As Mr Steerpike reported late last night, the gloves were off between Russell Brand and Charles Moore at the GQ Man of the Year awards. But that was not the only fight to split the audience. After American comedian Seth MacFarlane’s disastrous turn at this year’s Oscars, you would have thought that award ceremony hosts might be wary of musical numbers. Yet that did not stop Rob Brydon bursting into song about Stephen Fry’s recent suicide attempt, warbling that the National Treasure could not be left alone with ‘vodka and pills’. A shaky start to say the least, which was not helped by a bad Eric Pickles joke that left most of the stellar audience scratching their heads wondering who this Pickles bloke was.
Brydon warmed up when the time approached to ‘start honouring those people who, to be honest, already know they have won.’ Those people included Tom Ford, Eddie Redmayne, Piers Morgan, Emma Watson and Indy owner Evgeny Lebedev. Michael Douglas won a lifetime achievement award. The film star declared, ‘I think this is a polite way of saying this is my third act; especially after this year, which has been… something.’
It was a good night for the Spectator. Charles Moore took the literary prize and Boris Johnson won Politician of the Year, again. It was worth it just to get the mayor on stage to apologise for the ‘Aztec death rays’ caused by one of his pet skyscraper projects. Apology accepted!
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