The Blairs' holiday at Robin's home in
Miami Beach
27 December 2006
Blair's plane in runway drama
A British Airways plane taking Tony Blair on his Christmas holiday was involved in a runway drama on landing in America. The Boeing 747 plane, with 345 passengers on board, ended up on a buffer zone at the end of the runway after touching down at Miami airport in Florida.
The captain of the plane had to radio the Miami control tower to ask for assistance because of difficulty seeing the turnoff point to the taxiway.
Police and rescue vehicles surrounded the aircraft and engineers had to tug the plane back from the end of the runway and back on to the taxiway, damaging two runway lights in the process.
The incident caused a 45-minute delay for Mr Blair and the other passengers. No one was injured. The prime minister, who was believed to be with his wife, Cherie, and some of his children, was travelling to Miami to stay with former Bee Gee Barry Gibb [wrong].
Passengers on board the plane, which landed at 6.17pm local time on Boxing Day after taking off from Heathrow airport, told WSVN-TV in Miami that police and rescue vehicles quickly surrounded the aircraft.
Karen Queen, from London, said: "We just thought there must have been someone on board who shouldn't have been on board." BA blamed resurfacing work taking place on the runway and problems with seeing the turnoff point to the taxiway for the incident. Agent Kim Bruce, of the United States Secret Service, said: "It was too close to the end of the runway so it had to be pulled back. It then made its turn then taxied over to the gate under its own steam.
"It was a little bit late arriving at the gate as a result but there were no injuries."
Laura Brown of the American regulatory body the Federal Aviation Administration said: "The plane took out a couple of runway lights at the end of the runway.
"The taxiway it missed was the last one at the end of the runway. It was on a runway safety area, which is a buffer zone at the end which is capable of handling the weight of the aircraft. It is not like it was in the grass or on the mud."
Ms Brown said it was not clear why the plane had overshot the runway, adding that it had not been decided whether or not to carry out an investigation.
Mr Blair's Christmas visit to Mr Gibb's home was a "private arrangement", according to John Campbell, co-manager of Gibb, 57, said: "They are friends," he said.Evening Times:Blair in Bee Gee holiday jet scare
A Boeing 747 carrying British Prime Minister Tony Blair missed a turn after landing and struck runway lights Tuesday at Miami International Airport, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said.
There were no casualties in the incident, which happened as Blair, his wife and some of his children were traveling to Miami to stay at the home of former Bee Gee Barry Gibb [wrong], the UK's Press Association said.
"Nobody was injured and there was no damage" to the plane, airport spokesman Marc Henderson told CNN.
British Airways Flight 209 was carrying 343 passengers when the incident happened just after 6 p.m. ET, he said.
The plane "did not go into the grass" Henderson said.
"The taxiway requires a kind of a hard turn; it's tricky," the FAA's Laura Brown said. "I don't know exactly what happened, but they somehow missed that turn."
British Airways spokesman John Lampl said that a portion of the runway was under construction, making it difficult for the pilot to see clearly where he was on the runway.
The plane was pushed back onto Runway 12-30, which is 9,354 feet long and 150 feet wide.
From there it taxied under its own power to its assigned gate, Henderson said.
Passengers disembarked normally.
The Miami Herald reported that Blair and his family were on their way to Miami for a vacation.
The prime minister's office would not discuss Blair's travel
Blairs’ holiday jet in landing scare
THE plane carrying Tony Blair to a winter family holiday overshot the runway when it came to land in Miami.
It went off the end of the runway, hitting a string of landing lights, before being towed back to turn and taxi to the gate.
Nobody was hurt in the scare, but the incident caused a 45-minute delay.
The Prime Minister, wife Cherie, and some of their children arrived in Florida last night.
They were reported to be travelling to stay with former Bee Gee Robin Gibb, when the incident happened.
United States Secret Service agent Kim Bruce said: "Prime Minister Blair was on a British Airways flight that overshot the runway at Miami International Airport, although it didn't leave the pavement.
"It was too close to the end of the runway so it had to be pulled back. It then made its turn and taxied over to the gate under it own steam. There were no injuries."
Laura Brown, spokeswoman for US aviation safety body the Federal Aviation Administration, said: "The plane took out a couple of runway lights at the end of the runway.
"The taxiway it missed was the last one at the end of the runway. It was on a runway safety area, which is a buffer zone at the end of the runway which is capable of handling the weight of the aircraft.
"It is not like it was in the grass or on the mud."
Other passengers on the plane said police and rescue vehicles quickly surrounded the aircraft.
Karen Queen, from London, said: "We just thought there must have been someone on board who shouldn't have been there."
Gary Cooper, also from London, added: "The captain just said there was a problem with the aircraft and they were checking it out and making sure it was OK to move."
A BA spokesman said BA flight 209 had landed at Miami International Airport at 6.17pm local time.
He said: "They are doing resurfacing work on part of the runway and the captain came to a stop because he couldn't see the proper turn-off point to the taxiway.
"He radioed the control tower for assistance and BA engineers came out."
A Downing Street spokesman confirmed Mr Blair was on his winter holidays, but refused to give any more details.
But Robin Gibb's co-manager John Campbell said the Blairs were planning to stay with the musician.
He said: "It's a private holiday and it's a private arrangement. They are friends."
28 December
News Yahoo:How Deep Is Your Pocket? Blair's Bee Gee break in the spotlight
by Robin Millard Thu Dec 28, 10:45 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) Tony Blair's office has insisted that he was paying for his holiday at the Florida home of Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb -- another break at the benevolence of celeb pals.
However, Downing Street did not specify exactly how Blair was to repay the high-pitched disco legend and how much he was paying -- while Gibb's wife told a newspaper that no money had changed hands.
For his traditional Christmas family holiday, Blair, his lawyer wife Cherie and three of their four children have jetted off to Gibb's US mansion in Miami Beach, which overlooks Biscayne Bay and boasts 10 bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
The vacation got off to a troublesome start when the plane they were on overshot the runway.
"The Blairs have made a private agreement and they are paying for their accommodation," said a Downing Street spokesman.
But asked if they had accepted money from the Blairs, Dwina Murphy-Gibb told the Daily Mail: "No, we are, they are just friends. It's just a friendly thing. They have their own staff, who come over, of course. They are just friends and we are heading out there to be with them. It's a friendly arrangement."
Blair has been criticised in newspapers over the years for holidaying with the rich and famous for free, though he has occasionally made charity donations in lieu of rent.
Local estate agents reckon that holidaymakers would expect to pay between 50,000 dollars and 80,000 dollars per week to rent such a prime seaside spot.
Newspapers said singers Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Shakira and Enrique Iglesias were among Gibb's neighbours, along with his brother Barry, actor Matt Damon, racing driver Eddie Irvine, tennis star
The Bee Gees -- Robin, Barry and the late Maurice Gibb -- have had a string of worldwide hits, including "How Deep Is Your Love?" and "Stayin' Alive" (1977) and "Massachusetts" (1967).
Robin Gibb, a longstanding supporter of Blair's governing Labour Party, once introduced the prime minister at a 2005 election rally.
"I was completely starstruck tonight. "I met one of my heroes," Blair admitted then.
Blair, the frontman and guitarist in the band Ugly Rumours while studying law at the prestigious University of Oxford in the early 1970s, seems to have an affinity with pop's elder statesmen: he has spent three holidays at the Barbados hideway of the British veteran singer Cliff Richard.
