Ferry’s Nazi apology

Relax. Bryan Ferry doesn’t really like the Nazis. Much.

In a rather unwise interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in Germany, Ferry, (61, and the singer with Roxy Music) went out of his way to praise Nazi aesthetics and iconography. “The way that the Nazis staged themselves and presented themselves, my Lord!” he crowed. “I’m talking about the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and the mass marches and the flags — just fantastic. Really beautiful.”

Not unpredictably, there has been a bit of a fuss about this. Now, Ferry has “apologised unreservedly for any offence caused”, (careful wording, that) insisting that the comments were made from an “art history perspective” and that he has no political love of the far Right. Although he is pretty keen on the Countryside Alliance.

(Joke. Don’t write in.)

We reported last week on the sacking of a CBS television producer after the presenter Katie Couric (salary reportedly $15 million), delivered a first-person video diary monologue that turned out to have been lifted, entirely, from Jeffrey Zaslow’s column in The Wall Street Journal. Now, it emerges that said producer, Melissa McNamara, was due to hold an online course for budding journalists on the Mediabistro website, from the beginning of May. The course has been postponed, with “new dates TBA”. At least disappointed students can probably read whatever she might have said somewhere else.

At the Women’s Lobby lunch yesterday, and in between, no doubt, much sensitive chat about things such as children, lipstick and ovaries, Alan Johnson discussed his iPod playlist. As well as Elvis Costello and the Beatles, Johnson praised the very now Kooks, Zutons and Arcade Fire. He also admitted that he listens to Arctic Monkeys only rarely. So much cooler than pretending otherwise.

We were surprised to learn, from a list of donors in The New York Times, that Gordon Brown has made a hefty financial contribution to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, the Mormon former Governor of Massachusetts. We were also surprised to learn that Brown is from Provo, Utah. Probably more surprised, actually, all in all.

The Mayor of Bath, we learn, is up for election against her husband’s ex. And, delightfully, they all live in the same house. Carol Paradise (the Mayor) lives upstairs with her chap, Dave Paradise, while his ex-wife, Shirley Paradise, is below. Obviously, upstairs Paradise is a Lib Dem. Startlingly, downstairs Paradise is not. She’s a Tory.

Postscript

Kimberly Stewart, the model daughter of Rod, had a table booked at The Wardour the other night. Turning up late (with David Walliams in tow), she was furious to discover that it had been given to a city high-roller — so furious that even his offer of champagne wouldn’t persuade her to sit elsewhere. “Rod would have taken the booze,” says the club’s owner, Peter Stringfellow, in disgust.

Marilyn Manson tells Le Parisien how divorcing Dita Von Teese in December left him “completely destroyed psychologically”. Still, onwards and upwards. Of his new girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood, 19, he chirps: “I’ve found my double, my twin. She understands I like to get up when night falls and go to sleep at dawn.” Bit like a bat.

Harvey Weinstein is not planning a modest follow-up to his unpopular film Grindhouse. The New York Post claims that his production of the musical Nine will star big names only. “I’m thinking Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger.” Not an “or” in sight.

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