The Mail on Sunday: Gorby’s 80th Gala Party

Gorby’s 80th Gala Party

It was THE party of the year — well, so far — and stars from around the world gathered at the Royal Albert Hall last night to celebrate the 80th birthday of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at a lavish concert organised by his granddaughters. Dame Shirley Bassey, former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and A-listers Goldie Hawn, Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone graced the Red Carpet at the extravagant Gorby 80 gala to raise money for the newly inaugurated Mikhail Gorbachev Foundation, with special greetings provided by Bono, Bill Clinton and Sting.

Lighting up the red carpet wearing a vamped up prom dress was model/actress Milla Jovovich who confided that she was crippled with nerves at giving a speech: “The best gift I can give Mr Gobachev is to deliver my Happy Birthday message in pristine and faultless Russian — which is easier said than done. I’ve been practising all week!” Milla told me though she needn’t have panicked. After delighting the audience with her linguistic prowess in a heartfelt speech she later launched into a belting rendition of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’, giving Spicy songstress Melanie C (who performed) a run for her money.

Billionaire media mogul Ted Turner chatted to me about his rather exotic travel plans (more on that in this week’s column!) over honey-flavoured Beluga vodka cocktails. And during the interval I caught up with Milla Jovovich’s film director husband Paul Anderson, who admitted he is a hard task master on the set of his new film The Three Musketeers — a swashbuckling blockbuster remake of the original due to hit cinemas later this year.

“I’ve put the cast through Sword Fight boot camp to get the duel scenes authentic. It was hard core. When you see them fighting it is absolutely with real blades,” the director told me of his cast including wife Milla who plays baddie M’lady De Winter and Pride & Prejudice actor Matthew McFayden (sic).

“We’ve had some injuries. They’ve all dealt with blood and scrapes — all very quietly and stoically I might add. And Matthew was adamant, as were the rest of the cast, to do all their own stunts — the lads like to get stuck in.”

Comedy relief is provided in the shapely form of Matthew’s wife — Ashes to Ashes actress Keeley Hawes who is currently treading the boards in Rocket to the Moon at the National Theatre — and is the butt of many jokes on set:

“The funniest moments when we’re shooting are when Matthew’s wife Keeley arrives on location to visit him. She looks like this little midget amongst all us giant men. I’m well over six foot and the rest of the male cast are rather enormous. Keeley looks like a Russian miniature doll!” the director told me.

After the main concert the vodka continued to flow (it was a Russian party after all!) at the Vertu sponsored after party in Kensington’s Royal Garden Hotel where I bumped into property mogul Nick Candy and his girlfriend Holly Vallance.

“We have only got 22 properties remaining to be sold at One Hyde Park,” Nick Candy told me as he left the party.

“I’m about to sign the deal on another huge project — it’s going to eclipse the last one and it will be in London again,” Nick told me although he stayed schtum about when. “People keep asking when — all I’ll say is that we’re signing in the next few weeks.”

And so to bed!

By Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani for The Mail on Sunday.

(Source: mailonsunday.co.uk)