In August 2004, he spent two days with the then Italian prime minister and business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi at his Sardinia villa.
He has also spent several holidays in the 50-room Villa Cuscona belonging to Prince Girolamo Strozzi in Tuscany, Italy.
British bookmakers offered odds on who would be the first to host a Blair holiday in 2007.
William Hill quoted Richard and U2 rocker-cum-activist Bono -- soon to be awarded an honorary British knighthood -- as joint 2/1 favourites, with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger next at 6/1.
Tom Cruise (8/1), David Beckham (10/1), Elton John (12/1), Sting (16/1), Madonna (25/1) and even Queen Elizabeth II -- who traditionally hosts her prime ministers in the British summer anyway -- was at 33/1.
MIA rejects account of Blair jet mishap
Miami International Airport officials are disputing British Airways' version of the events in a landing mishap on a flight carrying British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family.BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ
Welcome to Miami, Mr. Prime Minister, and by the way. . .the airport says it wasn't our fault.
A day after a highly publicized, though relatively minor, landing mishap at Miami International Airport, MIA officials Wednesday disputed the suggestion that lighting problems and ongoing construction at the airport were to blame.
The plane in question, British Airways Flight 209, counted British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family among its 343 passengers -- ''A family vacation,'' according to the Secret Service.
The airline initially told The Miami Herald that the plane's pilot missed a turn toward the terminal from Runway 30 and needed help to turn around at the end of the 10,000-foot runway.
'He stopped the airplane and said to the tower, `Look, I can't see the lights. Please send me some assistance,' '' British Airways spokesman John Lampl said hours after the incident happened. Lampl blamed the problem on ongoing construction on the runway.
But MIA made it clear Wednesday it was not accepting the British Airways version of events.
''There are no issues with construction, there are no issues with lighting,'' airport spokesperson Marc Henderson said. ``It was not an issue for the airport at all.''
LIGHTS WERE WORKING
National Transportation Safety Board investigators also found that the lights were working properly and that there was no construction, NTSB spokesman Jeff Kennedy told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration also confirmed the lights were working. ''The lighting was standard there and it was all operational,'' said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.
As to what did cause difficulties for Blair's flight? MIA's Henderson said that was a question best posed to British Airways.
British Airways representatives did not return calls Wednesday evening.
None of the 343 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 209 was injured, nor was the Boeing 747-400 jet damaged, though it did knock down two of the airport's foot-tall runway approach lights as it went beyond the end of the runway.
The jet was towed back in the right direction, and made it to the gate on its own power. An hour after the landing, its passengers deplaned.
Another National Transportation Safety Board spokesman, Ted Lopatkiewicz, said his agency may post some preliminary facts about the case on its website as early as the end of this week. He did not offer a timetable for a full investigation -- and finding of cause -- to be completed.
''This is an incident, it's not an accident,'' Lopatkiewicz said.
He added that the safety board investigates every accident, but not every incident. This incident merited a closer look for reasons that included the large number of passengers involved, its occurence at a major airport, and, of course, the presence of Blair on board.
''Certainly that was an element in the decision, yes,'' Lopatkiewicz said of the prime minister.
Henderson, the airport spokesman, said he hadn't seen any similar mishaps in his 16 years of working at MIA. Said Henderson: ``This incident is not common at all.''
The Blairs' apparent destination: the Miami Beach home of fellow Brit and former Bee Gees star Robin Gibb.
It's not unusual for the British prime minister to fly commercial -- first class -- on personal vacations. When it comes to official business however, he does fly chartered jet.
FOOTING OWN BILL
Blair has made it a point to foot his own travel costs since an incident in 2005 when he was criticized for taking a free vacation at the Barbados villa of British singer Sir Cliff Richard.
Blair was also put on the defensive for staying at the Sardinian villa of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
On Blair's Miami-bound flight, passengers saw two versions of the world leader -- one sitting on first-class seat cushions, and another documented in the in-flight movie The Queen, which gives an inside look at how Blair and Queen Elizabeth II dealt with the death of Princess Diana in 1997.
It is unknown whether Blair watched the film during the trip.
29 December
Mirror:SEX SECRETS OF JFK'S DEN THE BLAIRS ON HOLIDAY
THE Gibbs' luxury £5million home boasts 10 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, landscaped gardens, a pool and stunning waterside views.
High-speed cruisers adorn Biscayne Bay, which was used as a backdrop for the glamorous 1980s cop show Miami Vice.
And the white-walled mansion was where John F Kennedy entertained Marilyn Monroe and other mistresses in the 60s.
Enthralled by the building's history, Robin vowed to restore the property when he first saw it more than 20 years ago in a neglected state.
He said: "It was like the castle after Sleeping Beauty's 100-year sleep, all overgrown.
"And inside, it was like Miss Havisham's home in Great Expectations."
In keeping with the mansion's traditions, Robin and bisexual wife Dwina held wild parties there.
Robin, who has an open relationship with his Ulster-born spouse, once said: "Our bedroom is where Kennedy made love to all his girlfriends."
Millionaire author and publicist Richard Weiner lives opposite. He said: "It's a beautiful Southern-style mansion, like Tara from Gone with the Wind. It's very exciting to have one of the leaders of the world stay across the street from us."
Jennifer Lopez used to live next door and Robin's brother Barry is three doors down. Other neighbours on Miami's North Bay Road - dubbed Millionaires' Row - include singer Ricky Martin, rocker Lenny Kravitz, designer Calvin Klein and wrestler Hulk Hogan.
One local said the 55,000 sq ft estate has recently been spruced up, possibly for the Blairs. Christmas wreaths hang from the gates and a water fountain sparkles in the front yard.
Throughout the PM's stay, Gibb's staff will cook, clean and cater for his family's every need.
If the Gibbs take Tony and Cherie to a restaurant, their most likely destination is Robin's favourite The Forge - an upmarket steakhouse.
For breakfast, the Gibbs could recommend Jimmy's East Side diner in nearby Miami Beach. Robin and Barry's late brother Maurice would go there most mornings for a bagel and coffee.Robin Gibb: A somewhat sleazy Bee Gee
With his goofy grin, lavender-framed glasses and that exuberantly fake toupee, there is something undeniably odd about Robin Gibb. Like many showbusiness legends - and Gibb has been famous for 40 years now - he seems to have grown a little more individual with every passing year.
A teetotaller and ardent vegan, he is also a one-time shoplifter, arsonist and amphetamine addict. He enjoys an open marriage to a bisexual female druid and poetess.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more unlikely new best friend for Tony Blair and his family than this particular Gibb brother - a highly strung loner who is an acknowledged eccentric even by showbusiness standards.
"Robin is a lovely guy," says one music industry publicist who has known the Bee Gee for more than 20 years. "But he's not what you'd call the bloke next door."
Superficially, of course, Robin Gibb is the perfect holiday host to the Blairs, as he is absolutely filthy rich - with a personal fortune of around £140 million - and generous enough to offer the PM and his family the use of his £5.2 million home over the holiday season.
Whoever is footing the bill, there is no doubt that the Blairs will enjoy their stay at his tenbedroom mansion, which is in the flashiest part of Miami, overlooking Biscayne Bay.
