Social Diary 7/25/03 - News from Monte Carlo ...

News from Monte Carlo ...

A harbor in Monaco

The view from Flocky Busson’s terrace

Our man in Monte Carlo writes ... Francois Longueve, the director of the Hotel de Paris has filled the hotel with the most beautiful flowers in the south of France ... and the season begins.

There is an Andy Warhol exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum. Jean Paul Gaultier is in St. Tropez, Angela Koch has been staying with Terry Kramer and Nick Simunek at their villa in St. Tropez. Monte Carlo is full of rich Russians and they give glorious dinners every night and drink dozens of bottles of red wine, Chateau de Petrus at $1200 dollars a bottle (which is one way of looking at it — or another, check out this excerpt from Taki’s High Life column in Spectator*). King Abdullah of Jordan and Queen Rania, their three children, Prince Hussein, Prince Iman, and Princess Salma are on their yacht Lady Ann Magee. The Jordanian royal family is also traveling with an entourage of 100 on several other yachts.

Connecting the dots: Luce and Winston Churchill II are in Monte Carlo ... Countess Carla Cavelli and her husband Count Theo Rossi of Martini and Rossi gave a glorious dinner on the glorious terrace of the Hotel de Paris for the newlyweds, Princess Maria Pia and Prince Michel de Bourbon. The Bourbons are staying at the apartment of her son Prince Serge of Yugoslavia near the palace in Monaco ... Serge seems to have caught the matrimonial bug himself, having just announced his engagement to Eleonore Rajneri, a prominent lawyer in France ... The family is very pleased ... They are not pleased with the announcement of the engagement of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, the Prince of Venice and the French actress Clotilde Courau. There are rumors she is expecting a baby in December ... Zut alors! And all that ... Emanuele is the grandson of King Umberto, the last king of Italy and the nephew of Princess Maria Pia.

Lynn Wyatt, her son Steve Wyatt and his children Ford and Katherine

In Monte Carlo there are birthdays too (no kidding). Irvin Levy of the Texas Levys gave a dinner for his wife, that world class gallivanting Texan, Joanie Schnitzer, on June 12 at the Hotel du Cap. Jean Marc Pagliai gave a big birthday party for his friend Flocky Busson at their villa in Beaulieu. Flocky is the granddaughter of the late Arphad Plesch and she is the mother of Arky Busson who has two children with the model Elle Macpherson who live a hop, skip and a jump across the water in Majorca.

There were 60 guests at the Busson dinner, including Princess Maria Pia and Prince Michel de Bourbon, Luce and Winston Churchill, Jean Noel Grinda, Marianne Brandstetter, Lynn Oscar and Steve Wyatt, Sir Roger and Lady Moore with her daughter Kristina Tholstrup, Joseph Dweck, Elie de Don Pietro, Brigette Foussier and more than anybody could recall after a night of dinner and dancing until the sun came up over the Mediterranean.

Speaking of which, there was the birthday that is one of the year’s most important social events deep in the heart of Beaulieu: the annual party Oscar Wyatt gives for his wife Lynn. Oscar has been giving these parties for thirty years.

This year there was a full moon when the 70 guests headed for the Villa Romano on the Moyene Corniche. There was Kate and Steve Wyatt and their two children Katherine and Ford, (Lynn’s grandchildren if only she were old enough); Joan Collins and Percy Gibson, the Begum Aga Khan, Inaara and her mother who could pass for sisters, David Furnish, whose life-partner Sir Elton John was giving a concert that night but called during dinner to wish the Birthday Girl a happy happy. Also: Mica and Bob Mossbacher, Angela Newley — the jewelry designer and daughter of Joan Collins (and the late Anthony Newley), Anna Louisa and Merino Ferraz from Brazil, Diana Quasha, from Park Avenue, New York City; Flocky Busson and Jean Marc Pagliai; that ambassador from Palm Beach Jim Mitchell, Eddie Collins, Evie and Leslie Bricusse, Sir Roger and Lady Moore, former Ambassador Howard Wilkins from Texas, Cliff Klenck, Irvin Levy and Joan Schnitzer, Puia Hottinguer, Bobby Short, Nan Kempner and lots of others who sang happy birthday with French singer Lulu to Lynn. After all there was dancing on their terrace which overlooks all of St. Jean Cap Ferrat until the moon went down and the sun came up.

* From Taki’s column High Life in this week’s (London) Spectator :

... all Russia’s wealth seems to be here in St Tropez and in London. Humongous superyachts, colossal houses, gargantuan egos, prodigious amount of hookers, all surrounded by mountainous bodyguards. By comparison, even the kleptocrats of Arabia look conservative. … The oligarchs are shipping their ill-gotten billions out of Russia quicker than you can say Ali Baba. In the meantime, very old ladies in St Petersburg are begging in order to eat, and old soldiers are vainly trying to sell their medals for an apple or two. Shades of pre-Hitler Germany. … These carpetbaggers need to be reined in. Fast. The Russian people have been suffering since time immemorial. You’d think the God of Das Capital would have given them a break. No such luck, as they used to say in the gulag. (Incidentally, the most unforgettable book ever is Anne Applebaum’s Gulag — a must-read, especially as the torture and slow murder of tens of millions remains relatively obscure both in Russia and in the West.) Click here for the full article.