‘The Steeple Times’ takes a look around a palace that allegedly cost $1 billion to construct
Located on the Black Sea coast is a palatial residence that the press have named ‘Putin’s Palace’. The reported construction cost of this property is an astounding $1 billion.
A former Eastenders actress turned born again Christian whose car crash of a life is the envy of no one. She tragically destroyed her nose after wasting at least £250,000 on crack cocaine and even ended up being kidnapped and gang raped because of a drug debt. In 2013, twice married Westbrook announced: “I have given my life to the Lord”. Her story should be a lesson to many.
An heir of the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte, this investment banker is based in New York and works for Morgan Stanley. He succeeded his grandfather Louis, Prince Napoléon as Head of the Imperial House of France in 1997 due to a dynastic dispute due to his father “embracing republican principles” and remarrying “without his father’s permission”. In an interview, he stated: “I am a man of my time, as is everyone, but also with certain duties that I’ve decided to take up and certainly no extra rights. I am witness to my family’s past and of its role in history, but I am resolute to face the future. The Bonapartes have always been modern men and even avant-gardistes”.
Like a fine vintage, this Texan model and actress gets better with age. Mick Jagger’s former common-law wife was once engaged to Bryan Ferry and has dabbled with Kabbalah and other religions. A mother of four, Hall once stated: “I’m a very bad citizen. I’ve never even voted… I have zero interest in politics”.
One of the greatest traders ever to have lived. This thrice married American was famed for making and losing several multi-million dollar fortunes and once stated: “People who look for easy money invariably pay for the privilege of proving conclusively that it cannot be found on this earth”. Bankers today should pay heed. Nicknamed the “Boy Plunger” and “Great Bear of Wall Street”, Livermore’s end was tragic. A sufferer of clinical depression, Livermore shot himself in a cloakroom at The Sherry-Netherland Hotel in November 1940.
When her husband left her, she could of ‘moaned’ but instead she got on with it and paid her now ex-husband some £24 million for his share of her lingerie business. Glasgow born, Mone “”grew up a Scottish, Labour voting Protestant and is now a Conservative voting Catholic” but it is for her patented Ultimo bra that women love her most. Like Margaret Thatcher before her, this high achiever sleeps for only 4 hours each night and goes for a 5-mile jog every morning. She especially likes the lyrics of Michael Buble’s Haven’t Met You Yet.
The Steeple Times asks actor John Challis, best known for playing Boycie in “Only Fools and Horses”: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
Marlene is my guiding force at all times. Listen to your wife. She knows best.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Never lose that bitterness”.
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?
Wind turbines.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
The energy of my youth.
What might you swap all your wealth for?
Life in a warm climate.
Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the banking crisis?
Bloody capitalists!
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
“Gobsmacked”.
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
I support animal charities especially Tusk Trust. They are fighting to save rhinos and elephants from extinction as a result of poaching. Ronnie Wood and I are the oldest and longest serving patrons of Tusk.
The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?
Mobile phones are a bloody nuisance, especially on public transport. I have got into fights in the silent carriages of trains. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. I resisted a mobile for years.
If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
Marlon Brando, James Stewart, Kim Novak, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Tom Graveney, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Jacques Tati, Marg Helgenberger and Paul Guilfoyle.
If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
Gorgonzola cheese with fresh figs and a glass of vintage port on the terrace of the Hotel Splendido in Portofino, Italy.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
6pm unless out to lunch.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
A martini, stirred not shaken, with a twist of lemon and an olive for my heartburn.
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
I don’t do parties anymore. My 60th finished me off.
Who is the most positive person you know?
My brother-in-law, Johnny Palmer.
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
ABBA.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
A man with a cricket bat striking a cover drive.
If you were a car, what marque would you be?
An Aston Martin DB4.
Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
I wear Converse trainers.
What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?
Abby Bobblehead (NCIS), a miniature Trotter yellow van and a packet of lupin seeds sent to me from a Twitter follower in Texas.
John Challis is an English actor best known for his role as Terrance Aubrey “Boycie” Boyce in the long running BBC television comedy series Only Fools and Horses and its spin-off, The Green Green Grass.
To order signed copies of John Challis’ autobiography, Being Boycie and Boycie & Beyond, and to view the list of venues for his show on tour, go to: http://www.wigmorebooks.com
Follow him on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/BeingBoycie
Her billionaire husband, David, calls this former Miss Florida a “psycho, but a lovable psycho” and adds that she is a “big-busted shopaholic”. Her main desire in life is to be famous and a documentary film about her was made in 2012 by Lauren Greenfield. When her current neighbour, Tiger Woods, crashed his car, she ran out and took a photo. She sold it to TMZ for $400. Her husband stated: “That was very enterprising of her, but I think she could have gotten more”. Together, they have eight children and began construction of a 90,000 square foot mansion in Windermere, Florida in 2006. They named it Versailles and boast that it will be the largest single family home in America. Of the rare Brazilian mahogany from which the doors of Versailles are to be made from, she commented: “They had to stop exporting it because they were cutting down the rain forest, or whatever”. She’s all class.
Yorkshire born and twice divorced, Wilton is the niece of actor Bill Travers. She’s performed widely but truly came to fame when she appeared alongside Richard Briers in the BBC’s Ever Decreasing Circles in 1984. As Rosemary in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads 2 and as Mrs Bibby in his The History Boys, she was brilliant but it is as Isobel Crawley in Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey that she is now best known. Wilton has most definitely got playing middle-class down to a tee and once commented: “I find talking about acting very boring, having to come out with platitudes about how terribly nice everyone is… I would much rather just do it”.
Whether innocent or guilty of the murder she’s repeatedly been accused of, this American has made $4 million from her memoir deal with HarperCollins. The family of Meredith Kercher, the true victim in all of this, have rightly stated that they “do not believe anyone should profit from the murder” but Knox, whose conviction for calunnia stands, is therefore indeed proof that crime can indeed pay.