Londoner's Diary: Fogle says he’s to blame for ‘Frankentrump’

Trump was all my fault, confessed Ben Fogle. Last night, The Londoner was sandwiched between the TV adventurer and his family at the opening night of Half a Sixpence at the Noël Coward Theatre: Ben’s mother, Julia Foster, starred in the 1967 film which followed on from the original musical Fogle, who counts princes William and Harry as close friends, lamented to The Londoner that he thought himself responsible for creating Frankentrump.

“He [Donald Trump] is the first reality show President,” he told me last night as the curtain was about to rise. “I have this slightly grandiose idea that I’m to blame for Trump because if you actually work it back, I did the very first reality TV show on both sides of the Atlantic: Castaway 2000.” Seems a bit tenuous but he might have a point: Castaway followed a group of 36 men, women and children tasked with building a community on the Scottish island of Taransay, near the Isle of Lewis, where Trump’s mother Mary MacLeod hails from. It was so successful it was picked up Stateside. “A show called Survivor came after, which was a diluted version of Castaway, and off the back of that came The Apprentice, which was a follow-up show to Survivor, with Trump at the helm.”

A bit fanciful, if you ask us. “It’s stretching it a bit far but I’m part of the bigger picture,” he said. “Isn’t the whole world leaning to the Right? It’s not just a Right-wing movement, it’s Right-wing meets celebrity.”

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Also at the Noël Coward theatre was Betty Boothroyd. The Baroness, former Commons Speaker and ex-Tiller girl, told The Londoner in no uncertain terms her view of today’s politics: “I feel very sad about what’s happening. Trump is out of his mind as far as Nato is concerned — it’s the defence of the West. The world is in turmoil and there doesn’t seem to be anyone to put a cap on it.” Is a return to politics on the cards? “No more politics,” She said, floating away into the crowd.

Donald Trump will always have Paris

PARIS Hilton and Donald Trump: both from real estate dynasties and both household names through reality television. So is it any surprise that Paris voted for the President-elect? “I’ve known him since [I was] a little girl, so, yes,” she told an Australian presenter yesterday.

Trump remembers her, too. “Her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’” Trump recalled to Howard Stern about meeting the then-prepubescent Paris in 2001. “At 12, I wasn’t interested… But she was beautiful.” More disturbingly, he then admitted to watching her sex tape, 1 Night in Paris, with wife Melania. The revelation begs the question of what the First Couple will be viewing at the White House.

Pump up the volume at Diesel

Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince from The Kills were out for a night of heavy bass and lightweight leather for the launch of Diesel's 49 rules for successful living at The Laundry in E8. Kate Moss once said her marriage to Hince blossomed after she persuaded him to abandon his veganism for a hungover bacon sandwich. Now their divorce is settled, has Hince has gone back to soy? Also at the party was presenter Billie JD Porter and her friend Fionnan Honan, a bonafide member of east London’s Bright Young Things. Pixie, Henry, Daisy et al were nowhere to be seen.

Does GOD play dice with the universe?

IT’S been months since the country voted for Brexit, with little progress. Welcome advice, then, from former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell — he signs his name GOD — who thinks a round of South American dice game Perudo could help the discussions. “It’s a great game because it reinforces in your mind that you need to work out probability, risk and uncertainty,” he tells The House magazine, “and secondly because just knowing these things is not enough: The best statisticians around the table very rarely win. Really, it’s about reading people. I play O’Donnell rules. Slightly different rules from the ones on the box… which are not quite right, but anyway.” O’Donnell rules, eh? That said, he has little time for those who take a lack of those in power’s lack of communication with the public as a sign of not knowing what they’re doing. “Surprise, surprise, the French can read Hansard,” he says. “If you’re playing this game of negotiation, you’re trying to get the best deal for the country. That doesn’t mean showing all your cards.” But he also says he is not being entirely trite in taking about games. “Those game theory behaviours… those are the skills we need in the Brexit negotiations. Absolutely.” Dice or cards, is Brexit an unwinnable game? In GOD we trust.

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One to watch is Max Johnson. A familiar surname? Yup. He’s the half-brother of Boris Johnson and lives out in Hong Kong, where he had been working for Goldman Sachs. Hong Kong Tatler has named Max — also a blond bombshell — as one of the island’s most eligible bachelors. Let’s hope his long- term girlfriend doesn’t mind.

Nick Jones, king of kings

Look on his works, ye Mighty, and despair. Last night Soho House chief executive Nick Jones, pictured right with his wife Kirsty Young, launched the group’s new coffee table book Morning Noon Night with a party at 76 Dean Street. The site is just one of his members’ clubs in the city, with locations also in the US, Barcelona and Istanbul to name a few. The book brings together touches of the group’s interiors, food and drink, and provides a glimpse into Jones’s home life with his family. Is he, we asked, aiming for world domination of Ozymandian proportions? “I love that,” he laughed, “but the plan is just to keep doing it until people stop loving it”.

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Elocution of the Day: after learning we’ve been saying Roald Dahl incorrectly — Roo-al not Rowld — Barbra Streisand follows suit. “Soft S — sand on the beach,” she tells W magazine.