Page 16 Irish Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 14, 2012 Irish Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 14, 2012 life Page 17 An entire luxury resort. hired to serenade him. How old are you again? NE of his many rivals sighed this week that ON OUR daughter’s most recent trivial domestic stuff and there like tomatoes, Fionn only eats Philip Green’s lavish 60th birthday party is birthday, my husband wrote in is no room for it in their busy white bread and neither is going to be something a knees up with a His portrait picked out in fireworks. As king her card: ‘How old are you?’ He male brains. ‘I’ve got lots on at allowed to have anything champagne twist. Well, with a budget that said it was a joke, but I know work,’ is always his defence. containing nuts. But he still has already passed the €6 million mark, you would certainly hope for rivers of vin- better. He was not entirely And yet I know when he has makes brown bread peanut tage bubbly and a very special celebration indeed. sure if she was 11 or 12. He also meetings and where, as well as butter sandwiches with O The Topshop boss’s festivities kick off tomorrow when guests emailed me recently from the things I need to know for tomatoes.’ Although in Philip Green stages the birthday bash to beat them all. . . including Kate Moss and will gather at an airport in work asking me to ‘confirm the my own work — and, of course, fairness, men are not the only London to be flown to a secret location. full names and dates of birth of everything to do with our ones at fault: a mother I know The 150 guests have been asked to assemble, passports in hand, the family’ so he could book family. So just how can women who has two children two with a bag packed with clothes for hot weather. They will then flights. By ‘confirm’ he meant get their other halves to at years apart in age, but whose board a private jet and get the four-day party started. ‘tell’. Furthermore, he doesn’t least absorb some of the birthdays fall in the same Phil, who has a personal fortune of around ¤5.2 billion, hopes to know what classes the children details of family life? ‘I have to month, recently sent off their better his 50th birthday bash, which was a lavish toga party in Cyprus, with the birthday boy dressed as the Emperor Nero and are in at school. ‘Is that a new tell my husband something at passports for renewal. It was serenading guests. bag?’ he asks our daughter, least 50 times for it to sink in,’ only as she filled in the form So what is in store for the partygoers? three weeks after her says one friend. She was that she realised she had by Alison Boshoff Are you sure birthday, thinking he is bemoaning that, though her muddled up their birthdays scoring points by husband makes the and so had been celebrating BRING THE being observant, children’s packed them on the wrong day for FACTOR 50 and Nicole Lampert but failing to lunches before he their entire young lives. observe that the bag goes to work, he LIZZIE ENFIELD THE guests will be flying 8,000km across is the one ‘we’ gave rarely includes the Atlantic, though to maintain Philip’s surprise the Mail will not reveal whether bration buffet, prepared by chefs flown her as a gift. To him, things they actually ÷ Lizzie Enfield’s book, they’ll be partying in the Caribbean or Uncoupled, is out now over from Europe, is expected to be a and many men, this is eat. ‘Aoife doesn’t Central America. magnificent Japanese affair, as that is However, we can tell you that it is a Phil’s favourite chow. He is particularly five-star hotel that offers guests their keen on salmon teriyaki and gyu no 15 bottles of own private villas and pools. tataki — Japanese beef. The rooms alone will cost around €1,800 The party planners are budgeting on each and come complete with indoor- 15 bottles of champagne per guest.     outdoor bathrooms — bathtubs are open Philip’s favourite champagne, served to the stars and framed by walls of can- at previous parties, is Pol Roger, but not dles. Organic bug spray and lip balm are any old Pol. He and Tina like the Cuvee provided. The pillowcases are embroi- Winston Churchill, named after the Brit- dered, and the sand a powdery white. ish prime minister who was a fan. The villas are arranged around lagoons It costs €300 a bottle, which means a and waterways and guests are trans- staggering bill if his guests are thirsty ported noiselessly around the hotel by — which, bearing in mind Kate Moss boat. The resort sits on a beautiful coral Pol Roger per will be there, is a distinct possibility. reef and turtles can be spotted sunning Sapporo beer will be flown in for his themselves on rocks. One former guest great friend and business partner Simon said it was so idyllic that she cried when Cowell, who drinks nothing else. it was time to go home. GIVE US A TUNE THE GUESTS PHIL is a great attracter of interesting THE party will also celebrate his daugh- friends and there will be hot and cold ter Chloe’s 21st birthday, which was running celebrities for Cowell, Moss and earlier this month. her husband Jamie Hince to party with. So while in previous years Green has guest will be New chum Gwyneth Paltrow has been  booked older music acts such as George invited — with or without Chris Martin Benson, Earth, Wind And Fire, Rod — as has soprano , Stewart and Tom Jones, this time who performed at Green’s 55th birthday,   Rihanna looks set to be appearing. and is now in his social circle. The two got friendly thanks to an Others attending will include introduction by Simon Cowell at the billionaire property developer Nick Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados over Candy and his Australian fiancée, Christmas 2010. She will no doubt go Strictly Come Dancing contestant   down a treat with Chloe’s gang of friends Holly Valance, plus fellow property from TV series Made In Chelsea, in which moguls Robbie and Vincent Tchenguiz Ms Green appeared. — Iranian brothers who own vast enough, Phil? This year his wife Tina is organising the amounts of residential property entertainment as a surprise. Adele has around Europe.    