THE two Ronnies were causing a certain amount of confusion up in the Grand Hyatt's Presidential Suite.
There was Ronnie the butler, wearing a name tag and an expression of extreme willingness. Nestling next to Vidal Sassoon was the other Ronnie - proper name Rhonda - looking sharp in her vivid jacket and black pencil pants.
''My wife. We got married a year ago,'' said the man who has been turning heads for half a century and recently decided it was high time to celebrate.
''When I hit the 50-year mark I decided: that's it, I'm going to do a university course,'' Vidal said.
''I was thinking of studying history or philosophy, then Procter and Gamble (which bought out his company's product division in 1985) said: 'How would like to have your work exhibited around the world over the next three years?' ''Nobody in my craft has ever had the opportunity to do anything like that, so I thought: why not? ''We've done Europe and North America and we'll be going on to China, Australia and Central and South America.'' This weekend it's Hongkong's turn and no effort has been spared to make Sassoon 50 a memorable event.
Yesterday saw the gala launch of the Asia Look featuring two beauties each from Hongkong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - every pair given a distinctive hair style - and tomorrow, the general public is invited to view the Sassoon 50 Exhibition at the Academy for Performing Arts.