The walls of every room are lined with gold and platinum discs - a thrill for our guitar-toting PM - and everywhere you turn there are fine antiques and flourishes of expensive good taste. Although the walls were once painted exotic deep shades of teal and plum, now the house is mostly a simple, but dazzling, white.
With the Bee Gees, comprising his older brother Barry and twin Maurice, who died in 2003, Robin notched up more than 50 international hit singles.
And though the Gibb family joke has long been that Robin's singing voice sounds like a "quavering Arab", Tony is said to be particularly impressed by his musical achievements.
Cherie, meanwhile, has found a firm friend in Gibb's colourful second wife, Dwina. It must be said, though, that Dwina's tastes make Cherie's last exotic pal, Carole Caplin - she of the dance troupe and alternative therapies - seem like a humble housewife.
Dwina, a self-proclaimed "druid queen", wore white robes for her coronation ceremony on Primrose Hill, London, in 1992. She has erected a stone circle in the back garden of the Miami mansion so she can celebrate the solstices at home, is a member of the Dracula Society, and is fond of reading tarot cards.
In her more respectable moments, Dwina, the daughter of an Irish engineer, writes poems and plays, and collects spinning wheels and pictures of unicorns and dragons.
She is also involved in the exceedingly right-on charity Rights And Humanity, which aims to give those living in poverty their "human rights". Mrs Blair rejoices in the role of Women's Rights and Empowerment Network Patron for this organisation, and the pair are said to be on warm personal terms as a result.
They were introduced by Sir Cliff Richard, who has always had a soft spot for Robin. Surely, though, the Blairs were lulled into a false sense of security by the Cliff connection.
Do they even begin to suspect just how alternative their holiday hosts are? For the home in which they are staying was, according to Dwina, partly designed by her lesbian girlfriends.
"Heterosexual women are more territorial," she sighed in an interview recently, adding that her lesbian friends had freely shared their advice about how to decorate the Miami pad.
She added: "I hate labels like lesbian or bisexual, but I do enjoy the company of women. I've had very good friends for years, not just physically but spiritually as well. And Robin, it seems, likes to have his wife's girlfriends around. I share chores like cooking and shopping with them. You need a big house for an open relationship."
The couple spend around 60 per cent of the year under the same roof, and are open with each other about having other sexual partners.
"From the beginning we negotiated an open relationship," said Robin. "We have achieved a wonderful combination of freedom and closeness. I don't worry about Dwina finding someone else and I don't have the urge to settle down with someone else, either. Jealousy is energy-draining. Many marriages fail because of it."
That is not to say that the Gibbs play any part in the seamier side of Miami nightlife, where drugs and promiscuity are rife. Instead, the rule seems to be that they live very unconventional lives as discreetly as they possibly can.
Dwina was certainly furious when Robin talked about their sexual proclivities on a radio chat show 13 years ago, and received a blue Jaguar car by way of an apology - it wasn't that she was embarrassed, she later explained, it was just that she was worried about the impact it might have on her mother and their son, Robin John, who is now 20.
So who is Robin Gibb, and what shaped his life? Born on the Isle of Man into utter poverty in December 1949, he has been defined by a suffocating and at times destructive family dynamic, which propelled him into fame, but always kept the approval he longed for just out of reach.
As a result, he says to this day he is still in flight from the reality of life, and suffers from chronic low self-esteem.
"An artist is an artist because he is not happy with the world, so he creates his own existence," he once said.
His showbusiness career began at a prodigiously young age. While schoolboys in Manchester, Barry, the oldest Gibb brother, and his younger twins Maurice and Robin perfected the art of singing in close harmony.
They first performed, aged nine and six, in the toilets of John Lewis, because that was where the best acoustics in town could be found.
That shared bond as performers helped them escape from their handto-mouth existence; the family moved house every few weeks at one stage in order to stay ahead of the bailiffs.
Robin explained: "The real world was just too real and we didn't want to be a part of normal life. We wanted to create a magic world for the three of us. The three of us were like one person, and we were doing what we needed to do: make music. It became an obsession."
The brothers also developed a taste for truanting and getting into trouble.
"Barry and Robin were pilfering right, left and centre from Woolies and getting away with it," recalled Maurice in an interview before his death.
"One day, I was walking home and all the billboards in the main street in Chorlton were blazing away, firemen and policemen running around everywhere. That was Robin, the family arsonist. Another time he set the back of a shop on fire."
The family were advised about assisted passage to Australia by the neighbourhood policeman, who seems to have hinted that it was that or legal action. The three boys performed in their pyjamas every night on the deck of the ship which took them away.
In Australia, their father, Hugh, promoted the boys at radio talent shows. A domineering man, he never praised their performances, but instead would remark: "Good audience," if the show went well. It was enough to make Robin, always shy, cripplingly insecure.
And their upbringing was far from normal. They had no friends of their own age, and were always travelling and performing. Barry left school at 15, Robin and Maurice at 13.
In the mid-Sixties, they had a hit record in Australia, and began to get involved with drugs. Barry recalls buying liquid methedrine, now an illegal amphetamine, in chemists to help them get through their hectic schedule of performances.
Once back in the UK in 1967, success came quickly; legendary music impresario Robert Stigwood took them on and they had their first hit in Britain with New York Mining Disaster. Robin was only 17, and fell in love with the first woman he met: Molly Hullis, Beatles manager Brian Epstein's secretary. They were married within a year, and quickly had two children, Spencer and Melissa.
But the pressure of fame was too much for vulnerable Robin, and his drug use became uncontrollable.
"We used to go to America for a tour and I would stay up all night, collapse and then wake up in hospital suffering from exhaustion. I didn't know what I was doing."
His parents had him made a ward of court because they were so concerned. He even quit the band - the first of many attempts to walk away from his brothers.
Robin, who never entered rehab like his brother Maurice, but saw his baby brother Andy, who wasn't in the band, die from a heart attack aged only 30 after cocaine addiction, knows he was lucky to get through the years that followed.
"Looking back, I realise I might not have come out of it alive. I never took serious drugs like LSD or cocaine - I was scared stiff of them. And I never stayed up all night for reasons of fun, it was always for work."
His marriage fell apart as the band became more famous, with Robin jetting around the world while Molly stayed at home with the children in Epsom, Surrey.
A gulf opened up between the brothers, too. Maurice was a drinker, but Barry and Robin continued to share a taste for amphetamines. Each had their own manager, the arguments were frequent and Robin walked out several times.
After the band's incredible success with the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever in 1977, when the Bee Gees were at the height of their fame as tight-trousered, bouffant-haired, nutmeg-tanned sex symbols, Molly told him their marriage was over.
"I loved my wife, but I was still very young and still attracted to other people," he admits. "I have a high sex drive and I was unfaithful. I've had quite a few physical encounters - probably more than 100. Some of them were disappointing. They were mostly a distraction, almost like notches on a belt. I didn't have sex for love, just for fun."
The separation was acrimonious, and Robin did not see the children for four years, although he is on better terms with them now. He recalls being unable to eat while the divorce dragged on. "I felt I was going to die from complete misery," he said.
Robin even ended up in prison in 1983 after the divorce judge found that he had breached an agreement by talking publicly about the marriage. Sentenced to two weeks in jail, he appealed and spent only a couple of hours inside.
At a low ebb in 1980, he was introduced to Dwina. Sharing a birthday and an interest in history, Robin says it was love at first sight, and once contended that he might have known her in a former life.
