about the high number of marriages she responded "I was always a good housekeeper-every time I divorced I kept the house ".
In 1989 she famously slapped the face of a Beverley Hills cop who Zsa Zsa said had been exceptionally rude to her whilst writing out a speeding ticket. Sentenced to 3 days in jail, she proved so popular with fellow inmates they launched a petition for Zsa Zsa to spend more time in a cell.
The Shuttle was privileged to meet Gabor once at a dinner party at London's Embassy Club in honour of the British actor Richard Johnston given by Zsa Zsa's good friend, the London society maven Lady Edith Foxwell. At the time Lady Edith-then in her 60s was dating a 22 year old Caribbean boy.
"You won't be able to bring him to Beverley Hills " said Zsa Zsa to Edith loudly across the table of 20 guests. Lady Edith responded by hurling a bread roll at Zsa Zsa and a (literal ) bun fight began with Zsa Zsa eventually storming out.
Lady Edith said Gabor later relented and invited her and her black boyfriend to stay in LA for 6 weeks. One day whilst admiring the beautiful gardens in Zsa Zsa's mansion Edith asked which husband she got the house from.
Zsa Zsa responded " I can't quite remember- 5th or 6th ?.. but I know he was immensely rich"
They don't make them like the Gabor sisters anymore. Send your prayers to Zsa Zsa as she ails in hospital.
Zsa Zsa in 'Queens From Outer Space" followed by husband Freddie naked in his car !
____________________________________________________________ Tweet of the day :yokoono
I woke up in a room in my parents’ summer house It was in Japan. I was seventeen. about 1 hour ago.
News comes that one of Britain's most famous society hostesses, the late Lady Edith Foxwell is to be the subject of a documentary that will tell the story of her amazing life.
Lady Edith, who died in 1998 was known as the 'Queen of London Society' during the 1970s and '80s . With New Zealander Stephen Hayter-who once boasted he kept his press clippings in a Swiss bank vault, Edith opened the Mayfair nightspot The Embassy Club.
Once married to film producer Ivan Foxwell. she was granted her title with "the rank of a daughter of an Earl" in a rare move by Royal Warrant because her uncle, the Earl of Cavan was a celebrated war hero.
The Social Shuttle spent many a night in our youth with Lady Edith as a 'walker' accompanying her to parties and she occasionally stayed in our London apartment for weeks on end. It was always meant to be overnight but somehow time stretched as did the horrendous telephone bills that followed her departure. In the day of timed calls, Edith's endless chats to her Hollywood pals like Zsa Zsa Gabor or Joan Collins could almost bankrupt one.
Lady Edith owned a splendid country manor called Sherston where she threw great weekend parties relying on an interesting mix of people from all walks of life. She would phone tSS and say "I think it's a bit top heavy with gay boys this week-could you bring a couple of women?". Inevitably her butler would then phone shortly after and request we also pick up half a dozen bottles of champagne and assorted spirits on the way down. That call usually went to just about every guest. Edith kept her cellar fully stocked without spending a penny.
Once over a Sunday lunch at Sherston with 40 guests the cook disclosed to tSS that none of Edith's staff had been paid for 6 months and her credit had finally been cut off in the village.
Sherston backed onto Princess Anne's property who Edith sued once when Anne's gamekeeper shot one of her dogs. It also bordered a 'commune' where Princess Margaret dallied with her paramour Roddy Llewellyn . The commune was run by the Australian 'Christian The Lion' identity John Rendall who owned an antique shop in the Kings Road at the time. Asked if she ever mingled with neighbours she replied "good God no, frightful snobs the lot of them . It's much more fun in the local pub". She did however give Sherston over to Prince Andrew so he could conduct a then secret affair with his girlfriend Koo Stark.
Lady Foxwell had a London flat but she gave it to her daughter Atlanta as wedding present when she got married, hence she was perpetually homeless in London. Atlanta married a very handsome Italian, Prince Stefano Massimo , the son of a Riviera playboy and Dawn Addams, a 1950's British movie star. Stefano is also a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia and a Roman emperor.
'once black, never go back'
Hubbard
Once at one of Edith parties tSS noticed a face that seemed vaguely familiar. On asking our hostess who he was she said "oh that Scientology man, he's so much fun and brings crates of Moet". It was L. Ron Hubbard who was living on an old tramp steamer on the Thames River. A few days before we had read in the Times that the FBI were looking for him to interview him over some matter.
