DIARY: Branson flies Kelly to Delhi to prove he has dancing in his genes

Lessons in being loaded number one: money can buy you most things

but, as Richard Branson and his pals have discovered, it can’t buy you

style.

Messieurs Robert Campbell, Colin Gottlieb and Jim Kelly, all

representing Virgin Atlantic roster agencies, recently joined Branson

for the inaugural Virgin flight to Delhi, and were looking forward to a

celebratory dinner at an Indian palace upon arrival.

Always one for a new look, Branson saw fit to provide everyone with a

costume in the indigenous fashion. But despite his guests’ willingness

to humour their billionaire host, Branson himself was not so

gracious.

’You look like a bunch of twats,’ he kindly informed them.

Campbell, with an eye to client/agency relations, refused to be hurt by

this barb, and was even kind - some might say smarmy - enough to praise

his client’s own get up. ’I think he looked fantastic, don’t you?’ he

burbled.

Gottlieb was less pleased by the results of his own makeover. ’I looked

like a fat old restaurant owner,’ he complained.

Branson followed the dressing-up session with an evening of

entertainment, complete with Indian dancers. But the guests’ attention

was soon diverted by the spectacle of Kelly revisiting his Irish roots

and entertaining the crowd with his ’interesting’ dancing.

’It was a really, really bad form of the Riverdance,’ one observer of

the self-appointed Mr Flatley shuddered. ’Even Kelly doesn’t know where

it came from,’ a stupefied Gottlieb added.

Campbell escaped these humiliations more or less unscathed, by going to

bed early. However, his staff are warned that remarks about how he

didn’t quite manage to fit his turban over his ears will warrant a

severe reprimand.

This article was first published on Campaign