The Steeple Times

Tag: 2009

  • Bang, Bang, Snap, Snap

    Bang, Bang, Snap, Snap

    The sale of The Duchess of Cambridge’s uncle’s holiday villa, La Maison de Bang Bang

     

    Just as it is reported that the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge is said to be furious about photographers having managed to capture her in a bikini on a beach on the private island of Mustique, another of her previous holiday destinations has come to the market.

     

    Kate Middleton and Prince William aboard Tapeka Point during their 2006 holiday in Ibiza.
    Kate Middleton and Prince William aboard Tapeka Point during their 2006 holiday in Ibiza.
    Carole Middleton's brother businessman Gary Goldsmith.
    Carole Middleton’s brother businessman Gary Goldsmith.
    La Maison de Bang Bang's sign.
    La Maison de Bang Bang’s sign.

     

    The Duchess, as Kate Middleton, stayed with Prince William at the holiday home of her uncle, Gary Goldsmith’s in Ibiza in 2006. During the break at the exotically named La Maison de Bang Bang, the Prince and Miss Middleton were photographed on a motor launch, Tapeka Point, that was subsequently put up for auction in April 2012 for £120,000.

     

    La Villa Bang Bang
    La Maison de Bang Bang
    An aerial shot of the property
    An aerial shot of the property

     

    The 4 double bedroom villa, named according to its official website, after “Ibiza’s famous banging house music”, is just five minutes from the Cala Jondal beach and the “hip” Blue Marlin beach bar. The house stands on a plot of 23,850 square metres and includes a large reception room, 4 dining areas and a fully equipped gym. In addition there is a staff bungalow, swimming pool and tennis court.

     

    The main reception area in the house.
    The main reception area in the house.
    One of four dining areas.
    One of four dining areas.
    One of four double en-suite bedrooms.
    One of four double en-suite bedrooms.
    An example of Mr Goldsmith's humour.
    An example of Mr Goldsmith’s humour.
    Buddhas can be found throughout the villa.
    Buddhas can be found throughout the villa.
    And also in the garden.
    And also in the garden.
    As well as an outdoor swimming pool, there is a full sized tennis court.
    As well as an outdoor swimming pool, there is a full sized tennis court.

     

    In a statement to the Daily Telegraph’s “Mandrake”, Goldsmith, who was subject to a News of the World sting at La Maison de Bang Bang in 2009, commented:

     

    “I’m looking to buy a bigger house in London, given that I have only been there myself once in the last two year… After what seems like a million years of fun, fun, fun, I’m selling Bang Bang, folks”.

     

    Of the house itself, Mr Goldsmith told the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay:

     

    “It’s on for 6.5 million Euro. Despite the Spanish economy, it’s a good time to sell because the Euro is very strong at the moment, plus Ibiza isn’t like mainland Spain. It has a micro-economy all of its own”.

     

    Knight Frank’s particulars for La Maison de Bang Bang were prepared last September and though Mr Goldsmith, who made £275 million selling his recruitment business in 2005, may be a canny businessman, it seems as if he may have to wait some time before someone else decides to put their bucks into the Bang Bang.

     

    For more information on La Maison de Bang Bang, contact Knight Frank on +44 (0) 203 641 5161.

     

    To view particulars on the house, go to: http://content.zoopla.co.uk/a6420c8137a5d9f4e81b6c108c398e4bf467c6ed.pdf

     

    To view the official website for the house, go to: http://www.rentibizavilla.com

  • David Elias

    David Elias

    article-1394452-0C66671600000578-208_306x453Some say he died in 2009, others, including the Serious Fraud Office, suspect he’s hiding out in the rainforests of Borneo. This bankrupted businessman was best known for drinking red wine from a teapot at breakfast and for his public spats with Egon Ronay, Richard Desmond, Lord Rothschild and Ernest Saunders. He met his wife, Nicola, in a nightclub. When asked what she’d require to move in with him, she asked for £5,000 a month. He organised it that very night and though most of his assets have been seized, she continues to drive a top of the range Mercedes and lives in comparative luxury on the island of Labuan, Malaysia. The investigators are still watching.