Edith had an affair when she was 62 with the African American singer Marvin Gaye and then she was hooked saying "once black never go back". She had a string of young black boyfriends who she loved to flaunt around town. Once tSS returned home and burst into our bedroom in the afternoon and with huge embarrassment found Edith in flagrante with her 22 year old beau Winston. Edith just smiled sweetly and winked while we backed out of the room.
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Meanwhile journalist Marcus Scriven has penned a book on 3 aristocrats who fell on hard times and squandered huge family fortunes.
Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, also known as "the bedsit duke" spent a $600M fortune before he committed suicide. Angus Montague, horrendously overweight, was the 12th Duke of Manchester, who died in 2002 after being crane-lifted out of his tiny flat. He spent time in an American jail for fraud but avoided the slammer in the UK for similar charges when the judge decided he was 'so dim' he didn't know better.
Another who Scriven writes about is John Hervey the 7th Marquess of Bristol.
tSS got to know Hervey briefly during his short 44 years before he died of a drug overdose in 1999 having spent a $10M inheritance. There are tales that didn't make it into Scriven's book. Hervey adopted a sort of Oscar Wilde pose although he wasn't quite as amusing but certainly indulged in rent boys and dubious acquaintances.
The late John Hervey
We ran across John Hervey once in New York in the early 1980s. He was accompanied by a man who he introduced as his personal lawyer although we had already met that man. The lawyer had been a friend of the writer Robin Maugham who was the nephew of Somerset Maugham.
Robin Maugham wrote a rather scandalous book called The Wrong People about a wealthy man who adopts a young boy and moulds him into his ideal image of a boyfriend. Our lawyer was the real life example and few knew that Maugham was writing from real life experience.
Hervey and the lawyer were busted for drugs in a New York hotel. The lawyer took the rap and Hervey said he would hire the best attorneys to get him off. He promptly returned to London and forget about the man languishing in jail. The lawyer got a 25 year sentence and died 8 years later in Rikers Jail.
Towards the end of his life John Hervey visited Australia but was arrested after a week on an immigration charge. He hadn't notified authorities upon his arrival that he had been arrested and served time in jail in the UK for drug offences.
In the magistrates court the prosecutor asked Hervey why, when filling in his immigration card, he didn't note as required, that he had a criminal record.
Hervey replied " oh I thought you had to have a criminal record toget into the country". He was deported the next day.
With one half of the Christian the Lion, duo Anthony 'Ace' Bourke in Los Angeles for discussions with a Hollywood studio over the planned film of the saga of their former Kings Road pet lion Christian, purchased at Harrods and kept as a pet in a Kings Road antique shop, a reliable source from the Christian camp tellstSSthat Brad Pitt has expressed an interest in playing Bourke in the film.
Ace Bourke
Before Subo swept the world in the youtube video of her Britain's Got Talent performance, the grainy film of ex-partners John Rendall and Ace Bourke's re-union with Christian on animal conservationist George Adamson's African reserve became a world-wide sensation. Bourke and Rendall were suddenly thrust into the limelight , quickly re-wrote the book they had published 35 years earlier and found themselves in demand for talk shows from the USA to Germany and all stops in between.
John Rendall ?
The Christian bandwagon continues to roll on under the expert guidance of Lauren Miller, daughter of the recently retired agent and entrepreneur Harry M.Miller who published his autobiography late last year and revealed intimate dinner conversations he had had with Prince Charles.
Cuddly toys and merchandising are underway along with advertising tie-ins with the McDonald's hamburger chain and so on.
But who to play Rendall who was once a gossip writer on Hello! magazine and was married to the PR agent Liz Brewer ?. The choice is obvious and one Rendall would surely approve of-Johnny Depp !
And will the scene appear in the film that was often told by the 'Queen of London's cafe society' Lady Edith Foxwell whose country house Sherston backed onto the 1970s commune Bourke and Rendall lived on with assorted folk like a young Helen Mirren and Princess Margaret's beau Roddy Llewellyn ?. Llewellyn and the Princess used the commune for their secret assignations.
Edith fondly recalled how early one morning she discovered a group from the commune bathing naked in her swimming pool and fetching a shotgun, fired off a deafening blast through the window above their heads
"They were making a terrible racket and God only knows what they got up to in my pool" said Lady Edith. . Edith liked the late Dai Llewellyn but had no time for his younger brother Roddy who she described as a "dull young gardener and not a very good one at that". As she recalled their howls of terror as they scampered off through the fields she said " I always wondered if one of the white bottoms vanishing into the mist was royal"
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To Nino's restaurant for a media lunch for Queer Eye For the Straight GuyCarson Kressley who has become something of a popular star downunder. Kressly is in town for the giant Westfield chain of shopping malls and his Be Styled Tour where, fresh from Oprah Winfrey's show where he was teaching overdressed American ladies how to 'dress down', he will inform young Australian gels how to correctly 'accessorize'. This appears to involve advising them to wear stiletto heels as our pic at the launch shows. Not bad work for the rumoured $200K he is being paid.
