Business Diary: Hard work reaching celebrity century

Westfield's promotional material includes a long list of celebrities spotted in the west London retail centre since its opening 12 months ago. But in the rush to top the 100 count, there has been a bit of barrel-scraping. Beyonce is a bona-fide A-lister, but surely A Place in the Sun presenter Jonnie Irwin is stretching the description of celebrity. And as for Michael Barrymore, well, enough said.

Swapping the front line for the square mile

Bloomberg Television, the channel for business junkies, has a new star turn. It's hired Andrea Catherwood as a new anchor. Catherwood has had an impressive broadcasting career so far, particularly as an ITN foreign reporter who has filed from many of the world's most troubled zones. She should find dealing with unruly City bankers a breeze then.

Facebook wants to ease your pain

Those caring types at Facebook think of everything. If you've lost a loved one, the social networking site now enables you to memorialise their page, leaving it up and running in perpetuity – you might call it an online gravestone. Difficult to know which advertisers might be drawn to the pages, but it's a nice thought.

Economic times that may cause irritation

Mervyn King has already told us the "nice" decade is over – the Governor of the Bank of England was offering a clever bit of shorthand to describe 10 years of "non-inflationary consistent expansion" – so what has replaced it? Economist Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, likes the "low inflation contracting economy" – or "lice" for short. But don't let your financial difficulties rub you up the wrong way.

Common front among Associated bedfellows

The London Evening Standard quoted "media sources" in its report last night on the expected closure of rival freesheet London Lite. No surprise that these sources rate the "very good job" the paper's journalists have done – the two titles share the same newsroom, having both been owned by Associated Newspapers until the Standard was sold earlier this year.

Number of the day: 107p

Cost of a litre of diesel, the highest this year. The AA warns drivers to prepare for the worst as the oil price climbs.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk