Londoners Diary: Vladimir Putin’s banker serenaded by Strictly Sophie Ellis-Bextor

 
Doing her bit for Russia: Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Picture: Dave Benett)
Dave Benett
13 November 2014

Being a celebrity can be tough. One year you’re waltzing around on Strictly Come Dancing, the next you’re performing at a party for a Russian bank as part of a thinly veiled ruse to flip the bird at the international sanctions imposed on it. We speak of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who last month sang in Moscow for the VTB Group, a government-controlled bank which is currently threatening to de-list from the London Stock Exchange after being targeted by Western sanctions.

Ellis-Bextor sang tracks from her new album, and other entertainment at the six-hour knees-up included “an anti-sanctions burlesque”, a film of VTB chairman Andrey Kostin writing an “anti-sanctions” concerto and an orchestra of bankers. However, it would seem that VTB was being economical in some respects — Kostin has justified hiring the Murder on the Dancefloor chanteuse, claiming she was a less pricey option. “The singer, Sophie Ellis-Bextor... her appearances cost less than appearances from Filipp Kirkorov or Stas Mikhailov,” two Russian pop singers. “There were no additional expenses,” he hastened to add. (Oh, Sophie, no rider?)

In a recent interview Ellis-Bextor discussed the “moral decision” of choosing where and for whom she performs. “It comes down to how well you sleep at night with the decisions you are making,” said the part-time DJ. “You’ve got to do things with the right motivation.”

We contacted Sophie’s people repeatedly to ask about her appearance but judging from the lack of response we assume they got lost in Siberia on their way back from the bash.

Watch out for Nigel Farage and his dance with the Devil

Hampstead liberals and Westminster’s champagne socialists, beware the righteous fire of the New Statesman, the new sword-wielding kingmakers of the Left. Last week it was editor Jason Cowley who unleashed the hounds of hell upon

Ed Miliband, damning him for failing to “understand Essex Man or Woman”, not having “a compelling personal story to tell the electorate” and creating “a gulf between the radicalism of his rhetoric and the low-toned incrementalism of his policies”.

Now, as Miliband struggles to banish dark mutterings that someone in the party should oust him in a Left-wing coup, the New Statesman has struck again. In an interview with Nigel Farage, Cowley exposes the fact that shared values — or, at any rate, shared opportunism — could be hammered out between Labour and Ukip. Discussing the possibility of a coalition, Farage claims “there is no Left and Right any more” and confesses that he’d “do a deal with the Devil if he got me what I wanted”.

How confusing — we were under the impression that it was whoever got into bed with Ukip who’d be making a pact with Beelzebub.

Foy in training for her queenly role

From townhouse to palace: Upstairs Downstairs star Claire Foy is said to be in talks to play the young Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Daldry’s new Netflix series, The Crown. Following the success of last year’s West End hit The Audience — which showed a regal Helen Mirren in tête-à-têtes with the various Prime Ministers who have served under HRH — Daldry and its writer Peter Morgan have decided to develop the concept into an epic 20-part drama series.

While there’s no word yet on whether Mirren will be dusting off her tiara, Foy has been in perfect training for the younger role. The actress will soon be appearing in the BBC’s adaptation of Wolf Hall, playing Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Mario, the English gent

Mario Testino was at The Ritz last night to be heralded as the latest Master of Photography in a collaboration with The Macallan whisky. Guests included fashion designer Christopher Kane while DJ Becky Tong took to the decks.

Smart guys: Mario Testino and Christopher Kane

Testino is from Peru and has shot all over the world but sees London as his home. “I came here in my twenties and started my career here,” he said earlier this year. “I was in awe of the British: they were more sophisticated, intellectual, humorous.

I tried to emulate them. I realised I couldn’t be English but the English did allow me to be me.”

Wark’s debut novel is up for Bad Sex award

The Bad Sex in Fiction award shortlist is out and it’s a case of hats off. To us. In February The Londoner tipped Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark for a nomination for her debut novel The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle after thumbing through it for the filthy bits.

“I stood, my back straight against the wall,” writes the usually steely Wark, “as he pulled the bow of my sash apart and undid the buttons that ran down the front of my dress one by one, until it fell open. Pulling off his shirt, he put his face to the edge of my slip and cupping my breasts in his hands he pressed his tongue between them, licking beads of perspiration from my skin.”

And that’s not even the passage she’s been nominated for. “That’s one award I don’t want to win,” Wark told us in February. Bad luck, Kirsty — you are now a serious contender.

Paul Mason: hero of the Twitterati

Channel 4’s economics editor Paul Mason has become the hero of the Twitterati this morning, after his unexpected rant against corruption in our poorly regulated banking system went viral. “I’m just sick of it,” explodes Mason, in a Channel 4 clip put on YouTube. “If the banks had the same scrutiny over their traders as they have over the camera crews standing outside it — where you get a security guy coming and asking you what you’re doing — we might not be in this situation.” Someone give that man the power to whip our bankers into line.

Zut alors! French want to separate

After the Scottish and Catalan referendums, it’s time for one in South Kensington. Gallic student and UK resident Aurelien Nicolle wrote to Greg Hands, MP for Chelsea & Fulham, suggesting that the francophile haven should hold a vote on whether to become an outpost of France.

Boris Johnson has claimed that we have a French population of 250,000, making him the Mayor “of the sixth-biggest French city”. It was perhaps pertinent of Hands to take Nicolle seriously enough to write back.

“While I agree with you that parts of this area do have a very French feel to them,” Hands writes, “and are greatly enhanced by the culture... of the many French people living here, I disagree with you that South Kensington could ever be considered a part of France. My gut feeling is that there would be very little appetite ... to hold such a referendum, most residents of French origin having actively chosen to leave France to live in London for economic, social or political reasons.”

Hands assumes “this wasn’t… a serious proposal”. Perhaps it was. Vive la révolution!

Brothers from the Sarf

As a new survey suggests only 13 per cent of voters believe Ed Miliband would make a good Prime Minister, is it time Labour brought in someone a little more, dare we say it, cool? The Londoner was in the City last night for the launch of new restaurant M, which featured a set from Tinie Tempah. We bumped into Labour MP Chuka Umunna and he explained what had brought him there.

Supportive: Chuka Umunna (Picture: Dave Benett)
Dave Benett

“Tinie and I are friends, we go way back,” he told us. “We’re both Nigerian, both from south London. He’s from Peckham, I’m Streatham.” ‘Which of you began your ascent to fame first?’ we questioned. “Oh, I’m not famous,” he insisted, “I’m just a politician. But Tinie is incredible.”

Seconds later, the rapper glided past, hugged Umunna and took to the stage. Seems like the admiration is mutual.

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