Zapping Zac
/Even mentioning its existence can get you thrown in the Tower but there is no law (as yet) against rehashing old news stories. This is from The Daily Mail, 27 September 2006:
Is womanising in Zac Goldsmith's genes?
I've emailed the priapic Zac asking for his views on censorship. I await a reply.
The glamorous young multimillionaire and ecologist who advises Tory leader David Cameron on Green issues and is A-listed for a Parliamentary seat, is said to have paid professional gambler Willie 'The Dice Man' Tann £50,000 to teach him to play poker well.
Who knows, perhaps Goldsmith was passing on his newly acquired expertise to Alice Rothschild (left), scion of another billionaire family?
He insists that, during those four-hour afternoon visits to her home that have been going on for some weeks, the pair were simply organising a charity poker tournament that took place last night.
Of course, the moral climate in which the political world operates these days is very, shall we say, relaxed. In pursuit of a safe seat, the fact that handsome Zac's wife Sheherezade apparently knew nothing of these meetings will hardly stand against him when he exercises his laid-back charm on the selection committee.
"Zac plays the ordinary guy wanting to be like everyone else, but he's acutely aware of who he is and the effect this has on people," says one of his oldest friends. "He has a lot of his father in him - he's always saying he was the most fascinating man he's ever met."
His father was the late Sir James Goldsmith, the much-married half-French, half-Jewish billionaire who founded the anti-European Referendum Party but remains more famous for his observation: "When you marry your mistress you create a job vacancy."
But while Jimmy Goldsmith displayed his blatant, jaunty roguishness with complete frankness, his son Zac "wouldn't dream of saying anything like that, even as a joke - he wants the world to see him as a complete gentleman," says the friend.
"He wants to impress and he wants to be liked by ordinary people. He would hate to be seen as a rogue."
Sheherezade was doing her bit to maintain her husband's gentlemanly image and reputation by planning to accompany him to the charity evening he and Alice spent so many days planning.
Surprisingly, Alice had decided not to go.
The glamorous young multimillionaire and ecologist who advises Tory leader David Cameron on Green issues and is A-listed for a Parliamentary seat, is said to have paid professional gambler Willie 'The Dice Man' Tann £50,000 to teach him to play poker well.
