{"id":1239,"date":"2010-07-02T16:56:17","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T15:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2010-07-02T17:06:18","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T16:06:18","slug":"poor-little-rich-gays-flock-to-cap-ferrat-ralph-kitto%e2%80%99s-50th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=1239","title":{"rendered":"Poor Little Rich Gays Flock to Cap Ferrat: Ralph Kitto\u2019s 50th Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday 2nd<\/sup> July 2010<\/p>\n

You remember Ralph Kitto:\u00a0 important art collector, his Damien Hirst mistaken for a Plasma screen TV by some half-witted glamour boy, once received the Friends of the Tate, visiting his pictures, with biked-in pizza, always available for gossip if you phone him at the bank. Kind face, sees what\u2019s going on, not a massive shopper except for Damien Hirst, Gilbert and George etc.<\/p>\n

Ralph weekends all through the year at Cap Ferrat, has a house there, as do a large number of other Poor Little Rich Gays. It\u2019s quite a set. Can we join it? There are floods of invitations and, for the daytime, beach work on serviced private beach. But costly. A modest bung is 7 million euros. \u00a0Sol Weidenwar, the staggeringly entrepreneurial friend of Laura Malcolm and Matt Driver, is said to go down Business Class: \u00a330,000 a year<\/p>\n

I was bidden to the Cap for the double celebration of Ralph\u2019s 50th<\/sup> birthday. Astonishingly two other guests, slight acquaintances, were on the Easy horror from Luton, one an Indian price who annexed my aisle seat and, even on arrival, did not wake up. The other, Ludovico, (an Italian banker: early 30s, black curly hair to the collar like an opera singer, doesn\u2019t use moisturiser: I was thrilled with him) said to the attendant: \u2018Look, you\u2019ll have to get a doctor. He\u2019s used to servants.\u2019<\/p>\n

Minus the Prince, who seemed to assume a car would appear, we gained Cap Ferrat by two buses. Taxis from Nice airport are 100 euros and you have to get up an investment syndicate to afford one. \u00a0Ludovico was outraged at the 4 euro bus ticket. He told me he goes to work on a moped. Later in the summer he will be at Mykonos where he foresees 50 euro a head dinners: \u2018For Greek food! With their debt problem they should be paying me.\u2019 You have to supply the operatic Italian declamation mixed with grand London homosexual. The bus was far from ideal.\u00a0 He has recently been seriously ill, spent months in the Cromwell (that\u2019s a private hosp) and, on top of everything, had been over-trained by his personal trainer. \u2018It takes me twenty minutes to get up the stairs,\u2019 he said. His legs were done in.<\/p>\n

We arrived at the Cap. Very agreeable quiet hum of money, manicured hedgerows, trees and plants,\u00a0 exclusive models of luxury cars, joggers, cyclists, roads lined with baronial gates behind which might be a modest 7 million euro hutch with another next door. But many looming mansions as well. Ludovico went off to the Ralph Kitto place while I engaged with the little 3 star Hotel Panoramic and began agitating about how to get to the prelim Ralph Kitto birthday party that night in Villefranche s\u00fbr m\u00ear, to be given by some people somehow connected to the Conran empire.<\/p>\n

Fortunately a delightful flower-arranging and hospital-building couple, also in the hotel,\u00a0 were willing to let me buy into their taxi stake-holding and we purred up the hill in a Mercedes truck with the millionaire driver speaking implausibly perfect English \u2013 perhaps a machine. 40 euros for ten minute ride.<\/p>\n

So, there we were, in an extraordinary almost invisible house half way down a cliff, just some minimal glass and cement cubes pinned to the rock, with lawns and a tiny railing holding death at bay 100 feet below. But glamour and romance, there\u2019s no denying it, with the moonlight trailing on the Mediterranean and all the exclusive umbrella-pines of Cap Ferrat in view. I wore some very difficult black nylon Prada slacks, bought last year in despair because there was nothing else, but which have got more easy at the waist I\u2019m glad to say (although there\u2019s no question of sitting down).<\/p>\n

The guests: Kazudant, who frocked Diana, in figure-hugging net with pecs, which were a feature generally.<\/p>\n

Various fabulous Internationals.\u00a0 One said, \u2018I came British Airways,\u2019 indignantly \u2013 when asked if his flight had been delayed. \u00a0He had a bleach theme going: teeth bleaching had been a disaster. He\u2019d had to smoke 40 a day to get them natural-looking again. Later he wondered whether \u00a0the flower-arranger\u2019s hair-bleach had penetrated his brain \u2013 the remark not forgotten by its victim the next day or the day after.<\/p>\n

Two Norse mini-Gods, young, blond, whippy and gorgeous;\u00a0 their luggage was trapped at Amsterdam, had had to emergency re-frock. Ralph explained: \u2018I met them at the beach. They asked if I\u2019d mind giving them a lift. MIND! What could be more perfect? An open-top car with them in it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Simeon Bond, said to be seriously multi (as in millionaire), unexpected, only known to me from the Harry Rollo world, performed psychic exercises. Yes, I did feel the force on my hand and I don\u2019t believe in that kind of thing at all.<\/p>\n

An Australian greatness in real estate at Monaco pointed out the Safra villa, visible below. Do you remember Safra? Massive banker burned to a crisp in a fire at Monaco. The villa belongs to his widow. She sold it to Russians for 500 million euros but the deal fell through in the credit crunch. She kept the 50 million deposit though and gave it all to charity. Quite a nice villa, with views of flats\u2019 blocks.<\/p>\n

This person also told me about a man in London, known to Rufus Pitman and the brainy Poor Little Rich Gays, I\u2019m sure, who lives in a tiny flat, but with butler. Butler greets guests at the door; the grandeur sits three feet away in the sitting room. When they\u2019re shown in he does a brilliant impression of it being the first he\u2019s heard of it.<\/p>\n

To be con’t<\/p>\n

\"Poor

Poor Little Rich Gay Accommodation on Easy Jet <\/p><\/div>\n

\"View

View from the Prelim Party. Safra Villa Garden on Left<\/p><\/div>\n

\"100

100 Million Euro Villa on Cap Ferrat - in Restauro<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pillared

Pillared Driveway on Cap Ferrat<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 2nd July 2010 You remember Ralph Kitto:\u00a0 important art collector, his Damien Hirst mistaken for a Plasma screen TV by some half-witted glamour boy, once received the Friends of the Tate, visiting his pictures, with biked-in pizza, always available for gossip if you phone him at the bank. Kind face, sees what\u2019s going on, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1246,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}