Is Boris Johnson finally getting it? Here's the Mayor talking at the Conservative party conference just weeks ago: “I know how unpopular these bankers are. I know how far out I am on this limb in sticking up for these pariahs. But never forget, all you would-be banker-bashers, that the leper colony in the City of London produces 9% of UK GDP, 13% of value added and taxes that pay for roads and schools and hospitals across this country.”

And here's the Mayor wittering on in yesterday's Daily Telegraph: “These banks can no longer talk glibly about the need to offer competitive salaries to star bankers, and the operation of the free market. Their irresponsibility almost brought the free market crashing to its knees.”

* Which senior figure in insurance could soon be consulting his lawyers over a divorce, once his wife gets wind of the affair he is having with someone from the human resources department? We aren't sure it is our business to say, but the tabloids are said to be on the case, which means the man in question may want to start making his excuses sooner rather than later...

* A new Hallowe'en costume has hit the shops: the Bernie Madoff mask — and it's tipped to be the most popular costume this year. The manufacturer said it has already sold 15,000 masks — outselling perennially popular models of Michael Jackson and, er, the Super Mario Brothers, apparently. Meanwhile, it seems that life for the other Madoffs doesn't get any easier. US newspapers have papped a “stressed-out” Mark Madoff arguing with his wife, escaping the family home on his Vespa scooter, and disappearing. His wife Stephanie Madoff called the police to report him missing next morning, but he suddenly returned, explaining that he'd spent the night at the Soho Grand hotel — reportedly checking in under a fake name — and paid the bill in cash...

Martha pushes the envelope

Internet guru Martha Lane Fox and bras tycoon Michelle Mone are among the celebrity names who have been recruited to customise envelopes with their own art designs to raise funds for the National Literacy Trust. They will be auctioned on 2 November on eBay as part of the sixth annual Pushing the Envelope charity campaign. All entries this year are based on the theme The Words That Mean Most To You.

Lane Fox has cunningly risen to the challenge with a couple of doodles — and avoiding using any words at all.

* Two former solicitors from Coventry appeared at a disciplinary hearing last week over allegations of misusing clients' money. One was called Stephen Swindle...

Bankers run show at DTZ

THE Barclays grip on jobs at property agent DTZ gets tighter.

Paul Idzik, the bank's ex-chief operating officer, who was made head of DTZ less than a year ago, has hired another member of staff from his former employer. Hans Vrensen, who is co-head of European securitisation research at Barclays Capital, has been appointed head of global research at DTZ.

City Spy makes that five former Barclays bankers now at the top of DTZ...

* In the goldfish bowl that is the London film production business, tongues are wagging over the decision by former Freud public relations man Kris Thykier to split from MARV Films partner in celluloid Matthew Vaughn.

Well-connected Thykier is setting up his own business, called PeaPie Films. The parting of the ways is “billed as amicable”, says trade title The Hollywood Reporter...

* If anyone could spot bank fraud from a mile off, you'd think it would be the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller. But when Mueller received an email apparently from his bank that looked “perfectly legitimate”, he started clicking through before realising just in time that it “might not be such a good idea,” he said. Mueller added that he was “just a few clicks away from falling into a classic internet phishing scam” and “definitely should have known better.” But although he changed passwords and tried to tell his wife it was a “teachable moment”, she has now banned him from internet banking.