Gossip finally silenced

Much chatter around town as the Sunday Telegraph's legendary  Ros Reines is finally laid off after the News Corp axe falls on a number of  employees (it's always Danger Time when Rupert Murdoch hits town). One thing is for sure, you could not ignore Reines who became feared for her exposes and sharp words but loved by readers. Her byline "The Columnist They Can't Silence"was well deserved

Packer-just before he spotted Reines at his party

 It's odd but for a country that claims not to take society and their shenanigans seriously, it's also a country that seems particularly sensitive to even the slightest criticism

Timothy Swallow

Whispers having worked in both London and New York where the old adage- as long as they spell the name correctly- still holds sway has found Sydneysiders rather thin skinned. So of course, we are terribly nice to everyone.

Whispers first encountered Ros Reines many moons ago when she wrote for a magazine called London Index where a great friend, the late Timothy Swallow also worked. Swallow went on to work for the Daily Mail gossip king Nigel Demspter and then wrote the famous William Hickey column on the Daily Express. Sadly Timothy died during a trip to Australia but he always paid tribute to Reines superiority in being able to present a paragraph that was both amusing and wicked at the same time.

Kelly Cutrone in Sydney

# Timothy Swallow & Whispers put the then languishing film Mommie Dearest on the map during a trip to New York. A tale for another time. 

Ros appeared in these pages when we reported on her tussle with New York PR Kelly Cutrone. At the time a well known New York columnist lamented that in another era Reines & Cutrone would have got on a like a house on fire, so similar were their temperaments. 
Whispers was also with Reines at the famous Nine Network TV season launch on Garden Island when media king James Packer took her aside and tore strips off her over some alleged sleight. It became the only news that weekend as new TV offerings were forgotten. In fact, we also appeared in the same Australian Story about gossip writers along with writer Simon Kent (now on the Toronto Sun in Canada). No doubt Ros Reines with a wealth of local social knowledge will surface in a new capacity and publication but it's an indication of the rapidly changing world of media.