The birth of their son Robin John a year after his divorce from Molly was not publicly revealed until the lad was nearly one.
Early in the marriage, his younger brother Andy sought sanctuary with Robin and Dwina at their Oxfordshire home. He was just 30, and running away from a failed marriage, failing career and the chaotic after-effects of cocaine addiction. He died suddenly at Robin's home.
Andy's death hit Robin hard, but a harder blow was to fall with the death of his twin Maurice, always the peacemaker and the extrovert in the group.
Maurice died suddenly in January 2003 after his intestine burst. Robin was so grief-stricken that for months he couldn't come to terms with his brother's death.
"I can't accept that he's dead," he said later that year. "I just imagine he's alive somewhere else. Pretend is the right word."
Robin, who has always been softcentred, has released a single in aid of tsunami relief and has even maintained a friendship with Alistair Griffith, his protégé; from the BBC Fame Academy series in 2003.
Those who worked with him on the show recall him as unassuming and easy to work with - but too much of an old hippy to pronounce harsh judgments of the contestants' talents. In one of the first shows he declared that all of the singers had "international potential". Most have, of course, faded into obscurity.
Since Maurice's death, Robin has released several solo records, and in the New Year is due to tour Switzerland. He and Barry, who lives next door but one in Miami, are currently considering gigging together in 2007.
Tony Blair is said to have packed his guitar for the Miami holiday and is even hoping for a New Year's Eve jamming session with Robin and Barry.
As the PM faces such a difficult year ahead, perhaps, instead of performing some of the Bee Gees' big hits for their families tomorrow night, he will choose one of their less well-known songs, Sinking Ships?
30 December
Miami Vice New Year for Tony and Cherie
Last updated at 21:04pm on 30th December 2006
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.
Some of the papers continue to run stories on Tony and Cherie Blair's winter holiday at the Florida mansion of Bee Gee Robin Gibb and his wife
Revealed: Blair host stood by jailed porn baron lover
Tony and Cherie Blair have suffered further embarrassment over their controversial holiday at the Miami home of Robin Gibb after it became clear that the Bee Gee's wife is the former consort of a notorious porn baron.
Irish-born Dwina Murphy-Gibb, who wed Robin in 1985, spent much of the previous decade as the common-law wife of David Waterfield.
Waterfield was jailed for three years in 1975 - cut to 18 months on appeal - for importing hundreds of indecent films into Britain.
When he appeared at the Old Bailey he was supported by Dwina, who then called herself Dwina Waterfield even though she never married the pornographer.
The trial was told that Waterfield was making a profit of £6,000 a week from showing banned blue movies at two sex cinemas he ran in Newington Green Road and Danbury Road, Islington, North London.
Visitors to his cinemas, who had to be over 21 and male, automatically became members of his private club.
They were also sold explicit magazines by Waterfield, who smuggled them into Britain - along with the films - in the back of a bacon lorry.
Sentencing Waterfield, who was then 34, Judge Abdela QC told him that some of the material was 'the most obscene that the human mind could have thought of', adding: "Even you were disgusted by some of it."
The trial had an all-male jury after Waterfield and three other defendants objected to 13 potential women jurors.
More than a day-and-a-half of court time was devoted to showing excerpts from 22 films depicting homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality and oral group sex.
One film they were asked to watch was entitled Snow White And The Seven Lovers.
Waterfield, who is now living in Thailand, was later freed on appeal after serving 18 months.
His lawyers argued that the Press and the public should not have been excluded when the jury were shown the blue movies, and the Court of Appeal agreed that the films were indecent rather than obscene.
Yesterday his sister Maria, an artist and social worker from Southampton, told how Dwina had no objections at the time to her common-law husband's career as a porn baron, and alleged that they ran the business together.
"As far as I recall, she mainly helped David with the business, which was about blue movies. She even called herself Mrs Waterfield but they never settled down and got married,' said Maria.
"I remember the first time I saw her. This little tiny blonde stepped out of David's big Jaguar car. She had her hair dyed in the colours of a rainbow and was very bubbly.
"As far as I knew she was monogamous when she was with David but I gathered she had lived quite a bit sexually before that.
"She told me she'd had a strict sheltered Catholic upbringing in Ireland, which she was determined to put behind her.
"This was the time of free love and Dwina was also very much into women's rights. That might not sound quite in key with what David was doing.
"But as far as both of them were concerned, the porn business was about free choice for women and people not doing what society told them to do."
Maria said that the couple were both vegetarians and tee-totallers and lived very well. "Dwina was an extremely talented artist and beautiful enough to work as a model,' she recalled.
"David had left home at 16 and got a job as a waiter on the ships near were we lived in Southampton.
"He was quite driven business-wise. When he came to London, it was obvious to him that pornography was one way to make a lot of money.
"David was adamant, though, that he would never get involved in child pornography, or in anything that depicted disabled people."
Maria could not recall why the pair split up in 1982, but her brother married soon after. He did, however, keep in touch with Dwina for many years. Waterfield even used to receive Christmas cards signed by Dwina and Robin Gibb.
Asked about Dwina's relationship with Waterfield, Robin Gibb's co-manager John Campbell said: "They have no intention of discussing this."
He did, however, deny reports last week that Dwina had been involved in sex parties at the couple's Miami mansion.
Referring to one account of how women cavorted together at a party attended by lesbians and drag queens, Mr Campbell said: "These were fancy dress parties raising money for charities, and nothing else."
MPs have called for an investigation into the Blairs' £60,000 Miami holiday after conflicting reports about whether they had paid anything towards it, or whether it was another freebie.
Blair paid for his Florida trip, Downing Street says
THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Saturday, Dec 30, 2006, Page 6
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office at No. 10 Downing Street, London, insisted on Thursday that it had paid properly and in full for Blair's winter break after a day of confusion over the arrangements surrounding his stay in the Miami mansion of pop star Robin Gibb.
No. 10 maintained that the Blairs' holiday at the waterfront home was a "private commercial arrangement," even though the wife of the prime minister's host seemed to contradict the claim.
Dwina Murphy-Gibb said she and her husband, a former member of the Bee Gees had not accepted or received money from the Blairs to stay in their Florida mansion.
"It's just a friendly thing," she said.
Though Downing Street refused to elaborate, government sources moved to explain the different views after overnight talks with John Campbell, who represents Robin Gibb. One official said Campbell confirmed that the Blairs paid the Gibbs for the accommodation, but that the couple had donated the money to charity.
But Downing Street refused to clarify how much Blair had paid for the house, to whom or when. No 10 argues that Blair is entitled to privacy when he is on holiday.
The confusion has again raised question marks over the press handling of Blair's holiday arrangements. Questions have dogged him several times, ever since he borrowed the former UK paymaster-general Geoffrey Robinson's villa in the summer of 1997. Later that year Blair surprised even his aides by taking the family to the Seychelles for a winter break.
Senior British opposition politicians held fire on the issue yesterday. Hazel Blears, the Labour party chairwoman, appealed to the media to stop prying.
"I'm not privy to his private arrangements for his holiday. We are talking about big issues around pensions, energy, the health service, education and yet right across the media it's tittle-tattle about where he's gone for his holidays," she told BBC Radio.
