Salvador Dali at The Billich Gallery

Colourful Sydney artist Charles Billich and his zany wife Christa are hosting a Salvador Dali exhibition at their Rocks gallery until 31st January 2019.

The Salvador Dali Sculpture Collection originated due to a unique agreement made between the artist and the President of I.A.R. Art Resources, Mr. Beniamino Levi. The Dali Universe also owns and operates the Dali Paris Museum in Montmartre Paris where the entire Dali sculpture collection is on permanent display. All Dali sculptures being exhibited are recognized in the comprehensive Dali catalogue raisonne "The Hard and the Soft" produced by Robert and Nicholas Descharnes, which is the definitive reference book for Dali sculpture and has 20 pages which dedicated to the entire I.A R. Dali collection. Expect naughtiness..anything can happen at The Billich Gallery as our exclusive video shows:

Snapped

TV presenter Sam Armytage has been tweeting about the dreaded paparazzi hounding her at Bondi Beach. To nip them in the bud she posted this snap on Instagram. And who is the chap Sam is getting up close and personal with on the far right ?. it's designer Jonathan Ward who has been responsible for the successful revival of the iconic Aussie brand R.M.Williams.

The annual Fag Hag 2018 bash went off with masses of wigs and hairspray at The Star Sydney as a lead-up to the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras (pics by Belinda Rolland)

The Bay Soiree at the Watson's Bay Boutique Hotel raised funds for the Victor Chang Institute (launched in 1995 by the late Princess Diana as her last public charity event). Artistic duo Charles & Krista Billich (left) attended 
(pics by Belinda Rolland)

And last but not least: our snaps from the sensational Inaugural Grammy Awards party hosted by Steven Tyler in Los Angeles to raise funds (nearly $2M !) for Janie's Fund which assists young girls from across America who have suffered from trauma and abuse. Our own Ruby Rose was there along with..some Kardashians (it's not a party without a Kardashian) Alice Cooper with Sharon Stone while Tyler performed.

Let's Get Real

Following Whisper's revelation that colourful Sydney artistic duo Charles and Christa Billich are headed for the USA, a Sydney newspaper has called into question the claims about several planned reality TV shows.
(left : Christa & Charles Billich)
Whispers only knows what we have read about the Billich's show which reputedly follows the duo as they attempt to set up a Los Angeles art gallery. Former Sydneysider James Maas who hails from the North Shore is reported to be starring in the series which has the blessing of Hollywood director Adam Shroeder.

As to former Sydney gumshoe Frank Monte and his partner Sharon Sargeant's The Private Eye & The Madam we know a bit more. Monte has received some flack for originally trying to raise funding on Kickstarter. But it did in fact pay off with an LA film investor ponying up $250,000 to finance a pilot and one episode which are now in the can. We can assure readers the financier is genuine and has confirmed the deal but wishes to remain anonymous at this stage.

We also know a South American TV network ( we checked !) offered to purchase the series from Monte but Monte says the price offered along with restrictions on distribution didn't make the deal viable. Making the pilot is almost the easy part. Selling it is the hard part.
                        (right: Frank Monte & Sharon Sargeant)
Whispers more than anyone knows how difficult it is getting a film project off the ground. Having moved into the Moving Picture Industry five years ago we have worked on two successful documentaries. Another project we have in the pipeline has been thirty years in the planning.

Hollywood heavies Cassian & Cary Elwes

It's taken that long to get a biopic based on the life of The Who manager Kit Lambert written by Whispers with famous UK rock manager Simon Napier-Bell and former MOJO editor Pat Gilbert to the stage where powerful  US independent producer Cassian Elwes has picked up the project for a new production company he has formed with his brother actor Cary Elwes.
The film has the enthusiastic backing of Pete 
 Townshend and Roger Daltrey. The Who are still huge stars in the US and can pack stadiums giving The Rolling Stones a run for their money.

