High life

Jokers

Talc'

Gstaad Now that 1978 is safely behind us it is time for High life's annual jet-set awards of the year. (This column, ever vigilant and upto-date, waited until midnight on 31 December for the final decisions.) For example, the accurate statement of the year award was missed by Andrea Badrutt, owner of the palace hotel in St. Moritz, who had declared in an interview with a glossy American magazine only last month: 'In the old days, the Duke of Alba was King here. Now it's the Shah of Iran who is the top dog.' Badrutt looked like winning for a while but when the midnight gong sounded the award was given to Gianni Agnelli of Turin, who accurately predicted in November that 'no more tarts will be flown to Teheran from London, Paris and New York until the Shah's present predicament is over.'

The Indian giver prize goes to the American reverend Jim Jones who bequeathed ten million dollars to the Soviet Union but failed to deliver the goods after drinking Kool-aid in Guyana.

Fun couple of the year: Mark and Lola Winters. From the immense stretches of northern China's desert, the frozen reaches of Tibet, the searing heat of Acapulco to the subtropical asphalt jungle of Rio de Janeiro, Mark and Lola pursued celebrities with the dedication of a Hercule Poirot and the perspicacity of a Sherlock Holmes. The opinion of this writer is that there will never be a more fun couple and if Mark and Lola repeat their easy win two more years running —an easy feat for them — they will retire with the High life trophy.

Marriage of the year: no, not Christina Onassis and Kausov. That would be too easy as the Greek is always trying to win the award by going through strange ceremonial rites and partners. Instead, the prize goes to the union between Mick flick, multi millionaire German, and Andrea Portago, Hispano-American socialite. The couple married in Gstaad in January 1978, and plan to divorce in Las Vegas soon. It was, nevertheless, one of the jet-set's longest unions.

Funniest couple of the year: yes, Christina Onassis and Sergei Kausov. It kept the funnies going during all sorts of newspaper strikes and hundreds of hacks busy. Christina is now in St. Moritz and telling friends that Switzerland is colder than the Gulag.

Party of the year: after a lot of soulsearching High life had to break pre cedent and award the prize to two winners: the Turf Club ball and Henry Keswick's bash at the Lyceum. Both parties had to win as they were the only ones during the year that saw more people on the dance floor than in the lavatories throughout.

'Flop of the year: Roddy Llewellyn. Most hated man of the year: the doctor who saved Llewellyn's life during his Caribbean holiday with Princess Margaret.

Casualty of the year: Roberto Shorto, the diminutive Brazilian nightowl, brotherin-law of Heiny Thyssen, and jet-set emeritus, who developed an ulcer.

Sacrifice of the year: that of Karim Aga Khan. The Aga, spiritual leader of twenty million misguided souls, ordered only one more five million pound yacht to go with his fleet of four others. He also decided to do with his two private jets and not to extend his hundred-acre twenty million pound property in Chantilly, outside Paris. The Aga, of St Moritz, Sardinia, Chantilly, Paris, London and various other residences, was a close winner over Adnan Khashoggi.

Quote of the year: the trophy goes to Egon Von Furstenberg, the good looking fashion designer who 'wrote' a book on the power look. 'I never bothered to read it,' he told High life. Egon, who has a sense of humour, plans to write another opus as the power look has already sold forty thousand copies in hardback.

Nightclub of the year: Tramps. But Regine is threatening to overrun London with her hanging gardens of Kensington.

Restaurant of the year: Mark's.

Casino of the year: Aspinall's.

Most important trip of the year: that of Bianca Jagger by Concorde to New York, to stand by her friend Steve Rubell who got caught with two ounces of cocaine and three hundred quaaludes.

Joker of the year: the person who put, sneezing powder into the jet-set's favourite cocaine pusher's supply.