"All members of the government are always conscious of the need to have integrity, public probity: all those issues are important. For people to be crawling over the details of the prime minister's Christmas and New Year break, I just think is entirely wrong," she said.
Nevertheless, backbench opposition members of parliament tried to keep up the pressure on Blair.
"This is yet another freebie holiday and I fear it cheapens the whole office," Henry Bellingham said.
Cost of Blair’s ‘free’ holidays in sun reaches £775,000
Robert Winnett and Yuba Bessaoud
TONY BLAIR has enjoyed “free” holidays worth more than £775,000 with wealthy hosts since he became prime minister, sparking calls for an inquiry into whether this has created conflicts of interest.
The prime minister has said that he makes donations to charity in lieu of paying for the trips, but their high value calls into question whether the donations cover the full cost. Downing Street refuses to detail the charities which benefit or the amounts paid.
Last week Blair and his family set off on their latest trip — this time a break in Miami at the luxurious mansion owned by Robin Gibb, the former Bee Gee.
Blair’s office initially said that he had made a “private commercial arrangement” to pay Gibb, a Labour party supporter, for the holiday.
However, Gibb’s wife Dwina said the trip was “just a friendly thing” for which the couple had received no money. Downing Street officials then insisted that money had been paid to charity.
The Blairs’ latest holiday prompted Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat MP, and Philip Davies, a Conservative MP, to write to Sir Philip Mawer, the parliamentary standards commissioner, asking him to investigate whether any rules had been broken. The Blairs have previously disclosed holidays on the Commons register of interest.
“The prime minister has to be seen to be beholden to nobody, and by constantly grasping holidays he’s effectively building up personal debts, which is something a prime minister should not be doing,” said Baker.
The Sunday Times has established that Blair or his family have enjoyed at least 15 luxury holidays at the private homes of wealthy businessmen, politicians and pop stars.
The trips include four holidays to a Barbados villa owned by Sir Cliff Richard, who has lobbied the government — so far to no avail — to extend the period that his songs will be covered by copyright. The Blairs have enjoyed Richard’s hospitality for a total of 11 weeks at an estimated cost of £150,000.
The Blairs have also enjoyed holidays at the homes of Alain-Dominique Perrin, who at the time was an executive at Richemont, the company behind luxury brands such as Cartier, which holds a large stake in British American Tobacco, the biggest British tobacco firm; Massimo Carello, a former Fiat executive, and Sir David Keene, an appeal court judge.
Foreign leaders — including Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister who owns a Sardinian mansion, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt — have also forked out for Blair junkets.
The prime minister has attracted criticism as well for using the Queen’s flight for several holidays. He has justified some of these flights by combining holidays with official business. The commercial rate for the use of these jets is estimated at about £500,000.
Last week the Blair family holiday to Florida became public after the plane they were travelling on overshot the runway at Miami airport.
Cherie Blair is understood to have become friends with Gibb and his wife through Rights and Humanity, the human rights charity of which she is a trustee. Gibb introduced the prime minister at a Labour party rally in 2005.
The Gibbs joined the Blairs at the mansion on Thursday evening in preparation for a New Year’s Eve party this evening. The prime minister has taken his Fender Stratocaster guitar on holiday, prompting speculation that he will enjoy a “jam session” with the star.
Last week two dozen new palm trees were delivered to the £5.2m Florida house to protect the prime minister from the lenses of the massed paparazzi. Downing Street spin doctors are understood to be particularly keen that there are no photographs of Blair watching the famous Miami sunsets, to avoid headlines drawing comparisons with his waning authority.
Richard Weiner, a neighbour of Gibb, said: “Mr Gibb’s house is in a prime location facing west across Biscayne Bay. This part of the world is paradise and one of the great enjoyments is watching the sun go down. The sunsets are really quite spectacular.”
Blair has travelled to Miami with Scotland Yard protection officers, dressed in lurid Hawaiian shirts, and the Americans have provided 10 Secret Service agents to guard the party. Last week Cherie, with two of her sons, Euan and Leo, were treated to a behind the scenes tour of the Kennedy Space Center at Orlando, the launch site for Nasa space shuttles.
Downing Street declined to comment on the Blairs’ holiday arrangements.
MPs report Blair to standards watchdog over Miami holiday
Will Woodward, chief political correspondent
Tony Blair is to be reported to the parliamentary standards commissioner over his Miami holiday at the home of Robin Gibb, one of the Bee Gees.
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, and Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, are both writing separately to Sir Philip Mawer asking him to investigate whether the stay conforms to parliamentary rules.
They are also writing to Sir Alistair Graham, the commissioner on standards in public life, demanding changes to the way senior politicians take holidays.
Mr Baker said yesterday: "The prime minister has to be seen to be beholden to nobody and by constantly grasping holidays he's effectively building up personal debts, which is something a prime minister should not be doing.
"Surely him and Cherie have got enough money without ringing up the Bee Gees to borrow their home. It's just one freebie after another."
Downing Street insists Mr Blair made a "private commercial arrangement" and views his holiday arrangements as a private matter. After Mr Gibb's wife, Dwina, said that it was a "just a friendly thing" for which they had received no money, government officials were adamant that the Blairs did pay for the stay. But they attempted to square that apparent contradiction by revealing that the Gibbs had subsequently made a payment to charity.
Mr Baker said there would be less suspicion if Mr Blair's friendship pre-dated his prime ministership. "The problem is he should not be star-struck by clapped-out pop stars. Obviously if he [Gibb] was somebody from the past that's a different matter but he [Blair] appears to be using his position to secure free holidays. It's about time the whole gravy train was derailed."
Previous holidays taken by the Blairs at the homes of former paymaster general Geoffrey Robinson and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi have also attracted more controversy, as did the three stays at Sir Cliff Richard's Barbados mansion.
Mr Blair has described Gibb as one of his heroes and confessed to being "star-struck" when the Bee Gee introduced him at a Labour rally last year.
Other than a broadside from Chris Grayling, the shadow transport secretary, the leaderships of the main opposition parties have resisted wading into the row. Mr Blair has worked over the Christmas break, making calls to Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley over attempts to restore power sharing to Northern Ireland.
Hazel Blears, the Labour chair, appealed earlier in the week for Mr Blair to be left alone during what will be his last winter holiday as prime minister. "For people to be crawling over the details ... I just think is entirely wrong. You've had the reassurance from Downing Street that he is meeting the cost of his holiday, as he has done for previous holidays."
Other world leaders' Christmas breaks
Tony Blair has opted for the company of kitsch popstars on the costa-del-celeb, but where are the other world leaders this Christmas?
President Bush is spending it clearing brush and going to church on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
French President Jacques Chirac is in southern Morocco, a former French protectorate, and top French holiday destination.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is with his family in the Moscow suburb of Novo-Ogarevo.
Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will be in his southern Spain nature retreat with his family. It is Spanish tradition to eat 12 grapes on the strike of midnight of New Year's Eve. Dan Bell
Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb sleeps at a friend's while the Blairs are left home alone
Jacqui Goddard in Miami, Sunday Telegraph
30/12/2006
After lending Tony Blair his Miami home, Robin Gibb, the Bee Gees singer, was widely expected to spend the New Year with his guest. But the pop star will not be staying with the Prime Minister's family after flying into Florida from London on Friday.
The multi-millionaire Mr Gibb, 57, and his wife, Dwina, 54, have decided instead to move into the nearby home of a friend.
