The Prince And The Showgirl you know – the 1957 movie involved Marilyn Monroe. But the Prince and the Penguins?

Some 300 guests were privy to a slew of jokes, you could even call them bi-polar ones, about penguins and polar bears and pole positions.

It was the Pole Position For The Future gala dinner hosted by Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Fullerton Hotel, in aid of his Foundation dedicated to protecting the environment.

In Singapore expressly for the Youth Olympic Games, His Serene Highness Prince Albert told The New Paper: “My niece Pauline is competing on Monday and I am here to cheer her on.”

Pauline’s mum, the prince’s younger sister, Princess Stephanie, is also in town but skipped the dinner party.

Madam Jacky Deromedi, Honorary Consul of Monaco in Singapore, caught wind of his personal visit, and together with the Celton Group and Van Cleef & Arpels, organised the event which brought out generous donors for the $30,000 a-table dinner.

Fullerton’s ballroom took on a chilly Arctic air as guests – all chic in white – cruised into a more than reasonable facsimile of the North Pole.

Picture this: white peaks, ice caps, snowballs, glacial shards, marshmallow icebergs, permafrost hairdos and a larger-than-life penguin (man in a suit, that is).

Wow. It was cold. Whose idea was it to drop the temperature a few degrees? I get the atmosphere already.

Everyone was seated at a snow table.

The Inuits have 30 words for “snow”, and many an ice queen and snow princess were sent helter-skelter looking for tables marked utvak (snow carved in block), apun (snow on ground), muruaneq (soft deep snow) and pirtuk (snow blizzard).

(There’s even a word for snowed under, navcite.)

Less of a tongue twister was the auction for items, among which was Prince Albert’s watch engraved with his monogram.

It went under the hammer for $60,000.

The women who live for dress codes did not disappoint.

Ms Susanna Kang in a Vera Wang wedding dress, Ms Celina Lin in, by her own confession, “politically incorrect” fur stole.

Only Ms Rashida Dati, MP European Parliament, was in red, providing a spark of fire midst the cold.

Mrs Kelly Sia wore her World Wildlife Fund panda dress which she bid for (at another fundraiser event).

It last belonged to Miss Charlene Wittstock, Prince Albert’s fiancee, who had donated it to the cause.

And a penguin joke? Why do penguins make great F1 drivers? They are always in pole position.