Byline: ALISON BOSHOFF
SINCE meeting at a dinner party in 1993, Elton John and David Furnish have become the world's highest-profile gay couple. They have the starriest social life imaginable: David is godfather to both Damian Hurley and Brooklyn Beckham, and the couple share a fondness for spending which makes the Beckhams look positively parsimonious.
Such is Elton's wealth that their home life can be a complicated affair.
They have five residences - in Windsor, London's Holland Park, Nice, Atlanta, and Venice - 22 dogs, and are attended by permanent staff of more than a dozen, including a tennis coach and Elton's hairdresser, who accompany him wherever in the world he goes.
The hairdresser, Paul, currently in Las Vegas with Elton, is the only man in the world entrusted with the delicate task of fluffing and treating his toupees.
Among Elton and Furnish's many cars are his'n'his pillar-box red Bentley Continental GTs ([pounds sterling]110,000 each). There are rails of designer clothes at each home, plus collections of art, porcelain and photography worth millions.
They share a schoolboyish sense of humour.
Furnish's Valentine present to Elton this year was a diamond necklace, worth [pounds sterling]500,000, spelling out the word 'c**k'. Elton found it wildly amusing because he has a penchant for 'rude' jewellery. David has a diamond ring, a present from Elton, bearing the words 'F*** you'.
This full-blooded spending is said by those closest to the pair to be a reflection of a sincere commitment. Early on in the relationship, David started to wear a gold wedding band and by 1998 announced that the time had come to take the plunge.
'We would very much like to get married,' he said. 'We feel it's time to make that commitment.' A few years later, Elton revealed he had bequeathed the vast majority of his [pounds sterling] 160million fortune to his handsome partner, 16 years his junior, and said that he would get married 'tomorrow' if it would help Furnish to avoid punitive death duties.
And last week he was at it again, reportedly saying that when gay marriage is made legal in Britain, he and Furnish would certainly be waltzing up the aisle.
'We're definitely going to do it when it gets passed. I would like to commit myself to David.' He has since denied making these remarks, and Furnish has weighed in, saying that they don't need to formalise their commitment. But, married or not, there is no denying that this onetime advertising executive is absolutely established as Elton's life companion.
He is also a burgeoning celebrity in his own right, thanks to his position at the pinnacle of London's canape crowd.
Elizabeth Hurley chose him as the perfect man on whose arm to make her first appearance after the birth of baby Damian, Victoria Beckham depends on him as a shopping companion, and shoemaker Patrick Cox allows David to choose boyfriends for him.
Whenever there is an A-list party, you will find David Furnish, with his oh- so-polite North American manners, perfect white teeth, gymhoned body and fabulous designer wardrobe - Gaultier, McQueen and Helmut Lang.
WHILE Elton struggles with his weight and self-esteem, David, in the manner of a trophy wife, is renowned for his keep-fit regime. He has clocked up a handful of London Marathons and trains several times a week at a gym in Soho.
Jealous types mutter about the possibility that he might have had something done to his unlined face, like his close friend Lulu who is no stranger to Botox. 'You won't believe the state of his forehead,' exclaimed an acquaintance who bumped into him recently.
But who exactly is this charming man who has enchanted complex, mercurial Elton, and who has helped him to stay clean and sober after the bulimia, alcoholism and cocaine addictions which almost killed him?
And how does their relationship function - given their differences in age (Elton is 57 this month, and Furnish 41) and the chasm that separates Elton's phenomenal career in music from Furnish's undeniably more modest achievements in the world of film?
The surprising truth is that the possible future Mrs Elton John (or, perhaps after his knighthood, one should say Lady John) is a man from a deeply conventional, not to say dull background.
David James Furnish was born and brought up in Scarborough, a large and sprawling suburb of Toronto, about 15 miles from the city centre.
The area is best described as comfortable: clean and orderly, but with no culture in sight.
HIS home was a detached, white-painted family property, with a neat garden, where his parents still live. His father, Jack, an accountant, and mother, Gladys, a housewife, won't talk about their famous son but are warmly regarded in the neighbourhood.
David, known in those days as 'Dave', was educated at Sir John A Macdonald Collegiate Institute, as was his elder brother, John, now a separated father-of-three who works for a sports clothing company, and younger brother, Peter, now married with a seven-year-old son, and who works for an advertising company.
One of his contemporaries, Lynn Ludford, said: 'Dave was a popular guy at school. It was hard not to like him if you spent much time around him. Girls loved him because he was the type of friend you felt comfortable confiding in. You knew you could trust him not to gossip.' Classmate Claire Followes recalls: There wasn't a lot to do in Scarborough. The school held a lot of dances. But you had to be 19 to drink legally, so the main social scene revolved around local house parties.
'Whoever's parents were away for a weekend, that's where the party was.
There was a lot of experimenting with booze and pot.' Comedian Mike Myers, famous as spoof movie character Austin Powers, was in the year below Furnish at school, and Eric McCormack, of the sitcom Will And Grace, graduated in the same year and was also in drama club - Furnish's only school activity.
Surprisingly, given what Furnish now says about struggling to cope with Elton's celebrity, and how terrible it is to have no private life, those who knew him as a youngster say he was distinctly stage-struck.
Dr Lois Kivesto, his drama teacher, remembers: 'Acting was very important to Dave. He enjoyed it immensely and threw himself into it.
'He was a pleasure to teach. He was very enthusiastic, hardworking and focused. He had a terrific sense of humour which made him a lot of fun to be with.' However, by the time he graduated, any thoughts of stardom via the stage had evaporated.
Indeed, he appears to have been determined to make good money. As a teenager, he launched a poolside catering business for a local golf and tennis club. After graduating high school in 1982, he went to the University of Western Ontario, graduating in 1985.
