exclusive : A Murdoch Marriage

In a low key ceremony Elisabeth Murdoch the daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch has married artist Keith Tyson (right)
Various members of the Murdoch clan gathered at Elisabeth's Cotswold farm in the UK this weekend including father Rupert and his partner Jerry Hall, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch and flying in from New York where they now live, her mother Anna Mann and her partner William (pictured below).

Among the influential and powerful guests, former UK PM David Cameron and wife Samantha, the controversial News Corp head honcho Rebekah Brooks and Emily Oppenheimer heir to the South Africa diamond fortune.
Noticeably absent was Elizabeth's previous two husbands, publicity guru Matthew Freud and Dutch economist Elkin Pianim.
Now that's a real power get-together. Below is a sample of Tyson's work

Lord McAlpine Hits Back

With the British media in a feeding frenzy over the claims about the late BBC TV personality Jimmy Savile, it was only a matter of time before matters came to the boil and an innocent was hurt.

Lord McAlpine's Cable Beach Resort

The 'jumping the shark' moment came early Thursday morning when a lightweight, snowy haired breakfast TV host attempted to ambush British PM David Cameron by presenting a list of names he had gathered on the Internet- 'within three minutes". Cameron put the host firmly in his place whilst shushing the presenter's blinking eyed co-host as she tried to butt in.

Margaret Thatcher with Lord McAlpine (right)

Within 24 hours Lord Alistair McAlpine , the former Conservative Party treasurer had issued a furious denial and one of his accusers had back-pedalled like Speedy Gonzales in reverse, admitting he had made a terrible mistake. There were red faces all round and McAlpine has said he will sue.

Lord McAlpine is a familiar figure around Sydney and was here earlier this year on his way to visit his beloved  Cable Beach Resort which he established in 1979 in the pearling town of Broome in the Northern Territory.
In the late 1990s McAlpine hosted an unforgettable party at Sydney's Hotel Intercontinental which he owned at the time, to promote Broome.
He arrived amongst the city traffic on a towering camel, no mean feat for the diminutive Baron. Guests were invited to a lavish dinner and left later that evening each bearing a deck chair as a memento.

Pitty Pat's intern James Murdoch

Lorenzo & Pitty Pat

At one stage Lord McAlpine also dated Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop, the Melbourne socialite and heiress who at the time was writing a social column for Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Telegraph and carting a 15 year old intern around with her by the name of James Murdoch. James had a low boredom threshold and would fall asleep at parties
Pitty Pat ended up marrying the Polish Count Krasicki after a disastrous engagement to Qantas flight attendant Prince Lorenzo Monetsini who famously ran off with his bridegroom leaving Pitty Pat at the altar at the glorious Cipriani Hotel in Venice along with 100 socialite guests who had flown in from Melbourne , Sydney London and New York, some still arriving as the groom fled to Harry's Bar, clambering out of water taxis to attend the 'wedding of the year'.  
Lord McAlpine now lives in Italy with his wife and is presumably in contact with the finest British libel lawyers. Such is the rich tapestry of life.
You can listen to an  interview Lord McAlpine gave to ABC  Kimberley in March this year here.



**Earth to News Ltd : Lord McAlpine was not a Member of Parliament  or a politician.

Life Changing Moments On The Bridge

Just the other day we had David Hasslehoff proposing to his Welsh girlfriend Hayley Roberts at the summit of Sydney's famous Harbour Bridge.

James Cameron & wife Suzi last month on the Sydney Harbour Bridge

It's one of the all time great tourism successes-shackling together groups of eager climbers and leading them to the top to take in the awe inspiring sight over Sydney's magnificent harbour. The Shuttle did it once. By the time you get to the peak the oxygen levels kick in. It's an instant high and you feel like taking on the world. Hence The Hoff and his fiancee following in a long line of those making life changing decisions (one reader unkindly suggests it was a publcicit stunt..surely not ?). Marriage proposals are the norm for couples chained together in their bridge issue overalls.

Oprah Winfrey and gal pal Gail did it as our picture shows. Michael Caine and his gorgeous wife Shakira climbed as did Richard Branson and even the Vienna Boys Choir have all made been to the top.

Now a Christmas visitor who was spotted on the bridge, movie director James Cameron has announced that he will be leaving America and moving South of the Equator. The director who spent December and January in Sydney with his family checking out facilities at Fox Studios has bought a 1067 hectares farm in New Zealand and will be moving there to live.

Oprah

In April this year Cameron, who directed two of the all time most successful films, Titanic and Avatar will move to the property which is about 90 minutes from Wellington and the Weta Digital studios that won an Oscar for it's work on Avatar. He will spend the next twelve months working on the sequel to Avatar.

When Celebrity Support Pays

THE AY FAMILY, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, were detained for 13 months in 2002 as the British government attempted to return them to Germany, where they had first made a claim for asylum.

