How Tom Cruise aided James Packer

Some remarkable revelations in the new book by Pamela Williams Killing Fairfax which is published today.
When James Packer feel into a slump in 2001 after some less that stellar business dealings, he came under the care of superstar Tom Cruise who helped boost James back to his old self. Cruise and Packer have been friends for years and Tom has holidayed on James' converted ice-breaker the Arctic P on the Mediterranean and attended James and Erica Baxter's wedding.
The association gave rise to the rumour that James had joined the Church of Scientology under Cruise's guidance.

Most of the Scientology reports appeared in Fairfax newspapers, now disliked by James. His father Kerry Packer was furious at the reports and sent Fairfax boss Fred Hilmer a copy of the United Nations Human Rights charter warning him  that he was violating the charter. The book also says James Packer rounded on Fred Hilmer at PM Julia Gillard's Christmas party last year at Kirribilli House telling him "Don't come up and try to be my friend...Fred. Fuck off."

James Packer is known for not suffering fools gladly. In 2009 it's reported he told  Nine Network  supremo David Leckie also to "fuck off' at a party for Sam Chisholm at the Sydney Opera House and then invited Leckie outside to ''sort this out".

James with Jodhi ...and wife Erica

At a Nine Network TV season launch at Garden Island when James with then wife Jodhi Meares, he spotted News Ltd gossip writer Ros Reines, called her aside and tore strips off her over reporting about his private life.

Fairfax : Stating the Bleeding Obvious or Taking The Piss

 The Fairfax family were once the proud owners of titles like the Sydney Morning Herald first published in 1831 and the Melbourne Age established in 1854 and once regarded as one of the greatest broadsheets on the planet.
The Fairfax family have long departed (making hundreds of millions of dollars in the process) and the Fairfax empire has been stumbling along badly ever since. The last remaining family member John B.Fairfax sold his shares for $189M in 2011.
 Reputedly the editor who spent time and money trying to convince Fairfax board members to embrace digital was booted only to be snapped up by The Guardian in the UK which now slightly lags behind the Mail Online as the most popular newspaper website in the world.

Tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald will feature a piece titled Most powerful players in Australian film, basically a list of household names who command power and big money in the Australian film industry. the real heavy hitters with surprising results it trumps !

Well not quite. Sam Worthington, Chris Hemsworth, Geoffrey Rush, Mia Kasalwoska, Rose Byrne, Hugh Jackman, Emile Sherman etc etc are unlikely to surprise anyone. And who is one of their sources ?

Rose Byrne

A photo agency called Jamie Fawcett Photo News run by Jamie Fawcett the photographer bankrupted by Fairfax during a court case in which Nicole Kidman appeared as a witness.
A Shuttle reader sent us an email a week ago with 2 screen shots which we cannot display for legal reasons.
The Sydney Morning Herald had published a story about the arrest of a union official. We had already read the tale the night before on a website called Independent Australia which has been miles ahead of both News Ltd and Fairfax on the same story. In the first screen shot the SMH claimed it had "exposed the embezzlement" of union funds by the official as well as claiming something similar about a Member of Parliament.

By Mid-day the word 'allegedly' had finally been inserted before the damaging claims. Did Fairfax inform their readers of their mistake and apologise as  their code of conduct requires ?. Most certainly not. 

The editor of Independent Australia, David Donavon has ripped into Fairfax over their incorrect claim in their Brisbane Times that a woman had yelled at Prime Minister Julia Gillard during a Queensland community meeting that she was 'white trash', duly reported by the BT and picked up around the country by various news outlets.
What the woman actually said which is clearly audible on BT's own website is that "we are not white trash" referring to herself and her son.

The Sun

And the Brisbane Time's reaction when asked to correct the lie : total denial it had ever happened.

Sydney Morning Herald

Fairfax share price is plunging almost weekly despite it owning a reputed $5B in assets. Staff are being made redundant at a great rate with 29 fired a fortnight ago in Melbourne.
A month ago the Shuttle ran into a former Fairfax editor, now publisher of on-line magazines. Asked to comment on the anouncment that Fairfax will go digital in 9 years he scoffed. "5 at the most and possibly 3" was his reply. 

On Thursday the Shuttle attended the opening of the French brasserie style Aranas Bar in The Rocks owned by the same people as the nearby Lowenbrau beer cellar. We had forgotten it was Oktoberfestt and had to pick our way past a blaring oompah band and some thigh slapping chaps in lederhosen (we are assured they are of German descent). It was a reasonably staid affair with good food and copious amounts of Veuve Clicquot but the Shuttle didn't visit the Gents or we may have witnessed the bizarre urinals that became a feature the following day in the media.

