One night last June, 400 A-list guests and several packs of wolves descended upon Althorp, the ancestral home of the late Princess Diana. The guests - who included Orlando Bloom, Elle MacPherson, and Salman Rushdie - had been invited to attend a fund-raiser for the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation, which helps childhood cancer victims in Russia. The wolves, who were led about the estate on leashes, had been hired to provide ambiance - specifically, that of a "Russian midsummer fantasy." Creating a tableau that, according to the London Times, not even "Keith Richards at the creative summit of his hallucinogenic powers could have conjured up," the wolves and celebrities were joined by a bejeweled camel, Cossacks on dancing horses, people in eighteenth-century costumes sitting in trees like a "scene from a Watteau painting," and - for a touch of contemporary flavor - U2's Bono, via video link from Dublin, and the hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas. After a dinner that included jellied borsch with smoked sturgeon and golden Osetra caviar, the guests took part in a charity auction, bidding for prizes: a private dinner with co-host Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow; a flight in a MiG fighter jet; and, for those yearning to experience the tough love of the Putin regime, a night in a Russian maximum-security prison. Courtesy Dave Benett/Getty ImagesThis extraordinary party, wolves and all, was underwritten to the tune of $2.3 million by Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB spy who now owns one-third of Aeroflot-Russian Airlines. The elder Lebedev maintains his primary residence in Moscow, but his 26-year-old son Evgeny went to British schools and now lives in the upscale neighborhood of Knightsbridge. The Lebedevs are part of a new generation of Russians who have invaded London, rippling Britain's aristocratic classes more than any group since the Arab sheiks arrived in opec-fueled limousines in the 1970s. These days, the main dining rooms at the Ivy and Cipriani are as likely to be tinkling with Russian as English. London real estate agents have estimated that 20 percent of all houses sold for over $10 million are sold to Russians. Of those sold for over $30 million, the figure climbs to 50 percent. "Today, effectively, the Russians are the richest buyers we've got," says Trevor Abrahamson of Glentree Estates.
Courtesy Dave Benett/Getty ImagesThis extraordinary party, wolves and all, was underwritten to the tune of $2.3 million by Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB spy who now owns one-third of Aeroflot-Russian Airlines. The elder Lebedev maintains his primary residence in Moscow, but his 26-year-old son Evgeny went to British schools and now lives in the upscale neighborhood of Knightsbridge. The Lebedevs are part of a new generation of Russians who have invaded London, rippling Britain's aristocratic classes more than any group since the Arab sheiks arrived in opec-fueled limousines in the 1970s. These days, the main dining rooms at the Ivy and Cipriani are as likely to be tinkling with Russian as English. London real estate agents have estimated that 20 percent of all houses sold for over $10 million are sold to Russians. Of those sold for over $30 million, the figure climbs to 50 percent. "Today, effectively, the Russians are the richest buyers we've got," says Trevor Abrahamson of Glentree Estates.
Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine
