Love Still Going Strong

It was many moons ago when Whispers introduced to the world, the former Mrs Anna Murdoch, with her new husband William Mann at the Lord Mayor's News Year's Eve party at the Sydney Opera House. Anna & William (pictured centre left) had flown into town to visit family members as out exclusive photo shows with her brother Hans Torv and his wife Kaiya.
Hans, who runs a radio network centred on the Gold Coast in QLD (sister Anna is a shareholder) is also father of the successful actress Anna Torv (below) star of the cult TV series Fringe. She lives in New York and often holidays with her aunt Anna Mann.
How pleasing then to see William & Anna in fine form last week at The New York Center for Children's "The Sunflower Party" in Southampton in Long Island.                              
As for former hubby Rupert Murdoch, he is currently in Sydney visiting son & heir Lachlan Murdoch and wife Sarah. They were spotted last week at Hamilton Island for the Audi Race Week.
Early next year a New York court is expected to hear what could be America's most expensive divorce case when Rupert & Wendi Murdoch go to battle unless an amicable settlement is reached as it was when Rupert divorced Anna who picked up a reputed $500M.

William & Anna Mann at the New York Center for Children's "The Sunflower Party". photo by Patrick McMullan (c)

Rupert The Movie

Patrick Brammel  & Rupert Murdoch

With the stunning success of two movies featuring the Big Goanna- Kerry Packer, comes a new mini-series Power Games: The Packer-Murdoch Story that features a young Rupert Murdoch going into battle over publishing deals with Sir Frank Packer,  Kerry's father.
 Lachy Hulme (right) stars as Frank Packer (he also played Kerry ) and Rupert Murdoch is played by Patrick Brammel. Some legendary Australian political figures feature in the series as well including Black Jack McEwen along with actresses playing Anna Torv, Rupert's wife No 2 (before Wendi Deng) and Lady Florence Packer, Sir Frank's second wife who died this year in Monte Carlo and Ros Packer, Kerry's widow and mother of James Packer.
                                                                   

Anna Torv & Lady Flo Packer

The Shuttle turned for some background to regular contributor Bill Ranken  (right) grazier and man-about-town who at 84 has known all these characters over the years. Ranken reports Sir Frank Packer was almost persona non grata in Sydney society with many considering him to be fairly rough around the edges "not that I think he was much interested in Sydney's social scene. I think he thrived on the rough and tumble of business but Kerry was extremely popular and known for his generosity and loyalty towards retired staff : Kerry could be a big softie and he was generous with charities and rarely sought recognition for it. There must be thousands of people who should be grateful Kerry went into bat to retain St Vincent's Hospital when developers were eyeing off the property. I always recall traveling through a county town with Kerry and we came across a car accident where fortunately no-one was hurt. But a local tradie was distraught because his van was destroyed and he had no insurance. Kerry jotted down his details- the chap didn't have a clue who he was- and then a week later the local rag reported how a generous but anonymous benefactor had replaced the tradie's van. Typical of Kerry !". As for Rupert :"pretty boring really, never saw him at parties, Don't think he was that keen on the night life.".
Ranken, who owns one of the state's finest cattle properties also dated Ros Packer before she met Kerry and he described Clyde Packer, Kerry's brother, as a jovial figure : "we regularly toured Sydney's nightspots in Clyde's Rolls Royce convertible with more and more attractive ladies joining the tour as the night wore on. Clyde was once stopped by police who deemed the Roller over-crowed and as a fairly large and rotund man, he astonished the coppers when he emerged from the Rolls in a flowing kaftan. When they noted his name- he was also an MP then, they proceeded to give us a police escort to Kings Cross". They were the days !

The Merry Wives Of Murdoch, the Gardener & the Crooner

Patricia Booker               Anna Torv                 Wendi Deng

Whilst the rest of the media is still reeling after having been caught on the hop by the announcement of the Rupert Murdoch divorce : unlike Social Shuttle readers who read 2 months ago that the marriage was on the rocks and the end was pending, a former Murdoch confidante has come up with an insightful article on Rupert Murdoch and his former wives including Patrica Booker, Anna Mann (nee Torv) and the soon to be Wendi Deng.

Most of the media have turned to Michael Woolf's excellent biography  The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch for details but Rodney E.Lever was Rupert Murdoch's right hand man and a News Ltd executive for many years, a friend of the family and someone intimately involved in Rupert's personal and business affairs. He even accompanied Rupert and Anna on their honeymoon.

His series on Murdoch and his empire on the informative website Independent Australia are well worth reading.

