High Life | 6 September 2012

Forty years or so ago, two Greek ship owners and the most famous diva of her time squared off in the British High Court over a financial dispute. Panaghis (I think) Vergottis, a gentleman and philanthropist, had sued Aristotle Socrates Onassis and Maria Callas over the ownership of a tanker, bought for la Callas by the two best friends, as they once were. Vergottis had, I suspect, fallen in love with the fiery coloratura, and once Onassis had dropped her for la Kennedy, tried to move in, unsuccessfully. Then who owned how much of a ship came up, and ended up in the High Court. The headlines back then were bigger than the ones covering the two Russian creeps of last week. But there were no theatrics. Onassis, the winner, made a brief, dignified statement outside the court, saying how sad it was to face a once great friend in a court action.