We were at the Clooney party in Danesfield

DANESFIELD— Last week in London, Danesfield was the place to be. A post wedding reception for Amal Alammudin and George Clooney was being held there last Saturday, Oct. 25. Naturally I accepted the invitation which came from Amal’s mother, the well-known Lebanese journalist, Baria Alammudin for me and my daughter, Al-Jazeera’s Veronica Pedrosa.

It was a simple invitation sent by email, crowded by the dozens of emails I have received from Baria for over 30 years of friendship.

Unfortunately with emailed invitations, you don’t get the feel of the linen paper on which it was written, but the words sufficed that Baria and Ramzi Alamuddin have the pleasure of inviting you to the after party to celebrate with us the marriage of Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney on the 25th of October 2014. Please join us for a cocktail reception at 6.30 p.m. followed by a dinner party at 8 p.m. The venue will be at Danesfield House Hotel, Henley Rd, Marlow-on Thames, Buckinghamshire SL7 2EY. Please RSVP by 10th October 2014 by [email protected]

We received the invitation almost simultaneously with the wedding of the couple in Venice and I was on my way to China so I sent off an immediate reply that we were coming to Danesfield. How could we send regrets to such an invitation even if we have to fly PAL’s direct flight for 15 hours?

Happily several invitations came soon afterward that included the launch of an audio book of the Leon Ma. Guerrero translation of Noli Me Tangere by Downton Abbey’s Richard Grant at the Philippine Embassy in London, and an appearance and forum at the National Theater to give the historical background of a unique musical on Imelda entitled Here Lies Love by David Byrne and FatBoy Slim. All these would be happening in a week so off we went posting our acceptances to all three invitations and packing enough clothes for the events.

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I have already written on Richard Grant’s audio book (made possible by the efforts of David Guerrero, son of the late Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James) last week. On the National Theater appearance, Veronica and I were glad to have been given the opportunity to answer questions on the Philippines. I did say frankly that part of the problem of knowing the truth about the Philippines and the relevance of Imelda’s musical to the country is that there are misconceptions about the country.

It may have been an innovative musical, they called it a disco-musical because the whole stage was a disco dance floor with the Imelda story (based largely on my book “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos.” But technically the musical was an excellent innovation and very enjoyable no matter how sad and tragic the story was. It was fun for those who did not know the story. In that sense, Byrne did not quite succeed in relating the music to the story.

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We did not know quite what to expect about Danesfield House even if the pictures in the internet showed a beautiful luxury house hotel snuggled in Italian gardens and the River Thames nearby. As soon as we reached the gate security guards and a host of bodyguards came close to the car to ask for our names holding a list of the people who were invited. One security man came forward to say yes you are in the list and then it was confirmed by security inside the hotel. While waiting when all these precautions against gate-crashers we saw the paparazzi crowd across the street and Veronica waved at them. Someone from ITV came forward to asked if we were guests in the Clooney reception. She was quick with the answer, “we neither confirm nor deny.” Then we got the signal to go ahead into the driveway of the luxury country house lined with sycamore trees. Cars were slowly wending their way one after the other to the main door with butlers and porters and bodyguards milling around. There was some contretemps with the wedding guests arriving and last nights visitors not yet checked out. I saw a distinguished man standing on the side watching intently. Veronica took charge to register our names. The distinguished man came forward and said “hello, how are you?” Of course, I had to be polite with such a warm welcome but could not remember in heavens’ name who the man was. Then I went into friendly chatter on how beautiful the house was, better than Downton Abbey. He smiled and said yes, I had to buy it when it came up for sale. Huh? So the man turned out to be Salim Khaireddine, who owns a chain of luxury boutique hotels of which Danesfield was only one. At first I thought it would have been more practical if the party had been nearer to London but when I beheld the beauty of Danesfield, I thought Amal’s mother mad the right decision.

It is an award-winning hotel between the Marlow and Henley-on-Thames deep in beautiful rural Buckinghamshire. Visitors who come here are refreshed by the silence and beauty of the surroundings with acres and acres of Italian gardens and rolling hills with Thames in the background.

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It was the perfect venue for a reception that combined the dignity of English aristocracy and Arabian lavish luxury to make for a spectacular reception for what was after all a Western-Middle East union. For all that, friends and relatives said it would be good for me to write about our experience in the party in Danesfield. (To be continued)