Ground Hog Day !

We are being wicked of course. In the nicest possible way. The media excitedly told us that a new broom was to sweep through the clipboard guest lists and names would be ruthlessly slashed to pave the way for a new generation of society figures to attend this week's David Jones Spring Summer fashion parades.
How pleasing then to arrive and find the usual suspects- Terri Biviano, Anthony Minichiello, Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Richard Wilkins and his permanent date these days, son Christian.
And best of all the champagne remains the same with the party awash with Bolinger.
Below : Jessica Gomez,Gary Bigeni, Carla Zampatti & Marta Dusseldorp, Miranda Otto, Tash Oakley, Rachael Finch

And the fashion...

And the video of the event..

Wedding Blues

First we had the 'wedding of the year' (Sunday Telegraph) -well it was the first wedding of 2012- when top shoe designer Terry Biviano married footie star Anthony Minichiello at the very grand St Mary's Cathedral in what was described as Sydney's Big Fat WAG Wedding.

The bridal party and guests then de-camped to Swifts, the magnificent 57 room Georgian Castle in Darling Point, home of the extended Moran clan. With it's magnificent ballroom and acres of sweeping lawns, Swifts is becoming the venue of choice. 

Guillaume & Terry

Minichiellio & Biviano

A week ago the beautiful former model and boutique hotel owner Terry Kajos got hitched to her handsome French beau Guillaume Sadourny at Swifts watched on by a host of pals like Stedman's catering boss Mandy Quinn and fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer who twittered updates throughout the day and as the night wore on.

Who doesn't like a beautiful wedding with their gorgeous bridesmaids and happy couple, the partying on the rolling lawns and so on.?
But it appears Swift's neighbours are not sending their best regards and they are asking questions. Is Swifts now operating as a defacto reception centre for commercial events?.


Swifts rolling lawns are surrounded by tall apartment blocks and many residents are complaining that with several recent public events the noise has been extreme and parking in the streets filled to capacity.They say Swift's unique layout forms a 'bowl' that amplifies noise to the tops of buildings in which there are many well heeled and mainly older residents like the department store heiress Lady Walton.

One resident who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday "we were told by Swifts that they were organising a few charity events so that didn't seem too bad but recently they have had what seems to be commercial events and the word is that there are several more booked. We all became quite alarmed when we saw what looked like a commercial style kitchen being installed. Most of us are worried that Darling Point's peaceful atmosphere will be destroyed"

The Shuttle left a message for Woollahra Council to contact us with the current status of Swifts but they hadn't returned our call by Friday's end of business.

Mother Of All Balls

Rachel Ward and husband Bryan Brown

Actress Rachel Ward's Mother of All Balls annual event has raised over $3M now for the YMCA and is becoming so popular that larger and larger premises are needed each year.

Held at Royal Randwick Racecourse this year, the huge function centre easily held the 450 guests who attended. With the theme- Shanghai Chic, a 1930s 'Paris of The East' atmosphere was re-produced.

Food by top chef Luke Mangan and excellent champagne from Nicholas Feuillatte (still the top selling champagne in Paris and billed as the "Australian champagne'-vineyard owner Nicholas divides his time between his French chateau, a Tangier palace and a magnificent Sydney harbour side penthouse) and some excellent wines from a new label, Eagle Rest.

Silverchair's Chris Joannou & Laura Csortan

Anthony Minichiello & Terri Biviano

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Earth to Channel Nine News !

The photographer Alison Jackson (who you have just discovered) as featured first on the Shuttle over 12 months ago and as recently as 4 weeks ago is not American-she is British, born in Hampshire.

here's Alison's film of Charles & Camilla's yoga session..see lots more at her youtube channel

Pairings and Partings

The former Premier of NSW Bob Carr once described him as "the Rumpole of the Lower Traffic Court"- colourful barrister Malcolm Duncan has passed away suddenly at the age of 54.

Duncan was a regular sight around Kings Cross and Potts Point where he was born and lived his entire life.
Taking on what some said were lost causes, he regularly tackled in the city courts issues that he saw as  'attacks on democracy' . One of his regular targets was the Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore who Duncan told the Shuttle was"out to turn Sydney into a bureaucratic nightmare where one will have to file a form in triplicate to the appropriate council office just to cross the road"

Duncan, a conservative was an adamant opponent of the Kings Cross  Medically Supervised Injecting Room but despite this he attended the launch of a book about the centre by it's director Ingrid van Beek.

Earlier in the week he had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain an injunction to prevent it's publication. The book described him in less than flattering terms during the very public political battles to keep the injecting room open. Malcolm was particularly miffed at being described as 'florrid' in the tome. but he couldn't keep away from the party and on spotting Clover Moore there he said "does she have the appropriate planning permission to be here !"

Despite his professed conservatism Duncan moved in many circles, supported the new nightclubs and discos springing up in the Cross with their extended drinking hours, successfully railed against Town Hall plans to redesign Fitzroy Gardens and wrote a blog on the left wing writer Margot Kingston's Webdiary where he described former PM John Howard's 11 year term as The Howard Drears and filed amusing chapters on his two books-The Great Australian Novel and The Chronicles of Nadir.

Duncan will be sorely missed-certainly by his political opponents who begrudgingly put up with Duncan's regular measuring of their campaign posters. Perched perilously atop a ladder in the busy Kings Cross streets during elections with a tape measure Malcolm would check the posters adhered to the rules and more often than not, would place his own above theirs at the same time.

Malcolm stood as an independent at almost every state and Federal election usually getting around 500 votes. He'll miss the appointment he had early next month with the private eye Frank Monte to give him some of his election tips for the March 2011 state election and next week the political rally he was staging in Kings Cross against the ruling Labor Party.
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Oliver and Roxy

Anthony & Terry

They were both at the recent Hermes beach party and they have just announced their engagements. Shoe designer Terry Biviano has told the world she and her current beau the Sydney Swan's footballer Anthony Minichiello will be getting hitched . Terry is also due to join the cast of the new Foxtel reality TV show WAG Nation which will follow the daily lives and adventures of sportsmen's wives and girlfriends.


And the effervescent boss of top PR firm Sweaty Betty Roxy Jacenko was sporting a sparkler on her hand that our diamond adviser says "looks like 5 carats to me!" when she arrived at the bash with her fiancee stockbroker Oliver Curtis. Perhaps these two should get their honeymoon in early. The Shuttle's legal mole says Curtis may soon be called to appear before some sort of official body over the affairs of his friend John Hartman who was jailed recently after being found guilty of insider trading.