  • Dominick Dunne (1925 – 2009)

    Dominick Dunne (1925 – 2009)

    This “Boswell of the bluebloods” was a writer whose tips came from unnamed sources and “waiter[s] serving [him] risotto at dinner parties”. (more…)

  • The Woman Who’ll Make Politicians Jealous

    The Woman Who’ll Make Politicians Jealous

    Jilly Cooper’s state of the nation style summary strikes chords with Matthew Steeples

     

    Best-selling bonkbuster author Jilly Cooper might be best known for novels such as Riders and Jump! but in the 1980s and 90s she was equally lauded as “one of the Conservative Party’s most ardent supporters.”

     

    Jilly Cooper

    Cooper, born in 1937, showed she still has a grip on the nation’s pulse yesterday when she declared that the Conservative Party is “full of terrible people now” to The Spectator’s “Steerpike.”

     

    Separately, in a comment to The Telegraph’s “Mandrake,” Mrs Cooper shared her thoughts on Pippa Middleton’s first book, Celebrate:

     

    “[It] wasn’t a good idea. I don’t blame her – I think that she was ill-advised… All I can say is that I hope the British don’t demonise her because of it. She seems a lovely girl and her sister is wonderful.”

     

    Ever the diplomat, Jilly Cooper, in these comments, shows herself as a truly brilliant wordsmith. She has tact and decency but at the same time doesn’t hold back when it comes to honesty.

     

    Nigel Farage should put in a call. Mrs Cooper could be just the asset UKIP needs to transform them from a “bunch of loons” to electability.

  • Dame Judi Dench CH, DBE, FRSA

    Dame Judi Dench CH, DBE, FRSA

    Undoubtedly best known as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, Yorkshire born Dench briefly played Pru Forrest in the BBC’s The Archers. She’s an advocate for “more progressive drug policies” and only took the role of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice after director Joe Wright wrote to her and said: “I love it when you play a bitch. Please come and be a bitch for me.” There’s barely a role she hasn’t conquered.

  • Gaspard Ulliel

    Gaspard Ulliel

    Best known for a brilliant performance in the 2007 prequel Hannibal Rising, this talented Frenchman is to play a young Yves Saint Laurent in an unauthorised forthcoming biopic of the designer’s early career. Having attempted to ride a doberman like at horse at the age of six, he was attacked and claims the resulting scar improves his emotional acting abilities. It hasn’t harmed his modeling career either as he has contracts with both Chanel and Longchamp.

  • Let there be light!

    Let there be light!

    Thomas James examines the Luzinterruptus art movement

     

    Luzinterruptus is a Spanish artistic group, who create temporary urban interventions in public spaces. Using light as their primary component and the black of night as their canvas, the group consists of three anonymous artists from different artistic backgrounds. Interestingly, the artistic group’s name Luzinterruptus is of Latin origin and means: “Interrupted light.”

     

    The group’s first artistic “urban intervention” took place on the streets of Madrid in 2008. The motive for it was to focus peoples’ attention on a problem they found in the city that seemed to go unnoticed. Some 50% of Madrid’s public drinking fountains have fallen into disrepair and Luzinterruptus wanted to address the city’s administration’s indifference to the need for public drinking water. With their installation, “Drinking Water Running Through The Streets,” they sought to provoke thought and highlight the issue.

     

    Drinking Water Running Through The Streets

    To create it, 200 glass containers were collected over the course of 4 months and these were used to fill four fountains with their signature luminous work. The installation lit up the city on a cold night in January and attracted great media interest.