The Blairs, meanwhile, have further guaranteed their privacy at the luxurious Oak Hall by taking delivery of more than two dozen palm trees.
The trees – 25 in all, each costing £200 and standing 6ft tall – have been planted around the swimming pool. The Prime Minister hopes they will protect him and his family from long-lens -cameramen who are on boats anchored in the bay, just 300 yards away from the £5.2 million property. It was unclear last night who had paid for the trees.
The disclosure that the Blairs have been given exclusive access to the Gibbs' Miami home will raise further questions about the arrangement between the Prime Minister and the singer.
Downing Street has been under pressure to clarify whether Mr Blair is paying for the property or whether he has been allowed use of it as a gift.
The Liberal Democrats and the Tories have written to Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and Sir Alistair Graham, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, to try to force an inquiry into the Blairs' trip.
Sources in Miami insisted last night that there were no plans for the Blairs and the Gibbs, who have even removed their two dogs from the property, to see in the New Year together.
One source, who asked not to be named, said: "There have been some rumours going round that there's some big New Year party at the house, but that's not true. Robin and his wife are staying with friends, and the Blairs have got exclusive use of the house."
The Blairs will not be short of invitations, however. Donald Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate is just up the coast from the Gibbs' residence, has already invited the Prime Minister and his family to attend his end-of-year bash.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "The best thing he could do is come to Mar-a-Lago and watch the biggest New Year's Eve fireworks show in the nation. He could bring his wife and children, they'll love it."
31 December
Sunday Telegraph:Have you been blaired?
By Jenny McCartney,
It has become something of a British tradition: each holiday season, the Blairs amuse and dismay the nation with some freshly surreal burst of freeloading. This Christmas has been no exception. On Boxing Day, the Blairs jetted out en famille for a week-long stay at the Florida mansion of the pop star Robin Gibb, a member of the Bee Gees. The visit, which was supposed to remain secret, was discovered when their plane overshot the runway at Miami airport.
A week's rented accommodation in such a spectacular house, in a location that has been described as "obscenely private", is estimated to cost between £25,000 and £40,000. But, as ever, there is some confusion over the paying status of the Blairs. --Number 10 called it "a private commercial arrangement" but, when asked, Mrs Gibb indicated that no payment had been asked for or given: "No, we are just friends. It's just a friendly thing."
Hazel Blears, the Labour party chairman, has chastised the press for "crawling all over" the Blairs' holiday arrangements, and brusquely remarked that "I do not think the public is that interested". On the contrary, I think that the public is very interested indeed, because while the intricacies of public spending can be rather impenetrable, holidays are something we can all easily understand.
For most of us, the holiday routine is fairly simple: we assiduously save our money and then either rent a house or stump up for two weeks in a hotel. Those of us with children of school age will make extra sure to pay extortionate prices for the crime of travelling during the school holidays. If we are lucky enough to have friends who have houses in picturesque places, we might go and stay with them – but they will usually have to be very good friends, because otherwise we will all grate horribly upon each others' nerves over the sun tan lotion and the washing-up rota.
Only the very rich tend to go and stay for free in the houses of people they don't know very well, and that is because the very rich have staff who can ease the workaday irritations of guests. Mr Blair now seems effortlessly to inhabit the mind-set of the very rich at the same time as occupying 10 Downing Street, which is a rather worrying development in any prime minister.
How precisely does the delicate question of the holiday arise, I wonder? I suppose it goes a bit like this. Tony and Cherie meet a wealthy, famous entertainer at a dinner or party. The famous person, who has no doubt wearied of the butterfly diversions of the entertainment circuit, is mildly excited to be in the presence of real political power. Tony and Cherie, meanwhile, are thrilled to be in the company of showbiz glamour. Tony expresses generous, and no doubt genuine, admiration for the entertainer's work: the entertainer is warmed and flattered.
Before long the conversation has meandered into the subject of the cares of office. The decisions of state weigh heavily upon a prime minister, Mr Blair explains, and it can be so difficult to find the time and space to relax in a family setting: in this day and age, the damned press is always in hot pursuit. The entertainer sympathises keenly, for he too has come to value privacy highly. A generous impulse spontaneously occurs to him, and he says: "Hey, if you guys ever need somewhere to get away from things, feel free to use my place in…"
Little does the potential host realise it, but he has just been gently suckered into providing a free, or radically cut-price, holiday in a luxurious setting. Indeed, so skilled are the Blairs at securing such sojourns that they should really inspire a new verb to describe it, as in: "Had a nice summer, Oscar?" "Marvellous, thank you, I've just spent a month blairing in the South of France, and then we're off to the Pratt-Keathley's yacht in September."
Those who have been blaired in the past include Geoffrey Robinson, the Tuscan aristocrat Prince Girolamo Strozzi, and the Egyptian government, which provided a free villa in Sharm el Sheikh on the Red Sea in 2001. Some, such as Robinson, have been left embittered by their blairing: a few years after their stay, he revealed that Tony hadn't paid for his tennis lessons and Cherie had made off with several books. Others, such as Sir Cliff Richard, seemed happy to be blaired year after year, though even he may now be having doubts.
In 2004, a truly superb summer for blairing, the Blairs moved from Sir Cliff's Barbados villa to Strozzi's Tuscan palace, finishing off with a brief private stay in the Sardinian mansion of Silvio Berlusconi, then prime minister of Italy. In the latter case, however, it is possible that the blairing Blairs were in fact skilfully berlusconied: lured into accepting free hospitality in the hope of creating a politically useful sense of obligation in the guest.
It is interesting that, when it comes to blairing pop stars, Mr Blair gravitates towards those who loosely resemble himself. Both Cliff Richard and Robin Gibb, who seem amiable characters, share with Mr Blair a wide and toothy grin, a perma-tanned visage (which carries within it the faint hint of -rhesus monkey), and an artfully middle-of-the-road appeal which is mocked in some unkind quarters. But Mr Blair's own hazy sense of moral and financial boundaries, especially when translated into political decisions, has created a number of serious messes: not least the current investigation into the loans-for-peerages allegations. I doubt that Mr Blair could ever have given us the helium joy of Saturday Night Fever, but if I were asked who I would pick to run the country, I really think we might be better off with Robin Gibb.Having a swinging time, wish you were here
PROFILE Robin and Dwina Gibb
Before he helped to make falsetto voices and excessive orthodontry almost cool, Robin Gibb displayed talent as an arsonist, setting light to an allotment shed and a car before earning a stint in Australia. Just the man, then, to fire up a nice controversy over Tony Blair’s freebie holiday at the Bee Gee’s sumptuous pad in Miami Beach.
The tabloids have had a field day with the shocking notion of the prime minister and his family being entertained by the kinky Gibb and his bisexual wife Dwina, whose recent guests included three drag queens in lurid wigs and a group of leather-clad lipstick lesbians. That was just a charity event: what do they get up to in private?
Gibb, the short, slight and shyest member of pop’s von Trapp family, is best known for the hit Massachusetts, a nasal rendition which evoked a human bagpipe, in contrast to his older brother Barry’s voice, likened to a chipmunk on helium.
He could not have conceived what a blaze he would kindle when he noticed that his friend Blair was looking “haggard” after the Iraq war and invited him to his 10-bedroom mansion in one of the most expensive gated communities in America.
