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"

Prime Minister News with Boris the Bore

Retiring British Prime Minister Theresa May was at a party last week discussing her plans after she leaves Number 10, Downing Street. Although May will stay on as an MP she was overheard saying she would love a really good holiday after her successor takes over. May confided she had always wanted to visit Uluru in the Northern Territory with the added bonus- it was about as far away from the halls of Westminster as she could get.

                                     

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

Theresa May's successor, former London Mayor and Foreign Minister Boris Johnston spent a gap year as a teaching assistant at Timbertop at Geelong Grammar School teaching maths. A group of old Geelong Grammar students were at Double Bay's Sheaf pub last week discussing old times when one ex-student brought up the memory of being taught by the next UK PM. Asked his impression of Johnson he responded : "I can't remember much about him- he was affable but boring and pretty forgettable". Ouch!.

Picture Post # 43

An occasional series:

Our exclusive photograph of Dame Edna Everage from the set of the new Absolutely Fabulous film in which she has starring role. More than that we are not at liberty to reveal.

Pomp & Ceremony : This is how the French honoured the Australian Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove when they arrived in Paris to commemorate Anzac Day on April 25th.

A replica of the Palmyra Arch – a 2,000-year-old Syrian architectural landmark believed to have been destroyed by Islamic militant group ISIS – has been erected in London's Trafalgar Square. The loonier sections of the so-called 'truther' movement on the internet claim is it a portal to allow Beelzebub to enter the Earth and take command. All we got was London mayor Boris Johnson.

Dispatch from Hong Kong

 To celebrate 50 fantastic years the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong welcomed over 800 celebrities, dignitaries and society guests from Hong Kong and around the world for a sensational party.
Dame Helen Mirren, Maggie Cheung, Bryan Ferry, Vivienne Tam, Karen Mok, Mary McCartney, Frederick Forsyth, Caterina Murino, Darcey Bussell, and Sir David Tang joined UK visitors George Osborne, Boris Johnson, Olivier Krug and Pierre Gagnaire and London based Aussie Darcey Bussell. The magnificent evening began with a star-studded red carpet arrival in front of the hotel with guests welcomed by Edouard Ettedgui, the Group’s Chief Executive- and the entertainment ?. .Bryan Ferry. Wow.

Ankie Lau & Ankie Beiki                   Dame Helen Mirren                    Darcey Bussell & Boris Johnson

Karen Mok performs

Teaching the British

London mayor Boris Johnston (who comedian Jon Stewart once charmingly described as “a boiled ham in a DonaldTrump wig.”) has written an impassioned letter to the the UK Telegraph on behalf of Aussie teachers. Boris reckons there should be more of them and they should be encouraged to teach the English, English and so on. Boris is no stranger to these shores. In the 80s he attended Prince Charles' old school  Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop and his mayoral election was organised by Aussie election mastermind Lynton Crosby.

Johnson was in Victoria last week at the Melbourne Writer's Festival and had the audience eating of his hand as he extolled the virtues of city living claiming that an Escape To The Country was "an incoherent human urge, deep in our psychic hard drive to idolise country living." I think that might mean he wants to give property developers a free hand in England's green pastures. Boris is Sydney this week. Batten down the hatches.
                                                     *********************
Sunday Telegraph columnist Jonathan Moran isn't happy and has had a go at '“blow-in bloggers” who have not earned their position in the industry.'. Even though he's a "show biz" writer he's taken great umbrage to fashion bloggers getting front row seats at fashion shows.
Just 2 weeks ago a rival columnist wrote a riveting piece on who sat where at the Ground Hog Day called the DJ's Spring /Summer parade (same cast list, different seating) but Moran reckons bloggers " are at red carpet premieres, usually to get themselves a keepsake photograph with a big name celebrity.” Gee. It wasn't too long ago as a struggling intern Jonathon was spotted queuing up to get his snap taken with Jodie Foster.

London Mayor Wants His $100 Wager Win from Aussie

Writing in the UK Telegraph newspaper in a piece titled Even the Aussies want to bend the knee to the Queen , London Mayor Boris Johnson says he made a $100 bet 20 years ago in a Melbourne pub and as he has won the bet-he wants his winnings !. Unfortunately for Johnson, he just can't remember who he made the bet with as he lost a slip of paper with a name on it but he recalls it was an Australian university professor.

Johnson says : "somewhere out there is a vaguely Left-wing Aussie professor who owes me a hundred bucks. The only trouble is that I can't remember his name, so I am shamelessly using this column to jog his memory "

www.moviemem.com

The subject of the bet : that HRH The Queen would still be the monarch of Australia in the year 2000, which she was and still is.

Boris had just seen the film The King's Speech in which Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist Lionel Logue reminds the future King George V1 that he will also be the King of Australia. The line jogged Johnson's memory about  the bet he made all that time ago when he was a visiting Professor of European Thought at Monash University.

Clover Moore

If you are that professor then 'fess up and send Boris his $100.

In the meantime, perhaps the London Mayor who nips around the dangerous London traffic on a push bike could give our dog collar wearing Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore some tips on just what those intrusive bike lanes that have appeared all over Sydney are actually used for.

On a trip from the Harbour Bridge today, the Shuttle travelled to the headquarters of Courier Newspapers in Alexandria alongside miles of the gleaming new bike lanes that have halved the size of car space on roads. We didn't spot one single cyclist.