Camps Bay became the temporary home and eating place to a number of celebrity visitors to Cape Town over the festive season, reports The Times.

The Grand Cafe was the dinner venue for John Cleese (of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame), Adrian Brophy (Oscar winning actor), Sir Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings), Sir Richard Branson, and Queen drummer Roger Taylor.  Cleese left a card behind which praised the restaurant’s “wonderful lobster and CHEAP”!

Sir Richard Branson also entertained 13 ladies at Blues, and 30 guests at Paranga for New Year’s eve lunch.   He rented a six-bedroom house in Camps Bay, as did the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, and her two daughters, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.  

Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, former SA TV talk-show queen and ex-South African Tourism representative in the USA, partied with her daughters in Camps Bay, before seeing in the New Year at Sol Kerzner’s estate in Hout Bay, a party attended by Sarah Ferguson and her princess daughters as well.

Sir Elton John and Jamie Oliver were spotted in Cape Town over this period as well.