Elwes is specializing in low budget films, although the expected budget $US18M isn't chickenfeed, in Hollywood terms it's low. Elwes sells the rights to his films to cable TV to cover production costs where they end up following a cinema release. But it's almost like the old studio system with a production line. He has 8 films on the go and where ours is in the pecking order is complicated
by whether a name actor is available seeing they are obligated for years ahead. Every actor that reads our script wants the role including  Colin Farrell but will they be available?
It gets to the point where all you care about is- as long as the cheques roll in. Hopefully one day we'll get to attend the premiere.
 Right: Simon Napier-Bell & his famous discovery George Michael

Charles Turns 80

 
Sydney based, Croation born artist Charles Billich (left with wife Christa Billich) has turned 80 and he threw a bash to celebrate. Charles looks at least 10 years younger-how does he do it?
" I surround myself with beautiful people and they keep me young " was the reply and there were heaps of them with around 200 venturing into the sensational Billich Gallery in The Rocks on a Saturday night to party. One thing we love about Charles (apart from the art of course), the Pommery keeps flowing out of his very own stylishly decorated magnums. Here a few snaps from the night and below, some Billich art.
 And not just one birthday cake..80 !. OK they were only cupcakes but it's a neat idea.

Model agent Grant Dwyer & Don Spencer (he's Russell Crowe's dad-in-law) Fran McPherson (yes- she's The Body Elle McPherson's mum), Helen Appelton & Noushin Rahimia

Nightclub boss Karim Gharbi & glam date, Hans Whitman & Shari-Lea Hitchcock, Angela Belle McSweeney

Charles Billich's self portrait & some of his famous nudes

Croatian Get-Together

 

Many of the retailers in Sydney's historic Rocks area may be complaining about rising rents and plunging tourists numbers but Charles Billich's art gallery in the old Sailor's Home is thriving. Billich played host this week to Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanović and Croatia's first lady Sanja. Billich was born in Lovran, Italy which is now part of Croatia and emigrated to Australia in the 1960s. No word yet on whether Croatia's PM realised that many of Charles's more erotic works are based on wife Krista Billich who was there to meet the couple. Several years ago the Shuttle came across a glittering ballroom event at the old Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast where hundreds of art lovers had queued to purchase Billich prints. Lying on a chaise lounge on the stage was Krista, totally nude with legs akimbo as Charles sketched her whilst guests sipped champagne and looked on in awe. Talk about great marketing !

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Excitement is brimming over the soon to open new nightclub in Double Bay located in the old

Hungarian Restaurant in Bellevue Road under the auspices of restaraunter Karim  Gharbi (left-he calls his promotions company KGB). By co-incidence Karim is a great pal of the Billichs with Gharbi recently nursing Charles through a bout of ill-health. No expense is to be spared and one of Australia's top designers and man-about-town Alex Zabotto-Bentley right has been called in to work on the interiors and the theme- Casablanca !. Maybe they can pick up a few tips from this vid...

Dreamtime

Melbourne has  Geoffrey Edeslten and Geelong has it's new clown town mayor 

Darryn ("Yes, I knew the Princess of Wales very well") Lyons (who gives jumping onto a trend ten years after it fizzled out new meaning). He's been featured in a Sydney Morning Herald piece titled The Emperor Of Geelong.
 My sources say the piece was heavily legalled and it would seem so as the article by Susan Chenery has less of the usual bite we can expert from the experience interviewer.
Still it gives us some insight into the label dropping (they should sue) , name dropping fantasy that now governs the lives of Victoria's second largest city. Probably the most pertinent sentence comes from Lyon's own lips in respect of Geelong's current troubles with collapsing businesses : "I am certainly not the saviour and I haven't got the magic wand".
# Is that a tasteful Charles Billich work of art on his wall ? I think we should be told.
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Kylie Minogue did a surprise concert last night at the Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills after she spent all day tweeting that should be there.

Election News : PM Tony Abbott Outed !

