Rocketman Elton John will be touching down in Hong Kong for a December 4 concert at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Born Reginald Dwight, John cherry-picked his stage name from members of his original band, although his middle name, “Hercules”, was pilfered from that of the horse in the 1960s British sitcom Steptoe and Son. While battling drug addiction, John once tried to end it all. “I tried to commit suicide one day,” he said. “I turned on the gas and left all the windows open. It was … very Woody Allen” …
The New York neurotic, who in 1995 was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history, suffers from neuroses such as entomophobia (insects), heliophobia (sunshine), demophobia (crowds) and thanatophobia (death), and is terrified of hotel bathrooms. Although he disdains Oscar ceremonies, the Academy has been kind to his work, with last year’s Midnight in Paris earning four nominations and one statuette, and providing the film debut of France’s then first lady, Carla Bruni …
Bruni, who was voted France’s most irritating celebrity in a 2010 poll by VSD magazine, wasn’t kidding when she said she was “easily bored with monogamy”. The former model was one of the many women Mick Jagger prised from the arm of Eric Clapton. Jagger’s wife, Jerry Hall, pleaded with Bruni to end the affair for the sake of their three children, but the car-tyre heiress continued to see the singer until he broke her heart. Bruni consoled herself with a fling with a crown prince of Yugoslavia before moving on to American real-estate tycoon Donald Trump …