With its great hall, facades and clergy hole, there can be few more beautifully atmospheric settings for a family Christmas than Spains Hall, the magnificent Elizabethan pile that Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools bought for £6 million in 2019.
But as the couple and their five children spend days celebrating Christmas in rooms now decorated with Christmas lights and hung with mistletoe, could they be haunted by the Ghost of Christmas (very recently) from the past?
The question is prompted by what appears to be the completely unwritten departure of Oliver’s CEO, Kevin Styles, 52, who only took up the role in 2022, amid much furor over a five-year plan he developed after six months of no-holds-barred efforts. analysis of Oliver’s empire.
That was in the wake of the crushing bankruptcy of Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain, which had collapsed in 2019 with debts of £83 million, leaving dozens of small suppliers thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of pounds out of pocket.
Jamie’s CEO at the time was his brother-in-law, Jools’ sibling Paul Hunt.
Styles, a father of six and, like Jamie, an Arsenal fan, had a track record of success at Vue Cinemas. He appeared to have repeated it for Oliver, whose two main companies reported last year that their combined turnover had risen by more than eight per cent to almost £30 million.
Jamie and Jools paid themselves almost £7million in dividends – ‘an absolute joke’ according to a creditor still owed almost £50,000 for the collapse of Jamie’s Italian chain.
Styles did not respond to my question about his departure, while a spokesperson for Oliver told me: “After almost 2.5 years, Kevin Styles is leaving to focus on new opportunities.”
Oliver’s CEO, Kevin Styles, 52, (pictured), who only took up the role in 2022
Jamie and Jools paid themselves almost £7million in dividends – ‘an absolute joke’ according to a creditor still owed almost £50,000 over the collapse of Jamie’s Italian chain
Sting MP’s Syria flight
Brooks Newmark, the former Tory minister who fell victim to a spicy gossip sting, will travel next month to Syria, which has just been taken over by Islamists.
“I want to see if I can meet one or two people from the management so that I can judge for myself what is going on,” he says. Newmark met deposed President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus before the civil war began.
He also met rebels, but “probably would not” have met the country’s new leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
When asked if this is because he may have cut off his head, he admits: “Yes, exactly.”
Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Still looking for your Kermit, Ivy?
This little piggy turned 30 when heiress Ivy Getty barely missed a snout at her wild costume party dressed as her favorite Muppet.
The great-granddaughter of billionaire J. Paul Getty wore a butterfly necklace and a colorful vintage Versace dress with blue straps and a green bust to match her Miss Piggy cake.
Ivy – who split from photographer husband Tobias Engel, 28, earlier this year – even wore the same makeup as the Muppet character.
Heiress Ivy Getty enjoys a wild 30th birthday party after her marriage falls apart. The great-granddaughter of billionaire J. Paul Getty wore a butterfly necklace and a colorful vintage Versace dress
Sienna brings glad tidings to St Paul’s
If Sienna Miller’s boyfriend, Oli Green, is worried about what to buy for Christmas, she may have dropped a few hints from behind the lectern in St Paul’s Cathedral.
Miller, 42, read The Twelve Days of Christmas – A Correspondence by John Julius Norwich in front of Green, 28, a fellow actor, at Blood Cancer UK’s carol service, attended by the charity’s patron, the Duke of Kent.
The parody piece records an increasingly bewildered young lady’s daily letters of thanks to her unseen admirer for gifts including eight milkmaids and the percussion section of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
“Oliver couldn’t stop laughing when Sienna recited it,” one guest tells me.
Sienna Miller speaks at Blood Cancer UK’s Christmas Carol concert at St Paul’s Cathedral on December 17, 2024 in London
Gavin and Stacey’s choc therapy
Before co-writing and starring with James Corden in Gavin And Stacey, Ruth Jones appeared with him in Fat Friends.
Off-screen, the Welsh actress, 58, also struggled to shed the pounds. “One of my attempts to lose weight was to go to a Paul McKenna workshop, a hypnosis,” she reveals. “I said if I could stop eating chocolate, it would be okay.” As part of the therapy, the actress thought about mushy peas, which she hates, while eating chocolate – and it worked.
“I didn’t eat chocolate for five years, I couldn’t stand the smell,” she says. “And when James and I were writing, some of the hotels we stayed in would put free chocolate on the pillow, and I would always test myself to see if I was still forgoing the chocolate, and I was.”
However, when she unsubscribed from emails from the McKenna workshop, she lost all willpower. On the Table Manners podcast, Corden says: ‘I went to the bathroom, came back and Ruth said, “Oh, my God,” and she held the chocolates to her mouth…’
Despite the alleged injury the night before, Mathew was all smiles on Wednesday as he reunited with his co-stars at the Gavin And Stacey: The Finale screening at the Ham Yard Hotel (left to right: Steffan Rhodri, James Corden, Joanna Page, Larry Lamb, Alison Steadman, Mathew, Ruth Jones and Robert Wilfort)
Some stars don’t even read the autobiographies they’re supposed to have written.
Novelist Candida Crewe reveals: ‘A friend of mine, a ‘ghost’, went to an event at his local bookstore and left seething.
‘The “author” was a celebrity on Strictly. During the question and answer session it became clear that not only had he not written his own book, he had never even read it.’
Candida (pictured) revealed during a question and answer session that it became clear that a friend of hers had not only not written his own book, but had never even read it
The Duke of Beaufort tells Ed Miliband, secretary of Net Zero: ‘Everything the super dork touches turns to s****.’
This has raised eyebrows among locals near his badminton estate.
They point to the Duke’s plans to capitalize on Ed’s ecological enthusiasm by covering his estate with a vast new solar farm.
The Duke of Beaufort tells Net Zero secretary Ed Miliband: ‘Everything the super dork touches turns to s****