They've been Tang-oed: Sir David Tang sets the record straight

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10 April 2012

Hong Kong-born entrepreneur and restaurateur Sir David Tang has a low-tech mobile phone with a recording of Rowan Atkinson shouting maniacally as its ringtone.

He uses it twice during our interview - once to send "huge congratulations" to his friends the Waley-Cohens, whose horse has just won the Cheltenham Gold Cup; and a second time to organise a dinner date with, among others, the artist Tracey Emin.

Sir David, now 56, is always described as a "socialite", and though he hates the tag (and claims in any case it is untrue nowadays) he admits to dining the previous night with his friends Sir Michael Caine and Michael Winner.

When he speaks of Kate, or Naomi, or Sienna, or Dasha (Zhukova, art patron and girlfriend of Roman Abramovich), and what they really think of their public image, he does so with authority because they too are his friends. Sir David, who sold the luxury lifestyle chain Shanghai Tang five years ago and has since founded restaurants in Beijing, Hong Kong and at the Dorchester Hotel, has one of the best address books in London.

Now he wants to create the most elite virtual Rolodex in the world. Sir David's new business, ICorrect, aims to colonise a "little corner of cyberspace" for the rich and famous - apparently deluged by a torrent of online gossip - to bite back at the rumourmongers and answer their critics. Here, in their own words, the likes of Kevin Spacey, Stephen Fry, Zac Goldsmith, Bianca Jagger and Naomi Campbell have already corrected some of the myths, anecdotes and plain untruths that have gathered around their public personae. Eventually, hopes an ever-optimistic Sir David, ICorrect will count among its members the most important people in the world.

"In cyberspace 95 per cent of what you read is hearsay," he declares. "And a great deal of it is wrong ... We have got to the point where you have to let the world know everything about you if you are a public figure - but there must be a space out there for misrepresentations to be corrected." His ultimate aim is "to create the first luxury brand on the internet" (the business's value, he says, is in the formidable contacts list it will build).

It's an entertaining idea, the very public laundering of reputations, yet the insights you get from ICorrect are often unintentional. You see immediately, for example, who has a sense of humour (Jemima Khan) and who's itching for a fight (Niall Ferguson); who can write a decent sentence (Stephen Fry, natch) and who can't (judge for yourself).

Each correction is plainly set out - allegation on one side of the screen, retort from celeb on the other. So we learn that, contrary to a newspaper report, Cherie Blair did not attend a shooting party with Saif Gaddafi and has in fact never met him; that restaurateur Richard Caring's perma-tan is not fake; that Jemima Khan did not change her first name to Haiqa when she married Imran Khan and that Tracey Emin has never considered leaving Britain for tax reasons. We discover that Sienna, Kate and Dasha do not tweet, and that any Twitter feeds that claim to come from them are in fact the work of fantasists. And, alas - how horribly disillusioning - Michael Caine reveals that he never said: "Not a lot of people know that."

"I do not mind something clever being attributed to me," writes Caine on ICorrect, "but I do mind something stupid that I did not say or do."

Sir David is desperate for his site to be taken seriously. In the past 10 days, ICorrect has had more than 250,000 hits, but he is now "fishing for the topical, even controversial story that will give the site a high profile".

"We want John Galliano to join, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson." He would also like the site to host politicians during election campaigns: "I'd love to have Boris Johnson come and do corrections. I don't want people to think it's just for celebrities." In the next six months, Sir David would like to sign up 500 subscribers and make the site required online reading.

"The image we have of a famous person often bears no relation to them," he insists. "I can tell you, for example, that Fergie [Sarah Ferguson] is a very nice person. The fact that she is not taken seriously and regarded in such a low fashion comes from a perception of her which is wrong." So why hasn't she joined his site yet? Sir David grins mischievously (which I take to mean that not much has yet been written about Fergie that she could in fact correct).

It's a characteristic piece of impishness - Sir David is often described as irreverent and teasing and politically incorrect in an amusing sort of way. Presumably this is why such a diverse bunch of people like to hang out with him? "Oh no, I think it's because I'm the token Chinese," he replies straight-faced. "They don't know many Chinese and they like to have one around."

Like many successful immigrants - Sir David was sent to school in Cambridge at the age of 13 - he has turned himself into a rather eccentric English gentleman: he quotes Jane Austen and deeply values classic British "brands" - the royal family, Oxford University, the BBC. "I love the confident eccentricity of the Brits," he says at one point - and then shows me an antique "vampire killing kit" he recently bought at auction (a beautiful wooden box, probably 19th century, containing a stake, a Bible, a cross, and so on) which he keeps next to his bed at night "just in case".