An ardent vegan and teetotaller, Gibb is known by friends as a harmless eccentric who has made no secret of his open marriage. Dwina says her husband and Blair enjoy the occasional game of tennis. This is curious, as Dwina bulldozed the tennis court of their 13th-century mansion in Oxfordshire, where the couple live for much of the year, to make way for a large sun calendar. Druids, of whom Dwina is one, apparently don’t hold with the sport. In 1992 she became the first woman for 300 years to be inaugurated as patroness of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.
Growing up in a Protestant Northern Ireland family, Dwina inherited uncanny gifts from her mother, Sadie Murphy. “When I was about nine I started to have very vivid dreams about nature,” she recalled. Her mother was shocked when she learnt that Gibb had revealed another aspect of his wife’s nature to a radio interviewer: she was a lesbian who loved three-in-a-bed sex and walking around the house naked.
“I knew she was a lesbian when we married,” Gibb said. “It turns me on to see her in bed with other girls.” Dwina’s mother, unable to face neighbours in the Co Tyrone village of Kilskeery, was assured it was a terrible mistake. “Robin has told me it was all meant to be a joke,” she announced.
It wasn’t: before long Dwina was telling an interviewer that she wasn’t ashamed of what her husband had said and was quite happy to share him with friends. “We have an open relationship,” she said. “Robin has had flings in the past with friends of mine and he talks to me about them. It doesn’t worry me because I trust my friends.”
As for lesbianism, she hates labels. “But I enjoy the company of women. I’ve had very good friends for years, not just physically but spiritually as well.”
Still, it was a shock when Gibb outed himself in 2003: he admitted he was bald. It was a condition more associated with his twin brother Maurice, who covered up in trademark hats. Robin had somehow hidden his hair deficit behind sunglasses.
He still struggles to accept Maurice’s death in 2003 in a Miami hospital after surgery went wrong. His brother had admitted himself after falling ill with an intestinal complaint.
It was the second tragedy to hit the Bee Gees. Their youngest brother, Andy, after an expensive addiction to cocaine and a string of girlfriends including Victoria Principal, star of the soap opera Dallas, died at the age of 30 in Oxford.
Which leaves Robin and Barry, three years his senior and a grey version of the once golden-maned singer who dominated the group. Barry lives in a nearby mansion in the same Miami Beach enclave. The two brothers have been reconciled after an estrangement over the cancellation of a memorial concert for Maurice that was meant to star Michael Jackson. Other close neighbours include Matt Damon, the Hollywood actor, and the singers Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.
With an estimated fortune of £60m from more than 50 international hit singles by the Bee Gees — Saturday Night Fever is still the bestselling soundtrack album with more than 40m copies — Gibb can afford to reflect on his journey from abject poverty to stardom in one of the most successful pop groups of all time.
His improbable springboard was the Isle of Man, where Hugh Gibb, his father, was a small-time dance band leader by night and a bread delivery man by day. With his encouragement, the brothers taught themselves to sing in three-part harmony, pretending that hairbrushes were microphones. They not only had hair, but seemingly more teeth than the island’s number of inhabitants.Blairs blend in on Beach holiday
Tony who? He may be a foreign dignitary, but in celebrity-saturated Miami Beach, Blair is barely a boldface name.
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
On the Miami Beach celebrity scale of J.Lo to your Aunt Hadassah at the Hebrew Home, British Prime Minister Tony Blair ranks somewhere around that homeless guy on Lincoln Road who wears a Santa suit all year round.
After an initial flurry of activity Wednesday outside Oak Hall -- former Bee Gee Robin Gibb's estate, where the Blairs are staying -- interest in his presence had dwindled Friday morning to a brace of neighbors dropping off a book.
No paparazzi. No autograph hounds. Not even protesters against the war in Iraq, Blair's support of which has made him about as popular back home as Jack the Ripper.
The two loneliest guys in town may have been Miami Beach police Officer Jimmy Mauro and a pleasant but zip-lipped Secret Service agent (no, he couldn't say whether the Blairs were there. No, he couldn't say where they'd been. No, he couldn't explain why no one had picked up The Miami Herald, still under a bush at 10:30 a.m.).
They leaned on their cars outside Oak Hall's white wrought-iron gates, enjoying the sunshine. Mauro chatted on his mobile phone; the agent greeted a passing golden retriever.
By Friday, public Blair spottings had been limited to lunch Wednesday at Big Pink on Collins Avenue.
Hostess Cinia Sanchez said they were a party of 12: Tony Blair; his wife Cherie; three teenagers; ''an older couple'' with British accents; and Secret Service agents, whose office had called Sunday to alert management to the visit.
Blair had a chicken Caesar salad, according to Sanchez. The teenagers, all in jeans, had hamburgers and fries.
She didn't know what the check came to, who picked it up or how well they tipped.
''We put three four-seaters tables together for them,'' said Sanchez, 18, who had been on the job for five days when she found herself leading a head of government to his table.
`VERY DOWN-TO-EARTH'
Blair, in a long-sleeve blue shirt, ''was very down-to-earth,'' she said. ``People stared and asked for autographs and pictures. He was willing to do it, and he spoke to customers who approached him.''
Sanchez said she didn't make a big deal out of it.
``I wasn't really going crazy. He's an important man, but he's a human being like the rest of us and should be able to enjoy his meal.''
The Blairs' vacation was supposed to be low-profile, a plan spoiled when the media learned they were on a commercial jet that clipped runway lights at Miami International Airport on Tuesday evening.
But across the pond, it's a different story. The British tabloids and webloids have their knickers in a knot over Blair's fun-in-the-sun vacation.
$11 MILLION MANSION
For starters, there are the accommodations: a three-story, 10,000-square-foot mansion worth at least $11 million.
Actually, it's not the accommodations but the hosts who seem to be the issue: Robin Gibb and his wife of 21 years, novelist-poet-artist Dwina Murphy-Gibb.
The Gibbs, big supporters of Blair's Labor Party, have a notoriously open, omnisexual marriage. ''We like to cruise and we like to watch,'' Robin Gibb has said in interviews, just the sort of comment that caused London's Daily Mail to harrumph on Thursday: ''Shameless! Blair's freebie holiday at Bee Gee mansion,'' and ``House of decadence where JFK took his mistresses!''
Indeed, part of Miami Beach folklore is that the president enjoyed romantic trysts at Oak Hall, perhaps even with Marilyn Monroe.
Then there's the question of who is underwriting the trip.
''Downing Street insisted that the Blairs were paying their way, while Mrs. Gibb, a bisexual Druid priestess from Northern Ireland, undermined their defence [sic] by insisting that no money was changing hands,'' The Times reported. ' `It's a friendly arrangement,' she told one newspaper.''
Downing Street ''insisted that the Blairs would pay the Gibbs . . . adding that the Gibbs would in turn pay it to a charity of their choice,'' The Times continued. According to the Telegraph, Henry Bellingham, a Tory member of Parliament, sniffed: ``This is another example of the prime minister's obsession with very rich people. . . I fear [the holiday] cheapens the whole office.''
The Blairs often vacation with pop stars. They summered at Sir Cliff Richard's spread in the Caribbean, raising questions of conflict of interest, according to the Daily Mail.
Both Gibb and Richard have ''put pressure on Ministers to change the copyright laws to allow performing artists to cash in for longer on their hits,'' the tabloid said. ``Critics questioned whether the invitation was a reward for Mr. Blair, who last year helped highlight the copyright campaign.''