been asked, but has apparently declined Well-connected businessman David with thanks. However, Bruno Mars, a Tang will be there, plus Scottish entre- Hawaiian-born singer who was last year’s preneur Tom Hunter, a billionaire thanks best digital selling artist, will be there, as to the sale of his sporting retail company will the rather more illustrious Stevie Sports Division. Chloe’s friends will Wonder — a remarkable coup. include Alexandra ‘Binky’ Felstead, who  The going rate for these performers is appears on the TV series Made In staggering — somewhere between Chelsea, and possibly New York actress     €900,000 and €1.5million for a 45-minute Emma Roberts, niece of actress Julia. set, with Bruno Mars on the lower rate Unsurprisingly, given the calibre of the and Stevie Wonder on the top whack. guests, there will be substantial security The total bill for all three, who will per- at the party — at least 20 close protec- form separately, tops €3.75million. tion professionals, many of them trained  by the Israeli secret services. The bill for OOH, AHH four days and nights of vigilance will again be astonishing: €300,000 or more. !  $!!$' IT WOULDN’T be a party without Pictures: fireworks and Mrs Green, who is WIREIMAGE / COSTUME DRAMA GETTY / masterminding the bash, has turned to PHOTOSHOT Fantastic Fireworks to help her organ- IT IS only natural that having made his ise a spectacular display. They created fortune from clothes, Phil is partial to a  # "" "%"   "  &" fireworks shaped like palm trees for bit of dressing up. His turn as the Phil’s 55th bash and also put on a show Emperor Nero on his 50th has never been Party central (from left): Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Tina and Philip Green  &       & &   at Simon Cowell’s 50th. forgotten. But what about this time? This time, apparently they are working It seems that the idea of a 1952 party — suggested there could be an appearance in whose name the businesses are owned, IT’S A GIFT on a firework portrait of Green himself in in honour of his birth year — was consid- by Uggie the dog, currently the hottest to receive dividends without paying lots the sky. The cost? At least €180,000. ered. But demob suits and Spam fritters star in Hollywood. Pawfect! of tax. Meanwhile, her husband shuttles from A MEASLY scented candle just won’t do in were considered insufficiently glamor- a suite in a hotel in London to Monaco for some circumstances, and these are they. POSH NOSH ous. Now the suggestion is there will be a YES MILADY family time at weekends. Phil’s wife bought him a solid gold Monopoly   party based on the Oscar-winning film But it was she who chose party planners, set worth €300,000 for his 50th. Tasteful! THERE will, of course, be numerous The Artist, with beaded flapper dresses PHILIP’S wife tends to stay out of the Banana Split of Colindale in London, known What on earth will she get him this time? meals over the four days of celebration. for the ladies and white tie and tails for limelight — she became a resident of the for their flashy ‘anything goes’ style. They Some of the food will be Thai, which is the men, all supplied by the genial mine tax haven of Monaco some 12 years ago. It’s were also behind the now famous shark tanks DARLING, IS    the speciality of the hotel. But the cele- host. One London socialite even an arrangement that has allowed Tina, at Simon Cowell’s 50th. IT TOO MUCH?   EVERYONE else is well aware of the reces- THE boy-thief sprang from the shadows as we could have swatted him away like a fly.’ coast of California we ran into thick fog. sion, and Philip’s — Topshop, dawdled back to our hotel after dinner on a sum- Suddenly, I realised that my strapping, Four hours later, I was almost hysterical. and — has not been A COWARD mer’s night in Havana. He tried to wrestle my bag pentathlete boyfriend: he was cowardly But Vernon was cool-headed courage in immune to falling profits, redundancies and store closures. off my shoulder. I resisted, but he yanked hard, and we had no future. Of course, women motion. He kept the helm, spoke to the In the circumstances, then, ought the kicked me fiercely in the shins and spat something have never given cowards an easy ride, coastguard on the radio, checked the Greens to be splurging quite so much DIES MANY at me in Spanish. But I felt reassured that my boy- and psychologist Dr Michael Mantell Global Positioning System, calmed me on a party? friend at the time — three times the size of this thinks he knows why. ‘Courage suggests down and instructed me in putting In truth, the bill is just a drop in the ocean scrawny Cuban street kid and a one-time karate a man can offer a woman physical and together grab-bags (flares, torches, for a man with his personal wealth. One TIMES champion — was beside me. ‘Leave this to me,’ emotional protection. It’s the coura- bottled water, a portable GPS) in case source close to Phil said: ‘He knows how Alex said, stepping manfully forward. ‘Give me geous one who will succeed in the jun- we ended up in the water. That evening, some people will view it and that is why he has been keen to hold it abroad and out of the bag.’ Alex must have a cunning plan, I thought, gle, and women find that reassuring.’ I looked at him in awe, filled me with Personal BEFORE before watching incredulously as he blithely My former boyfriend Vernon was never pride and love. And so to Shakespeare: the public eye. (&%**   * *  * !.*#+-*  * .** ** ‘Actually, he’d rather no one knew about friend:  !*#+*  )*'"#'.**#$&*!.**!* *  ** ** handed my bag to the thief, who then ran off. His someone I thought of as particularly ‘Cowards die many times before their it. At the same time, he thinks it is his reasoning: ‘Well, it would have been stupid to put brave until, sailing in a 10metre boat deaths’. I couldn’t agree more. Soprano   *  * ** * .*%**"$#$'$,,"" money and ultimately he should be free to do Katherine    HIS DEATH up a fight.’ ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘He wasn’t armed. You towards Catalina Island off the southern MANDY APPLEYARD exactly what he wants with it.’ Jenkins