The Grillo case (AKA Nigella & Saatchi)

[BerylStreep]

So the last thread on the Grillo case is full.

I have taken the liberty of starting a new one here for people's thoughts as the case unfolds.

If you are a PA and you know the sort of person your employer is (there has been testimony about his persnicketiness and temper) then you would be pretty stupid as well as greedy to try to take his money and think you could get away with it indefinitely. Maybe they thought they were too special to ever feel the effects of CS's wrath in any serious way. Or maybe they thought being on Team Nigella would shield them. They miscalculated. Their biggest mistake was to assume CS would never have an interest in bludgeoning NL and I suspect they got very caught up in the lifestyle they enjoyed, which cushioned them from the reality of the personality they were dealing with, and also from the very dubious nature of their conditions of employment (nobody seems to have been paying attention to tax ramifications of their remuneration for services rendered, or their pension contributions, insurance, etc.).

The testimony of the financial assistant is important as an indication of the sort of 'management practices' CS employed both to explain the financial controls and the atmosphere created by CS (basically dominating instead of running things, by means of controlling through fear, and NL's description of her relationship with CS echoes that).

But there is still a difference between 'yours' and 'mine' that no amount of bad management or dysfunctional-personality-influenced management can erase.

The finance assistant was 'let go' for performance issues (with a compromise pay off), which had been addressed on several occasions, and, according to the accountant, they had brought in additional staff to support her, but her performance was still poor. It then turned out that the reason for her under-performance was that she had been setting up a rival art gallery with her boyfriend, also a Saatchi employee, for the last 18 months of her employment. Incidentally, one of the Grillo sisters is also a director in the former finance assistant's gallery business.

So I wouldn't describe her as either credible or impartial.

Incidentally, one of the Grillo sisters is also a director in the former finance assistant's gallery business.

Not something the defence are keen to enlighten anyone about...

Is there some secret significance to NL carrying a tube of mustard in her handbag at all times?

Is it an urban myth that most banknotes have coke on them to some extent? I always wondered.

Apparently, drugs were stored in a desk in a study the nigella shared with her husband. Given he wasn't meant to know about the drugs, why on earth would she store them in a room that he shared?

I think it's the holidays that the women had and the money they spent on holiday that is going to trip them up. It's one thing nigella telling them to buy themselves a new pair of shoes when she's there with them, quite another for them to be going on holiday once a month and using the company credit card for that.

Did the mustard thing come up in court then, Beryl? I've read that before in interviews / on Twitter and never thought of it as anything other than a foodie quirk, possibly exaggerated by NL for comic effect.

I have lost the little respect I had for Trinny Woodall. Wtf is she doing living up to her childhood nickname (St Trinians - related). Does the fact that her daughter is being looked after by an army of staff really make it ok to lie down in Charles' lap in taxis and have sneaky fag breaks with him. Her frightfully expensive beauty regime may keep her looking glamorous but she is a middle-aged mum at the end of the day and seems desperate to shake off the reality of it. It is like those four fold pictures that kids make where one person draws the feet, the next draws the thighs etc. You would guess she was sixteen until you got to the top quarter!

Explain the mustard to me. Is it : if you eat mustard it puts you off eating anything else? Like an appetite suppressant?

i find it hard to reconcile the 21 century Trinny with the one of the previous century who spent her time awkwardly shopping in unglamorous places with members of the public and squeezing their breasts to maintain viewing figures.

I think she just likes mustard holly it was brought up in court to prove Francesca knew the contents of Nigella's handbag which she claims also includes lots if rolled up, coke coated notes.

Re coke on banknotes - different studies have found different levels of contamination. One study of 15 police areas found 11% of banknotes carried traces of coke; another earlier study reckoned it was more like 90%+!

More worrying is the type of germs found on most banknotes. Ewww.

The mustard thing is well known - the Grillo sister would have known that without ever seeing inside NL's handbag, if she had just read NL's press clippings.

Things that didn't ring true yesterday:

• the rolled up banknotes in the bags (cliche as surely they would unfurl?);
• the banknotes covered in white powder (again cliche - surely any traces would not be visible to the eye?);
• that FGrillo does not know how all that money was taken from a bank card in her possession while she was on holiday ;
• the certainty that NL was a regular drug user in spite of the fact that people who lived in close proximity to her for 10 years never once caught her at it - implying that NL was both canny enough to hide her use but sloppy enough to leave evidence of it all over the place for anyone to find. That is, patently, ridiculous.

Surely the prosecution should be able to pick apart the bad character "evidence" just based upon things we have mentioned here?!

I have worked for some pretty demanding eccentric arseholes people in the past. But in an office environment not in a home. I can totally believe that abusive behaviour from the employer was followed by a "go treat yourself with the card" form of "apology". I get that and believe it completely. But still one of the Grillos had spending well in excess of the other PA's and her sister too - so what's all that about.

I think the rolled up power covered notes in handbag is a lot of bullshit. The jury must be very confused.

re banknotes, if NL was using bank notes to snort drugs there is no way she would use anything less than a new twenty note! Fivers!! FFS!!

I recall hearing about the tube of handbag mustard years ago - I think NL talks about it.

Nigella has often talked about how she travels with Colmans Mustard Powder and a bottle of Tabasco to liven up dreary book tour food. There is NO drug related significance to this whatsoever.

Tom Parker Bowles started copying her by saying he did so alongside copying the entire food writing oeuvre of Geoffrey Steingarten. Basically when Geoffrey writes about a food related something you can guarantee TPB will write about doing the same 6 months later.

This is probably a naive question but does Nigella have to give evidence and go through all this - she isn't on trial for anything herself is she?

It just seems so much like Saatchi is putting her through all this, and that doesn't seem right

I keep a pot of in date mustard at my mothers house, as she doesnt eat it. If that makes a difference to anyone! Seems I am not alone in that.

My slighlty naive and uneducated guess, is that she has done her day in court. And The rest of it is stuff that the Grillos' lawyer is bringing up in their defence.
Hence, mustard looks silly, but her defence is saying that they know the contents of her handbag [dont know why that is relevant however, as I am not following the case line by line].

If you step back from things a little it does seem bloody ridiculous that we should apparently all know and care that Nigella keeps a pot of mustard in her handbag. And how is that relevant to anything?

Maybe she can bring out a special mustard and tabasco sauce inspired cookery book?!

The point being made is that Elisabetta Grillo knows every tiny detail of Nigella's life.

But I know what some of her handbag contents are and I don't know her.

Reading her books and columns over the years would harvest quite a lot of Nigella info.

I'd get a Nigella fan in if I was the defence and ask them how much they know of her. Would demolish that defence.

If I was the prosecution i mean