With its great hall, gables and priest hole, there can be few more splendidly atmospheric settings for a family Christmas than Spains Hall, the magnificent Elizabethan pile which Jamie Oliver and his wife, Jools, snapped up for £6million in 2019.
But, as the couple and their five children settle down for days of yuletide feasting in rooms now festooned with fairy lights and hung with mistletoe, might they be stalked by the Ghost of Christmas (very recently) Past?
The question’s prompted by what appears to be the entirely unscripted departure of Oliver’s chief executive, Kevin Styles, 52, who took up the post as recently as 2022, amid great fanfare about a five-year plan he’d developed after six months’ unsparing analysis of Oliver’s empire.
That was in the aftermath of the shattering failure of Jamie’s chain of Italian restaurants, which had collapsed in 2019 with debts of £83million, leaving scores of small suppliers thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of pounds out of pocket.
At the time, Jamie’s chief executive 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 seemed to have repeated it for Oliver, whose two main companies last year reported that their combined turnover had risen more than eight percent to nearly £30million.
Jamie and Jools paid themselves almost £7million in dividends – ‘an absolute joke’ according to one creditor still owed almost £50,000 from the collapse of Jamie’s Italian chain.
Styles does not respond to my inquiry about his exit, while a spokesman for Oliver tells me: ‘After nearly 2.5 years, Kevin Styles is leaving to focus on new opportunities.’
Oliver’s chief executive, Kevin Styles, 52, (pictured) who took up the post as recently as 2022
Jamie and Jools paid themselves almost £7million in dividends – ‘an absolute joke’ according to one creditor still owed almost £50,000 from the collapse of Jamie’s Italian chain
Sting MP’s Syria sortie
Brooks Newmark, the former Tory minister who fell victim to a racy tabloid sting, is to 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 leadership, to make my own judgment of what’s going on,’ he tells me. Newmark met deposed president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus before the civil war began.
He also met rebels but ‘probably wouldn’t have’ encountered the country’s new leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.
Asked if this was because he might have had his head chopped off, he admits: ‘Yes, exactly.’
Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Still seeking your Kermit, Ivy?
This little piggy turned 30 as heiress Ivy Getty was just short of a snout at her wild costume party, dressed as her favourite Muppet.
The great-granddaughter of billionaire J. Paul Getty wore a butterfly necklace and colourful vintage Versace dress with blue straps and a green bust to match her Miss Piggy cake.
Ivy – who separated from photographer husband Tobias Engel, 28, earlier this year – even wore the same make-up as the Muppet character.
Heiress Ivy Getty enjoys wild 30th birthday party after her marriage split. The great-granddaughter of billionaire J. Paul Getty wore a butterfly necklace and colourful vintage Versace dress
Sienna brings jolly tidings to St Paul’s
If Sienna Miller’s boyfriend, Oli Green, is worrying about what to buy her for Christmas, she may have dropped a few hints from behindthe lectern at 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 Christmas carol service, attended by charity patron, the Duke of Kent.
The spoof piece records the daily thank-you letters from an increasingly bemused young lady to her unseen admirer for gifts including eight milkmaids and the percussion section of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
‘Oliver couldn’t stop laughing as Sienna was reciting it,’ a 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 star’s choc therapy
Before co-writing and co-starring in Gavin And Stacey with James Corden, Ruth Jones appeared with him in Fat Friends.
Off screen, the Welsh actress, 58, struggled to shed the pounds, too. ‘One of my attempts to lose weight was to go to a Paul McKenna workshop, a hypnosis,’ she reveals. ‘I said that if I could stop eating chocolate, I would be fine.’ As part of the therapy, the actress thought of mushy peas, which she loathes, while she ate chocolate – and it worked.
‘I did not eat chocolate for five years – I couldn’t stand the smell,’ she says. ‘And when James and I were writing, some of the hotels that we’d stay in would put complimentary chocolate on the pillow and I always used to test myself to see if I was still put off the chocolate, and I was.’
However, when she unsubscribed from emails from the McKenna workshop, she lost all willpower. Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, Corden says: ‘I went into the bathroom, came back, and Ruth was, like, “Oh, my God”, and she was holding the chocolates near 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 allegedly wrote.
Novelist Candida Crewe reveals: ‘One friend of mine, a “ghost”, went to an event in his local bookshop and left seething.
‘The “author” was a celebrity on Strictly. During the Q&A, it became obvious he had not only not written his own book but had never even read it.’
Candida (pictured) revealed during a Q&A it became obvious a friend of hers had not only not written his own book but had never even read it
The Duke of Beaufort remarks of Ed Miliband, Net Zero Secretary: ‘Everything the super-dork touches turns to s****.’
This has raised eyebrows among locals near his Badminton estate.
They point out the duke plans to take advantage of Ed’s eco enthusiasms by covering his estate with a vast new solar farm.
The Duke of Beaufort remarks of Ed Miliband, Net Zero Secretary: ‘Everything the super-dork touches turns to s****