PM Tony can barely hide his excitement

He has just taken the reigns after a concerted media campaign led by the American billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch and now the Shuttle brings you exclusive news : far from being a Philistine troglodyte who will roll us back into the 1950s as his critics claim, PM Tony Abbott is a fan of the arts !

The gilded couple Charles Billich & wife Krista who regularly fly exited social hacks around the world to breathlessly report on their glittering soirees at upmarket venues like the Playboy Mansion in LA , have presented a grateful Prime Minister with a gorgeous work of art that only our Charles can produce. Will it hang in The Lodge like other rare Billich works hang in The Vatican and other grand mansions?  And is it a fetching nude, perhaps of Krista draped over a chaise lounge legs akimbo ?  . Is this the first step for an exciting exhibition of Billich prints at the National Gallery in Canberra ?. Will Sir Les Patterson emerge from retirement ? Clearly a New Era for The Yartz is upon us.  Exciting times ahead. !   

Hitting the Heights

Their recent foray into the Los Angeles art world, via Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion seems to have paid off for Sydney couple Charles and Christa Billich.  The pair have purchased a penthouse near Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills and plan to spend at least four months of the year there.
Christa was telling pals at the weekend at a cocktail party to aid St Luke's Hospital cafe that the penthouse will double as an art gallery and she and Charles had fallen in love with the city of angels.

Organised by the Darling Point Committee, around  hundred of the good and great attended the Great Gatsby themed party at the magnificent harbour side Spanish style mansion of Robert and Elaine Gregg.

left : Charles Billich (3rd left) parties with flapper friends to aid St Luke's Cafe.
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 Jewellers Hardy Brothers celebrated their 160th Anniversary with a dinner outside the amazing Guardian Vaults, a safety deposit unit. Guests included Governor Marie Bashir, Stephanie Rice, Edwina McCann, a brace of Waterhouses- Kate, Gae and Robbie and Jessinta Campbell.

"Hanging In The Vatican"

Aussie media have joined the Billich Roadshow and headed off to California where colourful Sydney couple Charles & Christa Billich, owners of the Billich Gallery in The Rocks intend to take LA by storm. The town of make believe and the fabulous Billichs were always destined to collide.
The pair will launch themselves at their "good friend" Hugh Heffner's Playboy Mansion. Christa is no slouch in the publicity department and could teach Hef a few tricks. Occasionally a journalist, still wet behind the ears, trots out the Billich line like this chap in the Fairfax business publication BRW. The writer repeats the claim the Billichs have made for years : "His portrait of Pope John Paul II is hung at the Vatican."
Hung at the Vatican ?. Perhaps lying against a wall in dusty basement somewhere along with the thousands of other trinkets, bauble and gifts that flow into the Vatican, the White House ,Buckingham Palace and so on.

Billich fans (?) : Ian Thorpe and the late King of Tonga

It's one of the neatest publicity doddles in the book. Gifts are never sent back (postage !) and the sender often receives a polite, form 'thank you' letter.
Try it yourself and send Prince William and Kate Middleton a gift for their new baby to Kensington Palace.
Critics have been unkind to Charles calling his works anything but art. In 1995 the Sydney Morning Herald's art expert John McDonald labelled Billich’s painting as “a slippery form of graphic design backed with a high-powered marketing strategy". 
The BRW scoffs at their stable mate's words but McDonald's most salient point was that amateur collectors may be buying Billich works in the belief they were an investment that would increase in value.
Charles & Christa are immensely likable. The Shuttle attended one Billich extravaganza in Surfers Paradise in 2002 (another natural home for the couple). While Christa and 2 girls posed nude on the ballroom stage at the luxury Sheraton Mirage resort, Charles sat at an easel wearing a beret & smock and painted the trio. Dozens of punters formed a queue to buy their 'investments' including White Shoe aficionado and property developer Keith Williams.

Charles vs Norman

Two years ago at the Lawson Menzies Auction house in Annandale where they sell second hand furniture (their prize art auctions are held in the city) a Billich print came up for auction. There are 2 Australian artists whose works bring groans from the regular bidders:  Norman Lindsay and Charles Billich. The Billich print fetched $1.

