Vale Bob Hawke

When Whispers was traveling back and forth from the UK to Australia and pondering on whether we wanted to finally settle in this wide brown land, one person we met who was very instrumental in making our decision was the late Bob Hawke, then Prime Minister.
There are plenty of obituaries written about him today so we'll just point you in the direction of some of the best.

Bob was simply an extraordinary human being. A sharp intellect and intelligence was masked by Hawke's ability to appear as the average bloke in the pub. At the same time he would met with world leaders: Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and China's Zhao Ziyang and   business leaders who saw a great advantage in dealing with a former powerful Union leader who understood that business could be conducted whilst respecting worker's right.
Hawke once told me he admired how Big Business in Germany co-operated with unions with an attitude of "everyone should win". During his tenure Bob Hawke's inclusive policies, and for long after, worked in Australia.
 Bob Hawke tributes flow as Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison make final federal election pitches
Some of our snaps over the years:

Bob's first wife Hazel succumbed to the terrible scourge of Dementia. She remained devoted to Hawke.

In 2010 Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched the biography penned by his wife Blanche d'Alpuget

 In 2012 in uber-smart Balmain Bob Hawke launched the Worker's Bar for advertising mogul and pub owner John Singleton pictured here with Bob. The pub was the location for a legendary meeting of unionists in 1891 that coincided with the famous Shearer's Strike in Queensland during which the Australian Labor Party was formed.

Will there be Redemption?

While the world is still reeling from sexual harassment accusations about Hollywood movie stars and producers, two events in New York illustrate how things may eventually end up.

Whisper's spy in the Big Apple and Hollywood disguised as Aspidistra plant in several upmarket venues spotted some interesting faces out and about recently.
Making his first appearance at a prestige NY event (according to those in the know) was Kevin Spacey accuser, actor Anthony Rapp who sang 2 songs from the musical Rent at the Harboring Hearts annual gala to raise funds for cardiac research.

Anthony Rapp (second left) and pals at the Harboring Hearts fundraiser.

Just days later a magnificent fundraiser was held at Hearst Castle in California the magnificent home built by the legendary US newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst. Our exclusive photos from the event give some idea of this splendorous home where Hearst threw some of the most amazing parties during the 1940s and '50s. When he died in 1957 he left the castle to the California state so the exquisite collection of antiques and art can be preserved and viewed by the public. Each year the Hearst Castle Preservation Society holds a shindig to raise funds and promote the estate.

Apart from the cream of LA society naturally there are numerous Hearst family members on hand and the above snap caught our attention. It's Patricia Hearst Shaw (above left) with Suzanne Tucker, and Wendy Stark.
Perhaps older readers may recall the extraordinary events of 1974 when Patricia, the grand-daughter of Randolph Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left wing revolutionary group. 

While police searched for the kidnapped heiress, suddenly she began appearing in a number of banks participating in bank hold-ups wielding a sub machine gun helping to raise funds for her captors.

Hearst was eventually arrested and jailed for 7 years and finally pardoned by President Bill Clinton. Now she's a regular again on the social circuit. 

Will Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein et all have to wait that long?

Below: some more snaps from the Hearst Castle bash.

Double Bay Revival

It should be the shot in the arm the village of Double Bay needs. In November the new Intercontinental Hotel will open in the old premises of the Ritz Carlton Hotel. In it's brief history from the 1980s to the late 1990s , the Ritz was a terrific boost to the fortunes of Double Bay and became the hotel of choice for visiting celebrities like Madonna, presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush Snr, Princess Diana and Bob Dylan.The new Intercontinental promises to be a 5 start venue with a ballroom, top restaurants and a new nightclub which along with the thriving Casablanca just across the road will revive the Bay's nightlife.

Plenty of Flavour in this Latte

Transvaal Avenue in Double Bay

While daily newspapers are losing readers at the rate of up to 20% every 6 months, former Fairfax editor Andrew Jaspan says it's the local publications that will be the beneficiaries as readers turn to specialised newspapers. Double Bay's Latte Life, now in it's 3rd year seems to be proving Jaspan right as it goes from strength to strength.

