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Naomi Campbell and Yasmin Le Bon are £15m party animals
Updated 09:36am on 2 Nov 2009Tycoon Sol Kerzner today picked up a £15 million party bill after London's glitterati flew to Morocco to launch his latest hotel.
Party people: Naomi Campbell and Yasmin Le Bon celebrate the opening of a new hotel in Morocco
Guests drank more than 5,000 bottles of Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot in the London-based businessman's third hotel opening of the year.
Host: Sol Kerzner and wife Heather, far right, greet guests including Natascha McElhone
After similar multi-million-pound spectacles in Dubai and Cape Town, the spotlight fell on Morocco's £274 million Mazagan Beach Resort, where Kerzner was joined by 1,500 guests including Naomi Campbell, Yasmin and Simon Le Bon, Natascha McElhone, Lisa Snowdon, Donna Air and Lindsay Lohan.
Having a ball: a human flower decoration (left) and Lisa Snowdon with Donna Air
He laid on 100,000 Moroccan roses for the night, which included having specially trained monkeys hand a single flower to each of the female guests. Other entertainments included a firework display, snake charmers, belly dancers and tarot-card readers.
Gallery: Grand opening of Kerzner Mazagan Beach Resort
Ms Campbell, who flew to Casablanca for just a few hours with her billionaire boyfriend Vladslav Doronin, said: “It's such a romantic place, the perfect place to be in love.”
Simon Le Bon, who was presented with a cake to celebrate his 51st birthday, said: “This is a fantastic place to have a party and I think it is the right place for people to get away from the recession. Families will love it.
Lohan, who enjoyed a dance with Scottish actor Gerard Butler, said: “I came here to get away from it all. I'm ready to have fun now.”
Reader views (10)
Pleasing to see Lisa Snowdon andher cellulite, in future note to self wear longer dresses
- Irene Rybinska, London UK, 07/12/2009 17:24
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Speak for yourself, Melly. I'd rather eat my own head than spend an evening with that lot.
- Anon, England, 04/11/2009 08:24
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The negative comments just stink of pure envy - if an invite was put at your door by a monkey, poodle or flame throwing hemaphrodite you would all be there before Simon le Bon even had the time to blow out the candles on his cake!
- Melly, Cartagena, Colombia, 03/11/2009 16:06
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As American actress Dorothy Parker once said, "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to..."
- Ben, London, 03/11/2009 10:01
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Why do the rich never learn that animals are not there for their entertainment - trained monkeys - disgraceful.
As for spending so much on a party to entertain their toffy nosed non deserving friends - yuck. How many lives could be saved by putting that money to better use?
- Sy, Oxon, UK, 02/11/2009 15:53
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How could the monkeys tell who were men and who were women?
- Monkey Girl, London, 02/11/2009 14:26
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In the French Revolution the Queen said of the starving, 'Let them eat cake"
Ideal place to visit in a recession will unemployment verging on three million, shows people never learn.
- Alan Green, England. The forgotten country., 02/11/2009 14:15
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The plastic set ride again. £15 million for a party,100 thousand roses
given away by trained monkies,or was it the monkies who trained the plastic set to give them away and 5,000 bottles of Don Perignon and veuve clicquot champagne,actually I would have served Italian Spumante
costs less and has a better taste.
Well at £10,000 a head I suppose it was reasonable.
- David Nigel Braham, Milan Italy, 02/11/2009 13:10
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All involved in this shameless and tasteless waste of money should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
- Lou, London, 02/11/2009 12:55
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Simon Le Bon, who was presented with a cake to celebrate his 51st birthday, said: “This is a fantastic place to have a party and I think it is the right place for people to get away from the recession. Families will love it."
What is he talking about. Recession in the real world means no money.
- Richard, LONDON, 02/11/2009 10:25
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