Water Diviner in LA

 
Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner has just premiered in Los Angeles as our exclusive snaps show and the movie looks set to be a box office success in the USA after receiving great reviews.

Pictured are the cast (above) and also Crowe with co-star Steve Bastoni (right).

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

From Flab to Fab ! : Russell Crowe

Last night at LA's Soho House

RUSSELL CROWE ISN'T THE FIRST Hollywood star to have a battle with the bulge.

But look at the snap of our Russ from two years ago and our exclusive picture from last night's AACTA Awards in Los Angeles

2010

Crowe was topping the scale at a hefty 102 kilos but has shed 25K in a two year concerted workout regime and we have the secrets.

We and all Russell's Twitter followers. Russ is an active twitterer and last week he detailed his exercise regime which is pretty simple :

1hour 20 minutes walking, 30 minutes of Yoga followed by a 15 minute weights workout.

For the last two years Crowe has made his home in Sydney, partly to spend as much time with his 2 boys Charlie  and Tennyson  and partly to get himself in top shape.
Last year he splashed out $10M on a mansion in Rose Bay with spectacular views of the harbour and a state of the art security system so Russ could do simple things like kick a footie ball around the garden with the kids, away from prying eyes.

Russ & Danielle in 2009

Meryl Streep & Nicole Kidman at the AACTAs

He still has the Finger Wharf duplex penthouse in Woolloomoolo (on the market for $6M) but it was becoming increasingly difficult for Russell and wife Danielle Spencer to enjoy those family type events like relaxing in the back yard.

He was also a regular sight walking around the Loo and the Botanic Gardens, sometime wheeling the kids in their strollers.
To nip paparazzi in the bud he kept a wardrobe of 20 similar track suits so one day's photo looked like the rest. These days he still walks around Rose Bay and Bellveue Hill  (with it's punishing hills) but has a minder following in a car.

 Crowe was attending the AACTA Awards (that have replaced the Australian Film Institute Awards ) hosted by Australian Of The Year Geoffrey Rush, presented at a party at Soho House along with Guy Pearce, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep who picked up a gong for her portrayal as Margaret Thatcher.

Om Tuesday the local AACTAS will be presented at the Sydney Opera House with Cate Blanchett hosting the gala.
In 2009 Crowe challenged the Shuttle's favourite show-biz editor Annette Sharp from Sydney Confidential in the Daily Telegraph to a bike ride around Sydney:

Russell Crowe, Kidman & Urban Move House

Antonia Kidman and husband Keith Urban have finally taken possession of a new $17M penthouse in New York at 200 Eleventh Avenue in the West Village overlooking the Hudson River.

The duplex apartment has one outstanding feature: it's own special lift to transport the couple's car to their  19th floor home which has it's own garage adjacent to the flat.

In a city were parking can be a veritable nightmare, this has to be the ultimate luxury.

The building was designed by architect  Annabelle Selldorf who installed freight sized lifts into which a tenant can drive, sit back and relax while remote sensors guide the lift to the correct floor and then the car into it's designated parking area.

All the flats were snapped up as soon as they hit the market and Kidman & Urban's neighbours include celebrity decorator Jamie Drake and  Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana. Actor Kelsie Grammar who had eyed off one of the 2 penthouses decided to pass and purchased in an equally smart building at 100 Eleventh Avenue.

Kidman & Urban have a growing real estate collection including Bunya Hill in the Southern Highlands of NSW, a beach side block on the South Coast with 2 Heritage listed 1920's weatherboard bungalows  on it and an estate in Nashville.

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And still anxious to move to larger premises from his Finger Wharf penthouse in Woolloomooloo, actor Russell Crowe has inspected a Bellevue Hill house for the third time now.

Headingly House

Fashion designer Carla Zampatti and husband John Spender, the former Australian ambassador to France have put their beautiful 26 room stucco mansion Headingley House on the market for $23M.


Crowe is reported to have offered $20M in his bid to find a backyard for kids Charlie & Tennyson. 

With so many rooms the Crowes should easily be able to house Danielle's father Don Spencer a TV children's program host who plans to live with the family.
And our spy in the Crowe camp tells us Rusty & Danielle want to add a girl to the family before too long.

Why British tabloids should listen to us

Fast on the heels of our tale (below at the end of "Cate Blanchett Snubbed") a UK tabloid the Daily Star has published a tale about our pal Russell Crowe titled :

CROWE'S CONCERT CANCELLED

Music-loving RUSSELL CROWE abandoned plans to sing at a children's charity show on Monday (09Aug10) - and spent the evening reading stories to his sons instead.

The Gladiator actor had volunteered to perform a song at a show for the Australian Children's Music Foundation at the State Theatre in Sydney on Monday evening.

But after travelling to the venue, Crowe's slot was cancelled - and he took advantage of his night off by spending quality time with his kids.

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Errr..not quite folks. The event to which the Shuttle was invited was  the Dueting For Kids concert to raise funds for the Australian Children's Music Foundation which was founded by children's TV host Don Spencer OAM who is the father of Danielle Spencer who is married to Crowe.

