Londoner's Diary: Dating site uses Amal Clooney pic without permission

In today's Diary: Amal is out of our League | Grayling on Grayling | Alex Shulman on Anna Wintour | Sam Cam at  UKIP policy ideas | Ivanka Trump fights for women's rights | Leomie Anderson in the Big Apple
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25 April 2017

Amal Clooney: human rights lawyer, wife of Hollywood star George, mother-to-be and... member of the dating elite? The Doughty Street Chambers barrister’s achievements seem endless but she may be surprised at her new role as poster girl for the unlucky in love. Indeed, she might be considering her legal rights over it.

Yesterday a new double-decker bus ad was spied on the streets of London, from new dating app The League, with a 10ft-high picture of Clooney and one of The Only Way is Essex’s Amy Childs, the beautician who brought the vajazzle to the masses. The slogan reads “For those seeking drive, not just double Ds”, with arrows pointing to Clooney and Childs.

The League, which requires a vetting process, says it is a smarter version of Tinder. “Are you told your standards are too high?” the website reads. “Keep them that way. We’re not saying Tinder doesn’t have its uses but why not spend your time a little more… intelligently?”

But using someone’s image usually requires permission. Has Clooney granted it? The Londoner was awaiting a response from her people this morning and Childs’s team have also yet to respond. The League said it was “unable to comment” on the issue of permissions but that the intent was to be “a lighthearted jab at society’s obsession with dating based on looks and fame as opposed to ambition and intelligence”.

The incident calls to mind a problem with a campaign from Ryanair back in 2009, which royally peeved Queen Sofia of Spain by using her photo in an advert. Either way, the campaign from The League already has critics. “Amal Clooney fights for the rights of women,” Twitter user Sophie Marissa wrote online yesterday. “Irony lost on your marketing dept?” What would George say?

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Ukip party leader Paul Nuttall
Bloomberg via Getty Images

Writer Will Black started the hashtag #SuggestAPolicyforUkip yesterday, sparking a landslide response from Twitter users, dripping with the best of British sarcasm. “Ban all foreign food and encourage children to eat only traditional British food such as kebabs, curry and pizza,” proffered Desktop Gamer. Other proposals included “no hijabs for jam jars” and “German shepherds to start paying tax”.

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall promptly blocked Black to stem the flow — but the offerings keep coming.

Why Vogue is really just a Wintour’s tale

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Alexandra Shulman has been editor of British Vogue for 25 years but says she never felt as much the part as her US counterpart. “What people think the editor of Vogue looks like is Anna Wintour,” Shulman told a 5 x 15 event at Notting Hill’s Tabernacle last night. “But actually, Anna inherited this idea of what an editor of Vogue should look like ... these fashion-mad, cold, impersonal, ruthless characters which one’s seen in novels and films forever.” Ouch.

Shulman revealed plans for a book about leaving the job — new boss Edward Enninful takes over in August — and hopes people will read it. “I’ve got no idea whether I’ll have anything interesting to say when I’m Alexandra Shulman and I’m not editor of Vogue,” she said.

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Quote of the day: ‘Search me’

Peter Mandelson’s response when asked by Kirsty Wark on Newsnight last night what Labour’s position is on Brexit

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Sam Cam gives the nod to The Ned

Dave Benett/Getty Images for The

Debut designer Sam Cameron was out with her new fashion pals at the Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter pre-opening dinner at The Saloon in The Ned, City sister to Soho House, last night.

The fashion dinner was the first of a series running up to the hotly anticipated opening of the grand new hotel & members' club on Wednesday. Among the faces glittering alongside the 18th-century chandeliers was Soho House founder Nick Jones, as well as Graham Norton and Radio 1’s Grimmy. Our eyes are peeled for more A-listers in the listed building as the week goes on.

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Ivanka Trump is meeting Angela Merkel at the W20 conference in Berlin today, and writes a dry piece in the Financial Times to celebrate. Ivanka complains that women don’t have the capital to grow their businesses — not a problem for her, with a handy billionaire father. “We need to develop new legal and regulatory frameworks to boost women’s growth and productivity,” she goes on. If only The Donald had let Hillary have a go.

A tale of two Graylings

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Two Graylings, quite unalike... The Londoner was at the Wellcome Collection in Euston last night for its trust’s annual prize. Guests included A C Grayling, pictured, who toasted the nominees but also told us that he was contemplating a political career in Epsom.

“I considered standing in Chris Grayling’s constituency,” the philosopher said. “He’s no relation of mine — he’s a very ardent Brexiter — but just having another Grayling on the ballot paper might reduce his votes — it’s not too late.” So what’s stopping him? “I would be so appalled to win,” he said. “There are 650 MPs and most of them are just lobby fodder. To be an MP must be the most ghastly occupation ever: the only way you can get ahead in politics is to have your nose firmly clasped on the buttocks of the person on the greasy pole above you.”

The prize, rewarding books about health and medicine, was won by French author Maylis de Kerangal, for her novel Mend the Living. With Gauls on the brain, what would Grayling suggest if Le Pen wins? “I’d bring back the Maquis,” he said.

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Tweet of the day: “Why are media obsessed by Macron’s wife being 24 years his senior? Trump is 24 years older than Melania, I don’t remember that getting coverage”

DJ Edith Bowman calls sexism on the reporting of Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte

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Sky’s the limit now for Leomie

Grey has never looked so good. Model Leomie Anderson took to the rooftops of New York City yesterday, posing perilously close to the edge before posting the result on Instagram. A candid shot from a fashion shoot, or is the Victoria’s Secret Angel starting a new career in superheroism?

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Secret of the day: Catherine Zeta-Jones has posted a photo of her bathroom cabinet on Instagram. The total cost of the items — including kelp and cucumber spritz — is £2,141. The price of beauty...

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