One piece shines out as a previously unknown detail is revealed : In Adelaide when Rupert first set up home with his first wife Patricia, the gardens were tendered by a dusky hued handyman. And who was this gardener?.Step forward our favourite Malaysian import Kandiah Kamalesvaran , the late Queen Mother's favourite singer and now known as Kamahl !. Kamahl has certainly come a long way from the Adelaide Hills. He now lives in a large mansion on Sydney's elite North shore and drives a gleaming Rolls Royce. Last week we encountered Kamahl at an America Australia Association awards dinner attended by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

What a small world we live in.
Here is a clip of Kamahl (hiding in the foliage) singing his 1975 hit The Elephant Song which won the heart of HRH Queen Mother who invited Kamahl to share a few G&Ts at Clarence House.
trivia : He first used the name Kamal but after an MC introduced him as 'Camel' he became Kamahl.

Murdoch Split No Surprise

the Social Shuttle : April 2013

The news may have caught the Australian, British and US media on the hop but avid Shuttle readers were in on the secret at least 2 months ago when we reported a snippet from our New York operative who had been a guest at an up-town dinner party. A fellow guest, a Fox executive had confided to a stunned table that all was not well with the marriage of our favourite ex-pat media mogul Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi. Apparently the liberally watered executive said that Rupert and Wendi had been living separate lives for so long now that he expected the marriage to end soon and thus, as the world discovered yesterday it came to pass.
 Despite that the pair were in Australia last December for the red carpet opening night of Les Miserables and all looked well but Rupert has been back to Sydney twice since( just last week) on his own. At that time we spoke of the troubles that have bedevilled the entire Murdoch clan as revealed by former News Corp executive and insider Rodney E.Lever.

Kai Torv, William & Anna Mann, Hans Torv.

Never fear. Social Shuttle operatives are everywhere and we shall bring you news of any new splits or pairings involving a current or former Murdoch, just as we did in December 1999 when we presented the first photograph to the world of the former Anna Murdoch with her new husband William Mann along with Anna's brother, Gold Coast radio boss Hans Torv and his wife Kai. Hans is the father of actress Anna Torv, star of the hit cult TV series Fringe.  The foursome were celebrating the New Year at the Sydney Opera House.

When Rupert & Anna divorced in 1999 Anna is reported to have received over $1B in assets, the largest ever divorce settlement.

update : Guy Pearce Wins-A Murdoch Gives Award

Anna Torv

Both Guy Pearce and Kate Winslet have won Emmys for their roles in the re-make of the 40's classic Mildred Pierce.

Anna Torv (who The Daily Beast reckons was 'snubbed' of an Emmy nomination along with her co-star Aussie actor John Noble ) from the hit TV series Fringe presented Guy with his award.

Anna is the daughter of Queensland radio network owner Hans Torv and the niece of Anna Murdoch Mann the former wife of Rupert Murdoch and mother of his children James. Lachlan and  Elisabeth.

Anna, named after her aunt is particularly close to her and regularly visits her in New York.



Kate Winslet at the 2011 Emmys

Not All Doom & Gloom For The Murdochs

Sarah Murdoch at the Astras last night

The Murdoch family still face battles with the British parliament and a public still reeling from the great phone hacking scandal but life appears to be far rosier for some members of the extended first family of the media.

While Lachlan Murdoch accompanied his father Rupert Murdoch and brother James to London this week keeping a low profile and returning to New York with them on their private jet, his beautiful wife model and TV presenter Sarah Murdoch was  last night voted Favourite Personality at the Astra Awards for pay TV held at the Sydney Theatre Company.

Anna Torv splash

Sarah is host and executive producer of the series Australia's Next Top Model which co-incidentally is screened on Foxtel , the cable network part owned by her famous father-in-law.

Meanwhile the on-line magazine The Beast has come into bat for the Australian actress Anna Torv and claimed that she is a victim of the The Emmy Awards’ 10 Biggest Snubs.

Kia Torv, William & Anna Mann, Hans Torv

Anna appears in the hugely popular TV series Fringe which has a world wide cult following.

She's the daughter of Gold Coast radio network owner Hans Torv who is the brother of the former Mrs Anna Murdoch and she's the cousin of James, Lachlan, Prudence and Elisabeth Murdoch. Anna is named after her famous aunt.

John Noble

Not that Anna has much contact with her famous media family cousins. She's been estranged from her father Hans since the age of eight when he and her mother parted company but she does maintain contact with the former Mrs Rupert Murdoch and regularly visits her aunt in New York.
Anna Murdoch  married New Yorker financier William Mann and as our exclusive picture shows is extremely close to her brother Hans and his present wife Kia. Anna Mann is also a co-owner of the Queensland radio network run by Hans.
Anna Torv has been signed for another series of Fringe along with the star of the show, Australian actor John Noble who The Beast reckons should also be up for an Emmy.