Drinks with Rupert

Media baron Rupert Murdoch's Christmas drinks party in London is a much sought after invite by the powerful and not so great especially for politicians after his various news outlets in the UK publish totally partisan by-partisan tales about elections. Boris Johnson was there will bells on although rumored new Labour front-runner for the leadership Sir Keith Starmer possibly either didn't get a guernsey or if he did, tossed it away after.....

The Sun just ran a scathing article claiming he was a millionaire pretending to be working class and was no pal to workers. He might be a millionaire but his back ground is most definitely working class unlike the Boris the Toff at No Ten whose background is most definitely Upper Class and who went to Eton unlike Starmer who went to a humble northern Grammar School.

However one unexpected guest who lingered in the shadows was actress Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton. Blanchett and Upton have just sold their holiday home at Pittwater and after selling the family home at Hunter's Hill for a grand price, they have relocated to England and purchased a large Manor house (they also have a flat in London and a house in Los Angeles). Cate still owns half a dozen apartments in Sydney bought as an investment for her children.

Blanchett is a Greenie at heart and although Rupert claims he believes in Climate Change most of his editors are unbelievers. Perhaps Aussies who have made it big in the big wide world can't really afford to turn down an invitation from Rupert who is known to make offers folk can't refuse.

# Whispers has been to several parties hosted by Rupert Murdoch. He's a friendly, chatty type of bloke although at the opening of his Sydney Fox Studios when Whispers asked him an innocuous question and he read our name tag stating we were from a rival newspaper he responded: "oh just fuck off"

Bling & Rings & Things with Cate Blanchett

 Our favourite Malaysian gossip writer Kee Hua Chee has written of his great coup in obtaining a one on one interview with Aussie actress Cate Blanchett :  "like all ordinary unknowns all the way to superstars, no-one is immune to Dato Kee Hua Chee's shirt painted with his face !. Superstar Cate Blanchett ordered her personal videographer and cameraman to take this rare photo of her examining the shirt of a journalist for the time in her life !. Big honour for me" . Gee, the last time Whispers encountered Cate was at a Sydney Theatre Company party and she asked us where we got our (craggy) leather jacket from. Cate was in Kuala Lumpur to promote a beauty product presumably for big bucks. 
According to Chee he was given access to Cate  "due to his bling & rings & things, other top editors from across the world had to settle for a big press conference ". Chee covers the buzzy social scene in Malaysia for his own blog wearing some pretty colourful outfits more often than not, painted with his own image. We need this man in Sydney !
Below : some of Kee Hua Chee's outfits ,

Hollywood Stars at the Helpmanns

Every year the Helpmann Awards for live theatre in Australia has become a bigger and grander event and this year it did not disappoint.
Held at the Capitol Theatre guests were treated to a two hour extravaganza featuring numbers from the Lion King and Strictly Ballroom and plenty more. And a host if international names turned up from Geoffrey Rush, Baz Luhrmann and Lou Diamond Phillips.
You can read the full list of winners here : but special congratulations must go to the superb new intimate Kings Cross theatre, the Hayes Theatre which opened just 6 months ago. Their production (and the Shuttle watched it from the very back row which has a superb view of the stage) of Sweet Charity, an ambitious feat, picked up three well deserved gongs.

Lisa McCune & Lou Diamond Phillips     Robyn Nevin & Nicholas Hammond   Silvia Colloca & Richard Roxburgh

Andrew Upton                          Baz Luhrmann & Catherine Martin                  Kelley Abbey & Craig McLachlan

Below : Nancye Hayes with Hayes Theatre Director David Campbell : Sweet Charity

Legal Blondes Galore !

Tim Mimchin with Sarah & Nel Minchin at the Helpmanns

Legally Blonde swept the boards at the 2013 Helpmann Awards last night at the Sydney Opera House scooping up 5 gongs including  best musical, direction and choreography and an award for Lucy Durack as best female actor in a musical.

the Tap Bros

The spectacular Melbourne based stage event  King Kong, won four design awards for costumes, lighting, sound and scenery, plus a special award for Outstanding Theatrical Achievement. There are bound to be more plaudits for King Kong as it's heading for Broadway in the near future.

A total of 43 Helpmann Awards were presented during a glitzy night honouring the most outstanding live performances in Australia in the past year.

