Jack Vidgen Grows Up

Jack Vidgen at 16 has survived puberty and still has his voice and amazingly, can still hit those high notes. The then 14 year old whose success on Australia's Got Talent  was sealed with a kiss on the cheek from macho Irishman Brian McFadden is still capitalising on his win and has been working non-stop for the last 2 years,
He still has a little trouble with his hand movements though but he's well on the way to becoming an Oz version of Wayne Newton. Las Vegas beckons.

Here he is at the gala G'Day USA dinner in Los Angeles last week where he sang the Star Spangled Banner for an audience of top Aussies like Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Rose Byrne, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Paul Hogan, models Elle McPherson and Miranda Kerr , Hugh Jackman, our favourite Qantas pilot John Travolta.

Here's Jack singing in our exclusive video from the event :


 

Vale James Miller.
Popular publican and man about town James Miller has been found dead by friends from a suspected overdose at the young age of 38.
Miller owned some of Sydney's most popular inner-city pubs : The Norfolk in Surry Hills and The Santa Barbara in Kings Cross.
Handsome, outgoing and friendly, Miller was named last year in Fairfax Media's Sydney Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People.

When Spice Girl Attacks!

We aren't too sure what is happening here at the Emeralds & Ivy Ball last night. Mel B seemed to be leading fellow X-Factor judge Natalie Bassingthwaighte away by hand before she turned and lunged for her throat.
We've been assured Natalie is in good health, bearing in mind these two have clashed on the show.

Nat & Mel B were attending the ball which was hosted by one of our favorite Irish imports Ronan

Keating who brought his stunning girlfriend Storm Uechtritz to the ball. Storm should be a model. She is quite spectacular but she does something important on X-factor. There was however an Irish model there- Vogue Williams and her hubby Brian McFadden. And another ex-Boyzone star dropped in-Keith Duffy as our snap shows.

The Emerald & Ivy Ball at the Ivy Ballroom was to aid Cancer Research Australia and we've been told they are still counting the takings from the 300 who dipped deep in their pockets.

Meanwhile when it rains it pours-literally on a wild and wet Sydney Friday evening. A few streets away at the State Theatre Daniel Craig braved lashing winds to attend the Sydney premiere of the latest James Bond flick Skyfall. Craig says he'll make 2 more Bond films and then, maybe that's it.

Daniel Criag at the Skyfall premiere

Skating To Victory

Corbin & Dree

 JUST FOUR YEARS ago he was living with his mum in a southern Sydney working class suburb. Now Corbin Harris is Australia's skate board champion and is squiring a Hollywood movie star with a legendary name.

Corbin was a guest at the Australian Fashion Walk of Style last week along with his girlfriend the actress and model Dree Hemingway, daughter of actress Marguax Hemingway and great grand-daughter of the writer Ernest Hemingway.

Harris has some serious sponsors like Redbull and Nike and has just launched his first book :Corbin Harris' Ultimate Guide to Skateboarding.

 On Thursday he and Dree hosted a party at the Bondi Beach Road Hotel to celebrate a new sponsorship deal with Element and to launch a DVD on skate boarding and friends like Brian McFadden, Vogue Williams and Chris Joannou joined the happy pair.

As for Dree, her new film Starlet will be released later this year.

A Must See

We normally steer clear of talent quests but every now and then someone unique comes along.

It will surprise no-one that 14 year old Jack Vidgen from Manly who blew the judges away last night on Australia's Got Talent and got a standing ovation, is being compared to Justin Beiber.

He's certainly got the cuteness factor-so much so that macho judge and Irish singer Brian McFadden rushed the stage to plant a kiss on Jack's cheek.
You can judge yourself but this lad is going places fast :

Check out some of Jack's earlier performances on his youtube channel and here is Jack's Australia's Got Talent audition :

British Tabloid Discovers Our John !