     

    Plastic garbage guarding the museum

    Another fascinating work by the collective was named “Plastic garbage guarding the museum.” Installed directly in front of the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, this featured approximately 5,000 plastic bags. They selected the most vibrant and colourful ones from those they had collected, filled each with air and lit them from within. Piled up in a dumpster, they looked more like treasures one would find in Santa’s sleigh. The installation was designed to provoke discussion about consumption and the issue of what damage not disposing of carrier bags properly does to the environment. The plastic bags deflated and deteriorated during the four-month installation and this was said to symbolise consumption and waste, as well as highlighting the damaging effects of mindless consumption. Luzinterruptus proceeded to give visitors to the exhibit an illuminated plastic bag to take away. Their aim by doing such was to: “Fill the sk[ies] with small plasticised full moons.”

     

    1,000 poems by mail

    Luzinterruptus’s installation “1,000 poems by mail” was created for the “2010 poetas pr Km²” Spanish poetry festival in Madrid uniting light, literature, and public space. 1,000 white envelopes, each containing a small light and a poem written by one of 17 poets, were hung in the gardens where the poetry readings and performances happened. The radiant envelopes illuminated the gardens for three days and added atmosphere to the festival – especially at night. On the final evening, the envelopes were given to the public to keep or to send to someone special. Afterwards, Luzinterruptus mailed out the envelopes with their lights still burning bright.

     

    Literature versus Traffic

    This summer at the Federation Square in Melbourne, Luzinterruptus placed 10,000 illuminated books, which they acquired from local libraries, across the ground during a festival dedicated to reading. They placed LED lights behind the pages of each book to illuminate the printed words. The installation entitled “Literature versus Traffic” was created to portray a winding river going along the streets of the bustling public square. “The objective was to create a symbolic gesture in which literature took control of the streets and became the conqueror of the public space,” one the anonymous artists explained.

     

    Look out. A Luzinterruptus exhibition could be interrupting the streets of your city soon. It’ll certainly be cleverly planned and it will definitely provoke you to think about whatever issue they decide to focus on next.

     

    View the website of Luzinterruptus at: http://www.luzinterruptus.com

     

    View Thomas James’s blog, The Gentledaneur, at: http://thegentleman-dandy-flaneur.tumblr.com

     

    Follow Thomas James on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/thomasjames124

     

  • Beverly Cohen

    Beverly Cohen

    Co-owner of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills with her husband R. J., Cohen is of surprisingly humble origins. She grew up on a chicken farm in Cleveland, Ohio but moved to LA with her divorced mother aged 13 when she opened a Kosher chicken killing plant on Santa Monica Boulevard. This hardworking lady now instead hosts the likes of Rod Stewart, John Tavolta, Quentin Tarrantino, Mel Gibson, Britney Spears and Ryan Seacrest. On an occasion Matthew McConaughey has even been known to park his Airstream on the front lot to barbeque steak for passersby.

  • Richard Caring

    Richard Caring

    Of Italian-Jewish descent, Caring is of the “supermarket-sweep” school of empire building. This billionaire started out in the rag trade but now controls the majority of the top restaurants and clubs in Central London. He survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and viewed that to be a wakeup call. Since then he’s donated millions to charity and focused on his two passions: golf and shooting. This buccaneering businessman generally passes on breakfast and lunch and lives between a converted stable block set in 500 acres near Dulverton and a mansion on The Bishops Avenue. What will he buy next?

  • Jocelyn Wildenstein (née Périsset and also known as “Jocelynnys Dayannnys da Silva Bezerra”)

    Jocelyn Wildenstein (née Périsset and also known as “Jocelynnys Dayannnys da Silva Bezerra”)

    If one spent $2,000,000 on cosmetic surgery, one would expect to end up looking fantastic. It didn’t quite work out in the case of the billionairess “Bride of Wildenstein,” though, as instead she discovered the husband she thought she’d please in bed with a 19-year old Russian. Feline like in appearance, the purr of this New York socialite is said to be just as bad as her bite. She’s known to be a skilled hunter and pilot and once boasted her telephone bills were at least $60,000 a year. Surprisingly far from camera shy, what on earth will she look like at ninety?