On the subject of auctions, Dean Wilson, vice-president of
barter company Active International, is sitting pretty after
bidding £5.5k for the last-ever Big Brother chair (below) at
the Childline’s Got Talent Ball, hosted by Amanda Holden.
The famous chair, now in Active’s London office, has
become a celebrity in its own right: staff eat their lunch on it
and visitors take their photo with it and post the pictures on
Facebook. “My staff say I can never, ever get rid of it,” says
Wilson.
But Wilson’s luck didn’t stop there - he also took home
afternoon tea for four at the Petersham Hotel in Richmond
and a wig owned by presenter Stavros Flatley, the Greek
dancer from Britain’s Got Talent, who told the balding Wilson
as he took it off his own head: “Looks like you can do with it
more than me mate.”
So will Wilson take Philippa Brown, chief executive of
Omnicom Media Group, to tea in Richmond to thank her for
inviting him to the ball? Not a chance. “I was thinking what a
fabulous Christmas present it would make for my parents.