I’m sadly still not keeping on top of things as far as blogging is concerned but this is not really because of my workload but because of Oliver, Jacks and Alexander (stepson wife and baby) having booked their tickets from Sydney and will be arriving in London on 27^th March and they are coming to live with us for as long as they want to.  After 11 years away – how amazing is that!

Back to work – Christmas wasn’t too bad – not like the good old days but we had half a dozen or so group bookings, which hadn’t really happened for the last 3 years.  They included a booking from Sternberg Clarke for Prince (Gunar) Kylie (Kirstie) Beyonce (Rachael) and Madonna (Lisa) which was great – main problem was that it was at The Belfry and involved a lot of travel for all of them and a lot of stress for us.  At least it was a Wednesday rather than a Friday – normally December Fridays are historically just the worst for our stress levels. 

Saturday 3^rd December gave us our first real Christmas headache.  Paul Richie (Elvis) had been booked for ages to do a long complicated gig – starting on a Thames boat with the client from Central London and then welcoming and chatting to the guests on the way to The Greenwich Yacht Club where the party was to be held and he would perform later in the evening. (Having already had to set up in the Yacht Club before travelling back into London to pick up the boat – long and complicated).  Paul rang me at 3.30a.m. on the Saturday morning crying off because of a tummy bug. Luckily, oh so luckily, for us Darren Alboni stepped into the breach and on to the boat for us, and the job was saved.  This took all morning to resolve and I just about recovered when at around 4pm I get a message from the client for our evening job, a lovely birthday event at the Savoy, that Ian Beyts (Churchill) had also contracted this bug and couldn’t make it.  Client insisted he was replaced with somebody that would fit in with Jim Chadwick (Sinatra) Pauline Bailey (Marilyn) and Frank Terry (Chaplin) and wonder of wonders Beverley Stone (Audrey Hepburn) raced there and was ready to join the others by 6.45.  Saved again – horrendous day hopefully never to be repeated.

Luckily we had a smoother ride through December after this shaky start:  Jeremy was used as Dickens for the opening reconstruction sequence of the BBC’s Dicken’s Season.  Mark Myers – the greatest Steve McQueen was visiting his 90 yr. old Mum in Finchley for a couple of weeks from his home in Canada and was able to take part in the Motor Bike Show at the NEC for Firebox – I should check and see if they used the pictures on their website.  Paul Carter – our Brucie – took part in a ‘Strictly’ themed event for Reading Borough Council orgnaised for the old and disabled.  Darren Knight as David Cameron did a photoshoot for the Daily Mail – yet to appear still keeping our eyes open. 

Patricia Ford  (The Queen) did 2 jobs for us in December – one in Edinburgh (quite a trek for her) a 60^th Birthday celebration and the other in Sheffield – an appearance on ‘The Restaurant Inspector’.  Patricia is the only person I know that actually reads my blog – so I always feel that I am writing it for her which makes me very careful with my grammar and spelling knowing what her she does in her other life!

Lina Sands (Angelina) has been pretty busy for us and in general to put it mildly.  The little Youtube clip/interview that I did with her a couple of years ago now, has gone International creating enormous amounts of interest Worldwide.  She now has 712,247 hits – far and away more than the others on our channel – well done Lina!  On the back of this renewed publicity for her she had a trip to Bucharest in Romania for a VIP evening in a nightclub.   She also did a corporate PA at the Mayfair Hotel in London, this was with Sam Brown (Brad).  This job came through Garston Entertainments who also booked Mark Beauchamp as Harry Hill last week – always pleased to get jobs in January – historically a struggle and only made worse by the Recession except last year which was different to all previous years because of THE ROYAL WEDDING.   Another job last week was a photoshoot for The Sun using a new Kate to us Jacqui Adams celebrating Kate’s 30^th Birthday.

So far January has been tricky – we spent most of last week working on providing Lookalikes of the new judges for The Voice – Tom Jones, Danny O’Donoghue – The Script,  Will.I.Am – Black Eyed Peas and finally Jessie J – not an easy task and then after days of struggle they decided they only needed ‘doubles’ which is a whole different ball game and fee!  Doesn’t matter what the doubles look like just need to have same dimensions.  So that was that – all in vain sadly – but a good exercise, I suppose, and we will be prepared next time.

Onwards and Upwards……………………………………………………………………………………

Its been amazing to have had a really good year – but this last month all that busyness has caught up with us!  So have had to knuckle down and do some sorting, clearing and tidying up – paperwork, paperwork has been the name of the game.  Plus a whole reorganisation of our ‘old fashioned hard copy filing system’ – still old fashioned but resplendent in new files on newly built shelves.  This reorganisation has been ‘helped’ by the chaos of the Eurozone – what entertainment provider can possibly triumph in a returning market of doom and gloom – just in time for Christmas! Of course.

We have still been moderately busy, particularly with a Dubai exhibition job – which was excruciatingly difficult to organise every step of the way and, as always, we should have followed out gut instinct that there was something wrong from the beginning and not got involved.  But that is now all water under the bridge – four Lookalikes (Colin as Captain Jack, Lina as Angelina, Lesley as Catherine Z. Jones and Jamie as Beckham) did the job – but never before have we been in a situation of sending artistes across the world where we were only given the absolute go-ahead 5 minutes before they had to leave for the airport.  It has been yet another lesson, but only endorses what a tricky market Dubai was and is.  Has anybody else had problems with them?    We are still waiting for 50% of the money which should have been paid 100% up front but after weeks of work hundreds of emails and phone calls with the tickets booked (by them luckily I never will book air tickets)  how do you pull out at that stage?

On the home front Alison Jackson has been as busy as ever – particularly as her latest book ‘Exposed’ has just been launched plus she continues with her weekly Sunday Times ‘Fake Take’, plus she has been involved in publicity for the ‘Bridesmaids’ DVD launch (of course involving Pippa – Sarah C).  Alongside this Debenhams have been publicising their copy of Pippa’s bridesmaid’s dress – so there are still spin offs from the Royal Wedding, which have also included a few nice corporate gigs for the Royal couple.  This year has propelled Wills and Kate into first place of Lookalike favourite couples pushing aside, for now anyway, Posh and Beckham and Brad and Angelina.  We also had the whole Royal Family doing a twist on their family Christmas photoshoot for Take a Break Magazine.

Lina Sands (Angelina) finally made her trip to Casablanca in connection with the newly soon to open Candymall Shopping Centre – a job which has been on the cards for a year or so finally defying tension in the Middle East, floods etc. etc.  She still has to go back again for the actual opening – no date set as yet! So it goes on.

Christmas is looming but its looking like a last minute Christmas for us.  I have decided its no good fretting about it – in the good old days by now we would have over 100 contracted jobs for December – but the world has changed, nothing is certain and lead times get shorter and shorter.  We just have to step up our game and deal with it as best we can and be grateful.  So far Marilyn is still coming up tops for the festive season – will let you know the winner in January.

As far as other work that has been taking up our time recently very varied really which is good – Sid as C Lo Green did a great photoshoot for Chase and Status which was used as the background to their video, Michael O – Tiny Tempah was booked for the Brits in Glasgow, Lewis Hamilton (Wendal) and Jenson Button  (Nick) visited Barton on Humber for a corporate Formula 1 event.  Finally the Bond night in the Derby Assembly Rooms which was booked almost a year ahead, came to fruition headed up by Mark W as Pierce Brosnan (their chosen Bond a tricky choice these days), Laval as Odd Job and Gary as Jaws.

Tulisa (Esra) and Gary Barlow (Matt R) did an article for Closer and Faye B and Craig W as Katie and Peter  for Heat.  Ray T doubled for Heston Blumenthal in a Waitrose ad (spot the difference) for the first time, hopefully the first of many. Sam (Brad Pitt) did a Virgin Train job – advertising booking a whole train for yourself or in his case for him and his tribe.  Tania (Cher) performed for a birthday celebration x 2 at The Box in Soho by the skin of her teeth as she had been cancelled the day before and then re-booked on the performance day itself – which was a Saturday and perhaps we are not so attentive when it comes to checking emails on a weekend – anyway well done her!  Might not have turned out well – that one – not a good idea.  Rachael White and Kirstie BG struggled to reach a big corporate event at Earls Court on the night of countrywide torrential downpours, causing the client and me to be close to having heart attacks.  Same situation when Donald (Connery) had a gig in Majorca and when Dianne Lynn (the client) went to meet him off his flight on the morning of the event – he was not there!  She rang me (out shopping in Wigmore St. another Saturday) and my heart dropped, I rang him immediately and my spirits just soared when the ring tone was abroad! The nightmares of an agent – not good for the blood pressure!

