In brief: Will Bacon tempt Roman?

A painting by Francis Bacon bought for £31,500 nearly 40 years ago is to be auctioned at Christie’s in London on February 11. Entitled Man in Blue VI, it has an estimate of £6m – a far cry from the £43m Roman Abramovich paid for a large Bacon triptych last year, before the economy crashed....…….A distinctly sheepish-looking Tony Blair collected America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from George W Bush on Tuesday night. Before he put the gong around the neck of his “gallant friend”, Bush said that the former PM would “stand tall in history.” Significantly Blair did not use the occasion to pick up his other honour, the Congressional Gold medal, which he was awarded in 2003 for his support of Dubya’s war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. The reason for this, according to Sir David Manning, the former British Ambassador in Washington, is that Blair feels it reinforces the prejudice that he was "some sort of poodle" to the US president.............. Kelly Brook has been named as the fourth judge on the new series of the ITV1 reality show Britain's Got Talent. The model, who is dating England rugby international Danny Cipriani, will join the programme's existing panel of Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell…………. Lily Allen has pulled out of plans to shoot another series of her poorly-received talkshow, Lily Allen and Friends, wisely deciding that her time would be better spent promoting her second album It's Not Me, It's You which comes out this month…….… Leonard Cohen is hoping to follow the success of his European and Canadian tours, which are said to have grossed £5m, by playing a concert New York next month, his first in the US for more than 15 years………..

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