Someone really has it in for Sumner Redstone, the 85-year-old media tycoon who is restructuring his debt-plagued empire. An extraordinary piece appears on TheFirstPost.co.uk and is picked up elsewhere. “His demons have come home to roost. He lives alone in his mansion, famously miserly, shaving naked in the hot tub and obsessively feeding his tropical fish, his only constant companions since the collapse this year of his five-year marriage . . .”

All very Citizen Kane. And yet . . . Redstone is not universally loved, and is, indeed, known for his interest in tropical fish and credited with starting a fashion for the same among fellow Beverly Hills tycoons.

I can't help but recall a piece that appeared in Vanity Fair last December, describing the days when he was at his height a few years ago: “Redstone had a sparkling young wife and a new home in a gated community above Beverly Hills, where he spent his days tending tropical fish, taking phone calls and shaving nude in his hot tub. Sylvester Stallone lived next door. He ate out every night. Life was good.” Could the two pieces be related?

Some poetry for these troubled times. “Is it a meltdown / No / It is only the dead leaves dropping down. / We are like our giant trees .. . /

Well rooted, in full bloom, / Reaching for the Heavens, looking down . . . ” All right, that's enough poetry. The author is Zaal Mohammed Zaal, chairman of Al Barari, the Dubai-based property company, from one of the company's ads in the Dubai press. How hard do you think his staff tried to persuade the chairman not to feature his poetry in his ads? No, I imagine not terribly hard. Not terribly hard at all.

Man who trashed SocGen wants to take leading role

I understand that Jérôme Kerviel, who lost almost €5 billion at Société Générale, is talking to the director Antoine de Caunes about playing his own part in a film of the affair. They made a rather dull but worthy film of Nick Leeson's losses at Barings, but he never appeared. De Caunes is probably best known for Eurotrash and if the Kerviel film is ever made, it will prove, yet again, that history tends to repeat itself as farce.

I am sorry to hear of the death, after a short illness, of Peter Buckley, the chairman of Caledonia Investments. He will probably be remembered for the public row that tore apart the Cayzer clan in 2001. However, his finest moment was in handling the sale of the family holding in British & Commonwealth three days before the 1987 market crash, on terms that meant the buyer, BZW, had no comeback when the value of the stake plunged to virtually nothing.

Brian Winterflood, founder of Winterflood Securities, is a regular in this column. Now I hear that his wife Doreen plans to take centre stage for once. “Brian and I have known each other for over 50 years and very recently we agreed to a challenge. Brian agreed to master ballroom dancing and I agreed to a much more challenging ordeal, a skydive in aid of Remedi [the medical charity they have supported for more than 20 years]. I will be attempting this feat on Boxing Day, in Byron Bay, Australia,” she says.

There may be a few sharks in the water come December 26, but Doreen is not without back-up. Among the donors to her website is one Brian Winterflood. “I'll go first so I can catch you, x,” he promises. Yes, Brian, but will you be jumping with or without a parachute?

In the blue corner: Tony Benn

You're never too old to Twitter

There is a definite sense of your grandad essaying a quick boogie at the wedding in Tony Benn's decision to join Twitter, the twentysomethings' social messaging site. “I am now getting e-mail from people I don't know. Hello people all the same,” Benn marvels in one of his first posts. “It is intuitive in some ways. I will have to balance my time between here and my writing. Can I save what is recorded here?”

At this point he begins to worry. “My e-mail inbox has just gone crazy. I don't know whether to thank you all or say go away. I guess I am pleasantly surprised.” And more worries. “Lots of Hacks here. I fear I may have to watch what I say.”

He ponders. “Have I the time to have so many friends? You will forgive me if I don't engage all the time. Is there etiquette?” He starts to wind up. “May need to take a break. I hope you all understand. How very, very strange. I can see many uses of this.”

Sweet. And curious how a politician whose economic policies virtually bankrupted Britain is now a national treasure. Could Gordon Brown, perhaps, a couple of decades hence . . . ? Stranger things have happened.

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