This sort of thing defies comment. The whole Amiel Black/Mills exchange can be read at the Spectator’s site. They’ve made it stupidly difficult to link to, apart from requiring registration, but the duel can be read at on the Feedback pages for 7, 14 and 21 February.
From today’s Globe:
“ ... The article cited, as an example of their excesses, a 1998 dinner party at their lavish home on Cottesmore Gardens in fashionable Kensington. According to the story, Lord Black realized he was "short of a woman" for dinner, so he called Charles Moore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, also owned by Hollinger International, for some help.Posted by Patrick at February 21, 2004 05:36 PM
Mr. Moore turned to Ms. Mills, The Telegraph's then 26-year-old features editor, and asked her to hurry over to the Blacks' home. "An hour later, hastily groomed, made up and brushed, Ms. Mills was sipping predinner drinks in Cottesmore Gardens," the Spectator article said.
"Then disaster struck.
A male guest, Max Fisher, dropped out. Mills was approached by Conrad Black. 'Finish your drink and skedaddle,' he told her. Barbara Black then told her to go to the kitchen and out through the servants' door, where the driver would pick her up and take her home," the article continued.