Arab capital takes over the “Palace” too

Arab capital takes over the “Palace” too

After villas, hotels and other establishments, Arab capital has also moved into Europe’s most famous discotheque. The “Palace” in Paris has been sold to a group of Arab investors. But its founder and legendary manager, Fabrice Amar (who is of Jewish origin and also homosexual), will remain at the head of the establishment for at least another three years. Until the new owners learn the business.

The table was booked
20 years in advance

An extremely unusual table reservation was recorded at Paris’s famous “Lido” club. Aïda Villamil, a young woman who owns Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper, booked a table for ten people for December 31, 1999! The table was booked for her husband, whom she has not yet found, for her children, who have not yet been born, and for friends. The person making the reservation undertook to confirm her attendance six months before New Year’s Eve 2000, but has already paid a deposit...

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New Year’s Eve
in August

The celebrated painter Raymond Moretti, who became famous, among other things, for his illustrations for the Passover Haggadah, decided to bring the future forward. At the end of August he held a New Year’s Eve dinner at the “Tour de Montlhéry” restaurant in the Halles district, in honor of all his friends. He explained that the restaurant had been decorated with all the trappings of the holiday and that fir trees had been put up there, to the delight of guests and neighbors. Moretti explained that on the “official” date, that is, New Year’s Eve, he is unable to gather his friends in Paris.

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The glamorous life of
Bernie Cornfeld

Pierre Rey, who wrote the bestseller “The Greek,” based on the figure of Aristotle Onassis, has chosen another billionaire as the hero of his new book. This is Bernie Cornfeld, who managed to come through all his legal entanglements unscathed, the ones that had landed him in a Swiss prison for a year.

Cornfeld, now in his sixties, lives in a 40-room villa in Los Angeles, which once belonged to the actor Douglas Fairbanks.

“Cornfeld has solved the problems of married life,” Rey relates. “Sixteen girls live with him. Five accompany him on his travels. But then, every evening, he chooses ten local beauties for himself.”

Without a doubt, an exciting subject for a bestseller in the style of Pierre Rey...

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The Métro
turns eighty

The Paris Métro celebrated its eightieth birthday this summer. On July 19, 1900, the Métro line connecting Vincennes in the east with Maillot in western Paris opened. During its six hours of operation on the first day, passengers rode in the elegant wooden carriages; as newspapers of the period report, “...5 thousand passengers in first class and 20 thousand in second.” Today, more than four million passengers travel each day along the 183 kilometers and through the 325 stations of the Paris Métro. And, of course, although the historical first belongs to London, which inaugurated its Métro back in 1863, followed by New York, Chicago and Budapest, the urban railway of Paris, which has since undergone several changes of model, is still the most beautiful in the world.

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Yannick Noah
and drugs

France’s number-one tennis player, Yannick Noah, caused a worldwide scandal in the tennis world when he declared in an interview with the French “rebellious” weekly that many well-known tennis players use drugs before matches, sniff cocaine, smoke hashish. You name it. He said that he himself had once played completely “stoned,” and the coach said then that he was actually in good form... Alongside these statements, Noah was also quoted as if he had admitted that sex he has in the locker room before a match also helps his fitness. He denied these quotations, but as for drugs, Noah claims that several “brilliant,” but one-off performances by unknown tennis players were caused by drug use. “Afterwards they collapsed,” says the dark-skinned champion.

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Edith Shachori
at the Pompidou Centre

The first film by the young Israeli director Edith Shachori, “Circles,” which depicts an “ordinary” Tel Aviv weekend in the lives of four young women, was given a gala screening, under the auspices of the Israeli embassy, in cinema’s holy of holies, the Paris cinematheque, at its new home in the Georges Pompidou cultural centre. Edith now hopes to come to France for a longer visit for further study, and she is a candidate for a scholarship following the success of her first work.