Conrad Black, Party Hopper: the baron’s packed social calendar and famous friends
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.
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- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Huffington Post birthday bash, 99 Spadina Ave.</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Guests at HuffPo Canada’s one-year anniversary swarmed Black, who graciously posed for photos but kept his laser-focus on <strong>Ariana Huffington,</strong> who more than a month earlier had enlisted Black to blog for her site’s Canadian franchise.</p>
- (Image: Ernest Doroszuk/QMI Agency)
- May 23
- May 23
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- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> National Business Book Award gala, Ritz-Carlton</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black drew ribbing from a photographer for posing with his apologia, <em>A Matter of Principle,</em> tucked under his arm. The baron responded by striking exaggerated, mawkish poses with his book brandished proudly. </p>
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- May 28
- May 28
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- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Pet S.O.S. Gala, Harbourfront</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black escorted <strong>Lady Black</strong> and her two enormous Hungarian Kuvaszoks, Arpad and Maya, to a fundraiser for a charity that bankrolls animal lovers who can’t otherwise afford to care for a pet. </p>
- (Image: Erin Seaman)
- May 31
- May 31
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- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Griffin Poetry Prize Gala, Distillery District</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> The elegantly dressed baron spotted a stranger in a beat-up leather jacket seated at Black’s table. The man had assumed, wrongly, that he could sit anywhere. Black levelled his death stare at the interloper until he realized his error and retreated to a distant table. </p>
- (Image: Tom Sandler)
- June 7
- June 7
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- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Empire Club Speech, Sheraton</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Some 1,000 guests attended Black’s speech, about Canada’s global leadership role. Black, who in 2001 renounced his citizenship, laid it on extra thick: “Canadians are notoriously not messianic or self-important, and have no illusions about being a light unto the world.”</p>
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- June 22
- June 22
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- 193330
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> 20th wedding anniversary dinner, Noce</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black wined and dined his beloved <strong>Barbara</strong> on Queen West. Dessert was spoiled by a heckler outside on the street, whom Black described in the National Post as a “primitive, stupid, demented-appearing man...who just stared at us, for nearly 30 minutes.”</p>
- (Image: Daniel Neuhaus)
- July 21
- July 21
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- 193331
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Fashion Cares pre-party, Holt Renfrew</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> The Blacks swapped air smooches at an <strong>Elton John</strong>–hosted bash for his AIDS foundation. Babs later attended <strong>David Furnish’</strong>s four-day 50th birthday party in L.A., the expense of which prompted her to write in <em>Maclean’s,</em> “Not that I’m poor, but I’m not super-rich either.” </p>
- (Image: George Pimentel)
- September 8
- September 8
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- 193332
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> <em>Hello! Canada</em> TIFF Party, Ritz-Carlton</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black sauntered into the TIFF bash hosted by editor <strong>Alison Eastwood,</strong> sending a ripple of whispers through the press line: “Conrad’s here!’” He didn’t seem to mind. </p>
- (Image: George Pimentel)
- September 8
- September 8
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- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Salon Speakers Series, Grano Restaurant</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black introduced <strong>Peggy Noonan,</strong> the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> columnist: “It’s good to be back, after a lapse of seven years,” he said, before delivering a paean to her loyal friendship. “She is, apart from all her other attributes...a very, very reliable friend in difficult times.”</p>
- (Image: Amoryn Engel)
- October 16
- October 16
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- 193334
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Scotiabank Giller Prize ceremony, Ritz-Carlton</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black’s tablemates at Jack Rabinovitch’s prestigious book awards ceremony were hardcover queen Heather Reisman and <em>Sex and the City</em>’s <strong>Kim Cattrall,</strong> with whom Black talked with great animation. </p>
- (Image: Tom Sandler)
- October 30
- October 30
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- 193335
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Weston Writers’ Trust Prize, Koerner Hall</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black mingled with the <strong>Westons</strong> and Harry Winston director <strong>Matthew Barrett</strong> and his wife, <strong>Diane.</strong> Discussion centred on Black’s recent media tour of England, during which he called a Sky News anchor a jackass and a BBC interviewer a “priggish, gullible British fool.”</p>
- (Image: Tom Sandler)
- November 12
- November 12
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- 193336
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Byron Talks Speakers Series, Shangri-La</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Black sparred with <strong>Mark Steyn</strong> and ex-MP <strong>John Crosbie,</strong> who dished up a zinger: “Conrad’s had three and a half years to think about what he’s going to say.” Later, Black (who’s hellbent on keeping his Order of Canada) lauded ours as the world’s “best governed” nation.</p>
- (Image: Richard Klagsbrun)
- November 15
- November 15
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- 193337
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Writers’ Trust Gala, Four Seasons</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> The Blacks alighted on a table with Rogers publishing president <strong>Ken Whyte,</strong> former Attorney General Michael Bryant and radio jockey John Tory. Table talk was intermittent, mostly due to the parade of guests lining up to pay their respects to the baron.</p>
- (Image: Tom Sandler)
- November 15
- November 15
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- 193338
- <p><strong>THE DO:</strong><br /><br /> Munk Debates, Roy Thomson Hall</p><br /> <p><strong>THE GIST:</strong><br /><br /> Fareed Zakaria and <strong>Charles Krauthammer</strong> were guests of honour, but Black garnered more rubbernecking. He attended with his publisher, Douglas Pepper, whose bosses Black is suing for defamatory statements in <em>Thieves of Bay Street</em>.</p>
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- November 26
- November 26
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So he’s out of jail early?