People - Here, There and Everywhere
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Worst feared as Fossett vanishes
MILLIONAIRE adventurer Steve Fossett has survived a series of terrifying situations while breaking around 120 world records in planes, gliders and balloons. Now friends, family and admirers are hoping that the 63-year-old, who was reported missing yesterday after taking off in a single-engine plane across the Nevada desert, manages to cheat death once again.
Fourteen aircraft have been searching for Fossett over an 
area of 7,500 square miles. The search is being hampered because the American, who was out scouting for dry lake beds suitable for an attempt on the land speed record, did not file a flight plan.
He is not carrying a parachute or a satellite phone, and although his plane was fitted with a locator that sends a satellite signal after a rough landing, no alert has been received. Maj Cynthia S Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol said: "It is a very large haystack, and an airplane is a very small needle, no doubt about it."
But the British explorer David Hempleman Adams said: "Steve is an extremely experienced pilot, so for him a journey like this would be just a regular flight. If something has gone wrong then it is probably mechanical.''
Sir Richard Branson, who financed many of Fossett's adventures, said: "Steve is a tough old boot. I suspect he is waiting by his plane right now for someone to pick him up."
Steve Fossett: a life in pictures 
$12m Helmsley will dogged by Trouble
WHEN Leona Helmsley (below) left $12m to her Maltese terrier Trouble in her will - as reported on this page last week - the bequest came with a directive to her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, to take care of the dog. Trouble is, Alvin’s refused. "He doesn't want it," said a family acquaintance. And so the pampered pooch is being cared for by the servants on the late 'Queen of Mean's' Connecticut estate.
It gets worse. A former housekeeper at Helmsley's Manhattan home is trying to sue Trouble for biting 
her. The dog, who likes to be fed her gourmet meals by hand, is well known for biting servants - often to her late owner's delight.
Helmsley's brother isn't the only one ignoring her orders from beyond the grave. Officials at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery say they will not be able to honour Helmsley's wish to have Trouble buried at her side - when the time comes - because dogs aren't allowed to be buried in human graveyards in New York state.
September 5: Tim Burton is awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film festival by friend and colleague Johnny Depp (above).
September 6-15: Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett are just a few of the A-listers expected to attend the Toronto Film Festival.
Valentino’s farewell to fashion
THE fashion designer Valentino Garavani has bid 'addio' to the world of haute couture, announcing his retirement as head of the fashion group that bears his name. It brings to a close 45 years of making clothes for the world's most (continued below ad)
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(continued from above ad) beautiful women – from Jackie Onassis and Audrey Hepburn in the 1960s to Cate Blanchett and Uma Thurman today.
The 75-year-old's departure comes fashionably late. Many expected the announcement at a spectacular series of parties, exhibitions and fashion shows staged in Rome a month ago to celebrate Valentino's 45th anniversary at the helm of the company. The events were attended by 1,300 socialites and celebrities, including Mick Jagger and Princess Caroline of Monaco.
During the Rome extravaganza, Valentino said that he would step down "when I am ready" and insisted that he had no "immediate plans" to quit. But yesterday the designer said: "It was a moment that will be impossible to repeat. And as the English say, I would like to leave the party when it is still full."
British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman told The First Post today: "Valentino's glamorous vision will be a big loss. He is a designer who really understands how women dress - and how men like them to dress. His great success has been in maintaining his belief that women should look pretty and sexy no matter what direction fashion has moved in."
Younger designers in the frame to replace Valentino at the company include Alessandra Facchinetti, who spent a year as creative director of women's wear at Gucci in 2004, and Stefano Pilati, the Paris-based head designer for Yves Saint Laurent.
Valentino's spectacular Rome party
More stars join Bush bashing
HOLLYWOOD actors Richard Gere and Charlize Theron (below) have joined a chorus of stars taking swipes at the Bush administration at the Venice Film Festival.
Gere attacked the President while promoting his new film The Hunting Party. The film 
has nothing to do with Iraq, but with the Bosnian war.