Gina Rinehart

What we did notice is that the venerable Sydney Morning Herald produced a piece that was almost a carbon copy of Britain's infamous The Sun newspaper which 20 years ago would have been it's ideological opposite, quoting the same sources, feminist Ann Summers and former Parliamentarian Meredith Burgmann.

Will readers sign up to a digital version of Fairfax Newspaper to read this stuff ?. And more importantly, why is the world's richest woman Gina Rinehart snapping up Fairfax shares as they plunge. Is it to put it out of it's misery?.
                                  

Elton John Sees Red

Elton at the Sydney Opera House

The grand old man of pop music Sir Elton John declared war on those who stigmatised AIDS on Thursday night as he threw a switch to bathe the Sydney Opera House in a brilliant red light to launch World AIDS Day.

"Fascists and idiots" he called them while calling on governments worldwide to increase funds to combat the disease now that there are over 34 million sufferers.

On Friday his husband David Furnish flew out to the USA for medical reasons leaving dad Elton behind with baby Zachary who has 2 full time nannies.

Tonight Elton will be appearing at the Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley.

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 Great Minds Think Alike # 1
 Further to our story below about the opening of the new Louis Vuitton boutique in George Street, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery gives his own version of the event here.

Hugh Jackman film shock ! bestiality, sodomy, violence, rape and children

This could be your only chance to see this shocking film where squeaky clean Hugh Jackman talks about his sordid Christmas memories.

     Next year Federal Communication's Minister Stephen Conroy intends to introduce net nanny filtering to protect vunerable Aussies and to bring the country into line with those other bastions of democracy-Iran, Burma, China, Uzbekistan and errr, that's it. Every subject covered in this vid will come under the filter.

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The mighty world-wide News Ltd empire today brings news of a tale blogged by tSS over 6 weeks ago as Alexandre Despallieres (left) the French "husband", or widow(er) of Warners Music identity Australian Peter Ikin who tragically died a year ago, faces a London court over a dispute concerning Ikin's $20M estate.

       Despallieres must possess classic French charm as he is also being hauled through the High Court by  Rod Stewart's manager Billy Gaff over a million pound dispute. Gaff is no fool and it's been a few decades since anyone was able to pull the wool over Gaff's eyes but he claims he fell under Despallieres' spell.

## update : The Sydney Morning Herald's Andrew Hornery reports  Despallieres was granted £500,000 after reaching  an out of court settlement with lawyers with Ikin's original beneficeries to split the remainder of the $20M estate. The Frenchman still has to face Billy Gaff in a London court over Gaff's claim for $1M.

splitsville for the Murdochs ?

It's been reported by the Sydney Morning Herald's 'PS' columnist Andrew Hornery that Rupert and Wendy Murdoch may have split. The story apparently appeared first on the net blog crikey.com.au.

the Social Shuttle (c)

 Although denials have been issued by News Ltd representatives, Hornery has quoted Murdoch biographer Michael Woolf of Vanity Fair : ''It's the oldest trick in the book,'' .[the Murdochs] never deny anything because they know it will just inflame it regardless of whether it is true or not.''

Woolf's The Man Who Owns The News , published in 2008 wasn't the best-seller expected. Whilst initially getting Murdoch's co-operation and interviews with the Dirty Digger, the relationship between Woolf and Murdoch floundered and the writer has kept up a running dialogue since via his VF column on Murdoch's attempts to grapple with the 'new media', plunging circulations of his world-wide newspaper empire and the endless speculation on who will run the massive News Corp empire upon Rupert's demise. He also revealed how a top News Corp executive regularly referred to the 3 contenders, Murdoch's children James, Lachlan and Elisabeth  as "the cretins".

tSS reckons this isn't a credible tale. But hey-let's send it viral anyway !
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Putting in a lively performance today in the 2 federal by-elections of is our newest political force The Australian Sex Party which is running on policies like:
* To create total equal rights in all areas of the law for gay, lesbian and transsexuals.
* Overturn racist laws that ban Aboriginal people from possessing erotic and sexual media in the Northern Territory.
* The listing of Viagra, Cialis and other drugs used to treat sexual dysfunction, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
* Ensure the sexual rights and freedoms of the disabled and elderly.
Let the good times roll...here is their Bob Dylan inspired advert: