The contest is quietly starting for the prestigious post of chairman of the London International Financial Futures Exchange, which is up for grabs when Nick Durlacher steps down in May. Support is already lining up behind older directors on the 2

Sir: There is at least one exaggerated claim in Simon Calder's piece about Manchester ('Manchester versus St Petersburg: like choosing between rain and snow', 22 October). Sam Chippendale may have left Manchester with the longest lavatory wall in Europe - but surely not the ugliest building. As something of an aficionado of shopping centres, I would suggest that Manchester Arndale is a Cindy Crawford of the genre when set alongside the truly repulsive Tricorn shopping centre in Portsmouth - and the Tricorn has the awards to prove it.

It comes as something of a surprise in this era of thoroughly mixed media to encounter an exhibition called 'Discrete Images: Artists' Photographs'. Is this a retro attempt to resurrect the long-rested debate on whether photography is, or is not, art? This is a show, says the title, which has photographs by artists rather than by photographers; step inside and see the difference.

THE POPE, says one of his doctors, 'is neither mad nor senile, but in my opinion he is psychologically unwell' as a result of being shot in St Peter's Square in 1981. 'If you are a man who loves peace and you see a bullet coming towards you, the effect of such an attempt is very profound on the psyche, but it is not immediately noticeable,' according to Professor Corrado Manni.

FOR THOSE supermodel-spotters who are by now feeling rather tired of the winsome sweetness of Kate Moss, here's the antidote. Eve Salvail (pronounced Evv) is the 22-year-old French Canadian model who for the past two years, since she shaved her head and had her scalp tattooed, has been making them sit up on the front row of the international catwalk shows. A Sinead O'Connor among supermodels, she is noted for her beautiful-aggressive looks and a cavalier attitude to modelling agencies, which she changes with careless regularity. In fact, she says, she doesn't want an agency, just a manager, preferably her friend and companion Pina Rizzi, from whom she's rarely separated.

DAVID MELLOR, reviewing the newspapers on television at the weekend, complained that the press was full of advice for John Major. This was not entirely true. Admittedly, the possibility of a referendum on Europe was revealed to be the right's ransom demand for the hostage of Downing Street, but this seems likely to lead to the death of the hostage, while the Tory sects tear themselves apart again over the vocabulary and punctuation of the question(s) to be set.

Part of this summer's big adventure is dolly daydream, all long coltish legs, skinny arms and sun-scorched neck. Dressed in her teeny weeny dress, cut thigh-grazingly high, today's Lolita has an enviably effortless style.

IF THERE was an internationally accepted industry award for Biggest Hair in a Television Commercial, L'Oreal's Elseve Care Mousse Conditioner would be odds-on favourite to win. Into an office - clearly supposed to be in Manhattan - walks this huge pink power-suited model (a bit Cindy Crawford, a bit RuPaul), swaying as she goes, and around her head is flapping this enormous thing. The thing is in fact a shoulder-length wavy tumble of hair of such width and volume that it puts anyone within three feet in danger of whiplash. This, one sees, is supposed to represent every woman's fantasy: to possess a massive pillow of silken hair with the bounce and the height that all the beauty houses promise in their TV commercials.

IN THE PAST they've trawled through the supermodels - Naomi Campbell to Cindy Crawford - but now it's the turn of the latest Hollywood brat pack to front the Hennes campaign. Although they may have saved on the six-figure modelling fees, no expense was spared on hiring the photographer Bruce Weber for the shoot.

WITH models vying for the big screen (Naomi is rumoured to be in movie talks, Cindy is reported to be up for the lead in Death of a Supermodel and Christy has a television docu-drama of her life coming out in the United States in February), are actresses trying to claim model territory? Latest gossip is that young screen goddess Uma Thurman (of Mad Dog and Glory, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and of a recent Vogue cover) is to front a new perfume for Chanel. If the deal is concluded, she will join the ranks of Chanel actresses: Ali McGraw, Catherine Deneuve and Carole Bouquet. Chanel is saying nothing, but perhaps Carole Bouquet - the face of Chanel No 5 since 1986 - is bored with a contract that demands she turn up at all those shows.

There are few experiences more damaging to one's wellbeing than watching a dozen exercise videos in a row. Beautiful People beseeching you to look as they do while performing a string of sit-ups without breaking out under the arms is enough to send anyone screaming for the sweetshop.

WHY ARE men so hopeless at buying Christmas presents? Compare, if you will, this year's top-selling high street gifts for him 'n' her, as compiled by the Daily Mail.

NAOMI WOLF's career as the feminist spokesperson of a new generation ignited in 1990 with the publication of The Beauty Myth. But that was all of three years ago. Then, she was a 28-year-old student who felt that a false ideal of beauty 'checkmates power at every level in women's lives'. Now, she's a media star who feels that 'enough middle-class women have enough clout' to change the world.

Move over, Richard and Judy, it's the Cindy and Claudia show. While most spectators at the Chanel show in Paris were watching the catwalk, the real action was going on backstage for the cameras. Suddenly, television is where it's at.