 Cecil Beaton, noting the frequent homosexual excesses, coined the phrase, "the Ivor–Noel naughty set".Coward had by now caught Novello up professionally, despite a joint disaster when Novello starred in Coward's play "Sirocco" in 1927, which was a débâcle, and closed within a month of opening.In 1928 Novello starred in the silent adaptation of Coward's much more successful "The Vortex", and made his last silent film, "A South Sea Bubble".