Diary: Cash pours into Pol's pot

(Rex)

"It" curator Vlad Restoin Roitfeld isn't big on self-congratulation. "I don't celebrate if I make a big sale," he assured me at the lavish party for Mother of Pouacrus, his exhibition of hip French artist Nicolas Pol's paintings (£20k-£40k each) at London's Old Dairy, attended by the likes of Tom Ford, Christopher Kane and, er... Johnny Borrell.

"I maybe have a drink," he conceded. Roitfeld has sold to film stars such as Bruce Willis. So what does he make of news that Demi Moore is to auction off her art collection? Will she make a killing? "Will her name affect the price? You tell me," Vlad, 25, replied. "I don't know if celebrity does anything. Perhaps people want to buy into it, but that sort of thing doesn't concern me."

Vlad is the son of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, and godson of Mario Testino. Among his leading young curator rivals are Tyrone Wood, son of Ronnie; Vito Schnabel, son of Julian; and Alex Dellal, son of Guy (and brother of Charlotte and Alice). Does celebrity "do anything"? You tell me.

* The Mail on Sunday's "astonishing [and categorically denied] claims" from "senior Tory sources", that Liam "13th-century" Fox likes a drink, may remind the Defence Secretary of another damaging accusation. In 2005, while running for the Conservative leadership, Dr Fox (since married to cancer specialist Jesme Baird) was forced to deny what he described as "gay smears" against him.

He was eliminated before the final run-off between Davids Davis and Cameron, but his supporters have long grumbled privately that their man was briefed against by "lackeys" of Mr Cameron's campaign manager, one George – né Gideon – Osborne. "Liam always felt hard done by when it came to his treatment during the leadership race, and his anger was pretty much aimed at George," one Dr Fox loyalist tells me. "He's never forgotten that, and it certainly doesn't help relations between them now."

Pure coincidence, of course, that these new allegations should surface just as Dr Fox is at war with Dave and Gideon over proposed cuts to defence spending.

* Seems austerity has yet to bite beneath the dreaming spires of Dave and Gideon's alma mater. Bowtie-sporting Joe Cook, candidate for the presidency of Oxford University's storied Conservative Association, dispatched an apparently non-ironic note to his Facebook friends last week, inviting them to "an informal luncheon with tea, scones, sandwiches, scones, quail's eggs and champagne, which shall be held every Sunday... so we can catch up before Port and Policy". Ah yes, "Port and Policy": OUCA's weekly debating event. Emphasis on the port, I'm told.

* Jimmy Carr is not immune to the charms of Kati McIntyre, mother of fellow baby-faced funny man Michael McIntyre. "I really fancy your mum," Carr told his chirpy chum at the launch of McIntyre's memoir Life and Laughing, as he flicked through the book's family photos. "Is that a bad thing to say?" To which a rosy-cheeked McIntyre replied: "Sh! She's only over there."

Carr remarked, too, on the £2m advance McIntyre received to write the book – a figure repeatedly referenced in an interview with the comedian by Lynn Barber for The Sunday Times. "She seemed to be the one making a big deal over it, not you," Carr reassured his perky pal. "Probably because journalists earn no money." Too true.