Some 1999 words still ring in the ears of the Shuttle. At a Sydney reception for the International Olympic Committee, President Juan Antonio Samaranch the crowd parted and a Charles Billich painting was revealed by a local minor IOC official who beamed proudly . Standing nearby was the high flying solicitor and Sydney Olympic's chief Rod McGeoch (husband of the respected publicist Deeta Colvin). A look of horror spread across his face as he exclaimed to the official : "Oh no ! you are not going to give him that are you ?" . He shook his head in disbelief.

Hef waiting to greet Charles & Christa !

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Victor Lownes

The Billich action takes place at the PlayBoy Mansion home of Hugh Heffner. Hef hosts a lot of parties. Anyone can hire the Playboy Mansion for a party or event, a product launch, Barmitzvah or wedding and every now and then Hef may wander through a room to make the punters feel they are getting their money's worth.

James Hunt : Mark Hamill

The Shuttle has been to many Playboy parties in LA, New York and London. The US parties give tackiness a new meaning. The London parties at the old Park Lane Playboy Club were a tad better but the weekend parties thrown by Victor Lownes (the UK Playboy boss) at his Stocks Mansion in Herfordshire were sensational.
At one memorable party that lasted 3 days with a permanent Champagne and Dining Marquee, the Shuttle shared a hot tub with 3 Bunnies, racing car driver James Hunt (subject of the film Rush starring Chris Hemsworth ) and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill . Guests were bussed to and fro from London by helicopter and with each arrival a movie star or celebrity would alight-Joan Collins, Tony Curtis, or Rod Stewart.      Below : The Master at work :

For Art's Sake

An exhibition at artist Charles Billich's magnificent gallery in The Rocks is never boring.



Billich sketched 2 nude models while guests sipped on his very own label Pommery Champagne.
Two guests even decided to join the models to make a foursome !.
 Charles has that sort of effect on people. See our brief clip below.

right : Bella Hunter at the Billich Gallery

Grown Up Children

Shari-Lea & Paula

Socialite Shari-Lea Hitchcock took the opportunity to introduce her daughter Paula to Sydney at the Billich Gallery last week.

Paula is now 15 and is the daughter of the late billionaire Dick Pratt who left a $5.6B fortune. Polish born Pratt emigrated to Australia in 1938 and became the biggest supplier of cardboard in the world.
Spreading his fortune around he was an avid patron of the arts and medical research, hosting charity bashes at the Melbourne mansion Raheen  where he lived with wife Jeanne.

Jeanne & Dick at Raheen

The existence of Paula became known during a court appearance when a lawyer mistook a journalist for a solicitor and revealed details of a large payment that was to go to Shari-Lea to care for her daughter. When Dick Pratt died in 2009 he left a legacy to Paula who he adored and Shari-Lea estimated at around $40M plus a sensational beach-side house in snooty Watson's Bay and a NSW farm.
Good mum that she is, Shari-lea whisked Paula away for dinner before the arrival of some nude models at the party.
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Meanwhile at the launch of the 2012 Kings Cross Festival a young man was entertaining the guests including the Shuttle with some amazing card tricks.

Max Rendall

Ace, Christian & Rendall

 Max Rendall placed a packet of cards in our hand and requested we hold them firmly while he did a few tricks to a wide-eyed audience. Upon asking for the cards back, they had turned into a block of perspex?. How did he do it ?.

Max is the son of ex-pat London resident John Rendall who found amazing fame when he and Christian The Lion became a mega YouTube hit as a videoed reunion was set to music.

Rendall and his business partner Anthony 'Ace' Bourke purchased Christian in Harrods in 1969 and kept him in their Kings Road antique store, eventually delivering him to the conservationist George Adamson in Africa.