Colin Friels won for Death of a Salesman at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre and Alison Bell won for her role in Hedda Gabler at the State Theatre Company of South Australia. Geoffrey Rush was named best male actor in a musical for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.



Paul Capsis (below right) Lucy Durack (right )  Elizabeth Debicki (below)

theatre heavyweights : Baz Luhrmann, Andrew Upton and a glamorous blonde

Briden Star         Helen Dallimore            Erika Heynatz & Andrew Kingston           Cheryl Barker                                       

heading for Broadway : King Kong

Another Win for Cate?

 Cate Blanchett is in the running for the 'best actress' award for her portrayal of Lotte in Botho Strauss’ Big & Small at the Barbican.

The Elizabeth star has been nominated for the London Evening Standard’s Natasha Richardson award in what critics called her “dazzlingly uninhibited” performance.
The Oscar winning actress also trod the boards in New York last summer in Uncle Vanya and has been the director of Sydney Theatre Company since 2008, relinquishing the post this year and handing over to her husband Andrew Upton.
 She will battle it out against Eileen Atkins for All That Fall, Laurie Metcalf for Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Hattie Morahan for A Doll’s House.

Eilleen Atkins,Laurie Metcalf & Hattie Morahan

The winners will be announced by One Man, Two Guvnors star James Corden at the Savoy Hotel on 25 November 2012.

Cate Blanchett Leaves Behind Drama at the STC

With Cate Blanchett's contract up at the Sydney Theatre Company her husband Andrew Upton has been re-appointed as Artistic Director but there are rumblings amongst the ranks with claims of nepotism.

Giorgio Armani with Cate at the STC

Upton and Blanchett jointly ran the STC producing critically acclaimed productions that received  plaudits around the world including their A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann and staring Cate as Blanche DuBois being declared the best ever presentation of the play by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The City News is reporting that local playwrights and actors are not happy and do not accept that the board of the STC has fully searched the world for a replacement for Upton.
" Are we seriously meant to believe after searching the globe for someone to replace Cate and Andrew the best possible person happens to be already working at the STC and it happens to be Andrew? " says an anonymous source .

Liv Ullmann,Cate & Joel Edgerton at the Sydney Streetcar premier

One of  the complaints is about Upton's "black box" minimalist productions that feature black walls and street clothes rather than costumes and a preference for overseas' plays instead of local plays.
 STC's General Manager Patrick McIntyre is quoted as saying " the STC Board had always wanted Mr Upton and Ms Blanchett to stay, and only looked for a replacement because “Cate and Andrew … were contemplating moving overseas“When [this] changed, the Board asked Andrew if he would reconsider and stay on … The Board absolutely believes he is the best person for the job.”
 When Blanchett and Upton took over in 2007 the STC was ailing financially and Blanchett was able to attract big time sponsors like Giorgio Armani who flew into town for two opening night performances and the critical acclaim the pair's productions have received have revived the financial fortunes of the Australia's premier theatre company.

Chip Of The Old Block

 Not too hard to see who this lad takes after. Young Roman Upton is Cate Blanchett's son and he escorted her last night to the Helpmann Awards. Dad Andrew Upton, who Roman is the image of was busy working.
 Cate picked up the Best Actress Award for her role in the Sydney Theatre Company's Gross Und Klein while Paul Capsis (right) picked up Best Actor for his brilliant part in the Belvoir Street Theatre's Angela's Kitchen.

No Botox For Our Cate

If you have ever (as the Shuttle has often) been up close (but not personal) to Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett you could not help but notice her extraordinary perfect white flawless skin.

Now Cate has revealed that she won't be going under the knife any day soon and botox is out. From an article in The Lady ( Britain's oldest magazine) : Cate is ‘very old-fashioned’ when it comes to things like that.
‘There’s been a decade of people doing interventions on their faces and their bodies, and now people are seeing that [in the] long term, it’s not so great,’ she said in a recent interview with Fashionetc.com. ‘I’m not standing on a soapbox telling women what they should and shouldn’t do. I just know what works for me. I’d just be too frightened about what it means long term.

‘Looking at women in their 20s doing this stuff, in the end all you see is the work. It doesn’t fill me with admiration; it fills me with pity.’