Reward or not, the Gibbs may be the perfect hosts: They are not even there. But their boat is, and a neighbor says it's been in use for the past couple of days.
Two other neighbors say that the Gibbs always spend Christmas in England and were still overseas when the Blairs checked in.
Now back in town, they are renting a place in Miami Beach so the Blairs and the ''trillion Secret Service agents'' guarding them can have the run of the 10-bedroom mansion and the use of its four-person staff, one neighbor said.
Even the Gibb dogs, a Great Dane and a Weimaraner, ''had to go stay elsewhere,'' the neighbor said. ``Robin and Dwina spend most of their time in England, but the dogs are usually in residence.''
Annette Hughes, press/public affairs officer for the British consulate in Miami, said that ''for security reasons,'' she couldn't talk about the Blairs' itinerary.
As for the apparent lack of interest in their comings and goings, she said, ``People have more fascination with royalty.''
FUNERAL NOT IN PLANS
Blair will not attend the late President Gerald Ford's funeral on Tuesday, said Steve Atkins, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington, although he wouldn't say whether Blair would still be in the United States.
Instead, Sir David Manning, the ambassador, will represent the United Kingdom. The State Department and the Ford family agreed that ''foreign heads of mission'' rather than heads of government would attend, Atkins said.
And why are the paparazzi not buzzing around the Blairs like hungry sea gulls? Atkins tried to be charitable: ``It is the season of goodwill.''
13 January 2007
The porn star past of Cherie Blair's best friend - according to her ex-fiance
The woman who was Tony and Cherie Blair's host for their controversial holiday in Florida is a former porn star, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.Dwina Murphy-Gibb appeared in several blue movies in the early Seventies. And she was expelled from a women's liberation group when they found out about her past.
Dwina and her husband, Bee Gee Robin Gibb, opened their £4 million waterfront home in Miami Beach to the Blairs over New Year, prompting another 'freebie' holiday row.
It also led to a series of revelations about Dwina's colourful past as a wild-living, bisexual Druid priestess.
But now her former fiance, David Waterfield, has disclosed her biggest secret in a further embarrassment for the Blairs.
"Dwina did porno before she knew me," said Mr Waterfield. "We are talking before videos. We are talking black and white movies."
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Dwina and Cherie have grown close over the past 12 months, sharing an interest in human rights.
Mr Waterfield, 63, a former porn baron who now lives in a remote bamboo hut near Chiang Mai in northern Thailand with his pregnant Thai fiancee, said he was 'amazed' someone with Dwina's background was allowed into Downing Street.
"There must surely be some checking device. They should have known her background."
Recalling their two-year romance, he said Dwina was fascinated by tarot cards, spiritualism and 'witchery' which he said was nurtured by bohemian friends with an interest in the occult.
He described his former lover as 'honourable and honest' and said: "If she is a friend of Cherie Blair, then Cherie has got a good friend."
Waterfield - then a wealthy 29-year-old 'wheeler dealer' - met Dwina when she was a 20-year-old art college student in London in 1972.
"In my game, there are a lot of women around. But she was different. She was lovely with a big smile and a no-nonsense attitude. She wasn't a greedy or avaricious person," he said.
"I remember I had just bought a yellow E-type Jag - the first V12 model. It cost me £3,400 and at the time it was the only thing in my life I'd ever wanted.
"When I met Dwina, I'd never taken a girl out in it before. I thought, "She's going to love this."
"I told her I had my car parked round the corner and she turned the corner and said, "Is that your car?" I said, "Yes." And she said, "I'm not getting in that."
"I was gutted. I said, "You're joking" but she refused to get in. It turned out she'd been in a sports car with another guy the week before, and it went too fast and they had an accident.
"She got in eventually. But that's the kind of person she was. Everyone likes money to a degree but she's not a greedy person. She's a kind person, a very generous person.
"She would do all she could to help anybody. She helped a poor disabled girl. She bought her a wheelchair. Anyone will tell you she is just a kind person."
Their unconventional relationship involved Waterfield having to accept bisexual Dwina's female lovers.
"What she did with women had nothing to do with me - she made that very plain to me," he said. "But I learnt a lot about it [lesbianism] from her, luckily I'm not afflicted with jealousy."
Throughout their time together, Waterfield said Dwina had an uncanny ability to network with the rich and famous.
"She meets everyone - just by chance. Everywhere she goes, she is one of those people who attracts famous people," he said.
"She even bumped into Princess Anne when she was getting engaged.
"It doesn't surprise me she's friends with the Blairs. Wherever she goes, she meets actors and famous people. It's just the way she is. She doesn't go looking for it. She bumps into people.
"When I was with her, every day she met and made friends with someone famous. One day it would be Warren Mitchell. Another day it was Patrick Mower. I never met anyone.
"I don't know what her secret is. She's from Ireland and she's just gifted that way. She is very open."
During their two years together, Waterfield said, her interest in the occult grew.
"At first she wasn't that interested at all but a little bit later, she got very much into that kind of thing - witchery and all of that, and spiritualism too.
"Not superstitions but things to do with bringing good luck. She's very much into tarot cards and things like that. She was very, very knowledgeable about that kind of thing."
Dwina remained a close friend of Waterfield after their split and he recalled a meeting with her shortly before learning of her romance with Robin Gibb.
"She was sat down with me one day - I don't know if she knew Robin or not at the time - and she was really skint," he said.
"She was playing with her tarot cards and her witchery and all that and she told me: "I think I've got to marry a millionaire."
And the next minute - boom - she's married Robin Gibb. Dwina believes very strongly in karma. She believes what you do will come back."
She was also passionate about feminism and vegetarianism, Waterfield said. "Dwina convinced me and I became a vegan - two years of bread, potato and cabbage," he said.
Waterfield met Dwina's parents when they visited from Ireland for her 21st birthday.
"They were very nice people - very ordinary," he said. "They didn't know what I was doing for a living. I don't think the subject was raised."
The porn dealer's seedy dealings surfaced spectacularly in 1975, however, as his relationship with Dwina was fading, when he was jailed for three years for importing porn films into Britain.
"Dwina stood by me as best she could, the poor girl," he recalled. "What did she know? She was a young girl from Ireland."
Dwina apparently saw no conflict between her ideas on feminism and Waterfield's career as a pornographer, which he insisted was "more about fighting censorship than making money".
Although their relationship faded, Dwina and Waterfield stayed in touch.
Still without a job or anyone to support her financially, she worked for his new business producing bean bags and cushions after his release from prison.
"Dwina worked on a sewing machine for a year or two years,' Waterfield said. "She was a very good worker - neat too. She made loads of bean bags and many people still sit on them."
Waterfield helped Dwina with a mortgage on a house when she met a new partner but has had no contact with her since shortly after the beginning of her relationship with Robin Gibb more than 20 years ago.
"I had a phone call from her soon after she met Robin. She told me she was going to get married, he said.
"I didn't even know who the Bee Gees were so I wasn't that impressed. I discovered them after that. Now I play their music every day."
But he has no regrets about his hermit lifestyle in Thailand, where he says he does nothing but grow mangoes.
"I'm an old man now,' he said. "This is what I want.
"Isn't this what everyone wants? This is a wonderful spot and we're very, very happy here."
