PRESS UPDATE : LONDON EVENING STANDARD .. JANUARY 5TH 2015 ..

LONDONER'S DIARY :

A Dame not for dieting

On the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, Joan Collins transformed into Dame Joan. She was, at that moment, the guest of honour at a dinner held by London mayoral candidate Ivan Massow in his Bloomsbury townhouse.

Also at the party were comedian Helen Lederer, a number of Massow’s old friends and The Londoner.

Massow, who hopes to take over from Boris Johnson in 2016, brought out a chocolate cake for his guests but cut himself only the slightest of slivers. The reason, he said, was that he was intending to become sugar-free as a New Year’s resolution. Dame Joan took a slice far healthier in size and turned to her host to give him some advice: “Eat life, or life will eat you.”