By SHARON CHURCHER in New York and ALAN RIMMER in London
Last updated at 21:05 09 June 2007
READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE
A former British topless model has become the extraordinary obsession of members of America’s most illustrious and secretive men's club, which is trying to track her down in time for its 100th anniversary party next month.
The Bohemian Grove Club holds an annual summer camp at which members, who include Henry Kissinger, former President George Bush Senior, Clint Eastwood and Bob Weir, founder member of Sixties rock band the Grateful Dead, debate world politics, perform weird mock Druid ceremonies – and, it turns out, ogle a poster of a blonde in a thong.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she is one-time Bond girl and 1976 Miss Wales, Sian Adey-Jones, 49, whom we have tracked down to Ibiza.
Having posed for the poster in 1980 at the height of her career as a Page 3 pin-up and appeared in the 1985 007 film A View To A Kill, she now lives on the island with her Italian husband Rocco, son Dylan, 14, and adopted daughter Tallulah, four.
She was bemused to learn that some of America's wealthiest men wanted to "honour" her with a black-tie dinner at the club’s 2,700-acre forested compound north of San Francisco this summer.
Since club rules ban all women except those employed to work at events, they cannot invite Sian herself.
Instead, they want her to send them a "formal greeting" – with a current picture of herself.
Sian said: "I'm flattered to be in the hearts and minds of such important people but my modelling career is in the past now. And, since they are so secretive, how do I know if this will be a nice gentlemen’s dinner or men leaping around doing weird and distasteful things in a forest?"
The £5,000-a-year club's strict code bans its 2,300 members from discussing its activities but, speaking on condition of anonymity, the 25 members leading the hunt for Sian assured us that their intentions were honourable.
One of them, a California financier, said: "The poster hangs on the outside wall of a cabin in an area of the camp called Skidoo and has become rather famous throughout the club because of the artistic photography and the beauty of the subject.
"This summer will be the 100th anniversary, so we thought a black-tie dinner honouring her would be a nice thing to do.
"We would like to read out a message from her, maybe something along the lines of Miss Adey-Jones saying, "I am glad I could improve on your ambience."
"And we'd like a current snapshot, which we'll show alongside the poster. We just want to do something nice for a woman who has meant so much to us."
Though the poster has been displayed at the camp for 27 years, the members had no idea of Sian's identity and asked California internet expert Raymond Lopez to help.
He said: "Someone thought she was the former British model Caroline Cossey, who was a Bond girl in For Your Eyes Only.
That would have been fascinating because Caroline is a transsexual who was born a boy but when I found her in Atlanta, where she now lives, she said, "I hate to disappoint you but it's Sian Adey-Jones."
"The organisers of the Miss Wales competition in 2004 had held an event with former winners but Sian didn't participate so they couldn't help.
"Finally, we got a number for Sian's mother in Wales but, maybe because of the time difference, she never replied to our messages. With the dinner fast approaching, members have been worrying that they were running out of time."
Next month's dinner will be preceded by traditional club rituals, which include an arcane Druid rite, the Cremation of Care, in which torch-wielding men in crimson robes burn an effigy representing the cares of the world and high-living that they leave behind for 17 days.
They insist the idea is to concentrate on lofty discussions about the state of the world. But Sian said she needed to be convinced.
"This sounds like rich and famous men banning women so they can run around like Boy Scouts," she said.
A club spokesman said the members seeking Sian were "very nice fellas". He added: "It sounds like a sweet idea and if she sends them a greeting, they will be as pleased as a bunch of boys could possibly be."
• They dress as women and get drunk
The Bohemian Grove Club has been called the world's most exclusive old boys' club.
Tony Blair, John Major and Prince Philip have reputedly been guests at the California estate where its 2,300 luminaries meet twice a year – for a long weekend in May and 17 days in July – under a veil of secrecy.
They are lodged in clusters of log cabins, including the Skidoo Encampment, where Sian's image is hung.
With a combined worth estimated at £50billion, they say their goal is to "draw inspiration from nature" while they hammer out new solutions to world problems.
Visitors have reported, however, that their rituals include getting "howling drunk", dressing up as women and burning an effigy called "Care" under a giant statue of an owl.
Peter Phillips, a sociology professor who has been a guest at the club, insists:
"It's all very tongue-in-cheek." Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger delivers a breakfast lecture every July on topics that have included the Iraq War.
"Part of the tradition is that Henry should be interrupted at the start of his talk by a Mexican band," says a member. "After they play a tune, the band withdraws and Henry continues."
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario