Kevin's London beauties

It is through her, say friends, that Spacey's love affair with Britain and London first began. "Sarah is almost like Kevin's sister," a friend told me yesterday. "When he was a penniless actor, she was the one who supported him, encouraged him and helped him become what he is today.

He fell in love with everything that was "posh" about Britain because of Sarah. Don't forget: when she first knew him, he was a boy out of nowhere."

This beguiling pair - both of whom are unmarried but enjoy a strictly platonic relationship - first met in New York more than 20 years ago when Spacey had finished at the Juilliard acting school in Manhattan.

Sarah was part of the arty crowd in New York at the time and the pair instantly hit it off. "Kevin literally slept on the floor of her apartment," the friend went on, "because he was that broke."

Such is Sarah's closeness to Spacey, I can reveal, that she defended him against tirades from her father, a blunt man who takes no prisoners: in one incident which Sarah enjoys retelling to her friends, Spacey once borrowed her father's treasured overcoat from the New York apartment on a bitter winter's day.

Sarah's father is said to have frequently wondered why his daughter was being so kind to this impoverished "nobody" whose name he always got wrong. On discovering Spacey had borrowed his extremely expensive, handmade coat, Edward was said to have exclaimed: "That c**t Casey has done it again!"

It is precisely this sort of connection which has allowed Spacey, shrewdly, to establish an incestuous, circles-within-circles social clique in London: the St Georges are great friends with another powerful woman in Spacey's extended circle, Princess Michael of Kent. The Princess has become something of a fan of Spacey's.

"Marie-Christine, let's be honest, rather loves that trendy Hollywood world, and Kevin's social links mean that she can dip into it through him," one London hostess told me yesterday. Indeed it is said that the Princess was instrumental in helping to arrange a recent benefit dinner for the Old Vic at Windsor Castle.

It is precisely this eclectic - and deeply protective - social mix that Spacey particularly relishes about London. He sees himself as an aesthete - a "serious" cultural figure - and London's social players are themselves enamoured of a bit of LA glamour along with their Laurent-Perrier.

A particular party last summer was, according to what Spacey has told friends, the highlight of his time in London: Sir Tom Stoppard's intensely private affair at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

"Gwyneth Paltrow was there," one guest commented, "and it was a lavish party with a caviar bar, very over-the-top, but Kevin hung around with what you might call the "intelligent" crowd, writers like Harold Pinter. Gwyneth and him were up to the same thing: being very arch and British and deep. Spacey and his crowd were a bit earnest and cliquey."

Which brings us, inevitably, to politics and yet another of Spacey's social connections, the grand figure of Lynn Forrester de Rothschild.

She and Spacey share a rather impressive Christmas card list: both are great friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton, among other luminaries.

It is difficult to think of a more heavy social hitter than Lynn: her husband is banking heir Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, and her involvement in Left-of-centre think-tanks has taken her into the heart of Downing Street. "They both enjoy mixing in that power-couple kind of world," one mutual friend said of Lynn's friendship with Spacey.

And, circles-within-circles again, New Labour is very much on Spacey's social list. Mileage has been made of his friendship with former Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who himself was notoriously "outed" only a few years ago; when Spacey accompanied Clinton to the Labour Party conference two years ago, it was Mandelson who took much of the reflected glory.

The truth is that Spacey, a lifelong Democrat, and Mandelson are social friends, but their connection has lessened in recent months, I am told.

The one New Labour figure who remains pivotal in his life is the ultimate champagne liberal Sally Greene, wife of Labour donor and property tycoon Robert Bourne and owner of the Old Vic. (Greene knows the Clintons who know the Rothschilds who know the St Georges who know the Kents, neatly completing Spacey's formidable social retinue).

"Sally squires him about town," one friend says. "She's almost like Washington's Pamela Harriman: she knows everybody and Kevin is happy to prop himself up on her mantelpiece." The late Harriman, once married to Churchill's son, Randolph, was a remarkably successful networker in Washington.

Spacey certainly enjoys the company of glamorous women: his knack is to focus exclusively on the woman he is talking to, a social device famously employed by his good friend, Bill Clinton. "They are very much alike," a woman who has met
them both told me. "For the half hour or however long you are in his company, the spotlight shines on you alone."

As for the so-called "gay mafia", there's no doubt that many of Spacey's circle are gay, but that hardly comes as a surprise: Sir Elton John (The Old Vic is to stage Elton's musical version of Billy Elliot) is a very close friend in London and Hollywood and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant frequently dines with Spacey at the actor's favourite restaurant, The Ivy.

Equally, there is no doubt that Spacey is a mild-mannered and unquestionably engaging man. "Kevin likes anonymity," a close friend in the theatre world said yesterday. "He has a normal life here he couldn't possibly have in LA. His greatest pleasure is going to a restaurant and not being recognised."

Which brings us back to the curious incident in the south London park. This week's publicity - and its undertones - is said to have deeply embarrassed him. It is a version of events which has also left many who know him bewildered.

Yesterday, the man who first "outed" Spacey in a hugely controversial American magazine article seven years ago was bemused by the incident. "It's difficult to understand," says Tom Junod, an awardwinning writer for Esquire magazine in New York, who first wrote that Spacey "was gay".

"What happened leaves me surprised because Kevin is the most studied, controlled person I have ever come across. He doesn't raise an eyebrow without knowing he is raising that eyebrow. I've never known him not to be in control of events, and his image."

After Junod's article appeared, Spacey's management team virtually called for a boycott of Esquire and Junod. "I was hammered in the media," Junod says.

Strangely, the one woman who is still keeping her own counsel after the recent press reports is Diane Dryer, Spacey's LA-based companion frequently referred to as "his girlfriend" but who is also said simply to be his PA. Spacey says his closest female companion in London is his Jack Russell terrier, Mimi, whom he rescued from Battersea Dogs' Homes. "She's my British bitch," he laughs to friends.

He has also, repeatedly, spoken of his desire to be a husband and father. "Of course, I'd treasure the prospect of becoming a father and settling down," he once said. For now, Spacey's London women are there to protect him. As for his private life, Spacey returns each night to his former House of Spies, the guardian of his own secrets.