There’s no doubt it has been a good year and the 16^th November was the anniversary of the start of our best year ever with the announcement of the Royal Engagement – I might have mentioned that before – but I can’t thank them enough.  So now – bring on the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics – where are you all you sporting stars lookalikes – please get in touch now.

This is the longest gap between blogs since I began this chore – I understand this is partly due to my holiday (hurray) from which I came back renewed, but mainly due to our work load. We are still struggling to understand the reason for more corporate entertainment bookings since May, when we are still hearing nothing but doom and gloom on the financial state of the country and indeed the world.  Is it just that people are just fed up with the situation and want to be cheered up and have a bit of fun and so, are we lucky that lookalikes can be slotted into an event for a relatively modest amount of money and just give a conference, exhibition or awards dinner an injection of ‘fun’? You tell me. I am only whispering, if I speak too loudly I believe it will all disappear again. Let’s see how things pan out and this week with the financial crisis looming even larger it could be a real test.  I will report in a month’s time – I honestly don’t know what will happen – does anyone?

August was frantic with Alison Jackson’s book (2nd this year) which was all shot with what was to be a two week time frame and then was stretched a little to three. Watch out for her new book at Christmas.  She used the usual suspects Cameron (Rob), Obama (Ivan Hutchinson), Cheryl Cole (Halima Moin), Simon Cowell (Andy Monk), Katie Price (Faye Bray) and fresh from the Navy Alex Reid (Sam Woodin), Pippa and Harry (Sarah Carrington and Elliot Gibson), Galliano (Gunner B), Kate Moss’s Wedding etc… We have not seen anything as yet but since the beginning of September her Fake Takes have been appearing each week in the Sunday Times Supplement.  Take a look.

We also have been struggling for weeks to send Alex Ferguson (David B)  to south Korea for a fast food commercial, sounds simple – but was pretty much a nightmare with the first contender Paul Coyle unable to fly that far due to ill health and then the whole visa application was very drawn out and it was lucky that David is within reach of London and we are based here otherwise it would just be uneconomic to have taken on the job at all. Anyway David should be back in the UK today so hopefully all was good. We have also another possible job for them in the pipeline, not sure if Helena and I can face the rigmarole.

Other jobs have included  a nice week of work for Touch radio at South Staffordshire College campuses’ open days. New people – Tinie Tempah (Michael O), Lady Gaga (Deedee), Simon Cowell (Andy M), and Cheryl Cole (Halima). Sternberg Clarke booked the fab Angelina Jolie (Lina Sands) and George Clooney (Parviz – also fabulous) for a Thames boat party. Jeannette Charles worked for Children’s BBC – 83 years old and still fighting fit in mind and body. Kenny Rogers (Mac D) Did a  job at the O2 Center, there have also been a few  groups at other corporate events (quite a turn up for the books after the past lean years) Capt.Jack (Adam Collier) Marilyn (Pauline Bailey)  and Angelina in Milton Keynes Horwood House, then Marilyn (Suzie) and  Charlie Chaplin (Frank Terry)  together for Champions  plus  2  jobs this evening in Park Lane – Captain Jack and Marilyn at the Hilton for the Forecourt Traders awards  and Mary Reynolds (The Queen) at Grosvenor House.

Again this week we were certainly  busy with five Lookalikes for a party for EDF (French) Employees at Fabric in London one of the most unlucky jobs, but it was a good job for us and one we just couldn’t allow to go wrong, so with a lot of stress we managed to replace the artists that let us down with alternatives of the same characters, all went well in the end. I’m not sure that lookalikes are aware how almost impossible it is for us when we have sold a certain lookalike and we do sell an actual named lookalike rather than just a generic character, to replace them. Clients can so easily lose confidence in us – we are the ones to lose credibility rather than the lookalikes responsible.  The final 5 were  Esther Adams (Posh) Captain Beaney (Bono) John Kerr (George Michael) and Kate and Wills Andy and Jodie.  Phew!!

