Miami Vice New Year for Tony and Cherie

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Tony Blair at the Gibbs' mansion: Drag Queen Elaine Lancaster

The Blairs are expected to attend an exotic New Year's Eve costume party thrown by Robin and Dwina Gibb tonight.

The Bee Gee and his wife, a bisexual part-time Druid priestess, have a reputation for throwing the most extravagant - and flamboyant - parties in Miami, while their guests often include drag queens, lesbians and sexual voyeurs.

Dwina, an artist whose erotic illustrations have been published in a volume of the works of Sappho of Lesbos, prides herself on being one of the city's most creative and innovative hostesses.

Last New Year's Eve bash had an Oriental theme, with female guests dressed as Geishas. Another year Dwina threw a Western hoedown at which guests were dressed as cowboys and cowgirls and a zoo with baby crocodiles and tigers was imported into the grounds of the house especially for the evening.

But the Prime Minister doesn't have to wait until midnight to dress up. He has been invited to star as the King of Fairyland in a New Year's Eve pantomime, Cinderella, alongside Davy Jones of The Monkees.

The panto, written and co-directed by British actor Mike Winters - best-known as one half of the classic Mike And Bernie Winters Show - is an annual event at a 2,700-seat Miami Beach auditorium and attendance has become a tradition for the Blairs' hosts.

After the panto, a possible venue for the Blairs before moving on to the party is fashionable new £10million restaurant Karu & Y, where top drag queen Elaine Lancaster, a friend of the Gibbs and often a guest at their parties, will be performing.

In the summer of 1995, I was a guest at one of Dwina and Robin's legendary parties, a gipsy-themed event to raise funds for Aids Research - and experienced the kind of hospitality the Blairs will be enjoying tonight.

Mime artists painted in silver from head to foot strolled the grounds, fortune tellers plied their trade, drag artists sang show tunes and the Gipsy Kings played throughout the night.

In a huge marquee on the vast lawn which backs down to Biscayne Bay guests were served a feast of shrimp, chicken and salads, washed down by gallons of champagne. But despite the Gibbs' generous hospitality, guests were banned from roaming the house and were, instead, restricted to the 50ft by 50ft living room with its floor-to-ceiling picture window overlooking the bay.

Inside, women clad in black leather, lolled on couches along with drag queens in assorted coloured wigs. Dwina was holding court, dressed as a gipsy, her costume showcasing her substantial cleavage.

A tall voluptuous brunette remained by her side for most of the evening. She was introduced to me only as Julie, but fellow guests whispered that she was "Dwina's girlfriend'.

Whether or not Dwina's lesbian coterie will be at tonight's party with Tony and Cherie Blair is not known but it is highly likely that the Gibbs' inner circle - Miami tycoon Steve Posner and his girlfriend, Catherine Cressler, wealthy businessman Mel Harris and his wife Fran and, of course, Robin's brother Barry and his wife Linda - will attend the festivities.

One close friend said: "They are a pack. They always party together and go out to local restaurants like Barton G. And they all live near each other, so I am sure all of them will be there with the Blairs on New Year's Eve."

Other guests might well include neighbours on Miami's Millionaires' Row - record tycoon Scott Storch, Colombian supermodel Elsa Benitez, actor Matt Dillon, Netscape inventor Jim Clark, singer Ricky Martin and actor-turned-politician Hulk Hogan, who has just bought a house there.

Given the presence of the Blairs at this year's party, the two Gibb couples will probably rein in the excess that characterises their usual celebrations ...as well as their other, less conventional, pursuits.

According to the family friend: "I've partied with Dwina and Robin at Barry's house. Cocaine is always around. When I was there, it was on a table next to the sofa and people just came by to do it. Dwina, Robin, Linda and Barry were all there, but I didn't see them snorting cocaine.

"Dwina is very guarded. They all are. A little shy until the party gets going. Linda has got her drinking under control, but she used to drink a lot of wine. I saw Dwina get drunk on vodka. Really, she and Robin are very boring people until they start drinking.

"I was warned by one of their neighbours to watch out when they've been drinking. She said they can get very aggressive when they get drunk and then try to encourage people to join them in swinging. She told me they had tried to get her and her husband involved on more than one occasion."

Robin Gibb has admitted: "Ours is not a conventional lifestyle." But that is to vastly understate the strange truth of his 21-year marriage to Dwina Murphy from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

As anyone who has penetrated their inner circle knows, Robin and Dwina really do have a marriage that is, as he puts it, 'totally open'. He once admitted: "We like to cruise and we like to watch,' a fact that is common currency among the Miami glitterati of which I was a part during the mid and late-Nineties.

According to the Gibb family's friend: "Robin and Dwina do threesomes with girls. He is very much a voyeur. He likes to watch. I don't know if she's really into it or has just developed it. I know Julie was her girlfriend for a time but I haven't heard or seen anything of Julie for three years."

When Julie and Dwina ended their relationship, Robin waited to see whether Dwina would find another close girlfriend. He said at the time: "It's her choice, really. I just go to the studio and make an album."

Whether Dwina now has a new girlfriend and, if so, whether she will introduce her to the Blairs tonight is not known. But the family friend said: "I have seen another woman with Dwina. She introduced her as her personal assistant, and they were very close. She was blonde, cute, almost a Sharon Stone type.

"But since Maurice died in 2003, Dwina, Robin, Barry and Linda have really calmed down their lifestyle. When I last saw them, they looked old and Dwina and Robin looked tatty. They don't dress well. Every time I've seen them, they are wearing dark clothing and their hair was unkempt.

"But Robin is extremely friendly, physically as well as verbally. And I've seen him be very touchy-feely with effeminate men."

Dwina, in comparison, is far more reserved. An ardent student of Irish history, she is also a Druid priestess, with a passionate interest in spirituality, and sometimes reads tarot cards for her close friends and family.

Whatever is on the cards for the Prime Minister and his family at Robin and Dwina's party tonight, one thing is certain - it will be a night to remember.

 

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