Yahoo News Londoner's Diary: Spectator intern, 48, says you're never too old to hack it
IN 2015, actor Robert De Niro proved you’re never too old to re-enter the workforce in hit comedy The Intern. Now The Spectator is following suit with a surprising new hiring. Yesterday the magazine’s website published a blog by its new intern, Katherine Forster, who admitted that she’s not what you’d expect: rather than a precocious graduate, she’s a 48-year-old mother-of-three. She applied to The Speccy’s coveted internship programme, which has a no-CV policy, and while she’s hardly a match for De Niro in the age stakes she acknowledges that she is going against the grain.
“Taking an internship at my age is unusual,” she writes. “But not, I like to think, entirely illogical. For 15 years I’ve been subsumed by my children... Now, though, they are getting older and I’m once more thinking about my own life. What do I want? Well it seems what I really want is the writing career I never had.” She does, nevertheless, feel slightly out of place. “Yes, the others are young and bright,” she adds. “The young man next to me is studying politics at Cambridge. Yet here I am.”
Forster compares herself to Donald Trump, Kate Adie and Sir David Attenborough, who are still working past retirement age, and the piece is outperforming every other story on The Spectator website. Social-media users were quick to congratulate her — and editor Fraser Nelson — for bucking recruitment trends. So where does Katherine see herself in five years? Last night she told Radio 4’s Westminster Hour that she has her eye on the BBC. Watch out, Tony Hall.
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Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Soames has lost rather a lot of weight recently, and his fellow MPs have been highly complimentary. But transformations come with a price: GQ reports that the 69-year-old former Minister for Food has had to fork out around £5,000 to have all of his hand-tailored suits altered. Evidently his wallet is feeling a lot lighter now too.
By George, the Clooneys host a refugee
HATS off to George Clooney. The actor has told The Hollywood Reporter that he and his wife Amal have welcomed a Yazidi refugee from Iraq into their home. The young man is now a student at the University of Chicago after the couple vowed to help his education. The news may embarrass other celebrities, such as Bob Geldof and ex-footballer Stan Collymore, who have so far failed to deliver on their promises to do the same.
Singer Cher, however, will soon join the Clooneys: earlier this week she said she would house immigrants, but one Twitter follower was sceptical. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” they said. “Then keep your eyes open, bitch,” she hit back.
Quote of the Day
It scares me stiff, you cannot imagine" A friend of Brigitte Macron tells of her anxiety before she became France's First Lady.
Suits you sir. And supermodels
Menswear has never looked so good. Last night supermodel Claudia Schiffer was at the launch of Mr Porter’s new fashion collaboration with spy franchise Kingsman, and wore one of the range’s blazers. Schiffer was joined by her husband Matthew Vaughn, who directed the first film and its forthcoming sequel, while its star Mark Strong proved that he can outstyle Bond. Held at the site of historic wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, the building has been transformed into the tailors that, in the film, provides a front for espionage. Beats the MI6 building any day.
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Sylvie Bermann, outgoing French Ambassador to the UK, has one final wish before she bids farewell to London today to take up a new post in Moscow. She was recently granted the honour of Freedom of the City of London, which entitles her to carry an unsheathed sword through the city: “I am looking for a blacksmith,” she writes in The New Statesman. “If you know a good one, send them my way!” Vladimir Putin won’t know what’s hit him.
Keeping up with Joneses
To the Hotel Café Royal last night, where GQ editor Dylan Jones, pictured with actor Richard E Grant, launched his new book, David Bowie: A Life. The singer died last year and Jones, a lifelong fan, has attempted to compile a thorough biography. Was he feeling all Bowie’d out, we wondered. “No, actually I’m feeling very euphoric about it,” he said with a grin. “When you spend a lot of time with someone as a biographer you end up thinking that person is a lot less nice then you started out. When you interview 150 people you do get the true character of the man: David could be quite callous, very expedient and he used people. None of the people who perhaps felt he dropped in and out of their lives, not one of them felt aggrieved, which I find an achievement.”
Many attendees whispered that Jones may be up to the job of replacing Graydon Carter, the Vanity Fair editor who announced his resignation yesterday. Don’t go, Dylan!
Tweet of the Day:
"William and Kate, save time writing names on George’s new school uniform, by buying it all from Asda.” Tweeter Skills McGill has an ingeious suggestion for the Duke and Duchess of Cambrige.
Walkies of the day: More than 50 dachshunds will gather at the London Sausage Dog Walk, a fundraiser for the Red Foundation, in Greenwich Park on Sunday. Hopefully conditions won’t be too ruff.
Sienna and co show motherly support
London’s yummiest mummies descended on Mark’s Club yesterday to show their support at a breakfast thrown by paediatric Aids charity mothers2mothers. Guests included Sienna Miller — currently treading the boards in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof — Salma Hayek, founder Dr Mitch Besser and fashion designer Susie Cave. Mums know best.
Molly's more lippy than her dad
Molly Moorish, the stylish young daughter of Oasis's Liam Gallager and his ex Lisa Moorish, got lippy in a good way last night. She was among guests as Refinery29 and NARS Cosmetics celebrated the launch of their new female-led exhibition, Power Mouth, at the Protein Studios in Shoreditch. The show marks the arrival of the brand's Powermatte Lip Pigment, with revellers including Thomas Cohen and Petite Meller.
