Another Opening

The good and great are gathering at the brand new Nobu Hotel City of Dreams today in Manila where the owners will celebrate with a few ceremonies and cocktail parties,. Amongst those owners are James Packer and actor Robert De Niro who have teamed up on several projects. One person who won't be there is the Sydney journalist who requested an invitation - several journalists and photographers have been bussed in for the weekend. Apparently a hapless pr girl who submitted the name of said hack to Packer was left red-faced when the mogul pointed out in his inimitable style that the writer was on his media 'enemies' list.

Foto Fail

The Brownlow (football ) Medal circus has really gotten into top gear in the past few years and is now a fairly glam event as this picture selection shows- girlfriends of footie players in expensive gowns and jewelry.

But what possessed the picture editor of the newspaper who published the pics on the left, a series of snaps of footie players and their girlfriend clutching bottles of beer with the brand clearly exposed that just happened to match the name of the Crown Casino where the event was held?.

It's a big NO NO to ever publish photos of -especially- sport's stars holding identifiable alcoholic drinks like beer because of the obvious message sent to young readers. Glasses of liquid are fine as they could always be soft drinks. We won't name the newspaper ( Daily Telegraph) whose picture editor needs a good scolding

One Punch Laws, a Billionaire and the Media Mogul

Lost in the media's salivating over the street punch up between friends James Packer and his former Nine Network pal David Gyngell is the fact that both could be charged under NSW's heavy new "one punch" legislation introduced by the recently retired NSW premier Barry O'Farrell who was also instrumental in paving the way for Packer to build a multi-million dollar hotel and casino complex at Barangaroo.

Instead Australia's media have overlooked this important factor and despite the fact neither were apparently intoxicated, the legislation is squareky aimed at those who brawl in the streets. Both Gyngell and Packer have been life long friends- Packer was best man at Gyngell's wedding and visa versa. Meanwhile pundits have been excitedly fronting cameras in a reporting frenzy over the sale of a by-stander's snaps of the bust up and the fact they were purchased by News Ltd for a reputed $200,000 even while Packer pal Lachlan Murdoch visited James at his Bondi residence today. Not one has mentioned the new laws on street fights and the fact both could be charged with affray. This is a serious matter. According to witnesses both were throwing heavy punches : Packer is around 6'4" and a slip or fall during a fight could easily do him serious damage. Nor does the fact they are friends exempt them form the law particularly as the fight was witnessed by numerous by-standers and security men had to pull them apart.
What message will be sent to the public if two of Australia's senior businessmen can freely battle in the street ?
How on earth can the NSW government justify it's oppressive 'one punch' legislation and the fact James Packer has almost carte blanche with lax licensing hours with his proposed new casino when Kings Cross club & pub owners have been hit by laws restricting their hours?
The history of street punch ups has been tragic in Sydney with a number of distressing deaths in recent years and they weren't all strangers  as this recent example shows.
Being Sydney & NSW- once described as "the Chicago of the Southern hemisphere" with it's woeful history of official corruption since inception of the colony, the 'sweeping under the carpet' mode was immediately in full flight with both protagonists issuing gushing press releases and declaring undying support for each other.
It remains to be seen if the law is impartial in this case.
# James Packer's grandfather Sir Frank Packer was known for his fisticuffs and street fights with rival publishers and was once NSW Heavyweight boxing champ.
## The battling duo were mismatched : Packer is a billionaire, Gyngell a mere multi-millionaire.
### View the "$200K" fight snaps here.

Move over James Packer

While it's all over bar the shouting with James Packer's proposed $1.1B casino for high rollers at Barangaroo getting the go-ahead, he will have fierce competition in Cairns.

the proposed Barangaroo Packer Casino and hotel...  and Tony Fung's proposed Acquis Resort in Cairns

Chinese tycoon Tony Fung wants to build a A$4.4 billion casino and resort in Cairns,

James Packer                   Tony Fung

close to the Great Barrier Reef, which is bound to  accelerate competition in the country's gambling and tourism market particularly the fierce attempts to lure 'whales', the high spenders.

The Queensland state government announced two weeks ago that Fung's casino proposal was declared a "coordinated project", the first step in the government's approval process.
"Basically it's declared a coordinated project because of the size and complexity of it," a spokesman for the Queensland state government told Reuters. "It's the first step in a comprehensive assessment of the approval process. The proponent has to prepare an environmental impact statement."
 The Aquis Resort at the Great Barrier Reef has a targeted opening of 2018 and is said will create 26,700 jobs when fully operational, according to information on Aquis' website. The resort is also set to include 13,500 square metres of high-end retail and two 2,500-seat theatres.
Fung, a Hong Kong based private investment banker and investor, has homes in Queensland including a house in the Noosa Hinterland. His private businesses include a cattle farm and wagyu beef breeding business and a sugar cane plantation.

