All aboard the Olympic gravy train. Advertisements have appeared for a chair and chief executive for the Olympic Park Legacy Company. Successful candidates will bring a commercial edge to the "regeneration vehicle" which will report to Mayor Boris Johnson and the Department of Communities and Local Government. No figure on the "competitive" salaries has been disclosed, but if the Olympic Delivery Authority is anything to go by, they will be generous. OPLC chiefs will be expected to sign deals ranging from property development for 10,000 homes to a tenant for the media centre in Hackney Wick.

Quite how all these competing quangos - the ODA, the OPLC, the London Development Agency - are meant to work harmoniously together is another thing.

And there's the small matter of keeping the £9.3 billion Games on budget...

It's that man Peston again

It is well known that the BBC's business editor Robert Peston and Finsbury's top PR man Roland Rudd are close — they used to work together at the Financial Times. So close that eyebrows were raised when Pesto got a series of award-winning scoops about Northern Rock and Lloyds TSB, both of which happened to be Finsbury clients. Of course, Peston talks to many people and he would never divulge his sources, as he told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee two weeks ago.

Still, City Spy was intrigued to see the BBC's business editor is now blogging at length about the virtues of Rio Tinto's sale of a $19.5 billion stake to Chinalco — and dismissing the concerns of shareholders who have failed to see what a fantastic deal this is. So it must be a coincidence that Rio Tinto is being represented by Finsbury.

* How is the credit crunch treating Robert Tchenguiz, the high-flying entrepreneur who is reckoned by some to be down to his last couple of hundred million quid after a string of failed or failing investments? Very well, according to our man enjoying the wine list at smart Belgravia eaterie Zafferano. He reports inordinate strain on the shirt buttons keeping the Tchenguiz girth in place.

Now McDonald's is in vogue

Sign of the times at New York Fashion Week. The event's organisers have swapped the usual glamorous sponsors for the credit crunch-busting McDonald's.

The burger chain may not have quite the cachet of the normal fashion show backers, but it has the singular advantage of actually having some cash to splash and is keen to promote its new McCafe espresso range.

Fashionistas can't be so picky now. At next weekend's Oscars, the TV advertising is drying up fast too. L'Oreal has just pulled out.

* The things bankers grumble about: A mole at august banking house NM Rothschild reveals that they no longer have as many flavours of complimentary Twinings teas to choose from. Rothschilds has also traded down to a cheaper brand of lime cordial.

Coolmore reins in the budget

Right at the very beginning of the thoroughbred breeding season, Irish entrepreneur John Magnier's Coolmore operation has laid off 15 members of staff. Ballydoyle, where his horses are trained, has also jettisoned people. In total, 60 employees have been shown the stable door.

* A rare piece of good news for financial journalists. Gorkana, the website that tracks jobs in the media and PR industry, announces: “Compliance Monthly, a specialist monthly publication for compliance officers and senior decision makers in FSA-authorised companies, will be launched on 27 February 2009.

The magazine will feature plain English explanation and critical analysis of UK and international regulatory developments affecting the financial services industry.” Perhaps Sir Fred Goodwin and Andy Hornby could volunteer as guest columnists...

Winner: My advice is ignore all share tips

Film director and Sunday Times restaurant critic Michael Winner says cheerfully he has not got caught out by the credit crunch — because he got his fingers burnt in the past.

“The only shares I possess cost £25,000 many years ago,” he says. “They were recommended by a blonde ex-girlfriend of the actor Terence Stamp. Anyone who takes share tips from Terence Stamp's girlfriends deserves all they don't get. My shares, in Xaar, a printing business, cost £4 each. They promptly collapsed. Now they're 57p. Not serious, as long as my Guernsey rollover fund holds up. If it goes under, Geraldine [Winner's other half] says I can be a stand-up comic and a taxi driver.” Quite so. He practically plays that role already in those eSure adverts.

Distressing news. Tony Lomas, the administrator running down Lehman Brothers in the UK and Europe, and his top fee-earning chums in PricewaterhouseCoopers' insolvency department have been told they have to give up their chauffeur-driven cars. The insolvency crowd's earnings may keep the mighty firm going in these recessionary times but they are now having to book motors through the Addison Lee agency. How demeaning.

* Norwich Union Risk Services is giving out stress-avoidance tips to employers: “Stress doesn't just affect the individual; it can have a detrimental impact on a business as well... Employers should establish a clear policy on stress management and other issues such as dealing with workplace harassment and bullying and violence to staff, which can be significant workplace stressors.” Norwich Union knows about stress — parent company Aviva has just said it will axe 1800 jobs by 2010.

* Perish the thought that insurance folk are heartless, but a poll of 2000 City workers by recruitment firm GRS says “insurance professionals were least keen to save their fellow workers” in a recession. Only 49% would cut their hours if it would save a colleague's job.