Our favourite cardboard king has done it again: organising a secret rendezvous in a Manhattan hotel, complete with an intimate breakfast for two.
We're talking Visy CEO Anthony Pratt, of course. And we're invoking the breakfast meeting he hosted a couple of days ago in New York with US Vice-President, Joe Biden. Of course.
Keen readers of this column will remember when the Veep visited our shores in July to snuggle a koala and officiate at the opening of a Melbourne cancer research centre, the Pratt-ster extended an open invitation for the man who is a heartbeat away from the nuclear codes to join him for dinner in The Big Apple upon their respective returns.
Dinner became breakfast (no, not like that!) – and the meeting took place this week in a private room off the kitchen of the hotel the VP was staying at. Which you'll agree is all very House of Cards.
Sadly, there was no sign of Pratt's new buddy, the US rapper Ludacris (apparently not his real name) – who was guest of honour at a Pratt soiree thrown at the gazillionaire's Central Park home attended by the First Couple, Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull a couple of weeks back.
Over 45 minutes of coffee and croissant, Pratt and the Veep discussed the work Biden is doing for cancer research and The Pratt Foundation's support of same.
As it happens, Pratt's sister Heloise – a cancer survivor – will be honoured in New York next month at the annual society fundraising gala, The Angel Ball – at which no lesser a society fixture than the Kardashians are expected to attend.
So that ought to be understated, then. Even if we expect the bling quotient of the evening to be greatly reduced.
bryce.corbett@fairfaxmedia.com.au