Life At The Top

Nick & Holly

Former soap star Holly Vallance is to get hitched to her (reputed) billionaire boyfriend property developer Nick Candy this Saturday in Los Angeles at a wedding bash that is said will cost up to $2M. Guests like Sir Elton John  and Simon Cowell are expected to celebrate with the couple.

Erica & James

Meanwhile in Sydney local billionaire James Packer and his beautiful wife former model Erica


have just welcomed the birth of their second baby daughter Emmanuelle yesterday.
 James is selling off the last of the media empire he inherited from father Kerry Packer for around $1B while he expands his gambling and casino empire.

Ain't life grand !.

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And from the Emmys actor Tom Hanks demonstrated a new use for the award : he taped one to the bonnet of his car and drove around LA.

Warne's Juggernaut Rolls On

And so to the glitzy Crown Casino in Melbourne and the launch of the private gambling den, Club 23 with a breathless Seven news correspondent saying "she has never seen anything like it" (memo to Kerry Stokes-send your staff out more)

Splash News (c)

Shane Warne appeared briefly with La Hurley in tow before depositing her in a hallway, only for calls from the media to re-appear for that all important 'photo-call' with Tiger Woods who is on a whirlwind tour of Oz which will see him going forwards and backwards between Melbourne and Sydney for golfing tournaments.

Expect another gala evening at the re-vamped Star Casino in Sydney tonight. 

Warne is an 'ambassador' for Club 23 (as the Shuttle reported many months ago) which presumably means he gets an open bar tab for lending his name to the joint.
Others who attended the launch included Anthony Callea, Harry Kewell and Brian McFadden. 
Soon the master plan of this brilliant business love match will be revealed. We've already had Warnie announce his return to cricket today. What's in it for Liz?. A new movie with Jack Thompson directed by Baz Luhrmann ?

Your Melbourne Cup Form Guide

It's come a long way since Jean Shrimpton-The Shrimp- shocked and outraged and positively delighted the crowds at Flemington in Melbourne in 1965 and established once and for all time, The Mini Skirt was here to stay ( it looks so tame today).

Today as a few hundred thousand racegoers descend upon Flemington racecourse for the Melbourne Cup we've provided a handy form guide for the fillies and their jockeys to look out for in the Birdcage, Member's Stand and the private marquees (hover around the Emirates for the real action)

Starting with the richest :
Billionaire James Packer and wife Erica (be nice to them and they may invite you back to James' private bar at the Crown Casino for their karaoke night) and Richard Branson.
Celeb receiving the most for showing up (about 200 grand) Sarah Jessica Parker.

Lovebirds Shane Warne and Elizabeth Hurley. Burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, Kim Kardashian  Rebecca Judd and the real star of the day who should not missed (easy to do as she's so tiny) Joan Collins. And there is bound to be a few surprises like Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire

Mumm champagne, Moet & Chandon, Bollinger will all be hosting marquees and in "Millionaire's Row", the Emirates marquee is styled on St Petersburg's Catherine Palace with the Zhivago restaurant and powder room for ladies, and a Jo Malone perfume stylist demonstrating how to "accessorise" with 23 fragrances.

 Myer's have their "Butterfly House" with Jennifer Hawkins complete with  fluttering laser-cut butterflies, as the PR sheet wittily says..'to show off the social butterflies". 

Garden guru Jamie Durie has flown back from the USA where he hosts a cable TV show to create a "vertical garden installation" in a three-level marquee and VIPs will  be chauffeured to and from the track in luxury Lexus vehicles.

Irreverent / Irrelevant Facts : The first Melbourne Cup in 1861 was filmed and this was the very first  movie to be screened commercially.

The first prize in 1861 for owners of the winning horse-a nice watch while today's prize purse will be $3.5M. The Shuttle's favourite horse name of all time : Whykickamoocow.

Will Shane Warne Succeed where Gordon Ramsay Failed ?

Sad news today and a further blow for embattled restaurateur Gordon Ramsay as he announces that his Melbourne restaurant- maze Grill at the Metropole Hotel-part of James Packer's ritzy Crown Casino, is put into liquidation.

Despite the gleaming new restaurant receiving excellent reviews and a reported turnover of nearly $14M in the one year it was open, it was loosing money and becoming a drain on Ramsay's declining restaurant empire.

Melbourne's maze Grill

The Crown Casino by the Yarra River is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the biggest in the world. With 3 hotel tower blocks including the Metrople, endless fast food outlets and a string of 5 star restaurants , luxury stores,cinemas, theatres, a ballroom and a convention centre it is one of the most opulent gaming establishments on the planet.