So where are we – it’s August, just three more days before I go on holiday, yes I am going away – it’s been four long recession and cancer ridden years and now I am actually going to Florida for two whole weeks. I always choose July and August for holidaying which stemmed from Ellis’s school holidays – but with him now going on 27 and somebody who wouldn’t be seen dead on holiday with his Mum and Dad for the past 10 years – I suppose it’s to do with July and August being the quietest time for work. Corporate entertainments avoid the summer holidays, in fact all holidays, Easter hols, Xmas hols, half terms and Bank holidays.  It’s obvious really, corporate entertainment is for the employed.  Employed people have normal lives and they have children and so are not around in the holidays. It is a generalisation, but on the whole true.

I felt quite confident booking my trip that I would not be missed and Helena and Christie would be pleased to have me out of the way, but I didn’t put Alison Jackson into the equation who erupted last week with a new book to shoot (for the Christmas market) which has to be shot during the week of the 8^th of August. Pretty difficult to do at any time but obviously made more problematic by the fact that lookalikes also take their holidays in August. Alison with casting lady Nicola Topping  is also searching for missing characters that she needs i.e. Clegg, Murdoch’s, Milliband’s and more. Plus some we do have have on our books that she hopes to find ‘cheaper’ i.e. new to the business or contact existing lookalikes on our books directly (i.e. cheaper). So it is pretty fraught here yet again this year when we thought we would be resting on our laurels, once the wedding was over.

Apart from Alison, the last few weeks have been busy – again surprisingly for July – well they have seemed busy but we have had a few jobs that have just not gone as smoothly as we would have liked, it happens. An awards ceremony for a new company part of  ‘The Detective Agency’ (which had been in planning for months) at The Royal Garden involving  five lookalikes and every person on the job had complications. Pierce Brosnan’s (Mark William’s) partner was in the midst of breast cancer surgery and needed his support. Luckily our client turned to Captain Jack in Johnny Depp mode and Colin White stepped in admirably at the last minute. Colin also did a nice TV job for us as Edward Scissor hands and looked fabulous (had to shave his facial hair for it, always a problem for the Johnny Depps) but worthwhile to get the ‘look’. Kirstie Barton Grimley, the fabulous Kylie Lookalike, had planned a weekend away in Scotland and had to be flown down. Amongst the other lookalikes on that night was Rachel White (Beyonce) of Big Brother fame – a really nice lady to work with – whose only problem was having to journey from Leeds.  While the final lookalike of that night was Michaela Weeks as Britney who also had to travel from the North but looked just great despite having to wear a black ‘red carpet’ dress for the awards ceremony rather than her instantly recognisable schoolgirl outfit or ret shiny catsuit.  Always problematic to dress lookalikes in ‘something different’ or do a ‘make over’ on the Queen for instance and then they no longer look like their character. Lookalikes do need their costumes and props on the whole however good they might look.

Wimbledon brought some tennis work Bjorn Borg (Stuart Probee) and Federer (Andy Cobb) playing swing ball at Kings Cross station. While our Kate and William (Kate Bevan and Andy Walker) played ping pong in   ’Ping England’. Plus Federer (Andy Cobb) and a new Andy Murray (Jack Harris) shot a spoof video – we had thought they would use our other new Andy (Andrew Tainsh) but the budget wouldn’t stretch to bringing him down from Scotland. Both look great.

Alison Jackson has been busy shooting with Cheryl Cole (Halima) as did Closer magazine. We had a disaster with one Captain Jack (Adam Collier) not his fault – the Thames boat left the pier early and despite frantically trying to catch up with it, sadly it did not happen. But since then Adam has had 2 more nice jobs, first at an end of year party at a S.London school and secondly a hen party in a Greek Taverna.  While Terry Austin (also Captain Jack) did a sterling job whipping up customers for the opening of a new Costcutter store in Hockley in Essex. Mary Reynolds (The Queen) has done another ‘tea time’ event for the Royal Butler Steven Randolph, this time at the Mandarin Oriental. We had three guys on ‘League of Their Own’ Matt Francis (Rio Ferdinand), Dave Coles (Ryan Giggs) and Andrew Wesley (David Haye), while Caroline Bernstein went to Leedsfor the Right Address as Sharon Osbourne for Red Bull. Added to this Michael O as Tinie Tempah visited a Vodafone call centre in Stoke, Martin Leverton (Spielberg) did a little bit on Top Gear and Charlie Frame (Jamie Oliver) filmed for channel 4.

