DELOITTE CONSULTANT DUSTS OFF DANCING SHOES IN CINEMA DEBUT
HERE at City PM, we like to champion the interests of our dear parishioners, and there’s nothing The Capitalist likes better than hearing about one of the flock with aspirations in the glitzy world of showbiz.
Step forward Sanjay Shah, a consultant at Deloitte, whose debut on the silver screen was shown across London for the first time this weekend. OK, so he wasn’t exactly playing alongside Leonardo DiCaprio – the film in question was an independent British film about the Morris dancing subculture (yes, really), in which Shah plays a “hard man” Morris dancer from the wrong side of the tracks.
“I used to be into acting at school and university, but gave it all up to be a City boy,” Shah tells me. “It’s disappointing, but you know how it is with careers – and besides, I’m hoping this will prove to be my first step back into it. I’ve got no roles as yet but I plan to go to drama school in the evenings next year and we’ll see how it goes from there. Obviously for any budding actor getting to Hollywood or Bollywood is the ultimate dream!”
Watch this space. Colleagues, friends and other interested parties in the City can see “Morris: A Life with Bells On” tonight at the Greenwich or Clapham Picturehouse cinemas, or at the David Lean cinema in Croydon on 18 and 19 November.
LEGAL EGO
The Capitalist is forever indebted to the legal blog Roll On Friday for bringing to light a real corker of a website, belonging to self-styled “Rottweiler with a Handbag” Gilliam Howard.
Feisty legal eagle Howard – who has actually trademarked that Rottweiler nickname, would you believe it – has previously acted for the likes of JP Morgan, Nomura, Abbey Life and Lansdowne Capital, so she’s been relatively prolific in the City in the past. And my, has it left an impression on her ego.
Along with a picture of said canine friend on the top of her page, handbag in jaws, Howard is also collecting a nice little set of soundbites about her capabilities – including the fact she’s offering “a unique service – herself” and another description of herself as “the iron fist in the velvet glove”. Could the woman come any more highly recommended?
SHORT BUT SWEET
A short lesson to wealthy City types in the age-old adage of “look but don’t touch”.
I hear Bjorn van der Horst, owner of Farringdon’s Eastside Inn restaurant, was recently showing a tableful of customers a tray of rare and expensive white truffles in order to tempt them to enjoy a smidgeon of the delicacy shaved over their food with the intense aroma – when all of a sudden, one of his patrons grabbed one of the truffles in question and took a large bite out of it.
Around £400 the worse for wear after the unhappy incident, Horst fortunately managed to keep on smiling and refrained from charging the chap in question for his indiscretion. (Apparently, it would have been inappropriate as he was unaware the truffle was only being presented for inspection and not consumption.)
That’s one hell of a short-but-sweet freebie, though, isn’t it?