Stars like Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Tiger Woods  have called it home while in Melbourne on extended visits.
Fine dining restaurants at Crown that are going gangbusters include the Japanese Nobu part owned by actor Robert de Niro (who officially launched Nobu in 2007) and  Bistro Guillaume owned by French chef Guillaume Brahimi who also owns Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. In both establishments it often takes weeks to book a table.

Diana at the Commonwealth Day lunch with Samantha Riley

But if Ramsay couldn't make a go of it , will our newly minted Metrosexual Shane Warne do any better?

rough trade?

It's been reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald that Warnie will be attending this year's Melbourne Cup (with Liz Hurley) and will be opening a night club at Crown.
Warnie's new sophisticated image has come some way since the Shuttle sat with him at a Commonwealth Day lunch for Princess Diana in Sydney in 1996.

When we asked if he was a friend of Diana's Shane replied "no, I haven't met her yet" (she was at the next table). Asked if he thought she may be a cricket fan he said "not sure-but I think she likes rough trade !"

Congrats, but who are you?

The New York Post discovers Dr Geoffey Edelsten & Brynne Gordon on their big wedding day except for one thing-they have no idea who they are.

Talk about fame by association. The Murdoch rag has run a piece about Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and Nanny star Fran Drescher who jetted in to attend the nuptials of the wacky pair but revealed the 2 stars hadn't actually met the bridal couple. Drescher and Alexander co-hosted the "glittering"wedding on Saturday at Melbourne's Crown Casino. They weren't alone as local radio and TV stars turned up clutching invites not knowing the bride and groom either.

The NYP also brings us the riveting news that the buxom Brynne hails from Brad Pitt's hometown of Shawnee in Oklahoma but ponders on how much Drescher & Alexander were being paid. We can illuminate here-$40K each plus first class travel and a suite at the Crown. Not bad for a lazy weekend Down Under.

And don't be surprised if the good Doc brings us news in the coming weeks of a fabulous investment he has and we can get in on the ground floor if we're lucky. He's that kinda guy.

wedding bells in my head..

The side-show known as the Dr Geoffrey Edelsten / Brynne Gordon wedding rolls on as plans are announced for next Saturday's nuptials at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

Gordon 25, a fitness instructor from Las Vegas has claimed she isn't comfortable with all the attention-possibly why she invited media to the lunch the pair hosted on Friday at Bondi Beach's chic Iceberg's Restaurant , went for a photo-op walk on the beach after and asked press along to her wedding shower on the weekend, sans females and which had only muscle men in attendance.

Robbie Williams ( in Sydney for the ARIA Awards) has been nixed as entertainment after he asked for $450,000 to sing just one song. Instead local talent in the form of John Farnham will entertain guests along with the rather un-exciting host Richard Wilkins from Channel Nine. 

Fran Drescher and Seinfelds's  Jason Alexander will also tell a few jokes for a reputed $50,000 each and Edelsten, 65 (?) has announced it will be a "very traditional Jewish affair" and has requested guests donate to charity rather then give wedding gifts. Dr Geoff reckons the whole do will cost $2million !

So what's wrong with a rabbi and the local community hall then ?.

this man should see a doctor..

Now it's Geoffrey The Movie..

For those who can't wait for the autobiography of former top sport's broadcaster Rob Astbury who devotes a few pages to the life of the flamboyant Dr Geoffrey Edelsten-now comes the movie.

And it has some top stars including Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and Fran Drescher from The Nanny.

Narrated by Alexander, it's the love story of how Edelsten, 66 and his fiancee, 26 year Las Vegas fitness worker Brynne Gordon met in Hollywood. It's also an action thriller-Geoffrey clambering in and out of limos and expensive autos-shopping at Gucci, Cartier,Ralph Lauren, Hermes- in fact the whole of Rodeo Drive gets a look-in. Geoffrey on his yacht. Geoffrey entering the Beverley Wiltshire Hotel. Geoffrey emerging from the Beverley Wiltshire Hotel. Geoffrey racing down the street in his fleet of cars- a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, a Bentley. a block long Hummer in which he collects his future bride. Geoff in black helicopter..Lear Jet. You get the idea

 Alexander asks us : "what do Barbara Streisand, Shia LaBeouf, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sean Penn, Adam Sandler, Michael Douglas and Geoffrey have in common ?" "why there all Jewish of course". Fame by association !. Edelsten's career has included a stint as a nightclub owner, rock manager and the boss of dozens of medical clinics. He once owned a football team, The Swans. He also did a stint inside for attempting to hire the disappeared  hit man Christopher Dale Flannery to deal with a troubesome patient. He got struck off. None of this gets featured in the flick. It's a feel good film.                                 

                                                                        

  The movie's a prelude to his planned sumptuous wedding to Brynne in a few weeks at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Fran Dresher will officiate at the wedding which some say is financed by a $5M mortgage. We don't know if Geoffrey's film has a release date. Ain't Love grand ?.

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