Gere plays a reporter determined to track down the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadizic, charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. "What's interesting to me is how do the bad people among us end up our leaders?" asked the 58-year-old actor. "How did we elect Bush twice?"
Theron, 32, stars with Tommy Lee Jones in the Iraq war film In the Valley of Elah. She said: "The thing that upset me most was the manipulation that our government did towards our people - manipulating them to believe that if they weren't for the war, they weren't patriotic."
The film is one of two anti-war movies looking hot for awards when the festival closes on Saturday. The other is Brian De Palma's Redacted which has stunned audiences with an uncompromising reconstruction of the real-life rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her and her family by US soldiers.
Kate swops Pete for sexy veggie
SUPERMODEL Kate Moss appears to have found a new boyfriend after giving Pete Doherty the heave-ho. He is Jamie Hince, another musician, but so straight compared with drug-addled Pete that he was named in a poll this year as one of the world's top ten sexiest vegetarians.
Hince, 34, is guitarist with the band The Kills. He lives with his American band partner Alison Mosshart. Alison was not his girlfriend but - small world - did once date Jefferson Hack, father of Kate's four-year-old daughter, Lila-Grace.
Klaxons crash ladies’ night
EVERYONE was expecting it to be ladies' night at the Mercury Prize ceremony, so the crowd let out an audible gasp when host Jools Holland awarded the £20,000 prize to 'nu-rave' group Klaxons rather than the favourites Amy Winehouse or singer-songwriter Natasha Khan (above) , better known as Bat For Lashes.
But 23-year-old Winehouse also surprised the audience by putting in an appearance last night to perform a stunning version of Love is a Losing Game from her nominated second album, Back to Black. The singer, who has only just returned from a Caribbean holiday after being hospitalised for a suspected drugs overdose, then returned to her corner table, where she passionately kissed her husband Blake Fielder-Civil before sitting down between him and her father Mitch.
The Klaxons, a three-piece from southeast London, whooped with elation when the award was read out, while Winehouse clapped politely. The judges called their album, Myths of the Near Future, an "ecstatic musical adventure" and said the decision had been unanimous.
The band's singer Jamie Reynolds, his leg in plaster after a misguided stage dive in France six weeks ago, said the band weren't surprised to have beaten Winehouse. "She is fantastic," he said, "but her record is a retro record, and we have made the most forward-thinking record since I don't know how long."
THE Annual GQ Men of the Year awards took place last night at the Royal Opera House, and these arbiters of suavity and success drew more names than you could shake a stick at. Divine beings such as Elle Macpherson (above) and Naomi Campbell topped-up the extremely high quotient of beautiful people in attendance.
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Cancer charity heroine dies
TRIBUTES have flooded in for Jane Tomlinson, who has succumbed to breast cancer after a seven-year battle with the disease, during which she 
raised more than £1.75m for charity by undertaking a series of epic endurance tests. The mother of three, who had been given six months to live in 2000, managed to complete a 2,500-mile "Rome-to-home" bike ride, run the London marathon while on chemotherapy, and achieve the gruelling Half Ironman combination of a 13-mile marathon, 56 miles on a bike and a 1.2-mile swim in under six hours.
"We are heartbroken,” said her husband Mike and three children. “We feel honoured to have been blessed with such a wonderful person."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown added: "Jane's mission was to make the most of every day and to help others. She not only achieved it but inspired millions." She died at St Gemma's hospice in Leeds, one of the many causes she raised money for.
Doctor Who actor David Tennant (below) is to guest-star in the Christmas episode of the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras... Diana Rigg has opened to good reviews in a stage version of Pedro Almodovar's film, All About My Mother, at London's Old Vic... Patience Wheatcroft, editor of the Sunday Telegraph, has resigned unexpectedly after 18 months in the job... Nicole Kidman (below) has revealed she suffered a 
miscarriage during the early years of her marriage to Tom Cruise... The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury, who owned 270,000 acres and was the former MP for Edinburgh North, has died aged 83
