THE LONDON SCENE
PARTY TIME: London’s more social this season than ever. And the most eagerly anticipated fete of Fashion Week was held Monday evening — a party and auction preview of “Unforgettable: Fashion of the Oscars” at Christie’s, hosted by Natasha Richardson, Anna Wintour, Janet De Botton, Lord Hindlip and AMFar. Simon Doonan designed the installations, and the event drew a mixed crowd from the arts, society and fashion, including Tom Ford, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Tommy Hilfiger, Bill Blass and Carolyne Roehm, Gianfranco Ferre, Stella McCartney, Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant, Joely Richardson, Lady Helen and Tim Taylor, Lord Jacob Rothschild, Charles and Maurice Saatchi, Rose Marie Bravo and Roberto Menichetti of Burberry, Lady Victoria Hervey, Lord John Somerset, David Furnish and Marguerite Littman.
FOR SALE: Sir Evelyn and Victoria de Rothschild are on the move — again — and their former house can be yours for a mere $22.9 million. The maisonette apartment in Belgravia is the most expensive ever to come on the market in London. The Rothschilds bought it in 1997 and have spent the last two years preparing the shell, but it seems that it will take at least another $2.5 million to get it ready for habitation. Don’t worry that the Rothschilds will be homeless, however — they’ve paid about $19.7 million for a Queen Anne house in Chelsea. Besides, they already have another house in Kensington worth $9.8 million, not to mention a country estate.
FREUDIAN QUEEN: Lucien Freud has finally relented and agreed to paint a portrait of the Queen. The artist, 76, has said he’ll do it, provided Her Majesty consents to pose for up to 72 sittings (her usual maximum is five) and comes to Freud to sit at his studio in West London (rather than at Buckingham Palace, where artists usually come to her). The negotiations were conducted by the Queen’s outgoing private secretary Sir Robert Fellowes. And whatever happens, it’s pretty certain the Queen won’t end up looking like one of Freud’s recent works — a nude of a pregnant Jerry Hall.