Pictures of the Week

B1 & B2 never disappoint. Former PM Bob Hawke and wife Blanche attended last Sunday's polo at Windsor and are pictured here with TV host Kris Smith. Of course the really smart polo was at Goulbourn on the same day but more of that later.

Meanwhile singing legend Petula Clark popped into Nine's Mornings and is seen here with hosts Sonia Kruger and David Campbell.
Petula is in the middle of an Australian tour and is heading for Perth and Adelaide.

below: her original hit Downtown.

Hazel Hawke & Which Bank ?

Hazel Hawke who died last month was a much loved public figure who stood steadfastly by her ex-husband Prime Minster Bob Hawke, demonstrating amazing loyalty, even as Bob was having an affair with his biographer Blanche d'Alpuget who he later married.

Aussies took Hazel to their hearts and watched sadly as she succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. Hazel openly publicized her plight in the hope it would aid other sufferers. When she died the plaudits came thick and fast and Hazel was given a State Memorial Service at the Sydney Opera House as this page from the current Latte Life newspaper shows.
Alas for the Commonwealth Bank which has just launched a series of 'customer friendly' adverts, the passing of a former First Lady seems to have slipped their attention. This week they sent a missive addressed to Hazel to the old Ritz Carlton building in Double Bay where she lived for a time.
The Shuttle's operative sent the letter back with the following exchange. Perhaps the news hasn't reached Mumbai yet :

@CommBank Hazel Hawke is deceased

---

		CommBank
		@CommBank
		@Lattelifesydney Our apologies, was not aware. thanks you for letting us know.

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"

The tables turn on the Silver Bodgie

happier days-Hawke, Keating & Gough Whitlam

Days after the launch of the Blanche d'Alpuget book  (see below), Hawke The Prime Minister, his successor Paul Keating has come out sledging Bob and Blanche Hawke with a letter published in the Australian in which Keating reveals for the first time that Hawke was suffering from depression during his tenure as PM.

At the launch on Tuesday night at the Wharf Restaurant Blanche mentioned Hawkie's bout of depression, as did Hawke himself but both said it lasted a few months.

Keating claims it was for 4 years while  he Keating as Deputy Prime Minster , carried  Hawke through the most difficult decisions including his advice to Hawke to immediately approach George Bush Sr before the first Gulf War and establish Australia as the USA's first ally-which he did giving Bush Sr much needed moral support for the pending war and in return obligating this country the need to only provide 2 warships as support.

Keating demanded Hawke's resignation in 1990 after he claimed a previous agreement between the two would see Hawke  handover power and when Bob refused, Keating retreated to the back bench only to usurp him 10 months later in 1991. Keating held power for 5 years until he lost to the man he hated more than any-John Howard in 1995.

                                                 *****************************

Miranda

In a more disingenuous article, the fragrant Miranda Devine has also gotten stuck into Bob and Blanche in a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Miranda is meddling it again. She claims all of Hawke's children wore black when he and Blanche wed in 1995 . Not true. The Shuttle was there. And all the Hawke children and grandchildren were at the book launch on Monday and happy to support their step-mum Blanche.

Miranda's biggest faux pas though is her attempt to paint former wife Hazel Hawke, who remained loyal beside Bob while he was PM  and while he was conducting a secret affair with Blanche who he would eventually marry, as being 'discarded' when no longer needed. Hazel sadly is in the advanced stages of alzheimers.
She was diagnosed with the disease while Bob was still PM and both she and her husband carefully planned Hazel's gradual withdrawal from the public eye. 

Hazel Hawke

People we trust more than Devine have said Hazel was almost saint  like in her love for Hawke and said that she told most close friends that as she deteriorated mentally, she had no wish to put him through what is acknowledged as being one of the most debilitating  and soul destroying illnesses a couple can face together.

"a legend like a character out of central casting.."

   Bob & Blanche Hawke                                                                Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

That's how Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described former PM Bob Hawke when I asked him for a comment tonight about the great Labor Party hero at his 80th birthday party. I think it was meant as a compliment. He added " I'm pleased he got to 80 and I hope he's around for another 20 years". I expect Bob thinks likewise.

150 of the faithful had gathered at Guillaume at Bennelong restaurant at the Sydney Opera House to toast the Golden Bodgie. Hawkie looked his best, resplendent in black tie and his silver mane had never glowed so glossily..
             There were a series of endless toasts from Labor luminaries and a recorded messages from Bill Clinton and golfer Greg Norman plus a live hook-up to former British PM Tony Blair who all sung Hawke's praises. And there were 2 billionaire widows in the room-Kerry Packer's widow Ros and Jeanne, the wife of the late Dick Pratt  who both proclaimed words along the lines of "Bob was good to us when he was in power". Well yes, quite.

Advertising guru John Singleton who masterminded Hawke's 3 election wins said "Hawke would still be PM today if it hadn't been for events"-possibly a gibe at that other Labor PM Paul Keating who had unseated Hawke in a party room spill. Keating sat looking stoney faced.
          
Handel's Messiah may have been thrilling a packed Concert Hall in the main body of the Opera House but this was after all, a celebration for the party of the working man so what could be more appropriate than a stripper gram. One with a difference-a slim female in a mask of Hawke's great adversary, recently trashed PM John Howard . She girated bizarley and slowly stripped. That was enough for tSS-we left just as Bob and Blanche-B1 & B2 were about to cut Bob's birthday cake-a giant golf ball !

John Singleton's squeeze Yvette Hartman in Versace



                                                                        


                                                                         Paul Keating

If striptease is your thing, check out Johnny Howard / Gypsy Rose Lee here
( warning -may offend  )