Viviane Ventura, the Sixties icon who was the official mascot for England winning World Cu p squad in 1966, has lost her husband six days after marrying him
When socialite Sheherazade Bentley married Tory high-flyer Zac Goldsmith, there was a lavish celebration for 350 at the Ritz.
Her mother, the Sixties icon Viviane Ventura, tied the knot in starkly different circumstances last weekend, with tragedy following just days later.
I can disclose that actress Ventura, who was the official mascot for England’s winning World Cup squad of 1966, married her long-term boyfriend, the hamburger baron and Hollywood producer Errol Wetanson, in an emergency room at a hospital in Florida. He died six days later.
‘I have a broken heart,’ says Viviane, who starred with Cliff Richard in the film Summer Holiday.
Wetanson, 78, co-founder of American burger chain Wetson’s, was in hospital recovering from a heart operation six weeks earlier when the wedding took place.
At the time, Viviane, 73, was confident that he would make a complete recovery. ‘Full of tears and emotions,’ she told friends.
‘It was a beautiful day — the ceremony was followed by prosecco and cupcakes, and two fabulous cakes our doctors offered us. I am a lucky girl. Now we need a speedy recovery. I need my wind beneath my wings.’
Romance: Viviane and Errol Wetanson, her long-term boyfriend, the hamburger baron and Hollywood producer, married last weekend
She shared a touching set of photos online of Errol in his hospital bed and her smiling as she showed off her wedding ring, dressed in white lace and a purple fascinator. The couple were shown kissing tenderly.
She was joined by her daughters Jasmine, who performed a reading, and Sheherazade, organiser of the ceremony.
However, on Thursday, Viviane shocked friends by announcing: ‘The wind beneath my wings has died.’
The colourful American was previously married to Margaux Hemingway, model granddaughter of celebrated author Ernest
Sheherazade, who divorced Zac in 2010, days after he became MP for Richmond Park, was too shocked by Wetanson’s death to speak yesterday.
The colourful American was previously married to Margaux Hemingway, model granddaughter of celebrated author Ernest. She died of a drugs overdose aged 42.
Viviane, who once wrote a book on how to bag a millionaire, numbers Warren Beatty, Anthony Quinn and late Playboy boss Victor Lownes among her exes.
She had been married only once before, to Irish property developer Frank Duggan. Sheherazade’s father is the feared Seventies asset-stripper John Bentley.
Incognito Queen pops in on cousin
Can there be another 93-year-old with the stamina of the Queen?
At the end of a busy week in which she had to entertain Donald Trump and his extended family before attending the D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth, Her Majesty also found time to ‘hang out’ in London’s fashionable Notting Hill.
Resplendent in a green dress, the monarch was spotted on Thursday afternoon leaving the home of her beloved cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson, who turned 78 the next day.
Close: Lady Elizabeth, who turned 78 this week, and Her Majesty pictured together in 2010
‘I never thought I’d see Her Majesty hanging out in my ‘hood’,’ one passer-by tells me. ‘She looked at me and gave me a friendly smile. I felt like this was a movie, when the monarch suddenly turns up on your street and gives you a warm look.
‘It was funny how the security with her said, ‘Please, stand back,’ as there was only me — so I just took one step back.’
Once a poor area of the capital, Notting Hill’s transformation into a bankers’ playground was sealed by its title role in the Richard Curtis romcom starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.
The smart set’s talking about… Annie Lennox’s songbird Lola
Lola Lennox is determined to make it in showbiz in her own right by dropping her surname
Her mother is one of the most famous names in pop music, but Lola Lennox is determined to make it in showbiz in her own right.
The 28-year-old is following in the footsteps of Eurythmics star Annie Lennox by pursuing a singing career.
But she has surprised friends by dropping Lennox from her stage name and styling herself simply Lola.
‘Being my mother’s daughter can make things harder,’ she has admitted to me. ‘With the Lennox name, there are certain expectations attached to you, and also it’s harder to create your own image and your own sound.’
Vivacious Lola, who has a musical style that mixes electro pop with classical, is the daughter of Lennox’s second husband, film producer Uri Fruchtmann. Raised in London with her sister, model and artist Tali, Lola splits her time between the capital and Los Angeles, where she met Canadian musician Braeden Wright, 31, last year.
She now describes him as ‘the love of my life’.
