DINNER PARTY INTEL: Gloom and doom from beyond the grave

1. United in death

The dirge heard last week in Manchester cathedral was not for a local football club’s dismal season in the English Premier League (eight defeats in 12 matches for United, putting them sixth from the bottom of the log), but for one of the team’s greats.

At the funeral last week of Denis Law, 84, his daughter said the “holy trinity” were finally together: Law, George Best (died: 2005) and Bobby Charlton (2023), united with their legendary manager Matt Busby, who died in 1994.

2. Christie’s sells out

Christie’s, one of the world’s most famous auction houses, is going ahead with a sale in New York this week that has provoked thousands of protests to have it stopped. Under the hammer will be creations by AI that was programmed to use the works of artists without their permission. The 3,000-signature petition to Christie’s accuses the house of incentivising AI companies’ “mass theft of human artists’ work”. Christie’s has sold art by some of the world’s greatest artists, from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso.

3. Leonard Cohen conned

Canadian troubadour Leonard Cohen’s $50m fortune — or what’s left of it — is at the centre of a court action brought by his children, Adam and Lorca.

They accuse their father’s lawyer of faking documents to steal his second fortune. “The godfather of gloom”, who died in 2016 aged 82, lost his first nest egg to embezzlement by his manager. He made a triumphant comeback but that money has allegedly been stolen again.