Party of the Week - A cracking time was had by all...

Emma Thompson and Cherie Blair hugged each other like long-lost friends outside the English National Ballet's party at London's St Martins Lane Hotel, before a gala Christmas performance of The Nutcracker.

Steven Berkoff was one of the first to arrive and grab a goodie bag, complete with its Swarovski crystal dangling on a red ribbon. Singer Dionne Bromfield, Amy Winehouse's goddaughter and protégée, bonded with Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, who was accompanied by her boyfriend, Dave Clark. Others keeping it in the family included pals Daisy Lowe and Jaime Winstone who were joined by Daisy's mother, Pearl while Sophie Ellis-Bextor arrived with her husband, Richard Jones, guitarist with The Feeling, and her two children as well as The Feeling's lead singer, Dan Gillespie Sells.

Gerald Scarfe, who designed the brightly coloured production of The Nutcracker, which is due for a revamp next year, mingled with the singer Joss Stone and the actress Tamsin Egerton while the fashion designer Matthew Williamson chatted to the model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who wore a full-length see-through dress. The ENB's youngest principal dancer, Begona Cao, who has also been dancing with Carlos Acosta in Apollo and Other Works at Sadler's Wells, wore full costume to hand out 3D glasses to watch the ENB's Swan Lake, which had been filmed for Sky 3D.

Guests munched on Hummingbird Bakery fairy cakes before heading next door to the Coliseum for The Nutcracker. Blair, who came with her daughter Kathryn, seemed to be more excited about spotting Strictly Come Dancing star Ian Waite among the guests at the party than she was about the ballet itself.