Stephen Merchant has moved into the louche Primrose Hill set around the corner from Stephen Mangan
Once home to the louche Primrose Hill set of rock stars, models and actors, the swanky corner of London is now being taken over by funnymen.
Stephen Merchant, who co-wrote The Office with Ricky Gervais, has shelled out up to £10 million on a pad in the area.
Merchant, 44, who used to blame his 6ft 7in height for his difficulties in finding love, is now enjoying a romance with U.S. model and actress Mircea Monroe, 36.
‘They’d had enough of LA and both want to launch themselves into big projects in this country,’ a source tells me.
Merchant’s best friend and fellow comic actor Stephen Mangan lives around the corner.
Pop legend Dave Clark has unearthed an unreleased Freddie Mercury track recorded for his musical, Time.
Clark asked the star to perform the title song as a cross between Edith Piaf, Broadway star Jennifer Holliday and Shirley Bassey.
‘Freddie replied: “David, I have all their dresses. I can do it perfectly,” ‘ Clark recounts.
Mercury’s lost track will be released later this month.
Jude Law’s boy splits up with his darling Clementine
Jude Law’s son Rafferty looked proud as punch when he attended The Talented Mr Ripley star’s wedding to psychologist Phillipa Coan in France last month.
Sadly, the 22-year-old musician isn’t enjoying as much fortune in his own love life.
Nearly two years after he embarked on a passionate romance with glamorous PR girl Clementine Linieres, 21, the couple — who lived together in Rafferty’s South London flat — have now split up.
Rafferty Law has ended his two-year passionate romance with glamours PR girl Clementine Linieres
‘Raff is finding it weird going to parties without her because they used to be joined at the hip,’ a pal tells me.
‘She was a big part of his life.’
Jack Thorne, who wrote the script for West End hit Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, has revealed that it was heavily influenced by the struggles he and his wife, the comedy agent Rachel Mason, were enduring as they tried to conceive a baby.
The couple went through seven rounds of IVF.
‘We had a very brutal, dark time,’ Thorne admits. ‘Every aspect of the show is infected by that. My wife couldn’t be happy when someone else fell pregnant.’
The story has a happy ending, as Rachel gave birth to a boy, Elliott, three years ago. Jack adds: ‘We’ve never really had a dark moment since.’
(Very) modern manners
Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has incurred the wrath of one of her hired helps by allegedly failing to treat him with sufficient warmth
In these classless, egalitarian times, how friendly should one be with the domestic staff?
Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has incurred the wrath of one of her hired helps by allegedly failing to treat him with sufficient warmth.
‘I worked for Amanda for seven years and never once did she even bother to greet me or give me a glass of water or a cup of tea,’ Ian Miller tells me.
A carpet cleaner, Ian has worked for a string of famous names including Barbara Windsor and the family of model Daisy Lowe.
But he says of Holden: ‘It’s not as though she was super-busy — usually sitting on a sofa in front of her huge TV, but very unfriendly to me, as though I didn’t even exist.
‘Amanda never engaged in any chit-chat whatsoever and only addressed me to point out a spot or a mark on the carpets.’
Clearly, he’s not prepared to brush it under the carpet.
Radley rackets for Viscount?
Prince Edward is eyeing up Radley College for his 11-year-old son James
Although he offered no evidence of detesting Gordonstoun as much as Prince Charles, who described the Scottish school as ‘Colditz in kilts’, Prince Edward is eyeing up other boarding establishments for his 11-year-old, James, Viscount Severn.
James is currently at St George’s, a day prep school in Windsor.
I’m told that Edward and his wife, Sophie, are particularly keen on Radley, in Oxfordshire.
They are close friends of Chris Ronaldson, who works at the school as head of real tennis, the racket sport which inspired the modern game.
They met him when he ran the real tennis club at Hampton Court.
In a bid to raise the arcane sport’s profile last year, Edward played it around the country.
After his game at Radley, he noted that, ‘under the inspirational Chris Ronaldson’ — a former world champion — the school’s court is ‘regularly booked for 16 hours a day’.
He’s amassed a £375 million fortune, but City financier Jeremy Hosking now seems ready to divest himself of some of it.
Hosking, 60, who recently gave £200,000 to the Brexit Party, has just given even more to Standpoint, a monthly magazine dedicated to the celebration of Western culture and civilisation.
Hosking declines to comment on his largesse, but I understand that his gift was in the region of £800,000.