Sunday Independent - 4th May, 2008
Barry Egan

Art, like life, consists of drawing the line somewhere. Some people are luckier than others and get to draw the line in all sorts of exotic places. Take Pauline Bewick; she has drawn the line in places as far flung as the Cook Islands and Kerry. But last Tuesday night, Paris was the chosen venue.

The City of Light -- Centre Culturel Irlandais to be precise -- saw Pauline (with daughter Poppy, husband Patrick Melia and agent Pat Keegan) toasted by the likes of poet, Paul Durcan, writer Michael Coady, artist Eamon O'Kane and Anne Anderson, Irish Ambassador to France.

The occasion? Con Quigley (managing partner with Horwath Bastow Charleton -- accountants) in association with Susan Callery (owner of the Greenlane Gallery, Dingle, and its sister gallery on the Ile St Louis in Paris, where Pauline currently has an exhibition), presented a set of Pauline's Midnight Court prints to the Centre Culturel Irlandais.

Post-launch, Pauline and her guests went on to eat at Les Editeurs on the Left Bank.

Speaking of the beauty and culture of the Irish abroad, that illustrious Irish broad abroad, Olivia Tracey, has just completed a shoot with internationally acclaimed photographer Ellen Von Unweth (she has snapped everyone from Madonna to Naomi Campbell for Vogue and Vanity Fair) in Los Angeles. The risque image for the prestigious Equinox Health Club chain will appear on billboards across America.

"It will be nice to see it on Sunset Boulevard," Olivia told me, adding that she has also recently done ads for Volvo, Marshall's Department Store and Time Warner Cable.

"It's all booming over here," she said.

Not so her lovelife, alas. Olivia is not currently not dating anyone in LA. "There's no settling for second best, as Madonna said recently," she told me. "I'm looking for quality not quantity."