It has been all ‘go’ and now I’m off on my hols.  Still looking for Nick Clegg – is there anybody out there?

I really expected the weeks since the Royal Wedding to be back to the ‘Bad Old Days’ of the Recession but in fact  – lets be positive here  – its been so much better than that.  I did feel quite pessimistic with the thought of Summer nearly upon us plus the new policy of Fake Faces i.e. for a yearly fee handing job enquiries directly to the artiste to negotiate themselves.  Is this to be the way forward for all of us?  Is that what people want to do now – research lookalikes on the internet themselves and bypass agents completely? I could see that this would be popular with the main ‘core’ of lookalikes but for me a nightmare.  From the increase in enquiries recently it would seem that for many people the answer is ‘No’ that’s not what they want.  Maybe this is Ok for somebody who just needs a one off party character for an anniversary, birthday or whatever but not so good when you have an unusual person to find, or worse still a long list of unusual people to find – quite a daunting task for anybody including us!  So we are still soldiering on.

We have had a few  Kate and William jobs – a second nice corporate event for Simon and Collette from Brian Rowan and Steven Randolph had Mary Reynolds (The Queen) pouring tea for a Spanish group of visitors at The Lanesborough while they learnt the finer points of British etiquette from  Royal Butlers.  Nice idea, hope there are more like that.  At this moment Andy (William) and Collette (Kate) are just returning from a 4 day trip to a Chicago exhibition.  Our main Williams and Kates have in fact found it hard to take time off from their day jobs since the wedding having pushed their employers to their limits in the run up to April 29^th.  Added to this Simon (William) having won the Easyjet William Lookalike competition is making full use of his year of free flights particularly as he is an Aussie and loves to travel.  There have been other editorial jobs  with Collette and Jodie for’ The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Mirror’ (copying the dress) and Andy Walker in the red wedding uniform attended a ‘Mail on Sunday’ leaving party.  Plus, since the wedding,  its all been about  Pippa she has come to the fore (or maybe aft ).  We struggled a bit as nobody asked for her prior to the wedding nor had we looked carefully at her – thinking she was a carbon copy of her sister.  But not at all and Kate Bevan (Kate Middleton) stepped in to do a job as Pippa for Debenhams and since then Sarah Carrington has come to us as Pippa and she looks great.  We have also had more enquiries for the other stars of the wedding i.e. The Beckhams  since then obviously as were reminded on that day just how great they both look.

Following on to this Posh – (Gill Penny) accompanied not by her David but by another David (Byrne as Del Boy) went to Majorca for a party.  Polly Hendricks went to Liverpool for a hair colour exhibition representing the older( grey haired – difficult to find these days ) women as ‘M’ ie. Judy Dench.  A Nottingham Fun Day booked Mike Coates as Fabio Capello to give the day a surprise element.  We had a long drawn out negotiation with an Israeli film company who – in the end – booked the fabulous John Lashley as ‘Mr. T’ for an Israeli food product commercial but US passport slow renewal almost put paid to it for us.  But it was done and they loved him.  Plus one lucky 18 yr. old mega Friends Fan had two surprise guests turn up at her birthday dinner Courtney Cox (Sarah Collinge) and Jennifer Aniston (Hannah Grey)!

We are already into our 3^rd week since the wedding and are still dealing with the backlog of work that built up in those last few weeks before what was a fantastic day for basically the whole world, not only us! Kate and William’s’ wedding is over and was the culmination of the busiest 5 months I have ever had! It was so unexpected no other event, since I started lookalikes at the end of the 70’s, has come anywhere near it!

