Lark Rise to Candleford actress Olivia Grant parts ways with lover Kitt Proudfoot West End Games It is unlikely to push up the viewing figures for the opening ceremony of the Olympics by all that many, but Sir David Hare, whose plays include The Permanent Way, wants to do his bit as his mate Stephen Daldry is running the big show in July. Hare says his play South Downs, like many other current West End productions, will not be performed on the night of the opening ceremony. "We're deliberately running our show up until the Olympics and then closing down," he tells me, deadpan. I wouldn't do a thing to hurt Stephen. Hare's fellow playwright Michael Frayn takes a different view. The Novello Theatre has just spent £2million refurbishing, and my play Noises Off is booked for a 14-week run, which will include performances as the Olympics kicks off. Hare's distinctive hair-do has, by the way, won him a new nickname from West End wags: Sir Permanent Wave. A perfect fit Christian Louboutin may already have the Duchess of Cambridge on his client list, but for the French shoe designer it is the Queen's custom he desires most. "I don't think she needs shoes, but I want to design her a special Diamond Jubilee shoe," he says at a party at The Club at The Ivy to celebrate his exhibition at the Design Museum. Louboutin, who is known for his trademark red soles, already has ideas for the bespoke footwear. I want it to be graceful like her, it's such a precise job she has that the shoe would be done according to what she needs.