Spotted..

Barry Humphries and wife Lizzie Spender were spotted celebrating Lizzie's birthday at Billy Kwongs in Potts Point this week. Joining the celebrations was film director Bruce Beresford who directed Barry in the Barry McKenzie films. Lizzie is 66 and is the daughter of the late famed poet Stephen Spender and his musician wife Natasha.

Meet Darth Vadar

 To the Langham Hotel in The Rocks to meet the stars of the play Driving Miss Daisy on the first day of rehearsals.
 Hollywood greats Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones are in town to reprise their Broadway hit of the original play by Alfred Uhry.

Angela with Boyd Gaines

 The 1987 movie version won Australian director Bruce Beresford a few Oscars and took around $300M at the box office.


  Angela has been here once befiore- in 1959 where she lived for 4 months in Point Piper while she filmed Summer of The Seventeenth Doll with Earnest Borgnine, Ann Baxter and her pal John Mills. At the time she hired a car and drove around NSW with her children exploring the state.
 On this visit she and James Earl Jones, who was famously the voice of Darth Vadar in the Star Wars flicks will be touring for 5 months visiting Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.

James was here ten years ago as a tourist and it's the first visit for 4 times Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines who completes the cast. With tickets selling like hotcakes it's another winner for producer John Frost- known as Frostie on Broadway but Mr Frost in London's West End.

The Shuttle caused a minor commotion when James Earl Jones asked which was the most 'right wing newspaper' in town. "They all are " replied the Shuttle accurately which went down well with the other media attending with one even apologising to the actors for gifting the world Rupert Murdoch.

And the big question of the morning for which we received no answer : just what was that monkey doing in the mural on the wall behind our esteemed thespians ?. Had a mischievous interior designer been inspired by Richard Nevile and the School Kid's Oz magazine ala Rupert Bear?
Below is a video we have uncovered of James Earl Jones channeling Justin Beiber.

Book Launch Brings out Movie Crowd

He wasn't well known by the general public but within Australian cinema the late Albie Thoms was a name to be reckoned with. He completed his memoir My Generation days before he slipped away from cancer at aged 70, three weeks ago.

Albie Thoms, Charles Higham and Frank Thring

Bryan Brown & Gillian Armstrong

Thoms was a leading figure in the revival  of the local film industry in the 1970s when he began Ubu Films inspired by the French New Wave , British and US underground film movements.

Many of today's most recognisable names came within Albie's orbit and were inspired or encouraged by Thoms to pursue their dreams at a time when their hopes of success at best may have seen them appear in an episode of an ABC drama or a commercial TV cop show, in front of, or behind the camera.

Peter Clifton & Glen A.Baker

Claudia Karvan

At the celebration to honour Albie Thoms' life and to launch his just completed autobiography, many turned up to discuss old times. Actors Claudia Karvan, Bryan Brown and Judy Davis joined directors Bruce Beresford, Jan Chapman and Gillian Armstrong along with producers Jim McElroy, Margaret  Fink and Oz Magazine's Richard Neville.

Publisher Richard Walsh & Jim McElroy

Wendy Whiteley

Richard Neville

Over 300 guests packed Paddington Town Hall's newly decorated auditorium to take in screenings of some Albie's first movie productions like Bluto and Blunderball which were praised in their day by the late US film critic Charles Higham.
 There was also time to re-tell one of Albie's favorite stories : Thoms was commissioned to produce several episodes of the TV series Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo (still big in Eastern Europe) and the guest star was the high camp actor Frank Thring, star of Hollywood biblical blockbusters like Ben Hur.                                      
As the crew brought on yet another struggling  kangaroo in a sack for the day's shoot- Thring quipped  "If that's the star's friggin' dressing room, what's mine going to be like?"

Dame Edna,Vagina Deniers & Gladioli Interuptus

It was bound to be a night of laughter, memories and tears as Dame Edna Everage took to the stage at the Capitol Theatre to bade farewell at the beginning of her final tour, Eat Pray Laugh !.

The first hour was given over to Sir Les Patterson who despite a severe attack of Montezuma's Revenge insisted on treating audience members to an on-stage BBQ in between Sir Les rushing for relief in a handy stage loo complete with amplified sound effects.

Sir Les introduced his brother Gerard Patterson, a Catholic priest who seemed much taken with Dame Edna's young Asian male pianist despite his correctional ankle bracelet sounding an alarm. According to Les, Gerard is a "card carrying member of the Vagina Deniers Club ".

Maria Venuti

The late Sandy Stone gave a final discourse about his life on Earth before ascending to the heavens in his armchair to the sounds of My Blue Heaven.

Dame Edna's manager Barry Humphries & Lizzie Spender

And then it was time for the grand Dame herself, arriving on an elephant with a decidedly Indian theme. Apparently Dame Edna's manager Barry Humphries has signed Edna to a long Bollywood film contract after mistakenly believing he was signing a Hollywood film contract.

artist John Olsen

Bruce Beresford

This was a night with Dame Edna at her best and those in the 'ashtrays' and upstairs circle were invited to "cling on like fruit bats" with the star promising to glance at them occasionally in direct proportion to their ticket prices. We heard the latest on her children, the dress designer Kenny and her daughter Val Mai with her numerous piercings who is in show biz as well, performing at the women's only Clit Clat Club in Marrickville.

