KEY POINTS:
The restaurant was relatively quiet, but then it was a Sunday night, and all those looking for a fun time were round the corner at the Viaduct celebrating the Diwali Festival. We were encamped by the fireplace at Euro restaurant last night enjoying a private celebratory birthday dinner
for an Auckland society matriarch.
Birgitta Ingeborg Alice Bernadotte, HRH Princess of Sweden (pictured above) was alongside. Well, her private party of eight were at the table next to us, chowing down on Simon Gault's Kiwi lamb cutlets, prawn risotto, crème brulee and a few bottles of Waiheke Merlot. Not that I'd have guessed at first that the woman sitting across from me - who strangely resembled Barbara Walters but without the patronising doe-eyed head dip and idiosyncratic speech - came from one of the oldest royal families in the world and the Bernadotte dynasty.
Princess Birgitta looked like many women I've seen around the traps in Parnell: over-tanned, painfully thin, well-manicured and coiffed to perfection. She looked like a well-aged Patsy, sans fun-loving Edwina. Her long spindly fingers showed off bling rings of knuckle duster size and a lifestyle of hard sun living. Her tan would have rivalled George Hamilton. It was off-set only by the crisp whiteness of her teeth, though at the age of 71, they're more likely to be very expensive dentures.
Her Royal Highness, who is sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, is in Auckland as patron of Swedish Style New Zealand this week honouring all things Swedish in design, music, and gastronomy.
She's staying at the recently refurbished Stamford Plaza Hotel, and I hear she's expected to chopper up to Kauri Cliffs for a picturesque round of golf. The Princess has a master's degree in PE, which is pretty cool considering all the media-loving young British royals and their gold-digging girlfriends tend to prefer the loftier subject of history of art, or history of ideas (wtf?!) if you're the Young York Princess Beatrice. Birgitta is quite the golfing fan and has her own competition in Majorca, where she lives on a palatial estate.
Her low-key appearance without a large entourage of hangers-on staff and minders at one of Auckland's most popular restaurants illustrated the more down-to-earth side of royalty little often seen in the UK.
I should know. My PR company organised a luncheon for Prince Charles when he was down here a couple of years ago as patron of The Prince's Trust, and while Charles was surprisingly warm, heartfelt and incredibly charming (in that same surprising way Don Brash was when I first met him - hence the nickname Don Juan!), holding my hand tenderly thanking me for the event and calling me a Fairy Godmother (truly, he did!), his over-zealous staff created months of tension headaches. Admittedly there's royal protocol to follow, and Charles is infinitely more famous than the Swedish royals, but low-key and relaxed at a Viaduct restaurant is not something I'd imagine Prince Charles will ever experience. Pity. For Princess B it seemed second-nature. We hope she enjoys her week in Auckland.
Sale Street opening launch party
Well known Auckland restaurateur Luke Dallow officially opened his latest venture last week, the Sale St bar and restaurant, with a party for 1200 people. Click here for photos by Norrie Montgomery.
Paul Henry: 'I am not engaged!'
Ladies, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Paul Henry is not off the market. Well, not officially anyway. The TVNZ star may be loved up with mystery woman Linzi Dryburgh, but he has not gone down on bended knee and popped the big question. And, by all accounts, it looks unlikely that he ever will.
"Reports of my engagement are much exaggerated," Henry text messaged me last Sunday when I sent him a congratulatory message after reading reports - erroneous - that the household star was set to marry. "I am not engaged and I have not proposed," he confirmed on the phone last week exclusively to Spy.
The popular television personality wasn't prepared to confide any further about the nature of his relationship with the enigmatic BSport producer, but inside sources close to the couple - who work at TVNZ and Radioworks respectively - were more willing to offer their thoughts about the pair.
One TV source told Spy he didn't believe the young blonde he met at Paul's house in Albany three or four years ago was his girlfriend. "I thought it was his daughter!" he said, "but it was Linzi. I remember thinking, she looks very young."
A radio insider said: "She'd be in her early 30s. She's very intelligent, but she's not exactly a girly-girl, I mean she's a glasses and no make-up sort of chick. She has that look that screams she's head of the chess club. She's very smart."
Those close to Henry are not surprised the household name has not proposed to his long-time love. "He's a commitment-phobe, let's face it," joked one TVNZ snitch. "No one will tie him down again - certainly not while his girls are at that age."
But what of his relationship with Mrs Diane Foreman? The pair was snapped four months ago by the Herald on Sunday leaving Auckland Airport for a holiday abroad, but it appears the pair have gone their separate ways.
Foreman, who's rumoured to have fallen back into the arms of former National Party leader Don Brash, must still care for Henry though, because another insider, who didn't want to be named, quietly confided to Spy that the blonde multi-millionairess (whose husband Bill is believed to be living in a retirement home), called a TV star a couple of weeks ago to locate Henry's whereabouts.
"She rang because she didn't know how to get hold of Paul in Seattle and she was looking for his address or a number," the friend said. Probably to warn him the Herald on Sunday was on the trail about his love life.
Rachel Glucina
Pictured above: HRH Princess Birgitta Ingeborg Alice of Sweden, sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf, at at an exhibition entitled Sweden in Ten Visions at St Paul Street Gallery 3 in central Auckland. Photo / Kenny Rodger