The Shuttle recently witnessed a well known newspaper columnist verbally attack an 18 year old intern from Latte Life over an alleged slight at a recent Kings Cross party- they must be something right.
This week's edition has an up and close interview with the paparazzi Jamie Fawcett who has emerged from the manicured bushes of the Bay-one of his haunts-to give his thoughts on local celebrity hunting, and also brings an update on the scandal they broke some months ago the outrageous shop in the Bay that is still selling luxury label rip-offs right under the noses of some of the smartest boutiques in the country.
All this comes courtesy of a new journalist Jonathon Marshal (known in the trade as  Maverick Marshall) who broke the story about stripper parties at the once snooty former Ritz Carlton Hotel in the Bay-one time home of such notables as Bob Hawke, Bill Clinton, Madonna, Princess Diana and George Bush Sn.
Pick up a copy around the cafes of Double Bay or you can read Latte Life online here.

Ita Buttrose For Sydney Lord Mayor ?

Ita Buttrose

More on the push by a group of inner Sydney businessmen who have become disgruntled with Clover Mayor, the local Sydney MP and Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph have followed up on our story about the growing anger over bike lanes that have sprung up around already crowded city streets. Much of the anger has been caused by the loss of hundreds of parking spaces which has resulted in increased parking fines for motorists which in turn funds the bike lanes which are used by only a handful of residents.

The Pedestrian Council of Australia has called the lanes a "compo time bomb ".
Clover Moore also seems to have lost support in the normally left leaning chain of inner city newspapers published by the Alternative Media Group.
The Shuttle has learnt that the business group plan to bring in publishing identity Ita Buttrose to run for Lord Mayor as an independent, an election she would have every chance of winning given her popularity and fame.

Not only does Ita have impeccable business and political connections she is seen as an astute business person in her own right having worked for the late media mogul Kerry Packer as well as being Editor in Chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for Rupert Murdoch and eventually her own publication ITA. She was also for many years the chairperson of National Advisory Committee on AIDS.

Clover Moore with Bill Clinton

Buttrose was behind the creation of the magazine CLEO which proved to be a money spinner for Packer and went on to edit his personal favourite publication the Australian Woman's Weekly that under Ita became  per capita, the largest-selling magazine in the world.

Ita was featured in the telemovie series  Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo earlier this year. Actress Asher Keddie played Ita in the series and will reprise the role in the follow-up series later this year.

Clover Moore has been the independent MP since 1988 and Lord Mayor since 2004. Her popularity has plummeted lately and she only just scrapped back into parliament in the state election earlier this year.

Taxpayers To The Rescue

Mid 2010 and West Australia mine owner Gina Rinehart is clambering aboard a pick-up truck in a park in the ritzy Perth suburb Subiaco. Gina was there to protest the new mining tax being proposed by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Gina

"We'll all be rooned" was the basic theme as mining magnate after magnate mounted the tray of the pick-up to proclaim the evil tax on Australia's mineral wealth would be the end of life as we know it.

Fast forward a year and we are pleased to announce Gina Rinehart has weathered the socialist storm and today has been declared Australia's richest citizen with a fortune estimated at $10.3 billion.

In the BRW magazine Rich List released today Gina's pal who joined her that fateful day in Subiaco Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is calculated to have a $6.18 billion bank account, a jump of $4.24 billion from the day Rudd unfairly proposed these upright citizens should contribute more to the general economy.

The rotund Clive Palmer who bankrolled a million dollar advertising campaign against the mining tax has seen his wealth jumped to $5.5 billion, trousering an extra $3.92 billion in just one year.

The Rudd government famously crashed and burned following the mining tax debacle (with just a little nudge from News Ltd) but just to show there were no hard feelings over the mining tax Palmer announced a bumper profit at the end of 2010 and treated 55 favoured employees to a brand new Mercedes saloon each for Christmas.

