To Quaglino’s for the GQ Christmas lunch, where editor Dylan Jones was in a revelatory mood. Lifting the lid on his magazine’s controversial decision to award Tony Blair the Philanthropist of the Year gong at their Man of the Year awards this year, Jones recalled being quizzed about it in New York shortly after the September ceremony.
Avid Murdoch watchers suggested to him that they GQ only dished out the gong due to Blair’s well-publicised (how to put it) friendship with Wendy Deng. Actually I think we did’, quipped Jones.
The crowd – including Tinie Tempah, Rob Brydon, Tracey Emin and David Gandy — was described by one speaker as ‘full blown celebrity starfuck with all the trimmings… Like Band Aid for well-dressed celebs’. Sadly columnist Alastair Campbell had done a runner before his old boss was slighted, however Tory culture Minister Ed Vaizey was roaring with laughter.
It was a busy day for for Vaizey, who confessed to Mr S he was ‘a total star fucker’. He managed to pick up a late invite at lunch to a dinner last night to celebrate the career of Alan Yentob. ‘To a particular type of Tory, Yentob represents everything wrong with luvvies and the BBC… so obviously I absolutely love him,’ he exclaimed. Mr S hopes that went some way to making up for Vaizey dropping out of the MediaGuardian 100 list – an apparent sore start to the week.
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