New father Galloway throws down the gauntlet
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
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Trouble brewing in the sweaty corridors of talkSPORT. Two of the radio station's presenters, the cat-impersonating MP George Galloway and the ranting Sun columnist Jon Gaunt loathe one another. Galloway says he has tired of Gaunt's goading and wants to shed the right-wing motorgob's blood.
"He called me a coward," says Galloway, once an amateur boxer in Dundee. "So I've thrown down the gauntlet to him: five rounds in [the Bethnal Green boxing venue] York Hall with a referee of his choice and proceeds to a charity of his choice."
The MP says he received a text message on Saturday from someone purporting to be Gaunt, "saying that he didn't like the [suggested] Queensbury rules and that he'd prefer a sumo wrestling contest". Galloway, who was last night "watching Raging Bull and shadow boxing in the corner", adds: "I'm going to chase that wee fat piggy."
Gaunt hid from my calls yesterday. He "despises" the Respect MP, dismissing him as an "anti-American, anti-British buffoon". Galloway, in turn, considers Gaunt's opinionated discharges "crypto-fascist ... like Richard Littlejohn, without the intellect and the wit".
Pandora will be there ringside with the water bucket and bloodied sponge, collecting the broken teeth to give away as reader prizes.
As an aside, I take this opportunity to congratulate Gorgeous George on becoming a father for the second time. At 12.20pm on Sunday, in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, his partner, Rima Husseini, gave birth to a baby boy. Fidel?
Comic turn: no crying over spilt Pinot Grigio
A fine crowd at the Royal Opera House on Saturday evening for Swan Lake: Rosamund Pike, Keira Knightley, James Nesbitt and the petrolhead Jeremy Clarkson. A guest of the ballet's sponsors, Audi, he said that he thoroughly enjoyed the production - although many ballets feature "elephants marauding around".
The comedian David Walliams kept things jolly in the VIP room during a potentially prickly interval. A young actress, enthused by Acts One and Two and several glasses of complimentary white wine, was demonstrating to Walliams her ability to perform multiple pirouettes. In so doing, she flicked her hair into the eyes of a passing male guest, causing him to empty his wineglass over his own head.
Walliams swiftly produced a £1 coin from his pocket, with which the young lady could placate the flashing-eyed tu-tu lover. And it worked!
Stuck in legal limbo
The life of an artist is rarely glamorous, so spare a thought for British collagist Michael Dickinson.
A leading light in the (anti-Turner Prize) Stuckist art movement, Dickinson faces a jail sentence in Istanbul, where he's up on the charge of being "anti-Turkish".
He was arrested there last year for exhibiting a collage portraying the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a dog receiving a pet-show rosette from the American President, George Bush.
"I have just received a court summons and await trial in October," he tells me. "It is a real nuisance because when they released me from jail after my arrest, I thought that was the end of it."
Unless British diplomats intervene, he could face up to three years inside. Let's hope that he never saw Midnight Express.
Over the moon
Bel Mooney, a grande dame of Fleet Street's agony aunt pages, will pick up her metaphorical knitting needles next month and cross town to join the Daily Mail's Saturday edition.
The columnist, currently a shoulder to cry on for Times readers, was persuaded to make the jump over several lunches with the Mail editor, Paul Dacre.
The services of Mooney, who was married to Jonathan Dimbleby for 35 years, do not come cheap: rumour has it that her new bosses will cough up a salary well into six figures, although Mooney emailed yesterday to say that "much as Paul Dacre admires it, he would not think the column worth such a whopping contract! Nor would I."
Just weeks ago, Mooney told her readers she was on the prowl for an "old-fashioned millionaire". No need!
No hole in polo players' game plan
Fair to say that polo players have something of a "Jack the lad" image. I hear that, in an effort to ensure our international team members focus on their game rather than the female spectators, polo's top brass have brought in the man who taught Jonny Wilkinson how to kick England to rugby World Cup victory.
Coach Dave Aldred, credited with giving Wilkinson the ice-cold mentality to hammer improbable goals, spent two days with the England polo players last week.
"He worked on slowing down our set plays, and told us that we need to 'train dirty'," says England international Malcolm Borwick. "We want to bring more professionalism to polo."
We'll be able to see the results at Gloucestershire's Beaufort Polo Club on 23 June, when England play New Zealand, who will be looking to avenge their defeat in last year's Cartier International.