At the time the youngest, Medya, was just seven when the family were arrested and locked up in 2002, Dilovan was 11, Newroz was 12 and Beriwan was 13.

But the Ay family had some high profile backers who pledged to support them in the community including actor Colin Firth, Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling and Australia's Oscar winning writer Tom Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark which was made into the film Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg,  the Devils Playground the film based on Keneally's life story, and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.

JK Rowling

Keneally, who trained to be a Catholic priest has been a long time supporter of asylum seekers both in Australia and abroad and now after a ten year campaign the four Ay children have settled out of court last week for a compensation claim rumoured to be in the high six figures.

Since their election, the Coalition government of David Cameron has pledged to end the practice of locking up child refugees.

In 2003 Keneally who lives on Sydney's Northern beaches said : "In a liberal democracy you can only maintain a policy of locking children up behind barbed wire by spreading lies and demonising the dispossessed of the earth. In the future, these children will tell their stories. There's bound to be literature that comes out of it, and people will gasp and say, 'How did that policy ever get through?'

Murdoch The Movie-The Empire Strikes Back

Getty/The Beast

In January the Shuttle brought news of a proposed movie based on the life of Rupert Murdoch-the Sun King who has arrived in London to try and stem the fallout from the great hacking scandal.

Getty/The Beast

'Murdoch' the movie was commissioned by the UK's Channel 4 and written by TV script writer Jesse Armstrong but 4 decided against making it. It's now being handled by a top agency Creative Artist's Agency who are looking for a producer and backer.  Presumably Fox Studios won't be bidding for the rights any time soon.

Colin Myler- editor of the late NoTW (Getty/The Beast)

The script blurb reads : "As his family gathers for his birthday party, Rupert Murdoch tries to convince his elder children to alter the family trust so that his two youngest children by his newest wife will have voting rights in the company."  The events of the last week must surely mean that it's just a matter of time before this film is made.

All movie scripts evolve over time and we proposed a number of actors to take leading roles including Barry Humphries (manager of gigastar Dame Edan Everage) as Rupert Murdoch (he's already played him in the Hitler Diaries) and Hayden Christensen as the good looking James Murdoch.

New characters have moved into the frame though, so to speak. In particular Rebekah Brooks the CEO of Murdoch's News Corporation who from all reports, Rupert regards as  one of the family. And Andy Coulson the hapless former adviser to British PM David Cameron.

Fortunately The Daily Beast has come up with an updated cast list which looks spot on and you can see from our pictures some of the proposed new cast for the movie.
                            *************************************************
As the scandal swirled around the News Corp bunker at Wapping in East London and in the offices of the 168 year old tabloid News of The World, journalists were already seething over the flame haired CEO of News Corp and the former editor of the newspaper Rebekah Brooks who most of the hacks had come to the conclusion had led the the tabloid into treacherous waters with her 'take no prisoners' style of editing.

There are reports of writers being berated for up to an hour at the 11am editorial meeting and tales of younger journalists fleeing to the toilets in tears over Ms Brooks threats that they would receive their marching orders unless  they came up with a major celebrity or political based piece of scandal to fill the pages.

In it's final weeks a YouTube video was doing the rounds-unbeknown to Rebekah-that was viewed with glee by the staff. It's a clip from a movie called Vile Pervert produced by pop mogul Jonathan King who spent time as a guest of Her Majesty and has often complained that the tabloid unfairly distorted reporting of his predicament.

Floods, Cyclones and Lavish Dinners

One glamorous guest at the Lavazzi calendar launch on Monday evening in Potts Point was hotelier to the stars, Terry Schwamberg.

Terry Schwamberg

Terry owns a few boutique hotels here and there along with some luxurious houses you can hire by the night or month-Paris, Byron Bay, Bali, Palm Beach , the Amalfi Coast, and some of Queensland's most beautiful tropical  beaches and of course, the Medusa Boutique Hotel just near Kings Cross-a favourite with Hollywood movie stars filming at Fox Studios including Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen during the Star Wars trilogy and Keanu Reeves who called it home for a few months.

Terry reports that one of her Bedarra Island beach huts was borne aloft by the terrifying Cyclone Yasi and vanished in the wind as it swept through QLD twelve days ago. But fortunately that was the only damage and considering the island was in the eye of the storm she reckons she got off lightly.

Sadly business will preclude her from attending tonight's Rose Bay Flood Relief Fundraising Dinner at the Rose Bay Promenade to aid victims of the dreadful floods that preceded Yasi. 750 guests at $1000 a head with food prepared by Michael McMahon's Catalin and other prominent chefs. It should be something quite amazing. Providing the weather holds.

Bedarra Island

Also raising funds for flood and cyclone victims in Queensland were 400 prominent businessmen at the Hilton Hotel last week at a lunch hosted by the Hon Bruce Baird AM , chairman of the Tourism and Transport Forum and sponsored by Qantas.