Cate also appears on the cover of the latest The Economist Intelligent Life we are assured, sans make-up, jewellery and air-brushing, looking quite gorgeous.

Now if we could just teach Cate and her husband Andrew Upton how to behave in the cinema.
The Shuttle sat behind the pair at the Sydney premier of I'm Not There in which Blanchett gives a stellar performance as a rambling Bob Dylan visiting England in the 1960s. After introducing the movie and admitting she hadn't seen the final version, Cate and Andrew chatted all the way through the film, only staying silent when the flick reached her piece which is about two thirds of the way through the film.
 We resisted tapping her on the shoulder and shushing her.

Sydney Theatre Awards

Richard Roxburgh, Helen Dallimore & Andrew Upton at the Sydney Theatre Awards

300 MEMBERS of the Sydney theatre community packed the auditorium at Paddington RSL to celebrate the best of Sydney theatre throughout 2011.

Kirsten & David Williamson at the awards

Amongst the recipients :
Best Mainstage Production was awarded to Belvoir’s production of The Wild Duck, which also won Best Direction of a Mainstage Production -Simon Stone, and Best Actress and Actor in a Supporting Role of a Mainstage Production -Anita Hegh, Anthony Phelan.

Best Independent Production went to The Libertine, produced by Sport for Jove Theatre with Darlinghurst Theatre Company, which also garnered Best Actress and Actor in an Independent Production -Danielle King, Anthony Gooley.

Oz Of The Year ?

Best Actress in a Leading Role of a Mainstage Production was won by Cate Blanchett for Sydney Theatre Company’s Gross und Klein, for which Alice Babidge was awarded Best Costume Design.
For the full list of awards go to the awards website.
                                                             
Meanwhile the search is on for replacements for Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton who are relinquishing their roles in 2013 as co-artistic directors and CEOs of the Sydney Theatre Company. Under their auspices, the STC has received rave reviews and plaudits for their productions, around the world and turned around the fiances of the company into a healthy profit.

And our favourite Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush has been nominated as a contender to pick up the Australian of The Year award on Australia Day (or Invasion Day as some prefer to call it) on January 26th.
                                                         ********************
# Should the Shuttle feel flattered or otherwise as we were ushered past the door minders at the Paddington RSL with great aplomb whilst actor and Hollywood star Richard Roxburgh stood patiently while they searched for his name on the door list ?

## Speculation is mounting as to who the VIP was as mentioned in our previous story with the bodyguard who waved a pistol in the face of a photographer in Double Bay last week. Watch this space.....

Cate Blanchett Talks About The Future

Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton are one of the great theatre success stories. Not only has their marriage remained strong but their ability to work together has been a spectacular success for the Sydney Theatre Company.

With two major plays under their belts-A Streetcar Named Desire and Uncle Vanya, both of which wowed audiences in Australia and the USA where hard bitten critics on the Washington Post and the New York Times heaped praise upon the productions, the pair have also attracted major sponsors to the struggling theatre company including fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

They have just announced the 2012 season and there are some surprises in store with some old favourites re-surfacing including Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood opening in May with the mellifluous tones of actor Jack Thompson.

Jacqueline McKenzie

In January Peter Evans presents a bold new production of George Bernard Shaw’s enduring classic of wicked wordplay Pygmalion with Jessica Marais playing Eliza Doolittle.

Two of Australia’s most respected actors, Pamela Rabe and Hugo Weaving ( who acted in Uncle Vanya) play the deliciously deviant Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses while the Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre's Sex With Strangers opens in September with Jacqueline McKenzie.
You can book tickets here.

Cate and Andrew also spoke to Richard Glover on the ABC's Drivetime show about their theatre work and the recent attacks upon Cate when she openly backed a Climate Change tax. Cate also revealed her first acting inspiration was seeing the great Melbourne stage actor Frank Thring (left) on stage and thought that if she could get away with playing Bob Dylan, she thought she could play Thring in a biopic about his life.

 Irreverent/ Irrelevant facts :
# The Shuttle attended the premiere of Don't Look Now and sat behind Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. They chatted all the way through the film until Cate appeared on screen.
# Frank Thring's father Frank W.Thring invented the clapperboard, still used in film making today.
# Frank Thring appeared in numerous Australian movies including Ned Kelly (1970), Skippy (1968) and Mad Max (1985) but was in demand for Hollywood costume epics where he acted in El Cid, The Vikings, Hercules Returns, King Of Kings where plays Herod and Ben Hur where he played Pontius Pilate.

