Here is the latest snap of Lord Alan Sugar on his boat the Lady A having his hair cut. You can almost see those ex-Bibaart deco lady lamps in the background. All of this- except Mr Sugar and hair stylist, can be yours for under $20M.
The boat is moored off the beautiful island of Capri where Sugar has a holiday villa. Give Lord Sugar a call and maybe he'll put you up for the week-end as you inspect his ship. For details- see story below.
# you can always follow Lord Sugar on his twitter feed and in fact he is encouraging more followers so he can beat Piers Morgan's number.
The late tycoon Alan Bond's floating palace is for sale if you have $17M to spare Once named the Southern Cross 111in honour of his yachting success with the America's Cup the 181-foot long yacht accommodates 12 guests in 6 cabins and has a crew of 15.
Built in
Japan in 1986 for the subsequently disgraced Australian
tycoon who died in 2015, the vessel was bought by Lord Alan Sugar after Bond's death.
Lord & Lady Sugar
Sugar, better known as the host of the British reality TV series The Apprentice re-named the boat The Lady A after his wife Ann and it's described as a “unique market opportunity” and “one of the most distinctive yachts on the water” by brokers.
When Sugar is not castigating President Donald Trump he indulges in an on-line battering of the UK TV host Piers Morgan who in the past he has called a "Trump toady". Now he has decided the yacht is surplus to his needs. It's moored off the romantic Isle of Capri where Sugar has a holiday home.
You can find more information at the ship brokers Edmiston.
We've provided a few snaps of the luxury interior which one wag described as "looking like it was furnished by Ikea". How rude! Mind you those 'art deco' Lady Lamps look suspiciously like the floor stock from the legendary 1970s London department store BIBA which lasted about 3 years before closing with the fittings sold off for a song in a fire sale.
As the dust settled in Perth's Langley Park earlier this week and the billionaire's protesting over a new mining tax were safely ensconced in their limos, our thoughts wandered to the whereabouts of the wondrous Rose Hancock Porteous, Perth socialite who thrilled and delighted a nation when as a humble maid for the late mining magnate Lang Hancock, she married the ailing tycoon when he was 74 and she 38.
Rose, in a city that was not easy to shock with the antics of an Alan Bond who first snared a nation by winning the prestige America's Cup in 1983 outraging the conservative New York Yacht Club that had held the trophy since 1851, and then snared tens of thousands of investors in dud schemes, or a Laurie Connell who launched a merchant bank with a few hundred million dollars borrowed from the state government which all disappeared in a puff of smoke, Rose Hancock was breath of fresh air edging out Bond's wife "Big Red" Eileen as the western city's major society queen.
Rose & Lang
Rose and Lang built a love nest for themselves-Prix L'Amour, a 50 room gala palace overlooking the Swan River and in the upper class Perth suburb of Peppermint Grove where champagne and caviar parties abounded and swells from all over the country, bussed in on Rose's private jet, danced the night away-whilst Lang languished upstairs in an oxygen tent.
Lang's daughter Gina Rinehart from a previous marriage never saw eye to eye with Rose and bitter legal fights followed Hancock's death and stories of dodgy wills abounded and there were tales of Lang being poisoned and so on.
Prix L'Amour
But Rose got Prix L'Amour and a tidy sum and married a real estate agent William Porteous 3 months after Lang's death and together they razed Prix L'Amour to the ground, sold off blocks of the land for tens of millions and built themselves their own smaller love nest in it's place. Drug charges followed and court battles over legal fees but our Rose survived it all.
Now news comes that Rose has had a stroke and is recovering at home. Herfacebook page has remained strangely silent with the last post being on the Dec 9th 2009 saying "So many lovely fans!". The previous one on May 17th she says "oh I still love my Willie!", presumably referring to husband William who is caring for Rose at home.
The Shuttle encountered Rose a few times when she travelled to Sydney. The first was at the premier of the FoxTel cable TV show "Beauty and The Beast" where she was a panelist along with others like Ita Buttrose and the One Nation politician Pauline Hanson. Hanson made a derogatory comment about Asians at which point Rose stood up and swore at Hanson in Filipino and stormed out, clambered into a Roller and tore off in a cloud of dust!
Now we've uncovered a wonderful video of Rose on youtube as she castigates her staff while getting ready for one her legendary lunch parties. Enjoy-
Nicole Kidman has ruffled the feathers of Sydney paparazzi Jamie Fawcett with her announcement that she cannot live in Sydney because of intrusive cameras.
Fawcett has responded calling Kidman a "hypocrite". It's a bit over 12 months since Fawcett faced the Supreme Court after suing the Sydney Morning Herald over alleged defamatory statements written by tSS friend and columnist Annette Sharp. Fawcett lost the case in spectacular fashion despite having an eminent libel barrister and QC on his team.
tSS attended court the day Nicole Kidman gave evidence in the case and our previous doubts about her acting abilities were swept aside as she gave the performance of a lifetime describing the terror of being followed in car chases by Fawcett. tSS has been with Fawcett on these chases and Kidman was correct to some degree but more often than not, the dramas could be avoided if over zealous minders didn't exacerbate the situation. Fawcett is probably one of the more professional snappers in town now that the place is crawling with kids who have purchased a digital camera and still dream of the riches they think can be made from pap snaps.
The problem is that prices for celebrity snaps are falling and the paparazzi -or the annoying bunch of louts that pass for them these days are becoming more obnoxious. Even worse are celebrity minders and PR's who have mistaken them for genuine media snappers who know the rules.
tSS has also worked for Nicole Kidman 3 times -once at her sister's birthday party were we played pool with then husband Tom Cruise for an hour. Leaving the party early to get some pre-arranged street snaps at Kidman's PR's request, we were suddenly abused by minders and nearly tossed beneath a passing car.
Nicole and husband Keith Urban have also encountered drama with the local council in the NSW Southern Highlands were they have been re-furbishing their magnificent country mansion. A bulldozed mound on their land alongside a main road on which they have planted thick foliage to defeat prying camera lens is now a matter of council debate about it's legality.
Nor are we fully convinced that Ms Kidman is that terrified of the snappers-or Fawcett for matter. As a passenger in Fawcett's car one day when the paparazzo spotted Tom & Nicole cruising through Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Fawcett decided to follow, within 10 minutes Cruise pulled over , walked back and had an amiable chat with us, requesting that we may like to leave him and his wife alone for the day. We complied.
Unlike others who are intrusive, Fawcett is the photographer no-one really spots, except the cleverest like Kidman. As a former private eye for top gumshoe Frank Monte , Fawcett was noted for his discreet ability to wait for hours upon end to catch his target like errant businessman Alan Bond to plant a summons in their hand. He once travelled to Marbella in Spain hunting for Quintex boss Christopher Skase who was holed up in a luxury villa.
Fawcett correctly guessed that Skase would eventually venture into town and sat in a local cafe for a week until Skase finally walked in to be handed a sheaf of summons with his cappuccino.
Christopher Skase in wheelchair and oxygen mask for his extradition court case in Spain,
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And the news you won't read in the tabloids yet and always in theSocial Shuttle first... One of our favourite bars, Kit and Kaboodle in Kings Cross was raided last night by police with their dreaded sniffer dogs with the result, Home and Away star Todd Lasance has been charged with cocaine possession, nipping in the bud his plans to travel this week to Hollywood for a movie audition.
