Mr Galliano also alienated some of Dior's other big names: Natalie Portman, an Oscar-winning (and Jewish) actress who advertises a Dior perfume, made it clear that she would not be associated with Mr Galliano in any way.
The young lady who ate the quail with me did not set my house on fire. (I kept a pitcher of water nearby just in case.) But the striking beauty and the deep perfume of all those roses certainly made her cheeks flush.
They took over the successful perfume business begun by their extraordinarily perspicacious mother Estee Lauder and built it into a global empire that made Revlon look like a scruffy second rate operation.