exclusive : More Fallout from the Hacking Scandal

Mary-Ellen Field                                                                                            Mark Colvin

One of the lesser know victims of the tawdry hacking scandal in the UK was the Australian Mary Ellen-Field who guided the career of supermodel Elle McPherson, as reported in the Shuttle in 2011.
Elle became suspicious that messages between her and Field were ending up as gossip items in the media. She unceremoniously sacked Mary-Ellen who had helped McPherson build her reputed $65M fortune.

As has now been discovered Elle's phone had been hacked by News Corp tabloids and Field was innocent. When McPherson sued News Corp the case was settled confidentially and Elle was soon fronting a TV show produced by the corporation.

Field was left in the lurch and launched a lawsuit against News Corp.
Now she has been forced to withdraw after being unable to definitely prove a link between her sacking and the hacking of McPherson's phone. Faced with little help from her former employer (they breed those girls tough in the Shire) she has been left with a huge legal bill, her own and News Corps' costs.

At least Mary-Ellen can hold her head high. As we reported back in April 2011, ABC News radio's Mark Colvin was the first Australian outlet to interview Field over her dilemma.
London born Colvin, one of Australia's most respected broadcasters kept in touch with Field to see how her case was going and they developed a friendship.
And when Mary-Ellen Field discovered Colvin was under-going dialysis she offered him a precious gift : one of her kidneys. The transplant took place in December 2012.
Colvin is now recovering and will hopefully be back on the airwaves soon.
 As the saying goes : It's an ill wind that blows no good. Out of the shocking hacking scandal that has engulfed News Corp, one person has emerged as a heroine with dignity and every reason to hold her head high, albeit facing financial ruin.
Perhaps News Corp could finally show a smidgen of class and pick up Mary-Ellen Field's legal tab.

Earth to ABC News Radio

Right wing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is anything but 'fluid' and was most likely speaking form the Likud Party HQ rather than the 'Liquid Party' HQ today as reported on the ABC's 6.30 News Radio.

Just thought we we would mention it !

Beautiful Brenda Blethyn

She's one of the Shuttle's favourite actresses who has received a swag of nominations for the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes and picked up the 1996 Cannes Film Festival 'Best Actress' gong for her performance in the film Secrets and Lies.

The English actress Brenda Blethyn is in town and will open next Thursday night at The Playhouse in the Sydney Opera House in the Edna O'Brien play 'Haunted'.

Bookings at the website www.sydneyoperahouse.com   Box office : 9250 7777

Richard Glover interviewed Brenda this afternoon on the Drive Show and it's now on their website..well worth a listen.

Aussie Victim of Britain's Phone Hacking Scandal

James Murdoch who has just been appointed as third in command of the mighty News Corp's USA operations has said that the phone hacking scandal in Britain has been "put in a box". But that Pandora's Box threatens to burst open in unexpected ways.

Collateral damage may be far and wide and open up even more lawsuits from those not directly hacked but who have also suffered because of the illegal phone taps.

It's already been aknowledged that model Elle McPherson was one celebrity whose mobile phone voice-mail messages were illegally listened to by the tabloid  News of The World employees, but one of her innocent associates ended up being sacked because of it.

 Mary Ellen Field was the Australian brand manager, legal adviser and confidante of Elle who advised and worked on McPherson's hugely successful range of personalised merchandise that has earned the supermodel a reputed $60 million dollar fortune.

When Elle McPherson discovered that messages between her and her adviser Field were mysteriously ending up as gossipy items in the media, she sacked the firm Mary Ellen worked for. As has been since discovered, Field and her employer were innocent of revealing Elle's confidential information.

On Friday the ABC radio broadcaster Mark Colvin spoke to Field's lawyer Mark Lewis who has issued court proceedings in Britain against News Corp on Field's behalf and who described the recent offer from News for compensation as not being quite all that it seems

Lewis responded to Colvin's question on compensation : " It's only partially true. What has been said by the Murdoch companies is that if a claim can be proved, that they will then compensate the people but the criteria that had been set out by Murdoch - I mean, it's very different, I mean we have a position where they're sort of playing Australian Rules Football and the game we're playing is cricket; they're just two different criteria. "

Read the full transcript on ABC News PM here, listen to the broadcast and download podcasts of previous ABC shows.

 ** The UK's Dail Mail has run a story on Andrew Bolt's continuing court case in which he is being sued by 9 Indigenous folk in a piece headlined : ''They're not really Aborigines': Right-wing columnist sparks race row in Australia".

The case has brought Bolt some unlikely supporters like the Sydney Morning Herald's legal columnist Richard Akland and the top political website crikey.com.au, neither of which could be accused of leaning to the right in the political spectrum with many saying the case amounts to an attack upon free speech.


Bolt : ABC TV



In the past Bolt has questioned the veracity of Climate Change claims and if there really was a Stolen Generation- the practice of white 'protectors' forcibly removing Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander children to assimilate them into mainly white religious missions.

Aboriginal activists say the opposite as in this piece "An open letter to Andrew Bolt from a “half-caste”, “yella fella”, “half-breed” Kungarakan-Gurindji woman"
Read the full story at the Mail Online here.