Although Russell is an Ambassador for the foundation along with a host of music identities like Dame Joan Sutherland,  Andrew Farriss from INXS, The Wiggles honorary Oz resident Leo Sayer,  Rolf Harris and Andre Rieu, Russell Crowe had never intended to either attend the function or perform at it.

Naturally Crowe and his wife Danielle are great supporters of Don who is a tireless charity worker and  the pair nearly always turn up at events to aid his works but Crowe is always mindful that being one the world's current top box office movie stars, he is bound to be the center of attention.

If the Daily Star had read the Shuttle as at least 4 other British tabloids do on a regular basis  (reproducing stories from here,) they would get these things right.

Russell & Danielle at a Don Spencer event in 2008

 Fortunately one daily London newspaper has now come to an arrangement with the Social Shuttle to have first access to our exclusives. That's one to us and nil to the Daily Star

As we noted yesterday Crowe would not be at the event (with organisers confirming to us today that he was never going to be). He twittered that  night that he felt he was coming down with the flu.

Which didn't stop him taking his usual morning walk with his kids today around Wooloomoolloo and through the Botanic Gardens where he gave the Shuttle a cheery wave. Crowe has told us in the past that one of the reasons he loves being back home in Sydney is because of the relative freedom he has to wander about unbothered by paparazzi.

2 Years ago he devised a scheme perfect in it's simple brilliance to maintain that privacy. Every time he leaves his home now for  his daily constitutional he wears exactly the same clothes, thereby devaluing possible sales of snaps of him out in public.

Third time lucky for Russell Crowe ?

Our real estate spy disguised as a potted palm informs us that Russel Crowe, wife Danielle Spencer plus children and a number of relatives including dad-in-law, the children's TV host Don Spencer have paid a third visit to Altona, currently on the market and Sydney's most expensively priced house at $45 Million.

The pair have 2 children and are planning another says our source and are seriously looking at upgrading to a house and selling their Wolloomooloo Finger Wharf penthouse where Russ has lived for the past 10 years. Altona has a glamorous history. It was originally an up-marker guest house where the likes of Frank   Sinatra and Bing Crosby stayed on visits to the Emerald City before being purchased by the Man From Uncle-Matt Handbury, publishing mogul and nephew of Rupert Murdoch. 

When Handbury divorced his wife Fiona, the former Vogue  model, Altona passed to her as part of a divorce settlement. She sold out to the music mag publishers Deke & Eve Miskin  for $29M. The Miskins are now planning to move permanently to the dress circle area of Byron Bay, Wategoes Beach. Fiona has now re-invented herself as the Countess of Dartmouth, dividing her time between Belgravia in London and the Hampton's outside New York

Wolloomooloo Wharf

Altona was recently rented to Hugh Jackman & wife Deborra-Lee Furness for $36,000 a month while he filmed Wolverine in Sydney and both expressed an interest in purchasing the mansion that comes with it's own jetty, harbourside pool, boathouse and one of the most sensational views in Sydney. 

The Miskins weren't selling then and a phone to call to Jackman's agent received the response "Hugh has no plans to buy in Sydney at present".

Crowe already owns a farm outside Coffs Harbour that houses a compound for visiting family members. As for the penthouse on the wharf, retired radio announcer John Laws who lives in an adjoining apartment has always told Crowe that if he ever plans to sell, he wants first offer.

Watch a sales video for Altona above !

Style pixie for fashion week ?

Tavi

There was much talk at Thursday night's bash for Marie Claire hosted by editor Jackie Frank and heralding Australian Fashion Week which begins this Monday.

Will the 14 year old US fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson be in town?. She's been invited, as have several fashion bloggers, with airfares thrown in.

Tavi has become a teen sensation with her Style Rookie blog. She's been interviewed by Interview and Grazia, attended White House parties, profiled in the New York Times and been guest editor for Fashion Television at the New York Fashion Week.

Some at the party were bitching about whether Tavi is really capable of writing the blog herself at such a tender age and if she really could understand the nuances and vagaries of fashion. She does make references to past fashion eras that were well before her time. Which could mean she does her research. Probably at school at the back of the class.

Tavi is one of our heroines. She's demonstrating the power of the blog and why by 2025 there will be no printed  newspapers or magazines. She's at the vanguard of a generation that is leading the charge of citizen journalism and anarchy media.

designer Jayson Brunsdon & Simon Lock

 The other talk at Marie Claire was just what is the rift between Australian Fashion Week creator Simon Lock and the current owners of the event. Lock's been frozen out and although he sold his share of the Week 5 years ago he did have a 10 year consultancy contract. Simon was at the party but staying silent on the subject.

Don Spencer & Marie Claire's Jackie Frank

 why we love Marie Claire parties

Marie Claire's bash was to show off the art works created by a dozen fashion designers like Marnie Skillings and Sass & Bide . The works will be auctioned over the coming weeks at the Marie Claire website and the funds raised will go to aid the Australian Children’s Music Foundation. 

The foundation was started by TV presenter Don Spencer. Don has a famous daughter Danielle who is married to Russell Crowe. They usually come to aid Don's charity but he said they couldn't make it that night as Russell was off somewhere promoting his Robin Hood movie.

Tavi at the New York Fashion Week