MARC QUINN created the iconic Fourth Plinth statue of fellow artist Alison Lapper pregnant in 2005 and is now set to work on a new exhibition with Lapper.
“We’re doing an exhibit next year but we haven’t decided where yet,” Lapper said at the Creative Arts party at the National Gallery earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Quinn told us: “In regard to a show with Alison Lapper, this is just a concept at this stage and there are no details confirmed at present.”
The huge, 13-tonne statue stood in Trafalgar Square for two years between 2005 and 2007. It depicted Lapper, who was born without arms and has shortened legs, when she was pregnant with her son Parys.
The statue had been sitting in the garden of the Earl of Stafford, who is the father of Quinn’s ex-wife, Georgia Byng. It was carted off in a lorry after his former in-laws decided to move house and no longer had the space to house it. It had been due appear in Russia for an exhibition in the Hermitage Gallery in St Petersburg later this year. A spokesperson for Quinn explained to us: “Marc did have plans for a show [in Russia] but this was cancelled in response to the ongoing war”.
Love’s a one-way street for Mae
COMIC MAE MARTIN confessed their admiration for Graham Norton to us on the red carpet at the Royal Television Society Awards. “I love Graham Norton — I love the guy,” the star and creator of Netflix show Feel Good told us. Martin also called the Irish presenter “the best interviewer” and “an icon”. But when we asked Norton what he thought about Mae, he replied: “Mae Martin who?” Unrequited love.
Tribute to the best turner-upper
NICHOLAS COLERIDGE has paid tribute to a man after The Londoner’s own heart — magazine supremo Terry Mansfield, who used to run publishers Hearst. “He was the champion turner-upper, an Olympic class turner-upper,” Coleridge told a memorial service in Kensington for the late publisher. “If there was a launch of a new fragrance or lipstick, anywhere at all, Terry turned up.” The V&A chair mused: “How many events and launches and magazine fairs and advertising galas did Terry turn up at? Over his 60 years? 20,000? 30,000? If he attended 10 events a week, which is perfectly plausible, that’s 42,000”. Stonking.
Dinner at the Ritz with added Bassey
WATCH out next time you dine at the Ritz — Dame Shirley Bassey might pop out and perform. Comedian Rob Brydon recalls going to eat with her and David Walliams in a curtained-off area of the Ritz, the day after Brydon had presented the Standard’s film awards. “At one point she says, ‘right I’ve got to go to the little girls’ room’,” Brydon tells the Out To Lunch podcast. Dame Shirley was gone about five minutes before suddenly she returned, “flung open the curtain” and burst into song while draping her arms around the guests. Brydon adds she performed “a verse and a chorus… it was sublime.”
Away from the Abbey, it’s a red carpet day
PRINCE ANDREW’S appearance at the well-attended thanksgiving service for Prince Philip wasn’t the only show in town yesterday. At the RTS awards, Keeley Hawes, Vick Hope and Claudia Winkleman glittered under less scrutiny. Elsewhere, musicians Gillian Maguire and Mimi Xu were at a celebration of Yoko Ono at Louie London, while actress Cush Jumbo went down to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for a BRIT bash.
SW1A
AT a dinner in London last night, held by friends to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sir John Major’s election victory in 1992, the former Conservative PM told guests that he had chosen the date because it was the anniversary of his first meeting his future wife Norma. He hoped to be lucky a second time. He was lucky indeed: the Conservative party got more votes in 1992 then they have ever done before or since.
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DOWNING STREET’s revolving door is spinning as the Prime Minister changes his staff following partygate. Caroline Newton is the latest to join No 10 as a special adviser — she worked with Johnson when he was mayor and was a colleague of comms director Guto Harri, Steerpike notes. Old faces become new.