Here is a clip recorded not long before Frank died in 1994 with him at his best :

Cate Blanchett, Jackie Weaver a Hit in Washington

Cate Blanchett * Hugo Weaving * Jackie Weaver * Richard Roxborgh

 Another US hit for the Sydney Theatre Company under the auspices of Cate Blanchett. The latest production Uncle Vanya has received high praise.

Starring a host of Australian theatre heavyweights- Blanchett, Jackie Weaver, Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh ( currently starring in Sunday's ABC TV hit Rake) one can only hold high expectations for staging of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya, currently running at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Ben Brantley of the New York Times  describes the production as''outrageously funny and heartbreaking''  and the three hours watching it as among the happiest of my theater going life''.

Peter Marks in the Washington Post says :"The Sydney company, run jointly by Blanchett and (Andrew) Upton, came to town two years ago with an astonishing version of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which was anchored by the actress. In its way, this emotionally in-touch “Uncle Vanya,” buoyed by its entire cast, is just as extraordinary. On the basis of this “Vanya,” no one should ever again try to convince you that Chekhov is a delicate flower. As Ascher shows us in his transformative production, the playwright’s pen could contain dynamite."

Cate Blanchett :"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"

Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton gave a talk to the Sydney City Council last night and they aren't happy with our town. They reckon it's lost it's mojo.

 "Does anyone remember the Trade Union Club? Sydney in the 1980s was a city characterised as a place of live music. Every pub seemed to have gigs and everyone was trying to make music. Not only music, but comedy and poetry and stuff at the weirdest edges of performance.

The Sydney Front? It must epitomise real adventure and risk-taking and, more to our point, that sense of an organic, vibrant art-making precinct that erupted around Surry Hills and Oxford Street and down into Redfern and Newtown. All places where people lived and worked and got on with their lives.

For young adventurers from the suburbs, ''town'' was the centre. It was the magnetic attractor. It was freedom and the chance to invent and create and witness other creations. The suburbs could feel flat and dry and filled with sinister silence underneath the crickets and sprinklers. But the city was loud, crowded and dangerous.

What happened? Pubs and live music have been killed by poker machines, for a start. And gentrification of many of those areas made it less possible for the demographic range and the vitality of the shops to remain as sparky, quirky and forgiving."

The theatrical duo have certainly done their bit to breathe some much needed  culture into this brassy, glitzy and sometimes ever so tacky town. Their stewardship at the Sydney Theatre Company has attracted international actors like John Hurt and Philip Seymour Hoffman  for little pay with sell out box office receipts. Giorgio Armani has become the chief patron and their production of Streetcar Named Desire was hailed as the best ever version when it toured the USA to critical acclaim.

They even have a production of ZEBRA! coming up starring Bryan Brown which may reveal previously never glimpsed depths of Bryan's acting abilities.

Much of what the pair said is spot on. You can read the full speech in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

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The Shuttle dined at  the Glebe Point Diner late last week at the invitation of the management and we can report the service and food is as usual up to it's first class standard. It must be one of the most pleasant restaurants in the inner city Glebe area situated as it is in a wide leafy boulevard.

Certainly one of our favourite movie stars Toni Collette thinks so as she screeched to a halt in a black 4 wheel drive and rushed in wanting a table.
Sadly for Toni the place was packed and she was turned away looking very disappointed but not before hurling a fierce glance towards the Shuttle that said "don't even think about it" as one's slim hand reached for that ever ready camera.

We have a Love / Hate  relationship with Ms Collette. We love her and she hates us. I suppose sitting at the much coveted  No.One table on the balcony didn't help.

Toni flees

Our guest snapper Stephen Fry

Just received from Stephen Fry..a snap from a grey day on Sydney Harbour.

Fry's Sydney Opera House appearances have been a sell-out success. Last night he celebrated by dining with Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton at Aria.
Today he is filming in Cronulla-the scene of the infamous race riots in 2006 - for a BBC documentary on language. Let's hope he understands the locals.

..and let's not forget Max Markson in Rome !