People
Carla Bruni comes to the aid of terrorist
Carla Bruni, the model turned singer and wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, is at the centre of a row (in her native Italy and in France) after it emerged that she
used her influence over her husband to halt the extradition of a hunger-striking, former left-wing terrorist leader back to... [continued]
Sarkozy affair claim in secret cop’s diary 
BBC’s John Simpson ‘expects to be sacked’
John Simpson, the BBC's veteran world affairs correspondent, has issued a grim warning about the effects of cutbacks at the corporation, claiming that old-style public service broadcasting is now in its "last stages". Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he said the Beeb was a "magnificent outfit"... [continued]
In brief: Abramovich and Dasha fare poorly on art power list
Roman Abramovich and his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova (above, centre) may well have splashed out millions of pounds on Bacons and Freuds, and even opened a
contemporary arts centre in Moscow (her enthusiasm, his money, it is believed), but all this effort appears to count for very little. In ArtReview's... [continued]
Dasha admits she knows little about art
Dasha opens the doors to her garage
Roman soothes Chelsea blues with art shopping spree
Lucian Freud and the missing model
Galleries hope to save Titians
Why is the duke selling his Titians?
Milan Kundera accused of informing
Milan Kundera (pictured in 1967) the dissident Czech novelist, has been accused of shopping a spy working for Western intelligence to the Communist secret police when he was
a student in the 1950s. According to documents released by the government-sponsored Czech institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the... [continued]
The Prague invasion remembered
Doughty on attack ahead of Booker prize
One of the judges of this year's Man Booker Prize for fiction, the novelist Louise Doughty (pictured), has launched an attack on male academics who sit on literary judging
panels. Doughty, who made her remarks on the eve of tonight’s announcement of the 2008 winner, said such men should not... [continued]
Salman Rushdie misses out on Booker
Lord Mandy wants security gates
No sooner has Peter Mandelson – or Baron Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool as he now styles himself – returned to Britain than the trouble begins. And as is often the
case with the ‘prince of darkness’, it concerns property. According to a report in the Independent, the newly-installed Business... [continued]
How Guyana brought out the bully in Mandy
In Town Last Night: Tory leaders turn out for Roberts’ book launch
Sotheby's auction house was the venue last night for the launch of historian Andrew Roberts' new book, Masters and Commanders (Allen Lane, £25). A gamut of prestigious guests turned out for
the event, including a rollcall of Tory leaders past and present (Thatcher, Cameron, Hague, Howard, Duncan... [continued]
More pictures
Lloyd Webber bids for £142m musical archive
When the daughters of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein announced they were selling off their fathers’ musical archive, which includes the rights to many of
their own musicals such as Oklahoma, Carousel and South Pacific, as well as works by Irving Berlin among others, we should have... [continued]
For sale: Rodgers and Hammerstein hits
Will McCain show up for David Letterman?
Senator John McCain, struggling in the polls, is to go on David Letterman's Late Show this Thursday, three weeks after he cancelled at short notice much to
the annoyance of the host. McCain's excuse was that he was postponing his campaign to go to Washington to work on the financial... [continued]
US Election: Obama heads for a landslide on November 4
