Pembroke: Planet Hollywood holds a bun fight

IT WAS PONYTAILS vs suits yesterday at Planet Hollywood, the over-hyped burger and chips eaterie opened by Arnie, Bruce Willis and friends earlier this year. The event was the announcement of the winners of the Lloyds Bank film challenge, in which the bank is backing young scriptwriters, whose best efforts will be screened on Channel 4 next spring.

Lloyds hasn't simply fallen in love with the arts, of course. It wants to win over the hearts and minds of the nation's youth so they open accounts when they come of age. 'We deliberately focus on the under-26s,' says Lloyds' sponsorship manager, David Goldesgyme (suit, not ponytail).

After the teen screen proteges had had their pictures taken with Jonathan Ross (no ponytail, either, but nice suit), it was time to tuck in to the food. Disappointment all round - not a burger in sight. Instead, it was a full English breakfast complete with black pudding .

SIR PETER WALTERS, the former chairman of BP and Midland Bank who used to send his briefcase to work with the chauffeur while he walked, has added yet another job to his burgeoning portfolio. He will join the ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi as a non-executive director in January.

Sir Peter, 62, already sits on the boards of SmithKline Beecham, Thorn EMI, Blue Circle and Midland's parent, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, so the non-executive fees must be totting up nicely. If Sir Peter is in the same salary band as his fellow Saatchi non- execs, the post should net him another pounds 20,000.

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IT'S ALL GO at First Philippine, the investment trust at which Norman Lamont has emerged as a non-executive director. Last week he got the thumbs-down when a large Hong Kong shareholder sold its 17 per cent stake just days after his appointment was announced.

But now he has a new fan. And quite a powerful one, too. Postel, the Post Office's megabucks pension fund, has snapped up 15.6 per cent of the trust.

THE INSURANCE giant Norwich Union has come up with a novel way of trying to combat car crime. It is running a competition to find Britain's safest car parks.

The idea is to raise the standards of car park security and, the company says, help women feel safer. The fact that any improvement in security will cut insurance claims, help reduce premiums and make the likes of Norwich Union more popular is presumably by the by.

Norwich Union says that of the 1.5 million car crimes reported every year, 40 per cent occur in car parks. All very well, but Britain's worst car park might be more interesting.

THE GAY Lifestyles Exhibition, which takes place at Olympia in London later this month, is having trouble attracting enough non-gay big names.

There is an impressive roster of fashion companies, but the organisers say big companies won't take the plunge. 'There's definite interest, there's just not enough bravery,' says a spokesman.

CITY WHEELERS and dealers who fancy themselves at making a few quid will have a chance to prove it next month when the second City Monopoly challenge takes place at the Barbican. Teams from Kleinwort Benson, Midland Bank and the toy company Hasbro, as well as two teams from the Stock Exchange, will each play two 45-minute games. The winner will be the side accumulating the most cash and assets. Abbey National won last year, while the advertising agency Griffin Bacal came last ater going spectacularly bankrupt.