Various hapless audience members were grilled as to their bedroom decor and few were spared Edna's pithy comments. The finale was as expected, with every audience member, stomachs aching from laughter provided with their own gladioli and a standing ovation to wish the Dame farewell.
And a final appearance from Barry Humphries with thanks to the audience and a hope that they would all attend the next farewell tour.

As for Dame Edna's future plans-she's been telling a UK newspaper that a biographical film of her life is in the planning :"little Carey Mulligan will be playing me, Helen Mirren will play my grandmother and that dear little Judy Dench will be my bridesmaid Madge".
It's just the beginning of Dame Edna's world tour and at 78 years of age could be her last. Run don't walk and get tickets now wherever you are. They're going like hotcakes and it's a seriously funny night of laughs.

Margaret Olley Exhibition Opens

An exhibition of the late Margaret Olley's paintings that have never been publicly displayed before opened on Thursday evening at Sothebys in Woollahra. Prices on the 27 works range from $60,000 upwards although most have already been sold. The one at the top which looks suspiciously like Margaret's living room is available for $440,000.

Amongst the guests were long time friends of Olley's including retiring NSW Art Gallery director Edmund Capon, Barry Humphries, movie director Bruce Beresford and artist Ben Quilty who became a good friend of Margaret;s after he won the Archibald Portrait prize for his painting of Olley last year.
2nd-17th March 118-122 Queen St Woollahra.

left : Margaret with Ben Quilty                                                        ********************

Best Look at The Oscars : Forget Angelina Jolie's leg, Rick Rubin pictured with Amanda Santos had the look with his famous whiskers combed to excess when he attended the Academy Awards and the Vanity Fair after party last Monday.

Rubin is the co-president of Columbia Records and possibly one of the greatest record producers in the world with a fortune estimated at $300M.
                                                     

*******************
  
Madame Tussaud's has just unveiled one of it's waxworks that will appear in it's new Sydney exhibition that will open in Darling Harbour in May.

Nicely timed for today's Mardi Gras it's Felicia Jollygoodfellow from The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, in red, yellow and white feathers. Hopefully they will also include Guy Pearce who played Felicia in the film-he's much better looking.

Tropfest 2011

Film-maker John Polson's mastermind Tropfest, the largest short film festival in the world once again screened to a live audience of around 10,000 in the Domain on Sunday while hundreds of thousands watched live via Foxtel around the country.








Each year the entrant's films must feature the same object -this year a key. Winner of the festival was Damon Gameau with his entrant Animal Beatbox.



Stephan Elliot * Olivia Newton John



 It's been 19 years since the first Tropfest began and many winners have gone on to work on main stream film productions.

There is always a host of celebrity judges and this year they included director Bruce Beresford, John Polson, Rachel Ward and Priscilla Queen of The Desert director Stephan Elliot.

The red carpet (which was purple) is also a great for star-spotting as dozens of  Australian and International movie people arrive.

 What seemed like the entire cast of Stephan Elliot's new film Few Best Men strode in-Olivia Newton John, Tim Draxyl and Xavier Samuel.




Leana Wallsman

 

* Few Best Men is currently being filmed around Sydney and in the Blue Mountains. The word is out-Xavier Samuel looks destined to be our latest star and heartthrob !





Few Best Men stars : Tim Draxyl, Kevin Bishop, Xavier Samuel, Kris Marshall



the prince steps out of the darkness

For over 40 years John Laws dominated the airwaves making him one of the richest broadcasters on the planet and then quietly retired a little under 2 years ago. 

Last night he made a rare public appearance for the launch of Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer, premiered this week at the Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim and screened for a Sydney audience at the elegant State Theatre.

The film is based on the life of  Li Cunxin, born into poverty who was selected to train at Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy. At 18 Li was offered one of the first scholarships between America and China to train in Houston, Texas.


He defected with the help of then VP George Bush Snr and went on to become one of world's ballet greats.  Cunxin wrote a best-selling book of his life and now lives in Melbourne where he works as a stockbroker and on the lecture circuit.

Lawsie-who earlier last year sold up all his properties and huge vintage auto collection to retire to the Woolloomooloo penthouse next to Russell Crowe rarely moves far from home.

Especially as he half-owns Ottos, the wharf's chic premier restaurant where he lunches everyday..very long lunches with his beloved 'Princess' Caroline. Added to his much smaller car collection -his personal favourite the latest powder blue Rolls convertible, is a golf cart to avoid that cumbersome walk from Ottos to home -about 100 yards-without any pesky breathalyzer vans in sight. Lawsie's great love of Jack Daniels is legendary,

Laws spent years expounding his home-spun wisdom and won over the hearts of the working classes and the truckers of the land. They all thought he was one of them, especially when he regularly attended the Tamworth Country Music Festival. But Laws is an avowed opera and ballet buff and every year  slipped off quietly to spend a month at his 2 favourite hangouts, the George Cinq in Paris and the Cipriani in Venice.

Now he spends 2 months in each plus 2 months onboard the extraordiary luxury apartment liner
The World while it casually cruises the Mediterranean. And perhaps shares a cuppa over the fence with Russell when both are at home.