Why should this have happened, especially as we are still struggling to come out of the Recession?  The answer is that our work was completely media based – starting with the engagement in November and finishing as they walked down the aisle. It was all so exciting for Helena and me here in the office and more exhausting than we could ever have imagined. By the end we were almost working 24hrs around the clock with requests coming in, particularly from the US through the night. This included CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, CBC (Canada) Channels 9, 10, and 7, Oz, NZTV, Proseiben, Maz, M6, appearances for us or the lookalikes on Entertainment tonight, Inside Edition, Good Morning America; interviewed by Amanda Holden, Dame Edna Everidge, Sharon Osborne and Jane Seymour. We had steady stream of  TV crews visiting our office daily throughout April. We appeared on BBC news twice – including a clip on a Saturday morning which must have been the best exposure ever. Added to this, I had interviews on so many radio stations – I lost count – 5Live, ,Coventry,Oxford, Hayes,Peterborough… which I always a bit weird as Lookalikes are such a ‘visual’ thing.

Alongside the media hype we were completely involved in the shooting of Alison Jackson’s new book ‘Up the Aisle’ which was devoted exclusively to the wedding in her own ‘particular’ style. It was all shot and the book published before the wedding but somehow she managed to dress her William, Simon W, in the red Irish guards uniform even though we all believed he would wear RAF uniform. Well done Alison – luck or inside information I wonder. She launched her book on April Fools Day with Mary R (The Queen), Jodie B (Kate) and Simon W (William) driving through London to Waterstone’s in an open, horse-driven carriage almost causing riots and was in fact evicted from the mock wedding she set up in St. Pauls Covent Garden – amazing scenes which also made the BBC News.  But the icing on the cake, on top of everything we did,  was the wonderful T-Mobile viral wedding dance. Where the whole Royal family (all 13 from us – Yes!) danced down the aisle of Bart’s (Smithfield) Church to the music of E17’S House of Love. It was put together in a couple of weeks by Saatchi and Saatchi and Gorgeous and directed by Chris Palmer, the lookalikes had 3 rehearsals – the first of which I attended where the choreographer almost wiped out half the cast over 50, if not 70, with his over vigorous routines, which was pretty worrying for us all. But it was obviously a test as to see what each person was capable of and by the actual shoot had been pared down to suit their particular abilities. It was aired on YouTube on April 15^th and now has 21, 417, 595 hits! One of the biggest jobs we have ever done and definitely the most exciting.

The logistics were difficult with the artists coming from all over the place and with 2 rehearsals prior to the actual shoot, Jane Mosse (Camilla) Guernsey, Anne D (Princess Anne) and Hannah J (Princess Beatrice) Cheshire, Vernon (Prince Phillip) Dorset, Jodie (Kate) far reaches of Essex etc. the list goes on. What a nightmare to organise not just in retrospect but at the actual time of the shoot. On top of all this it was my mother-in law Annie’s 90^th Birthday Party, which we had here at home for 40 odd people! But a time never to be forgotten or bettered – I would reckon.

Lucky us the Worlds’ Press is still on our doorstop daily, building up to April 29^th and we can’t really believe our luck.  Pretty well every call begins with the magic words ‘I’m ringing about your Kates and Williams’.  We are still getting more and more Worldwide based Kates and as the weeks go by we have become more practised at spotting that particular Kate ‘look’ which doesn’t mean just having long dark slightly layered hair and a blue dress.  Its trickier than we thought when this whole roller coaster journey to the altar began back in November.  We are still struggling somewhat with the Williams but we were lucky to find Simon and Andy when we did.  If you check out our website www.lookalikes.info you will see that the fantastic Times journalist Caitlin Moran has joined our Koterie of Kates this week after her appearance in and on the cover of last Saturday’s ‘Times Magazine.

Involved in our pre-wedding media frenzy have been Simon W on both Channels 9 and 10 Australian TV (he was the frontrunner for these jobs as he is Australian) and fought for the opportunity to be seen by one and all back home and show them what he has been up to in his spare time while working in London.

He also went to Norway with Collette Mullarkey for an article for Norwegian magazine ‘Se Og Hor’ while Jodie and Andy had a trip to Germany for Proseiben. We had a visit from CBS Inside Edition Correspondent Les Trent showing us just how slick US TV is.  We had 5 Kates and 1 William here for him to film and interview and I think they were happy – I wonder if it has appeared.  Thank you to Jodie Bredo, Olivia Glynne Jones, Charlotte Johnson, Elaine S and Victoria Shewell and Phil Fisher for turning up and taking it all in good part.