Who said Australia wasn't still  the Lucky Country ?

Marc & Elaine Rich (c) time.com

Romping in second on the Rich List is the reclusive financier Ivan Glasenberg with a lazy $8.8 Billion to his name.  Glasenberg runs the world's largest commodities trader Glencore.

For those with short memories Glencoe was the corporation run by Marc Rich who went on the lam with the FBI on his trail over some racketeering charges. The Shuttle once attended a party given by Rich's wife Elaine in a grand New York penthouse duplex apartment that covered the entire 2 top floors of a skyscraper overlooking Central park.

The bash was for Milton Berle's 90th birthday. The Shuttle chatted to another guest at the party, Joyce Wildenstein the woman famous for having so much plastic surgery. She was standing next to a man grinding an organ that had a monkey on a chain attached. The colours Joyce was wearing matched those of the monkey's outfit. It was a strange party.

If Elaine Rich was worried about her husband being a fugitive she didn't show it and was a gracious hostess. In 2001 and on his last day in office Bill Clinton gave Rich a presidential pardon.

In 2004 a CIA report stated that Glencoe had avoided UN sanctions and paid Saddam Hussein $US3.2 million in illegal kickbacks for oil from the Iraqi regime.

Nice work if you can get it.

Rats Invade Ritzy Hotel

There is plague of rodents in the uber smart suburb of Double Bay according to 'Mr Double Bay' Graeme Goldberg the owner of the popular restaurant  Dee Bees.



Ritz Carlton Double Bay



Writing in the latest copy of Latte Life where he has a regular column, Goldberg says he and fellow business owners signed a petition asking the Woollahra Council to hire a pest controller. The matter was raised in a council meeting by councillor Andrew Petrie but apparently a Greens councillor nipped it in the bud claiming it was a problem for local business owners.



Diana at The Ritz



Graeme Goldberg



Says Goldberg "Mate you gotta be joking. they're coming out of the drains and last time I checked the Pied Piper of Hamlin didn't own a property in Double Bay. I suggest the council send the experts to the old cinema and the closed down Stanford Hotel"

The Stanford is a sorry sight at present. It closed nearly two years ago and in a previous life it was one of the chicest 5 star hotels in Sydney- The Ritz Carlton.



Bob'n'Blanche Hawke



As the Ritz it enjoyed an illustrious clientele including most visiting celebrities like Tom Jones, Whoopi Goldberg and Bob Dylan. Two US presidents stayed there -George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton and it was a home away from home for the late Princess Diana on her very last visit to Australia. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke lived there for a year when he left office and was married there to wife Blanche and the late singer Michael Hutchence died in a first floor suite on a Saturday morning in 1997.



As the Standford Hotel the inn gradually declined in favour and a new owner plans to turn the site into luxury apartments but is having problems with local council height restrictions. At present the building remains empty and uninhabited like the suburb's former cinema in New South Head Road.

Goldberg and others want action and believe the problem will escalate fast : "The Bay has always had rats but they wear suits and sip Chardonnay. If there is vermin breeding you don't have to be Einstein to know where to start looking"

Seeking Out Desperate Housewives !

There is an old maxim amongst Sydneysider socialites-"do not cross the bridge, do not go north", in reference to the leafier suburbs over the Harbour Bridge and along the North Shore where lay endless suburbs of impressive million dollar McMansions but little in the way of entertainment.

Sharon Sargeant joins the Desperate Housewives

With that in mind, the Shuttle sent one of it's more naive operatives into the far reaches of the mysterious southern suburbs of which we know little, in the search of Desperate Housewives.

 Our man in the field found them-at a charming little inlet nestled by the Georges River in Como and at of all places, a Thai restaurant.

100 locals and some from further afield had gathered to see (as our mole reports) a fab show of entertainment by 2 multi-Mo Award ( they're the gongs for live entertainment) winning performers, Krissy Stanley and Lizzie Taylor.