He then went to business school before entering the world of advertising. In the late Eighties, in his early 20s, he decided to emigrate to London to work for advertising giant Ogilvy And Mather.
THE move was prompted by a crisis of sexuality. By now, Furnish had realised he was gay, but had been unable to 'come out' to his parents, whom he found strait-laced and uncommunicative.
'Because my family was almost too close, I thought I was going to disappoint them, break their hearts,' he said.
'It made it difficult to confront my sexuality. Looking back now, my reasons for coming to London were career, career, career but, subconsciously, my sexuality had just as much to do with it.' While at university he had lost his virginity to a girlfriend, but found it a 'very lonely experience'. When he first tried to tell his mother that he was gay, she replied that he just hadn't met the right girl yet.
'That was the end of the conversation,' he said. 'I went away thinking there was something wrong with me.' And so, for the next ten years, he lived as a 'pretend straight man' which he found 'painful and souldestroying'.
Even after coming to London, he still didn't feel able to admit his sexuality. 'In those days, even in advertising, no one really accepted gay men. I understood that clients might have a problem - so I kept very private.
'It was terrifying, though. Every time I queued for a gay club I'd hide my face in case a client or a colleague saw me. It was debilitating to live like that, as if I should be ashamed.' So the stage was set for a meeting that was to change Furnish's life.
Through a mutual friend, he was invited to a dinner party at Elton's home in Windsor - and they were immediately drawn to each other.
'Halfway through the evening, he was giving us a tour of the house, and in one room we were just by ourselves. He sat down and talked to me about his life. I just felt that little tug in my chest. I'd never felt that way before.
'We talked about photography, art, music and films. He asked for my phone number at the end of the evening, and called next day. We had our first official date that night. I went to his house in London and we had a Chinese takeaway.' Elton, who was married to German sound engineer Renate Blauel in the Eighties, was Furnish's first boyfriend and they started seeing each other frequently and then, after a month, decided to throw caution to the wind and 'dive in' to the relationship.
'It was really fast, and I think both of us were wary, but he felt like someone I could trust, whom I respected, who respected me. He made me feel good. He made me laugh.
'And it was the first time in my life that there was no game-playing. It was honest, straightforward and easy from Day One,' said David.
So the boy from the dull Canadian suburbs began to live Elton's way. Gone was his flat in Clapham, and the commute in to work; in their place came lavish spending and famous friends.
David, it must be said, took to the A-list like a duck to water. He has a talent for making and keeping friends, and his wit and intelligence have made him popular with everyone from Sting to Joan Collins, whose latest wedding he attended.
Within the first year of the romance, he had jettisoned his job and started to work for Rocket Pictures, a film company he runs with Elton.
The tricky part of David's new life was telling his parents who, by now, were estranged from their son, unwilling to confront the truth about him.
WHEN David announced he was gay and that his boyfriend was Elton John, his mother said, with horror, 'What? The rock star?' and then accepted the situation with good grace. 'My family were not brought up to say anything about anything until faced with it.
That's just the way they were.' Happily, for all concerned, once confronted with the situation there have been no problems. David returns regularly to Toronto to see them and his siblings.
Last year, his parents joined Elton's mother and stepfather and Elton and David for a family holiday in Venice. 'Both sets get on brilliantly. How lucky is that?' said Elton.
'That doesn't happen with many marriages.' And what of their relationship?
Well, there is no shortage of romance. Every Saturday they exchange cards to mark the day they met, and they talk on the phone up to ten times a day.
'We have what I call sound-bite conversations: 'What are you doing?' or 'Hi, how are you?' Sharing the moment, popping in, popping out of each other's lives.' And Furnish can handle Elton's legendary temper tantrums.
'They happen when I'm tired, but David knows exactly how to deal with them,' says Elton. 'He talks me through it, saying: 'Calm down.' And that's it.'
Every so often, David is spotted without Elton at gay nightclubs, sometimes even flirting with other men, and this has given rise to gossip that the couple have an open relationship, as George Michael admitted he has with his boyfriend Kenny Goss.
But Furnish maintains that this is simply not the case. 'I go to clubs occasionally with friends, just to have a look at the scene. I get this really sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, real feelings of loneliness, and I go back home and I say: 'God, I'd hate to be single again.'
'I love Elton. It's a totally monogamous relationship. I am very happy with this man.' The one great crisis of their relationship came early on, when David clashed with Elton's then management about the documentary, Tantrums And Tiaras, he was making about Elton. Furnish felt that the relationship could not survive unless he was allowed to work.
And work he does. Aside from Tantrums And Tiaras, there have been two fashion documentaries and one not-very-successful film, Women Talking Dirty.
It's not much to show for ten years, but Furnish is also heavily involved in charity work for the Elton John Aids Foundation.
AT PRESENT, with Elton in Vegas, he is working as executive producer of the forthcoming West End production of Billy Elliot. He's also busy on a possible Disney film, with music by Tim Rice and Elton, and has been trying to finance another film.
'The nature of the business I'm in is that projects take a long time to get off the ground. So everybody looks at me and says: 'What does he do?' But my friends and Elton, they know how hard I work.' For all that, he agrees that his life - which includes parties costing hundreds of thousands of pounds - is as far distant from his upbringing as possible. 'Never in a million years could I have imagined that it would turn out the way it has.'
He is not the only one.
Mike Myers, who went to Elton's post-Oscars party last month, says: 'Elton came up to me and said: 'I've got someone I want you to meet.' I'm looking at this guy and thinking, 'you know, that looks just like Dave Furnish from class'.
'It was the oddest thing.'