William Andy W, Kate Jodie B and  Harry Elliott G had a trip to the races which was almost a disaster with Harry at Bangor-on-Dee Racecourse and the other 2 at Chester Racecourse.  A postcode mix up that almost gave me a heart attack last Saturday morning.  But all was well and the day for The Tote was a success.

Another job which made a change from the Wedding was a German shoot here in London using Prince Charles Peter Hugo and the Queen Mary Reynolds for an internal video shoot for ‘Mini’.  It involved a fantastic Rolls Royce which parked outside our studio before and after the shoot and definitely raised our profile with our neighbours here in Finsbury Park.

Although Corporate Entertainment is still thin on the ground Mary Reynolds (The Queen)  in fact all the Queens,  are still in demand and Mary has just attended a function for Credit Suisse at Tate Britain.  So a certain type of event still carries on thank goodness. I’m still dreading April 29^th and the end of the good times and back to pre-engagement gloom and lack of work.  Maybe the fact that Westminster has ruled that Corporate Entertainment is exempt from the Bribery Act will improve matters.

Its nearly April Fools Day  – watch out, watch out there are Lookalikes about.  Keep your eyes open.

The angle at first was just the announcement and now, of course, we have moved on to :-  what will the dress be like, who will design it, will it be a ‘Big Gypsy Wedding Dress’ (both The Daily Mail and The Sun did this story with Jodie Bredoe and Kate Bevan respectively – how fabulous was that), how will Kate have her hair, make-up, nails, what sort of veil (or no veil) tiara, who will design the dress, who will design the going away outfit, what will the eat at the wedding breakfast, where will they go for the honeymoon.  The list is endless.  Even dressing up one very high profile columnist as ‘Kate’ accompanied by Andy Walker as William and Elliott Gibson as Harry.  Still to appear – fingers crossed that it will.  As an Agency we even did a clip of BBC London News which brought us in another flood of new Williams and Kates.

Now we are in Round 2  with many of the TV networks, radio interviews, newspapers, magazines coming back for an update before the day of days – April 29th – dawns.  Even now the week of the wedding is looking like Christmas of old where we are trying to fit all the enquiries in like a jigsaw puzzle so that the main Lookalikes and us, of course, can optimise their earning potential while its on offer because who knows what May and onwards will bring?  Methinks the bandwagon will come to a stop after the wedding or is Kate the new ‘Diana’ and the circus will never stop?  So far basically the real Kate has not been seen since the engagement and we presume the couple are tucked away in Anglesey, so much so that the Press has to make do with lookalikes.  Great!  39 Kates and something like 10 Williams in this country (many more abroad strangely) and counting.

Last week we had a nice change a job for the Museum of London who booked Bono (Andy Barker) Boy George (Jason Watkins) Lily Allen (Bonnie Trevitt) and David Bowie (Laurence Bolwell) for a photoshoot in areas of London that they are associated with.  Nice one.

Well for us the Royal engagement has taken the place of Christmas this year in the wacky world of Lookalikes! From the moment the news of the engagement broke we have been inundated from all sides.  It all began with just Kates and Williams but now has spread – in the second wave as it were – to the whole Royal Family.  At the last count we have 28 Kates but far, far fewer Williams, the main contenders being Marc Rattigan who has been doing William since his early teens and is now a family man with 2 small children and  the new boy on the block is Andy Walker who has really taken to his new (part time) career.  So far most of the work has been for the media which has included articles for Closer (with an exclusivity clause for Jodie Bredo and Marc from the engagement up to the end of November) Best, Woman’s Own, Now and Brides magazines.  The US TV stations have also gone mad for the feel good story in the midst of gloom.  Jodie and Andy did a nice piece for The Early Show – CBS – and were interviewed by Amanda Holden (I managed to muscle in on that) and whilst standing outside Westminster Abbey who should pass by and greet Amanda but Lord Sugar – how good was that.  For me very good – seeing and ticking off  celebrities in the flesh is important in my world).  NBC interviewed Jodie a while ago in readiness for the moment, and then last week also interviewed Mary Reynolds (The Queen).  Alison Jackson was busy this weekend working her magic for another British magazine (still a secret) involving all the Royal Family including Fergie (Tessa Dale who flew in at the last minute from Venice, airports had opened again on Friday, where she is based).  Don’t know how it went as yet but for me normally no news is good news.

