Infamous bites in history

Which is the most infamous bite in history? Surely Adam’s, but then the one Steve Rubbell took off Halston’s leg was far more expensive. Let me explain for you young whippersnappers who’ve probably never heard of these people. (Both died of Aids in 1990.) The bite theme is inspired by Luis Suárez, no stranger to controversy in Britain but a hero in his homeland of Uruguay, where biting is the equivalent to our kissing, or so the volatile Liverpool footballer wants us to believe.

I broke the Halston-Rubbell-Bowes-Lyon-Princess Margaret story in this here column back in 1979 or 1980. It came back to me recently when I saw a documentary on Halston, a milliner who became famous because he designed the pink pillbox hat Jackie Kennedy wore the day her husband was assassinated. Actually Halston was quite a talented designer, but I wouldn’t know about such matters so I will stick to his constant partying in Studio 54 and profuse coke use. Halston partied exclusively with gays, who made up the Andy Warhol group. The owner of Studio 54, Steve Rubbell, partied with everybody, even unknowns, something Halston and Warhol did not. When Halston’s fame went international, as silly matters like fashion tend to do, he asked his friend John Bowes-Lyon, known as Bosie to the rest of us, to front a party for him in London and to produce Princess Margaret. Bosie did both, but also asked yours truly — who dutifully reported the shenanigans that followed in The Spectator, back then selling around ten thousand copies if that.