"What first attracted you to short, balding millionaire Paul Daniels?" Mrs Merton once memorably asked the dancer Debbie McGee.
Similar questions are being put to Anna Chapman (pictured left), the glamorous 30-year old Russian arrested for espionage in 2010, after it emerged that she was romantically involved with the rather less glamorous John Altorelli (pictured right), a partner at DLA Piper, before her deportation from the US.
Chapman, who previously lived in Stoke Newington with her British ex-husband, apparently started going out with Altorelli after he lost a lot of weight following his separation from his wife. Soon after, the pair began living together in his Manhattan apartment.
According to the New York Post, the lawyer, who recently left troubled firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, told friends that Chapman had given him the “best sex” he ever had while boasting of her adventurousness between the sheets. These friends also reported that Altorelli had showered Chapman with gifts, including clothes and jewels...