Stella McCartney: "This Will Be Like Therapy For Us: Therapy With The FT"

I have always loved Stella McCartney. Stella never cared much for Heather Mills, who she thought was a golddigger (yup and yup). She could have coasted on her daddy's millions (a theme in todays blog posts; more on that later), but instead got herself a career and became a success at it. Her reputation is quite sterling -- never heard anything bad about her. And, finally, she seems to think of celebrity and the cult of celebrity the way Bob Dylan thinks about it -- which is to say not at all.

Now, this, from the Financial Times:

"In the game of New York restaurants, designer Stella McCartney gets a gold medal. Generally, even in a city as full of dining establishments as New York, when someone is deciding on a place to go for lunch, they tend to choose between a handful of similar places: the Four Seasons for power lunches; Michael’s for media lunches; the Mercer for fashion lunches. Sometimes they venture a bit further afield (the Modern) but, even then, I usually recognise the name and what it signifies (society, art, etc).
"When McCartney says she wants to go to the luncheonette at the Lexington Candy Shop, however, it leaves me stumped.
"...I tell her the diner reminds me of places I used to eat in when I was younger and used to meet my grandmother for lunch. My grandmother always got the cottage cheese plate, which at that time was usually called the diet plate, and I often got tuna.
"'Do they have a cottage cheese plate?' cries McCartney, grabbing a menu. I say yes, and that I think I will have it.
“'In honour of your grandmother,' she says, pleased. 'We are both revisiting our past. This will be like therapy for us: therapy with the FT. Except I think I won’t get pancakes this time. You know, pancakes are one of the few foods you can make with soy milk and wheat flour, and they taste good because you just load them up with butter and maple syrup, so my kids will eat them.'
"McCartney and husband Alasdhair Willis, a design entrepreneur, have two boys and two girls, aged between one and seven. Their youngest daughter, Reiley, was born four months before McCartney had to stand on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum next to Anna Wintour as a co-host of last year’s Met Ball. 'Gosh, that was complicated,' McCartney says. “Anna asked me when I had just found out I was pregnant, so I couldn’t tell her but, of course, you have to say, ‘Yes’. But in the end it was fun doing it: [co-host] Colin Firth and I were standing at the top of the stairs, and every once in a while we’d go sneak some vodka shots behind the curtain. When it was over, I went home and ate everything under the sun.'
"This is a typical McCartney sleight of hand: taking a unique role – hosting the 'party of the year' in New York – and making it seem somehow down to earth and normal (those vodka shots). Even as it happens, and you recognise the verbal and emotional gymnastics, it’s hard not to admire her skill."

Very hard. More here.