Anna Bligh

Guest speaker was the QLD premier Anna Bligh who through adversity in her home state has surely resurrected a faltering political career with her approval rating jumping a whopping 35% . There are whispers that a Federal Parliamentary seat now beckons.

Anna's heartfelt speech at the lunch , just as she has delivered on several TV news broadcasts, some that were  screened on the BBC has impressed all with her ability to empathise with the flood victims. Watch out Julia Gillard. A competitor is on the horizon.

                                                      

                                                 **************************

In the interests of always bringing Shuttle readers the latest in gossip and innuendo with the knowledge that today's tittle tattle is tomorrow's news, we can report the latest  rumblings in both state and federal politics.

Our mole disguised as a Qantas trolley dolly reports on a conversation overheard on a recent flight from Melbourne to Sydney between two very senior Labor Party identities who know what's what and whose tongues loosened as the Chardonnay was sipped.

If Prime Minister Julia Gillard has Anna Blair already breathing down her neck, party heavies have given her just six more months to impress the electorate. Should she fail and the axe falls-Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten, former union heavyweight is waiting in the wings with a lot of support.

And it's not so rosy for Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. The very strong mail out is that Shadow Treasurer, the large and cuddly Joe Hockey is ready to takeover, sooner rather than later.



Joe Hockey

Not that Joe will around for long. Step forward- Malcolm Turnbull, the man who would be king and as predicted by the Shuttle many moons ago, will finally claim the crown.

Stateside-when ruling NSW Labor is swept aside in 5 weeks and the ever so nice but dull state Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell who could surely win a gold medal with his Olympian efforts at boring an audience witless becomes premier, he shall remain for 12 months which is about how long Coaltion heavies figure it will take NSW voters to realise they have elected a dud of Titanic proportions. Which takes us to March 2012-the Ides of March and all that as knives come from all directions aimed at Barry's ample back.

In his place will be the member for Manly, the clever, young and good looking Mike Baird, co-incidentally the son of former MP  Bruce Baird, host of last week's flood lunch.

That gives Mike 3 years to consolidate the Coaltion's 10 years of power to come.

You have been warned !

The Hacking Scandal that Will Not Die

Andy Coulson

2 days after the Shuttle wrote about the News of The World newspaper phone hacking scandal that refuses to die, it's been revealed that the former editor of that newspaper has been grilled by British police over persistent claims that the illegal hacking into mobile phones was far more prevalent than previously claimed.

Andy Coulson who was editor of the NoTW between 2003 and 2007 was questioned on Thursday.
Coulson now works as the communications manager for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In 'Allo 'Allo 'Allo broadcast on the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program, former features editor of the NoTW , Paul McMullan demonstrated how easy it was to hack into a phone and claimed Coulson must have known of the illegal practice.

 The scandal originally came to light when Royal minders noticed very personal stories about Prince's William and Harry appearing in tabloids

Singer Robbie Williams also revealed during the program that his phone had been hacked into by a tabloid and that he hadn't carried a phone for over 2 years because of it.

                                                   

                                                       

Perhaps the British parliament should hire Sydney and LA based private eye Frank Monte who was interviewed on the Channel 7 program Today Tonight a week earlier on new Internet programs that allow people to hack into phones and read text messages.

 Monte says the applications are proving very popular among housewives looking to catch out a cheating husband, cutting him out of potential work.

Perhaps that's why he may be headed for the Upper House in NSW. He intends to stand for election in the March 2011 state election.

The announcement of his election bid was first featured on the Shuttle. Rupert Murdoch's Mx newspaper followed our lead with a story about Monte's election bid on it's front page in Friday's late edition.

Aussie US invasion continues

With Hugh Jackman having conquered both New York in the "Boy From Oz' and now Hollywood with his blockbuster Wolverine and actor Sam Worthingtom well on the road to become a new movie heartthrob in James Cameron's 3D epic Avatar, news comes of another Australian hitting the heights in New York.

26 year old Amelia Lester has appeared virtually overnight in the publishing world to take the helm as publishing editor of one of the world's most prestigious magazines-The New Yorker.

Little is known of Lester-well she's too young for one, but she has only been in New York for 4 years after graduating from Harvard. Lester did a stint at the Paris Review and then served as a fact checker for noted Yorker writers like Seymour Hersh and Jane Meyer as well as writing the occassional piece for the mag.

However she must have impressed hard-nosed David Remick of  Conde Nast. She will be one of the youngest editors on one the most respected US magazines with a highly coverted position.

## an eagle eyed Shuttler contacted me to illuminate me further on the very clever Amelia Lester.  Amelia was a student at the state run North Sydney Girl's High School as recently as  2001 and regarded as one of the brightest sparks. She also did a stint at Vogue before heading off to Harvard. She's certainly a great advert for the much derided state run schools.