Black Watch: Today’s Top Stories

On a day when it is reported authoritatively that Tom Bower and Andrew Lloyd Webber are working hand in glove on a musical based on the rise and fall of Conrad Black, comment of any kind seems superfluous. Still, I lately came upon a long interview with Lady de Rothschild (née Lynn Forester, Oradell, New Jersey, 1954) on the Portfolio magazine Web site, which I thought I might share.

Portfolio is a new Condé Nast business publication very much in the same vein as Vanity Fair. And in the same way that VF isn’t meant to be read by those who possess power and glamour so much as by those who fetishize power and glamour, Portfolio is meant to be read by those who fetishize money and, er, money. In short, it is to Fortune what Hustler is to Playboy. But back to the matter at hand.

Thrice-married Lady de Rothschild is the latest wife of the thrice-married Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. She is herself rich, having, according to Portfolio, “made more than $100 million from the sale of cleverly acquired wireless broadband licenses.” Sir Evelyn is ridiculously rich having acquired his last name. And guess what? In carrying out those arduous duties, he came to sit on the board of the Daily Telegraph and the advisory board of Hollinger International, and the rest you can guess. Toward the end of the interview, the reporter from Portfolio (the aptly named Lloyd Grove) inquires as to Lady Rothschild’s recent contacts with the you-know-whos:

L.G.: Speaking of knowing who your friends are, how are Lord and Lady doing? I mean, he’s facing some serious prison time. I know he’s appealing it. I know you’re friendly with Barbara. What can you tell me about how you try to support them through all this?

L.R.: Well, there’s not much support that I can give. I send e-mails. Last time we saw them in London was before all of this. It must be a terrible thing to go through. You know, he’s got to deal with his own reality, and so does she. The courts have decided now. It was one thing before the courts decided. You know, you could hold out hope that maybe it wasn’t true.

L.G.: Yeah, he’ll be sentenced in November. He could get up to 35 years on the four counts he was convicted on, but obviously he’s waging an appeal, so, you know, the legal system grinds on. But it must be very painful and wearing for him and his wife at this point.

L.R.: It must be awful. It must be awful. But we do live in a world of consequences, and you do not do things where jail could be an option. It’s pretty obvious. And you know I feel badly for them.

This, of course, is how the filthy rich say “They are dead to me now.” Where, one wonders, is Robespierre when you need him?

Coming soon: A Conrad Black musical?: Source [Toronto Star]

Will Lloyd Webber and Bower gang up on Black?: Source [The Guardian]

Lynn Forester de Rothschild: Source [Portfolio]