Conrad Black, Party Hopper: the baron’s packed social calendar and famous friends

It was an audacious move, swapping his Canadian citizenship for a British peerage. It didn’t go as planned. In London, he was just another long-winded lord in a long line of them, and his après-incarceration media rounds in the U.K., where he was verbally assaulted by one TV presenter after another, were a bust. London, it appeared, was over Lord Black.

Toronto was different. Black adores being seen and heard—who else blogs from prison?—and Torontonians seem happy to oblige. He recently signed a deal with ZoomerMedia to host his own weekly talk show on Vision TV. He is, after all, our best-known baron, most outrageous personality and most entertaining villain. Upon his return in May, Black was quickly re-embraced by a coterie of Toronto elites who, it turned out, were keeping his seat warm. The festivities began on May 9 with a rollicking welcome-home dinner at Massey College hosted by John Fraser and attended by Hal Jackman and at least one tipsy former prime minister. The party hasn’t stopped since. Here’s proof.