The grainy film  of the pair re-uniting with Christian in 1971 shot to fame in 2008 and along came book and film rights and a tour of TV chat shows around the world including the Oprah Winfrey show.
Rendall lives in Chelsea and lectures about conservation and keeps a vintage Rolls Royce in Sydney for visits.
 Max Rendall has just finished his studies at Sydney University and is entertaining at corporate events while he contemplates the future.

Media Madness *2

Lord Leveson

The first part of the much anticipated Leveson Inquiry into press standards is to be published next Thursday in the UK and the very next day it's author Lord Leveson will jump on a plane to Sydney. The  world's most colourful tabloid, the Daily Mail mischievously puts it thus : :
Leveson to head on expenses-paid trip to Australia for speech on media freedom.
leading many readers to think it is a UK government funded trip.

The Daily Mail recently ran a superbly crafted hatchet job on Leveson weaving together a conspiracy that the wacky reptile hunter David Icke would have been envious of.   

Leveson will be the guest of the Sydney University of Technology at the Privacy in the 21st Century conference on Sunday 7th December and they will pay all his costs and fees.
Other speakers include 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' former NSW AG John Hatzistergos, former Federal AG Robert McLelland MP and the chair of the toothless Press Council, Prof. Julian Disney.
Also included are several journalists : the recently retired Fairfax writer David Marr along with several from Rupert Murdoch's baby The Australian : Janet  Albrechtsen, Mark Day and Chris Merritt.
News Ltd boss Kim Williams has been frothing at the keyboards over rumoured press standards that may be introduced on recommendation of our own media inquiry, the Finkelstein Report.And who pulled off this remarkable coup in getting Lord Leveson down-under ?. None other than the popular media critic, crikey columnist and  UTS Faculty for Arts and Social Sciences Advisory Committee member , the fearless writer Margaret Simmons.
The Australian has run a relentless campaign ala Daily Mail against Simmons over the past 2 years.
  Sounds like a conference not to be missed !. Tickets can be obtained here.   
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COMING SOON : The CHARLES BILLICH art extravaganza party..uncensored !!!

 

Miranda Kerr Nude!

THE SEASONAL fashion battle between the 2 Australian department store chains begins this evening with David Jones fashion parade in their city store and Myer at Fox Studios on Thursday.

DJ's star recruit Miranda Kerr struts the boards tonight. Here are some exclusive snaps of Miranda that will be published in the latest Harper's Bizarre. The pics are by the best and most unpretentious fashion snapper New Yorker Terry Richardson and if you haven't yet discovered his diary, go here. It's fun.


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So the closing ceremony of the London Olympics is receiving mixed reviews and Sydney 2000 still retains it's title of The Best Ever Olympics (according to then IOC boss Juan Samaranch). Indeed the Sydney opening and closing bashes were better co-ordinated but one Aussie is receiving rave reviews for his commentary on the BBC. Armani clad ("Giorgi is a friend") Ian Thorpe with the UK Daily Express and the News Statesman amongst others praising the 5 times Gold Medal winner.

The Thorpedo with artist Charles Billich in March this year

Thorpedo Captured: London Olympics

Gold medalist Ian Thorpe has teamed up with Croatian born artist Charles Billich to produce a portrait for Thorpe's charity Fountain For Youth which raises funds for Indigenous kids. The painting, above will be auctioned.

Charles and his wife Christa threw a party at their Rock's studio and gallery to launch the painting. How do they manage to get these amazing premises?. The three tired gallery is one of the cities most desirable properties and was once the old Sailor's Home but now houses Billich works, some of which we present here.
 Below is his interpretation of The Last Supper ( a copy was presented to Cardinal Pell) which can be yours for $12,500. Not sure who the lady is in the picture in front-Mary Magdalene?.

And the London Olympics ?. Despite Thorpe just failing to qualify lucky Londoners will be treated to Charles' special Olympics print below which is for sale for a few thousand pounds and is being snapped up by British corporations and will be coming to a bank or insurance company wall near you soon.

Billich Gallery

blondes rule-Charlie Brown*Christa Billich*Shari Lee Hitchcock