Bouquets of something divine to actor and British Airways shill Richard E Grant, who has just launched his debut fragrance. It is called Jack, contains a mix of earthy citrus scents and top notes of this and that, and is competitively priced at £95 a bottle. Don't look for it in the north or anything; you can only get it at Liberty.
As part of his promotional efforts for this landmark product, Richard has been repeatedly trotting out the story of the odour's genesis, and the tale doesn't get one iota more pretentious no matter how many times it gets a run-out.
And so: we lay our scene on Mustique. "Two Boxing Days ago," begins Richard, "whilst holidaying in the Caribbean, I had my nose in a gardenia bush, when fellow house-guest Anya Hindmarch – handbag and accessories design supremo – asked me – " Actually, no. No, I think we need hear no more.
That half-sentence is enough to make Lost in Showbiz resolve to spend much, much more time with actors, who can usually be relied on to respond in the negative to the inquiry: "Would you please, PLEASE, just have a listen to yourself?" If nothing else, it will count as olfactory research time for this column's own debut fragrance, upon which is hereby conferred the working title MUSTIQUE IS BURNING.
