Sebastian Shakespeare: Let's make him soooo famous

The Standard's gossipy little writer Sebastian Shakespeare appears to be fame-famished, the poor poppet. He recently told his public (the Hon Vanessa Kensington and her chihuahua, Paree) that he had ignited a huge row on Twitter because he'd said something original, like, tweeting's only a fad. Alas, the controversy just missed my cognisance, but I'm sure Vanessa and Paree ran their digits (and paw pads) raw in his defence.

I think I'm right in saying that he edits Londoner's Diary, but now he fancies himself as a celebrity columnist. The good news is that he can only get better. Today, for instance, he reveals he lunched at the Ritz. That in itself could be interesting, I suppose (I can't recommend the Ravioli of Pumpkin with Ceps and New Season Truffle highly enough) but then he goes and ruins it by adding "that most iconic of British hotels made famous by Julia Roberts in Notting Hill."

That's a bit like saying that one has visited a pyramid "in Egypt", y'know, the pyramid made iconic by Peter Ustinov's Poirot when he mopped his brow within sight of one in Death On The Nile. We can safely affirm that the Ritz was iconic long before Julia played a whore and lived happily ever after, shopping. He also affects to be down with the kids like his colleague Anne "fessed up" McElvoy by informing us that he lives in the same"'hood" as David Cameron. The Tory leader gets a name-check en route to Sebastian's elegy for his unblooming rooftop wisteria.

Incidentally, if Sebastian is still editing Londoner's Diary, he may want to make a correction or two. Jason Cowley is the editor of the New Statesman, not Paul Johnson. As a contributor to the magazine, he ought to know. And I don't quite get the opening sentence to the Nicholas Coleridge item: "Do you view the recession in black or white?" True, Coleridge's novel (the title is of no consequence) comes in two shades but what has that got to do with the recession? It's not mentioned again in the story which brings the surprising news that the tome was edited.

But how sweet of Sebastian to promote Nicholas' novel. It's only to be expected of one who also is the books editor of Tatler, whose MD is, er, Nicholas. An unavoidable synergy I'm sure.

I do hope my comments prove constructive. Meanwhile, send a link to this story to 10 websites and help to make Shakespeare iconic.