Pandora: Jo's keeping Ronnie in the picture
There is little doubt that Jo Wood has had her patience tested of late. What with her husband Ronnie's affair, then his claims that his mistress – a twentysomething Russian blonde – was responsible for his sobering up, few could blame the former model for wanting to sever all ties with the Rolling Stone.
Rather surprising, then, to see her turn out for an exhibition of his paintings at London's new Gallery Icon.
In fact, she insists that her estranged husband's art is still a subject close to her heart.
"I've still got loads of Ronnie's old paintings," she tells me. "I've got all the ones he did of me, plus other ones too. My favourite is a Jack Nicholson one where he looks really menacing."
Judging by the price of the works on show, her decision to keep the pictures may
be a wise one. At £2,000 a pop, the rocker's works could be a nice little nest egg.
Clegg aims to march in step with Webb
After unwittingly revealing the strained nature of his relationship with
certain colleagues, Nick Clegg will attempt to present a united front at the
weekend.
The Liberal Democrat leader, pictured, was left red-faced after a journalist
overheard him dishing out less than flattering assessments of his team
during a flight from London to Inverness.
Steve Webb, the party's climate change spokesman, reportedly came in for
particular flak, with Clegg describing him as a "problem" who he "couldn't
stand".
Things might be a little awkward, then, on Saturday, when Webb and Clegg are
expected to join forces for the National Climate Change March through the
capital. "As climate change spokesman, Steve has little choice but to
be there with Nick on Saturday," a party source tells me. "Things
are obviously tense between them right now, but it would only make things
look worse if Steve wasn't there."
Clegg's former rival for the leadership, Chris Huhne, is also said to have
come in for criticism – suggestions that he could be moved to the climate
change brief were evidently dismissed by Mr Clegg, who believed someone "more
emotionally intelligent" was required.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mr Huhne is not expected to attend Saturday's march. "We
don't think Chris has been asked," his spokesman tells me. "It's
not in the diary."
Who's partying with Bush?
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, pictured, will be among the more unlikely
guests hob-nobbing with President Bush over the weekend.
I hear that The Who members are heading to Washington to accept a prestigious
Kennedy Centre Honour for their services to the performing arts.
Let's hope their encounter won't prove too strained. After all, they haven't
always been the most outspoken of the President's admirers. When asked for
his prediction regarding last month's US election winner, Daltrey told an
interviewer: "With what George Bush has done...it is inconceivable to
me that Americans would vote in another Republican."
Hesketh falls foul of US red tape
Even blue blood and top-tier political connections aren't enough to avoid the
perils of red tape.
Well-bred socialite Sophia Hesketh, left, tells me her move to New York has
been blighted by bureaucratic hurdles. Lord Hesketh's daughter had to fly
back to Britain when airport immigration officials refused to renew her
visa. "I was pretty much bounced out," she complains. "Things
were going pretty fabulously work-wise but then this cropped up. I tried to
get it all resolved while I was out there, but they didn't see it that way,
so I've had to do a 6,000-mile round-trip. Talk about jet lag!"
Miliband coos at arrival of Clinton
A not-so-fond farewell from David Miliband to his opposite number in the US.
The Foreign Secretary bid Condoleezza Rice goodbye by admitting that
relations between the pair have not always been smooth. Writing his blog on
the Foreign Office website, he points out: "We have not always agreed
but always engaged." However, Mr Miliband wastes little time in
switching his attention to her successor, Hillary Clinton, who he is known
to prefer. He hails her as "a unique and diplomatic talent on the way".
It always rains on Tuttle's parade
America's soon-to-be former ambassador, Robert Tuttle, is clearly not feeling
too despondent about his imminent departure from the post. Asked in an
interview for this week's Country Life magazine what he would miss
most about life in Britain, the Californian former car dealer remarked
dryly: "The weather."
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