Top honours for top women

On Tuesday evening the American socialite and sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lee Radziwill, received her insignia as knight of the Légion d’honneur in a private ceremony at the residence of actress Arielle Dombasle on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris, France. It was in March this year that the office of President Sarkozy announced that the 75-year old, once married to the Polish prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, would receive the honour for her many years of charity work.

There to congratulate the new knight were among others Pierre Bergé, fashion designers Marc Jacobs, film director Sofia Coppola, the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe, actor Alain Delon, former model and now designer and perfume creator Inès de la Fressange and American journalist Kati Marton. On hand was also her daughter Christina, thanking France on behalf of her mother who has loved the country and its culture ever since her first trip across the Atlantic to France together with her sister Jacqueline in 1951 onboard Queen Elizabeth.

Today on Wednesday, Australian pop singer and actress Kylie Minogue was summoned to Buckingham Palace in London, England, where she received an OBE from the hands of the Prince of Wales. The investiture, held by Charles on behalf of the Queen who is in Scotland at the moment, awarded the insignias to all those honours recipients announced on the Queen’s New Year Honours list this year. Kylie, dressed in an Yves Saint Laurent dress and in a cheerful mood afterwards as she showed off her insignia, received the honours for her for services to music. In May she also became a Knight or the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Literature).