He is not only good friends with Sarah Ferguson but with the Duke of York too, and naturally defends Prince Andrew against charges of buffoonery: "I've seen him in action and I have to say that he is excellent at his job. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true." Yet he also asserts slightly desperately, with reference to the Duke's friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, that loyal friends stick by each other (almost) no matter what.

"If you are a friend of somebody and that friend is in trouble, you don't just drop them." Besides, he adds, people can be rehabilitated."

John Profumo was a disgrace, but at Mrs Thatcher's 80th birthday party, who was it who sat next to the Queen? Profumo."

Then, extraordinarily, he mentions the possibility of Saif Gaddafi joining - though quickly retracts. Has he ever met Gaddafi's son, who seems to have infiltrated London society so successfully in the past? "I did meet him. He was introduced to me by a couple of my friends and I have even gone to shoot with him in Tripoli, because he is a keen shot and I'm enthusiastic too. Of course this was on an entirely social basis and we didn't discuss any business. He was very agreeable when I met him ... It would be very nice if he were to post a correction or two but under the circumstances I haven't tried [to contact or ask him] and I wouldn't bother."

He adds: "I wouldn't want to sacrifice the good start we've had [by courting] that kind of controversy. It is a sober, steady site. Unlike Twitter, it is not impulsive but reflective and calm.

"I've met many people. I gave Mugabe lunch once - that was before he went mad. What can you say? Does it mean that every time you meet someone you have to think first about whether he's going to be a world pariah in the future? Hindsight is a wonderful thing."

These days, Sir David and his second wife Lucy (he has two grown-up children from his first marriage to an actress named Susanna Cheung) do not go out much at all. "When I was 50 my wife and I agreed that we wouldn't. The mere thought of having to dress up to go out to dinner not knowing who you're going to sit next to is a daunting prospect these days. I think I know enough people now. I don't need new friends."

Quite. All 30 of the first subscribers to ICorrect - it costs £618 a year - are part of his social circle. Next month Sir David will go to America to sign up new celebs in New York and Hollywood, and all of those people will be friends too.

So now, when you see a post from Elle Macpherson you can be certain that Elle has actually composed it - though you can't be sure that her denial is the truth because ICorrect has no fact-checking system. An obvious flaw?

"I'm not setting myself up as Solomon or as a magistrate," replies Sir David indignantly. "I can't establish the veracity of what people say because only they know whether they are telling the truth. I can't look into your mind, can I?" He looks at me over his spectacles as though I am very dim indeed. Yet ICorrect will quickly lose its point if it's used to deny gossip that then turns out to be true.

His mobile phone beeps again - it's his wife asking him to get candles. "We like them, you see, because we spend so much time at home in the evenings."

Sir David regards the tiny screen of his boring mobile with dislike. For all its unflashy simplicity, however, the contacts file on its sim card must make it worth its weight in gold.

The corrections celebs put the record straight

CHERIE BLAIR
✘[Actress] Hayden Panettiere dresses like Cherie Blair
✔"I can only assume journalist Clemmie Moodie, despite her name, must be a man, as no women could conclude that the two dresses are alike... the paper used a picture of me that is at least four years old."

RICHARD CARING
✘ And so to Nigel Massey's famous Diarist's Lunch atop the Gherkin. The weather was no barrier for guests, who included actor and singer Michael Ball, actress Sheila Hancock and "It boy" Tom Parker Bowles. There was only one empty place, belonging to Richard Caring, billionaire owner of Annabels and The Ivy - baffling until someone pointed out that snow is terrible for fake tans. Best not to risk it. (From The Daily Telegraph)
✔I informed Nigel Massey, three weeks before the lunch was due to take place, that I was unable to attend. Nigel Massey's personal assistant failed to pass on the message to Nigel who has since apologised profusely. And for the record, my tan is NOT fake!

JEMIMA KHAN
✘Jemima Goldsmith changed her first name to the Muslim name Haiqa when she married Imran
✔"I never changed my first name and, if I had, it would not have been for a name which when said out loud sounds like you're clearing your throat. That's not to say that there aren't lots of lovely Muslim girls' names."

TRACEY EMIN
✘"Stuff 50 per cent tax, I'm taking
my unmade bed to France."
✔"Yes, I did say that - considering the state of things, I wasn't happy to pay 50 per cent tax. When I was asked what I could possibly do about it I did say I could leave the country but not because of paying 50 per cent tax but because I was sick of the state of things ...

KATE MOSS
✘ off to bed...tons of meetings tomorrow. Sweet dreams everyone xxk (Published on social networks)
✔Don't try connecting to me on Facebook or follow tweets from Kate Moss, the real Kate Moss doesn't use these social networking sites. I correct all of the impostor profiles pretending to be me and the xx twits tweeting under my name.

DAVID TANG
✘ David Tang is a creep (from the Mail on Sunday)
✔This is greatly exaggerated

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