These 2 sing up a perfect storm with an endless patter of wit and anecdotes. Our chap was particularly taken with their impressions of Elaine Page and Susan Boyle complete with coughing fit as seen on Oprah Winfrey ( a report soon on the extraordinary security arrangements for Oprah's Oz tour-bigger then George W. Bush and Bill Clinton).

But there was more. An amazing medley from Ms Taylor as Tina Turner, Shirley Bassey and Cher had the crowd leaping to their feet to roar approval. Apparently the best impressions they have ever seen.

If you aren't as adventurous as our office boy doubling as a seasoned hack, in  early 2011 the Desperate Housewives are bringing their show to ritzy Double Bay which is in desperate need of their talents, having lost most of it's nightlife now that the Ritz Carlton Hotel has closed.

We'll bring you dates and all the info as it comes to hand.

exclusive: TransGenders, Gays and Lesbians new hero: Frank Monte !

Private investigator Frank Monte has announced he will be standing for election to the NSW Upper House in the March 2011 election.



Frank Monte at NSW Parliament House

 Monte says lobbying for equal rights for same-sex couples will be high on his agenda if he's elected.
He will run as an Independent for a seat in the State Legislative Council.

It is a political return of sorts for the former policeman and businessman, who in 1973 and 74 stood for Liberal Party pre-selection for the seat of Coogee and the now-abolished seat of The Hills.

Mr Monte was also involved in the political campaigns for the Fraser, Howard and Greiner governments.

Although on the conservative side of politics, he said he wanted to "push for the NSW parliament to get with the times and legislate equal rights for gay and lesbian couples" - one of several key platforms of his election campaign. He also wants to do away with Lord Mayor Clover Moore's controversial bike lanes that have taken over the inner city.



Clover Moore & Bill Clinton

The Shuttle did a straw pole today amongst residents of the inner city and found the bike lanes that run through Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and along Macquarie Street are one of the most unpopular decisions of the usually popular Clover Moore who is also the Independent MP for the seat of Sydney.

Local businesses have been scathing of the lanes that have separated the roads from pavements and have seen around 400 parking spaces disappear over the past few months.

 Monte also says he wants to make it easier for Sydney's burgeoning night clubs and entertainment venues to obtain the required government licenses, cut red tape and work with police and security personnel in solving problems with troublemakers rather than punish venue owners with restricted drinking hours as the present Sydney City Council is advocating.

Monte's campaign manager released some  of the talking points  Monte will be discussing over the next few months which include :

•Equal gay/lesbian family law and all rights.

•The abolition of bicycle lanes in Sydney and the implementation of bicycle registration.

•More Police presence and higher wages for Police, nurses and ambulance personnel.

•Wider personal rights and civil liberties.

•Less government and restriction of over-legislation.

•Less city and shopping centre parking restrictions.

•Curb the big banks' autocratic attitude re; rates and foreclosures.



unpopular-bike lanes

 Clover Moore has  basically ruled unchallenged now for several years in her dual roles as a State MP and as the Lord Mayor of Sydney with popular support amongst the estimated 500,000 gay and lesbian population but some of her latest decisions have angered even her most ardent supporters.

With an election quota of around 170,000 votes needed to gain a seat in the upper house, the dog collar wearing MP may find her supremacy challenged by  private eye Monte.

# 1: Gossip From The Oprah Negotiations!

A tale in a series from our well placed mole in the Sydney organisers of the Greatest Journey Ever Taken- Oprah Winfrey's December visit to Australia when she plans to bus in 300 of her favourite guests for a sightseeing tour and a grand show at the Sydney Opera House where up to 3000 fans will view her live show.

After initial contacts were made, pleasantries exchanged, a battery of lawyers from either side got down to hard negotiations via video conferencing.

As the first day wore on neckties were loosened, fresh bottles of water consumed, coffee pots re-filled and the US side began to go in heavy.

