Lunching on the terrace at The Ivy

The Los Angeles restaurant scene is legendary. For a town whose population is presumed to be disinterested in eating, there sure are a lot of places to not eat in.

Hovering near the top in notoriety is The Ivy on Robertson. After chewing interminably at their House Salad which resembled nothing so much as a pile of grass clippings bathed in dressing, I came to the conclusion that probably no one ever noticed how off the food was. And, even if the meals served there were delicious, they would always be secondary to the outdoor theatre going on on the terrace at lunchtime.

The paparazzi started off unobtrusively hovering around the corner, snapping arrivals indiscriminately, but half way through lunch they gave up all pretence and went straight for the money shots.


They were wound up to fever pitch by Sheryl Crow glowering at the lenses that stalked her every mouthful, (although we noted that she was not so bothered that she moved tables into the empty Siberia indoors) and then by Marc Anthony (sans J-Lo & twins) at the table next door, who is so pocket sized that he surely has a second career as a flat jockey waiting for him if his salsa hips stop swinging.

Piers Morgan was in pole position at the long back table of the terrace, neatly placed so that everyone walking in could see him sitting next to Sarah Brown (wife of Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister). She had tweeted earlier in the day that Piers was hosting a ‘British women in LA’ lunch in her honour, and he had rounded up Sharon Osbourne, Katherine Jenkins & June Sarpong.

Disparate. But, of course, we were fascinated.

Piers was preening his way through it. He already knew that his coup wouldn't be missed: I heard later that he had rung the big LA picture agency the day before to let them know where & with whom he'd be lunching.

NB As you know, I never do celeb stuff on here, but this was so amusing and felt so clichéd LA that it begged to be blogged. And, of course, people in the public eye only eat at The Ivy so that they may remain there. Why else would they choose an open air restaurant with photographers outside?

And thank you to the Hotel Bel-Air for wangling such a great table