Devil's Advocate takes his case to the charts
Monday, 14 May 2007
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In his long and not uncontroversial legal career, Giovanni di Stefano has accepted briefs from the some of the world's most notorious rotters who include, amongst others, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Nicholas van Hoogstraten.
Now, the man the press likes to call the "Devil's Advocate" is planning a bizarre assault on our pop charts.
Di Stefano is about to launch an album by an Italian singer calling herself Just Carmen that he says he has orchestrated and produced himself.
The album, called Seriously Single, features Carmen performing a number of cover versions by artists such as Elvis Presley and Gloria Estefan.
Handily, the lawyer Di Stefano has been able to call upon some of his previous clients to help out.
"The album features Jonathan King's song 'Everyone's Gone to The Moon', which Jonathan very kindly let us use," he says. "Carmen also does a couple of numbers with Mr Boogie Woogie, who I represented once. His real name is Dave Taylor and I defended him when he was scandalously taken to court for trying to sell his council house."
Di Stefano says it's not his first foray into the music world. He also claims to have been the writer behind the famous Italian song "Rosse Rose".
"We're very excited about this," he adds. "Carmen's version of 'It's Impossible' also has Elvis singing on the track too. It's the first time he'll have done a duet since he sung with Ann Margaret."
Police work provides getaway for Sumners
Just where were the Sumners (Sting and Trudie Styler to you or I) during the recent employment tribunal brought by their former cook?
The pair, who were found liable for sexual discrimination and are now facing a possible record pay out, were strangely absent when the verdict was announced on Thursday.
According to the award-winning rock photographer Jill Furmonovsky, Sting was busy rehearsing for The Police's forthcoming comeback. Apparently, they're holed up at the singer's luxury pad in Tuscany.
"I was out there taking photos of the band a few days ago," she told me at the launch of the exhibition Memoirs from the Mosh Pit. "It was strange to hear them playing the old songs again but they still sound amazing."
Let's hope that the bad news from back home didn't disrupt their groove.
'Dynasty' duo come to blows
Girls, girls. A delightful catfight has broken out between former shoulder-padded on-screen rivals Joan Collins and Linda Evans.
The stars of the Eighties soap opera Dynasty are appearing in America in the play Legends. Over the weekend, a spokesman for Collins told a New York paper that the British actress had to visit hospital after Evans kicked her hand so hard in a scene that (horror) she can no longer wear rings on her right paw.
Evans denies the charge, but tension between the pair could be detected in Collins's Spectator diary last week. She wrote: "I'm happily married to a great guy, we live in London, New York and the south of France, I have three terrific children and three adorable grandbabies; Linda lives on a ranch in Washington state with lots of horses."
Santa's list
Here's one for any New Labour apologists out there still heckling the notion that the Blair years were a victory of spin over substance.
As recently noted, this column has spent the past 28 months pressurising the Prime Minister's office to reveal his 2004 Christmas list.
Two weeks ago, the Downing Street bods finally caved in and the request was granted.
Tellingly, it reveals that no fewer that 60 newspaper editors were included on the list, a staggering sum I'm sure you'd agree.
To put that in some sort of context, only 42 cards were distributed to the various government departments.
Pandora happily admits failing to name 60 newspapers, let alone 60 newspaper editors.
Osborne seeks a touch of 'Glamour'
As the nation awaits Gordon Brown's inevitable PR assault on middle England, his opposite number (for now), George Osborne, has already begun his bid to woo the female vote. I hear the boyish shadow Chancellor recently granted an intimate interview with the monthly glossy Glamour. Unfortunately, a spokesman for the magazine (the current issue includes features such as "You should be able to take a woman for a test drive") wouldn't disclose details about the interview. But if it reads anything like his boss David Cameron's one with rival rag Cosmopolitan last year we could be in for a treat. The Tory leader caused collective spluttering among his party's right-wing dinosaurs when he admitted to previously undergoing a check for sexual diseases.
