Stars turn out for Saatchi bash

By Caroline Briggs
BBC News Online entertainment staff

Nigella Lawson stole the show in a stunning outfit

The Saatchi Gallery, which is preparing to show a new exhibition, has held a birthday party to celebrate its first successful year on London's South Bank.

Guests to the Saatchi bash could have been forgiven for expecting something a little out of the ordinary.

Last year, delighted spectators on the nearby London Eye raised an eyebrow when 160 naked people posed on the nearby South Bank at the gallery opening.

There was some speculation among the 1,000-strong guests that party-shy Charles Saatchi himself would be the big surprise this year.

But as the imposing panelled surroundings of County Hall swelled to accommodate the celebrity-packed guest list, Saatchi - not even a fully clothed one - was not anywhere to be seen.

In pictures: Saatchi party

Nigella Lawson, who looked stunning in a black Vivienne Westwood corset, satin skirt and dangerously high blue espadrilles, explained her husband had more pressing duties.

"Charles doesn't like parties, and anyway, I needed someone to babysit."

The writer and TV cook described the New Blood exhibition as "dynamic, energetic and exciting", but would not be drawn on a favourite piece among the works which range from a controversial painting of heroin user Rachel Whitear to a 30ft rope made from a mile of toilet paper.

And despite Saatchi's absence, the exhibition was given a lavish launch with a melee of models, musicians, artists and actors turning out in style to the impressive Thameside building.

Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Morton and model Liberty Ross were among those who meandered through the warren of golden-oak corridors that run the length of the gallery.

Dotted here and there are lifelike models of people - from a cleaner called Queenie to an exhausted jogger - that many guests mistakenly acknowledged with a smile.

'Remarkable' images

Denise Van Outen told BBC News Online: "I really liked the mannequins but they are so lifelike and I didn't realise at first glance they weren't real people."

Actor Bill Nighy, TV chef Gary Rhodes, Olympic rower James Cracknell and a heavily pregnant DJ Sara Cox also rubbed shoulders with Brit artists like Tracey Emin at the party on Tuesday night.

Nighy, who has been nominated for a TV Bafta, told BBC News Online he found the exhibition "astonishing".

"I think it is very exciting and full of the most remarkable images."

Nighy added that his favourite piece in the gallery was the waxwork of artist Gavin Turk as Sid Vicious in an Elvis Presley pose.

He said: "It is simply a wonderful achievement. It makes me wonder who I would get to play me in a self-portrait. Keith Richards probably - with a guitar."

Stella Vine's controversial artwork was admired by socialite Tamara Beckwith

Film critic Barry Norman described the exhibition as "interesting" and said: "I am not sure how much of it is art but I admire Charles Saatchi.

"Anything that keeps art on the front pages in this philistine age is alright with me."

An eight-month pregnant Sophie Ellis-Bextor joked with journalists that her idea of art was "cheap copies from Bangkok".

She said: "Seriously though, I bought some art last year but I haven't got around to putting it up yet. I'm really rubbish about things like that."

Other celebrities attending the event included IT girl Tamara Beckwith, TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss, actress Lesley Ash, EastEnders star Charlie Brooks, TV presenter Alice Beer, the Royle Family's Ralf Little and impersonator Ronni Ancona.

New Blood, which opens to the public on Wednesday, features work from 24 new artists and new acquisitions from more established so-called Brit Artists, such as Damien Hirst.