Last week was made almost unbearable because of the weather – poor Paul Carter (Brucie) managed to get himself to Manchester to help in a Quit Smoking Game Show launched by Manchester City Council where he joined Samia Smith (Maria)  from Corrie.  He also cheered up a call centre in Milton Keynes the week before.  Brucie is fast catching up Captain Jack as the most popular lookalike of the year.  A couple of weeks ago we had a surprise request for a Kate Bush tribute  (Linzi Hunter) to sing at the wrap party for the new film of ‘Wuthering Heights’.  It was 1995 when she was on Stars in Their Eyes as Kate – and well done to Linzi she dusted off her backing tracks and trecked to North Yorkshire.  She has continued singing since then as herself – as the requests for Kate Bush faded away.

Also this week finally the charity ‘The Willow Foundation’ had a special evening at Brocket Hall.  This had been one of the most long drawn out and problematic jobs we have ever had.  Originally is was a private job for Maxine Barrie which was cancelled due to the volcanic ash. (yes that long ago) it was then re-booked and cancelled again due to a very sad death in the Client’s family.  Finally it was booked again for 2^nd December and the performance donated to the Willow Foundation but horror of horrors Maxine Barrie the Queen of tributes and the very first lady to win Stars in Their Eyes had still not recovered sufficiently from her hip replacement and ordered not to perform by her surgeon.  Thankfully David Alacey and his Rat Pack stepped in to save the day – again I have not heard how the evening went but hopefully enough people were able to brave the snow to make it a  successful evening for the charity and that Rory Bremner who was also performing made it there.  We will no doubt hear next week.

Other bits and pieces included 3 Jack Nicholsons appearing in a new film called ‘Jack Powder’ which is strange because, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, Oli Kellett the photographer shot 4 Jacks together in our studio just recently for a portfolio project and the Jacks enjoyed meeting each other and then were happy to take part in this film.  Wouldn’t have been the same if the request was for Marilyns or Queens!

Now its the end of October – the cuts have been announced and as yet we have seen no change from the difficult and quiet September/October we have had.  Of course the perrennial problem of half term which seems to stretch across the majority of October hasn’t helped.  And what of Christmas?  You may well ask ‘What Christmas’?  The corporate Christmas of old does not look as though it is coming our way yet again this year – well so far anyway.  I expect we will pick up jobs for individual ‘favourite’ party lookalikes – Marilyn, Captain Jack etc. but extravagant  ‘theming’ is not yet back on the menu.  Predictably.

Luckily for us the whole World is out there and on that score we have been luckier and we have just sent Lee Jackson (Elvis) and Lisa McCheyne (Madonna) to a shopping Mall – Smart Village – in Cairo.  Marilyns have been busy both here and abroad – people are still having birthdays of all ages and wanting to have a ‘breathy’ Happy Birthday sung to them.  These jobs have been done very ably by Pauline Bailey and Arianna Power while in Germany Suzie Kennedy is fulfilling her ‘Legends’ contract.  Paul Carter as Bruce Forsyth hosted (predictably) a Strictly party with another one in the pipeline.  Mary Reynolds (The Queen) – always busy – went to Paris for Microsoft.  It has also been a bit of a conference month – I feel quite hopeful now  that I have written it – Pauline Bailey (Marilyn) paired with Charlie Chaplin (Frank Terry) and the Digital Paparazzi at one and with Captain Jack (Spencer Smith) at another hosted by Paul Ross for Deloittes.

Pauline B also did a promotion for a corporate Lookalikes competition paired this time with Shenton Dixon as (Stevie Wonder).  It would seem that it is the financial sector that is showing some form of recovery – well what a surprise!  Donald Standen worked for a big National newspaper at a leaving party while Ray Johnson (Elton John) was used on ’ The Idiots Awards show’ not show if it has aired as yet.

Alison Jackson is back shooting videos for The Times online – but in fact shot a still of Ed and David Milliband after Ed’s triumph.  She was then shooting this last weekend with who else but Cheryl Cole (Halima Moin) but I think that was for a charity and again was a still.

So maybe things haven’t been that bad – but just working day to day which is stressful – no long lead in confirmed contracts so that we can relax a little.  Website nearly there – could be live within the coming week!!