John Ibrahim & pals



The web newspaper that garners more hits than any other on the planet-over 30 million a month has run a long piece on Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim who regularly graces what passes for 'social' pages in the colonies.



The Mail Online has delved into Ibrahim's connections to Australia's Got Talent judge and  former member of Irish boy band Westlife, Brian McFadden who is engaged to pop princess Delta Goodrem.

It's all very reminiscent of the Kray Twins and their show-biz connections in London in the 1960s.

 Regular Shuttle readers will be well acquainted with the ever so charming head of the large Ibrahim family who we encounter at all manner of smart parties and product launches. He is an honoured guest at the private pool bar at John Hemmes Ivy nightclub complex and Ibrahim  himself owns shares in around 20 nightclubs in Kings Cross and the Golden Mile, gay Oxford Street. Much in the same way the late Abe Saffron seemed to own a piece of the action in every nite spot in town.



Brian McFadden & Delta Goodrem

 To consolidate business affairs, John also provides an army of security personnel to guard the premises, bouncers and so on although  his girlfriend actually has the much coveted security license necessary to operate.

John's business affairs seem to be rather complicated but they have brought him great riches including a huge mansion in Dover Heights that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and Bondi Beach. In his early 40s his contact list is extensive and he regularly travels to  Dubai and Las Vegas often meeting with party girl Paris Hilton.

 It's recently been disclosed that he made an $150K payment to the NSW Crime Commission although Ibrahim claims it was a "tax debt". Apparently the original sum was $800K and John's lawyers managed to 'negotiate' it down to the smaller amount. The Crime Commission is accomodating like that.

The payment happened in 2005 when Ibrahim was facing court for threatening a witness and perverting the course of justice although all charges were eventually dismissed. 



Fadi Ibrahim

Not that John hasn't had his problems. Younger brother Fadi Ibrahim and his girlfriend were almost assassinated in 2009 by a hail of bullets as they sat in their Lamborghini outside Fadi's mansion. Poor Fadi had part of his stomach removed in hospital and it wasn't his gorgeous fiancee's first appointment with drama either.

Her former fiance Faouzi Abou-Jibal was gunned down in a park in 2009 and thus avoided a pending trial for the stabbing of the Fat Pizza TV series actor George Nassour and his brother, Robin.

Now Fadi's girlfriend Shayda Bastani, has been charged with conspiracy to murder a man alleged to have been the hooded man who shot at the pair in their Lamborghini.

Matters just get more complicated from hereon. John & Fadi's sister has been charged with "recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime" after police found she had, as one does, over $3 million in $50 & $100 notes concealed in the ceiling of her suburban house.. Perhaps a former tenant left it behind.

Older brother Sam Ibrahim is the president of the Nomads Motorcycle Club which the coppers reckon is an organised criminal gang. Sam has been charged with 2 kneecappings and running a cocaine distribution service. Even John's young son Daniel from a previous liaison was charged with affray after an incident on the Gold Coast outside a nightclub.

John featured in the top hit TV series Underbelly in 2009 when it concentrated on crime and police corruption in Kings Cross. He was portrayed as a bodyguard for crime baron George Freeman although people say he was really just a driver for Freeman who ran illegal casinos all over town.

 Freeman's 33 Club in Oxford Street was a favourite haunt of then NSW Premier Robin Askin, who like police chief Louis Renault (Claude Rains) in Rick's Bar in Casablanca said he was "shocked, absolutely shocked" when the Opposition claimed in Parliament that Sydney was awash with illegal gambling dens. Like Renault, Askin regularly pocketed his winnings at the 33 Club craps table.

The Shuttle must confess it  has form here. As shown in Underbelly, John & Fadi first got their break when they managed to take a controlling share of the Tunnel Nightclub. At a party there for the launch of a new perfume it was  the Shuttle that first propelled the 2 brothers on the road to society page stardom when we snapped the two enterprising youngsters with some sexy girls and published the pic in a Sunday newspaper. They've never looked back really !