At the lunch and overheard from a publicist in a discussion on merchandising deals and the impending arrival of round the world yachtswoman, 16 year old Jessica Watson who is expected to arrive at the Sydney Opera House in a fortnight after completing her voyage without once touching land.: "after she rounded the Horn (of Africa) the Penguin book deal kicked in-when she crossed the equator the TV network deal was sealed..if she arrives safely, amongst her greeters will be a bevy of Fox Studio executives with the movie deal contract."
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Sitting unnoticed at the back of the stage at Jamie Cullum's performance last night at the Basement was a low key Sophie Dahl. The pair arrived together via the back entrance and quickly split once inside the club. Sophie sat entranced by Cullum-unfortunately critics weren't so kind about his vocals.tSS thought he was wonderful.
If you haven't discovered the writer Duncan Fallowell then you are missing something important. His book about his travels in New Zealand, Going As Far As I Can is a must read if you are about to hit the snow-fields or anywhere in that amazingly beautiful country. NZ is every bit as sensational as seen in the Lord ofthe Rings trilogy which only showed a fraction of some of the glorious countryside. Much like Britain or Ireland but without the motorways.
Fallowell's book hit a few raw nerves in NZ itself but was generally viewed as one of the best travel books about any country...and anyway, we all know most Nu Zelunders are barking mad and talk funny but there must be a reason HRH The Queen owns extensive properties there.
Fallowell's wikopedia entry reports "Graham Greene did not like his first novel but thought it belonged to the 21st century. William Burroughs relished his books " . That's a bit like a recommendation from the Gods.
Now Britain's most infuriating blogger Madame Arcatibrings news of Fallowell's new venture, a ghost book named The Visitor. She has a creepy video on her site, set in a rambling old house to introduce the novel and drum up interest.
One commenter on Aracti's site asks where it was filmed. The house looks similar to Sherston, the home of the late Lady Edith Foxwell which the Shuttle spent many a weekend at.
The strange figure who arises from the sofa at the end -believed to be Duncan Fallowell, reminds us of the greeting we always got from Lady Edith's butler-similarly relaxed and always delighted when guests arrived. Being in that he always phoned ahead to request they bring the odd dozen bottles of mixed spirits ( Edith's credit having been cut off at the local village vinter).
You will have to visit the Madame Arcati blog to see Fallowell's spooky video but here's another of his we like-talking about drugs at Oxford.
ps: Duncan Fallowell also wrote a biography of April Ashley, the former Liverpudlian sailor who became one of the world's most famous sex-changes . One of the Shuttle staff often visited April in her house in Hay-on-Wye and once accompanied her to the Berkley Square Ball in the days it was still smart-only to be featured the next day in a photo in the Daily Mail and a piece by the late diarist Nigel Dempster as "April Ashley's new Toyboy".
For some strange reason, Ashley's auto-biography recently had to be pulped over a misunderstanding with her publisher and Shuttle associate John Blake-described by the magazine Private Eye as the "distinguished London publisher". You can get other Blake book titles from his website which features exciting titles like "Katie and Peter - Too Much In Love by Emily Herbert (yes, a tome about that mystery couple),, Jade - Fighting to the End by..err Jade Goody (I guess before the end came), and our favourite Global Warming and Other Bollocks
For more of Duncan Fallowell's great books, go to his website.
pps: thank you for the many emails pointing out the shocking spelling and grammar errors that appear on the SocialShuttle but we must point out that both Shuttlers suffer from slight dyslexia, are often hungover or just plain drunk when hitting the keyboard. Errors are eventually corrected when our charming assistant Sally arrives in the early afternoon. But feel free to mock the afflicted-we can take it !
Spotted this week at the Victoria & Albert Museum summer party was Bianca Jagger, one time wife of legendary aging rocker Sir Mick Jagger.
Guests commented on Bianca's rather remarkable new look that is reminiscent of the famous (or infamous) Margaret, The Duchess of Argyle as our pictures show. Whispers met the Duchess several times and once dined at her rather splendid home in Mayfair with the late Lady Edith Foxwell.
