Television sweeps aside vanities fair and unfair of today’s diva hotel guests

A CHEF clutching a cluster of small copper saucepans is part of the promotion for the new four-part series about the Shelbourne Hotel being broadcast by RTÉ.

The programme seems to be one of those behind-the-scenes examinations of how the impossible demands of a stream of diva guests are flawlessly met by a highly trained staff of infinite patience. It will, no doubt, get great ratings, because something about hotels fascinates us and always has, whether in the form of novels or non-fiction books, films, or TV programmes.

Looking at the chef with the saucepans and trying to work out if they were butter-melters and if so, what is the correct term for butter-melting saucepans and if so, what is the correct collective term for copper butter-melting saucepans, somewhere in the back of my mind a memory surfaced of a high-profile personality of a time before this, who put the Shelbourne Hotel centre-stage in the hot media of his time.