He was paid up to £117million during his time working for Facebook owner Meta, but Sir Nick Clegg has revealed that he got in trouble as soon as he arrived at the tech giant’s headquarters in California after upsetting the ‘woke’ staff.
‘There were posters around the place that used these slightly hackneyed sayings [such as] ‘Bring your authentic self to work’,’ he says.
‘To break the ice in a rather British, House of Commons way, I tried to make them [his new colleagues] feel at ease by saying, ‘Please don’t bring your authentic self to work. Bring your inauthentic self to work. I’ll bring my inauthentic self to work from nine until five, then you can be as authentic as you like in the evenings, and we’ll all get on perfectly well.’
Sir Nick, 58, tells a Wimbledon Bookfest audience in London that this was met with ‘absolute stony silence’ among the ‘very earnest-looking millennials in T-shirts’ who would be reporting to him.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has revealed he upset staff at Meta over remarks on being your authentic self
‘Someone came up to me after and said, ‘We’ve had some disquiet. Would you like to go on a course?’ – to wash my mouth out.’ The notion of ‘bringing your whole self to work’ and the term ‘authenticity’ is a common injunction in many US workplaces, not least within the tech sector. For example, Meta’s former human resources chief Lori Goler once praised Facebook founder and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg for being ‘so human and authentic with our team’.
Former deputy prime minister Clegg admits such jargon came as a culture shock.
‘I came from Westminster, where the humour is often pretty fruity… [and] constantly used to make a point to break the ice and so on and so forth.
‘Silicon Valley is a very earnest place, much more than the facetiousness and sarcasm and humour of a place like Westminster.’
‘Sharp’ Lady Annabel told off doctors in final hours
Lady Annabel Goldsmith, who died at the weekend aged 91, was remarkably vivacious right to the end of her life.
Not only did she attend her son Lord (Zac) Goldsmith’s wedding last month, but the socialite was bright as a button in hospital last Friday.
‘Funny and sharp to the end,’ says her daughter, the TV producer Jemima Goldsmith. ‘When a young doctor doing his rounds in the hospital (where she’d very reluctantly found herself) spoke to her like an old person – ‘DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?’ he said slowly, over-enunciating every syllable – ‘I have stomach pain, not Alzheimer’s,’ she shot back.
‘A few hours later, she died peacefully in her sleep. I’m grateful for that. She was so loved.’
Ant & Dec’s Byker Grove reunion
Ant and Dec with their former co-star Donna Air at the Variety Club Showbusiness Awards
It’s more than 30 years since Ant and Dec, as well as Donna Air, shot to stardom on the teen drama Byker Grove.
And the Geordie trio took a trip down memory lane as they were reunited at the Variety Club Showbusiness Awards at The Londoner in Leicester Square.
Donna, 49, who played Charlie Charlton on the BBC series for three years, tells me: ‘It’s always nice to see the boys, as it just feels like old times. It’s almost like when people talk about that school bond, and Byker Grove was our school.’
The pair played PJ and Duncan on the show which ran from 1989 to 2006
Donna as Charlie Charlton. The actress hasn’t ruled out appearing in the upcoming sin-off series
She hasn’t ruled out making an appearance in the forthcoming spin-off series, Byker. ‘I’m getting the itch back, so it’s time to get back on set. Byker could be a good place to start,’ Donna says.
They could fetch high prices from fans, but Oasis star Noel Gallagher’s designer clothes are given away to his local charity shop. ‘I’m not a hoarder at all,’ says the guitarist, 58, who’s known for his collection of Stone Island jackets, Adidas trainers and CP Company outfits. ‘I’ll wait until my wardrobe is heaving and I’ll keep most things and then I’ll wake up one day and go, ‘Right, it’s all going’, and I’ll just give it all to a charity shop.’
Leaving my children was cruel, says Sir David Hare
Left-wing playwright Sir David Hare has spoken about abandoning his three children, two of whom were twin babies, because he would ‘not survive’ if he had stayed with his first wife, the film producer Margaret Matheson.
‘I did something unforgivable,’ admits Sir David, 78. ‘I felt if I continued in this marriage that I would be so unhappy I would not survive… leaving a wife with two six-month-old children is pretty cruel.’
The marriage broke down in 1980 after he had an affair with actress Kate Nelligan. However, he says on the Rosebud podcast that it ‘had been a goldmine’ in terms of his script-writing.
He now has a good relationship with his children and says ‘they don’t really want to know’ why he left all those years ago.
Earl’s girls! Snowdon takes two dates to gala
The Earl of Snowdon with his girlfriend Isabelle de la Bruyere (left) and cake designer Reem Abu Samra
The Earl of Snowdon does not appear to lack female company since divorcing his wife Serena in 2020, after nearly three decades of marriage.
King Charles’s cousin David, 63, arrived at the inaugural amfAR London gala with not one, but two glamorous women on his arms. On his right was his French-born girlfriend, Isabelle de la Bruyere, 54, a former Christie’s director. On his left was Isabelle’s pal Reem Abu Samra, 49, a cake designer.
‘He’s an old-school charmer,’ a fellow guest said of the earl, whose mother was Princess Margaret. The gala raised more than £2million for charity at The Chancery Rosewood hotel in Mayfair.
