[A-List] Conrad Black

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Telegraph drops column by disgraced owner's wife

Adam Jay
Thursday May 13, 2004
The Guardian

The Daily Telegraph has added to the misery heaped upon its disgraced owner,
Lord Black, by dropping his wife's column from its pages.

Writing as Barbara Amiel, Lady Black has for years contributed controversial
opinion pieces to the paper, but editor Martin Newland has decided her
column will not appear again before the conclusion of legal action against
the Blacks.

The move follows the publication on Monday of details from a $1.25bn (£700m)
lawsuit filed by Hollinger International, the Telegraph newspapers' parent
company, against its former chief executive. The claim accused Lord Black,
who remains Hollinger International's controlling shareholder, of treating
the company "like a cash cow to be milked of every possible drop of cash".

But for the first time, the conduct of the peer's wife formed part of
Hollinger's accusations. She is alleged to have charged the company for a
tip to a doorman at a New York luxury store, while charity donations of
$250,000 are alleged to have been paid or pledged on her behalf by
Hollinger.

The Blacks were said to have flown to the Pacific island Bora Bora in a
company jet, and to have billed Hollinger $90,000 for refurbishing a
Rolls-Royce "apparently so [they] could travel to London in classic style
without paying for the ride".

Kim Fletcher, the Telegraph Group's editorial director, confirmed that Lady
Black's column would not be appearing for the foreseeable future. He added:
"Barbara Amiel's contract has not been terminated. She is taking a break.
Her column will remain suspended pending the resolution of these legal
difficulties."

Lady Black has a reputation for fine living. In a 2002 Vogue article, she
admitted to "an extravagance that knows no bounds". Lord Black - with whom
she famously attended a costume ball dressed as Marie Antoinette to his
Catholic cardinal - is the 63-year-old's fourth husband. A former Sunday
Times columnist and editor of the Toronto Sun, she was born in Watford and
went to the North London Collegiate school before her family emigrated to
Canada in her teens.

Judging by an admission she made 11 years ago, she may have seen the
Telegraph's decision coming: "Ultimately I am a north London Jew who has
read a bit of history. That means I know this: in a century that has seen
the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, British and Soviet empires, reversal
of fortune is this rich bitch's reality. One might as well keep working and
have the family's Vuitton suitcases packed."

Her last Telegraph column appeared on Monday, in which she backed the US
defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, amid calls for his sacking, and appeared
to play down the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.