The Aussie legal eagles began to sense that the other side where sending out vibes of "well just who the hell are you people ?".

The question they expected finally came towards the end of the day :

" OK guys," said the heavy Bronx accent of the sharp-suited US Oprah attorney as he thumped a table with his open hand-
"we really want to know some of your history so we can be sure you know what you are getting into-just who have you guys handled in the past down there ?"

The Aussie solicitor beamed as he delivered his response- " Are presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr big enough ?. How about the Pope ?"

Bingo !. The ice was broken. It's been plain sailing ever since !

Pope's redemption for one of our favourite sinners.

Former high flier and jailbird Rodney Adler has been granted an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in  a meeting arranged by the late Michael Jackson's friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

  

Michael and the Rabbi

Adler was released from jail in 2007 after serving nearly 3 years for his part in the largest corporate collapse in Australia when the giant insurance company HIH went belly-up owing $5 billion . Until then he and wife Lyndi were two of the leading lights in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs social scene.

Adler's connections were far and wide. Guests at a charity gala in a circus marquee in Rose Bay in 1998 were startled when Adler arrived with Mikhail & Raisi Gorbachev on his arm after flying them into town in his corporate jet.

In 2000 he and Lyndi Adler hosted a turn of the century bash at their Bellevue Hill mansion (tSS attended and whisked visiting actress Sarah Michelle Gellar off to the Opera House gala for the fireworks display) .In 2002 Rodney hosted a dinner in his Waldorf Apartment  in New York for Bill Clinton. 

Lyndi & Rodney Adler

Adler has know Rabbi Shmuley for years and once stayed with  him and his family at Jackson's Neverland Ranch for a week.

3 months into his jail sentence Adler was reprimanded after it was discovered he was conducting business from his cell. During the last 18 months of his incarceration he says  he found peace teaching young Arab inmates how to control financial matters. Adler had said he feared being jailed as a high profile Jew.

He's kept a fairly low profile since leaving the St Heliers Correctional Centre in the Hunter Valley and now concentrates on charity work and is on the board of the Raisi Gorbachev Foundation. He has also set up a charity to assist displaced Palestinian families.

Adler was part of Rabbi Shmuley's delegation to the Vatican to garner the Pope's assistance in his 'Turn Friday Night into Family Night'' initiative which aims to get parents of all faiths to spend Friday nights at home with their family. 

On his website the Rabbi says "Rodney emphasised to the Pope the importance of partnering with me on creating an international family dinner night and how much he believed in the idea and The Pope ''warmly agreed''.  You can also purchase some of the Rabbi's work there including The Michael Jackson Tapes, his lecture on  Desperate Housewives given in Melbourne in 2005, an interview with the first Jewish Playmate Lindsey Vuolo, The Kosher Sutra sex instruction manual, or our favourite-a Rabbi Shmuley booblehead!.

TigerGate # 2

It had to happen.

 tSS's favourite celebrity spruiker Max Markson has nabbed a piece of the Tiger Wood's juggernaut and signed up Las Vegas cocktail waitress, the delightfully named Jaimee Grubbs. Grubbs (right) first media appearance is a saucy photo shoot in the high brow English mag Zoo to be published this Tuesday.

Max has a few helpful words for Tiger to repair his image :"a stint in rehab for sex addiction like Michael Douglas" and some serious interviews on 60 Minutes, Oprah and Larry King. Max gets 20% of the take for this stuff.

Born in Bournemouth in the UK, Max failed his A-level exams, left school and began promoting pop groups and BBC Radio One disc jockeys, sold saucepans from a market stall in Shepherds Bush and finally ended up in Oz selling political slogan t-shirts. Now he's the antipodean answer to England's Max Clifford, representing sports stars and just about anyone who happens to hit the headlines, as long as there is a dollar to be made.

some of Max's clients:

left to right : Corey Delaney,  Bill Clinton,  George Bush Snr,  Mick Gatto ,Cherie Blair,

Maria Venuti