Singing security guard steals the show at WAGS night
The place to be during the World Cup is the Kings Arms near Holborn - aka the Mirror Football HQ - where Mirror stalwarts Mark Field, Chris Vokes and David Emin have already welcomed 700 media types through their doors.
Even England crashing out of the World Cup hasn’t stopped the fun. On Wednesday, darts legend Bobby George hosted a darts tournament won by Tony McGivern of Arena Media, while Thursday was a ladies-only WAGS night, where football and men were replaced by karaoke, cocktails and topless waiters.
The Mirror’s Charlotte Bouchez, Becky Felton and Anna Harvey did an impressive rendition of Bad Romance by Lady GaGa - although they were eclipsed by the pub’s bouncer Clifton Lovemore, who held the ladies spellbound with a showstopping rendition of Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
Lovemore later revealed he has been a backing singer for Mariah Carey and has even performed on The X Factor. If only he had been around to teach David Cameron and Ed Balls a thing or two when they came down to the Kings Arms for former Telegraph chief Will Lewis’s karaoke-themed fortieth birthday last year…
Crisps and cider at Profero's 'lo-fi' Cannes
Those of you who didn’t spend last week drinking champagne with Sir Martin Sorrell in Cannes may have made it along to Profero’s "lo-fi" version of the festival, which, as promised, was "almost certainly nothing like the real thing".
Profero threw "literally tens of pounds" at its Cannesden event in Camden - billed as an "adequate recreation of the world’s hottest party" - where mid-ranking account managers supped warm cider under a grey north London sky.
The alternative party was hosted by Profero’s Elspeth Lynn, Paul Hogarth and Ross Jenkins, who tucked into pork scratchings while the agency’s creative director Matt Powell - who did go to Cannes as a judge of the Cyber Lions category - tweeted the live results back to the crowd in Camden.
Powell, who described the atmosphere at Cannes as "magic", explained: "We wanted to capture the excitement and transfer that energy back home."
Sheikh's fighting talk shows Starcom who's boss
If there’s one client you really don’t want to mess with, it’s Clare Sheikh, group director of strategy and marketing for insurance firm RSA.
Not for her tough line on procurement, you understand, but because of her skills as a white-collar boxer - as revealed in last Sunday’s Fabulous magazine.
"I feel like I lead a double-life," she told Fabulous. "In the morning I go to work in a designer Diane von Furstenberg dress. I slip on my Louboutins and stride into the boardroom to head up a conference. A few hours later I change into my shorts and... jog to the East End to punch the hell out of another woman."
So spare a thought for Starcom's planners if they ever have to repitch for the RSA account. As Sheikh added: "I’ve sat in business meetings where someone has annoyed me and I’ve thought: ‘If we were in a ring I’d polish you off.'"
Why clever people can have big TVs
Comedian Jenny Eclair was a lively host at the Thinkbox TV Planning Awards at Sketch, greeting the likes of Five’s chief executive Mark White and Karmarama’s chairman Nicola Mendelsohn with "Welcome all media whores."
Even more controversial was Eclair’s opinion that: "The thicker the person, the bigger their telly," which prompted the - highly intelligent - Thinkbox chief executive Tess Alps to turn around in her chair in mock outrage.
So just how big is the TV in the home of the lady who loves telly so much she wishes she could watch it on her microwave door? An impressive 55 inches.
Carvosso junior's media education starts early
And finally: Congratulations to Abby Carvosso, head of magazine sales at Bauer Media, who has just had her third child, a son named Teddy.
Many new mothers might hire a babysitter for the evening if they were nominated for Publisher of the Year at the PPA Awards - but not Carvosso, who simply decamped the whole tribe - Teddy, her husband Paul and their other children Sofia and Henry - to a suite at the Grosvenor so they didn’t have to miss a minute of the action. Good to see Teddy’s media networking is starting young.
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