Always good to catch up with Gordon Smart, who has invariably got a hatful of entertaining and amusing stories to tell – even before he took up the post as editor of The Sun’s Bizarre column and became a friend to the stars.
During a catch up blether he let slip that his missus is suffering a suspected broken coccyx. Given Gordy’s predilections I didn’t want to dwell for too long on how the lovely Kate may have come by a burst tailbone.
Fortunately their was no weirdness involved – it was just the kind of random accident that could have befallen anyone. You see, she simply fell off a table in the presidential suite at the uber swanky Balmoral Hotel, while dancing the night away with Oasis legend Noel Gallagher.
An ordinary, every day tale of showbiz fok, then.
Don’t get me wrong – young Goags has got nae pretensions about him and simply turned up at the Balmoral Hotel where he was booked in by The Sun while in Edinburgh to cover the city’s Hogmanay party.
He was genuinely bemused when greeted by staff who politely told him: “Congratulations on your new positon on the Bizarre column Mr Smart – we’ve upgraded you to the Presidential Suite.” Nice work if you can get it.
In fairness, with Hogmanay digs of that calibre, there wasn’t much for Godon to do, other than to throw a monster party. And that’s exactly what he did. Showbiz guests included Noel Gallagher (who along with his Edinburgh-born girlfriend Sarah MacDonald has become close friends with the Smarts) and the havin-it-large lads from rock outfit, Kasabian, who are already legendary for their life of partying excess.
Which pretty much explains how Kate (daughter of Pars legend Jim Leishman) came to take her ill-fated tumble from the table and rattled her pretty rear end. Hope it gets better soon, Kate.
Workwise Gordon tells me his loving the job and has certainly left his own inimatable stamp all over the Bizarre column. Regular readers can’t fail to have noticed that under Gordon’s guidance it has become far racier and more laddish – and now has such a high Fnar-Fnar Factor it has been nicknamed Viz-arre (after the irreverent comic which spawned Sid The Sexist and the Fat Slags).
But even the louche lifestyle of the glitterati is occasionaly interrupted by the pesky realities of the office – since Goags still has to package all this stuff up, you know. Exclusive gossip about the rich and famous won’t write itself.
Indeed, it’s refreshing to see that even the young shooting star of Britain’s biggest paper has the same kind of recruitment headaches as the rest of us. Goags is currently on the hunt for two staff, after one of his key people left to write a book and another jumped ship to join the 3am Girls.
Aye – it’s a hard life for Gordon. Bet he wakes up most mornings and wishes he was back at Deadline Press & Picture Agency.
PS – apparently Noel Gallagher had his best New Year ever and absolutely loves Edinburgh. Mad Ferret!
Black and White and Read All Over 
Yeah Bizarre and Deadline do have their similarities so it’s no great surprise Mr Smart is doing so well. However there is one major difference. One regularly takes stories from an obnoxious, arrogant, drunken sixties child whilst the other relies on Noel Gallagher.
Despite the former’s alleged flaws, Deadline countinue to flourish leading others in their wake so he must be doing something right I suppose.
So your ‘good’ pal forgot to invite to his showbiz bash? Name-droppers, by and large are a pathetic bunch and a total brass-neck, but it really is scraping the bottom of the barrell to use a story from party you were never invited to in order to make yourself sound more interesting than you really are.