Sad passing as David Grant dies

David Grant and partner Katerina

Special events organizer David Grant has died from a brain tumor at age 55. David was the genius behind the legendary Cointreau Balls organized by PR supremos Deeta Colvin and Nikki Andrews. A few hundred select people including international guests were ferried by limousine to secret locations all over Sydney to be greeted by unforgettable scenarios created by the genius Grant.

David then went onto design shindigs at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was soon in demand by Olympic Committees around the world who commissioned him to organize their parties and social events. These had to be perfect considering the dignitaries including crowned heads of state who attend. Along the way he was hired by US presidents and world leaders to put together unforgettable events. David was a much loved personality, funny and charming who always remembered every person and every name. A sad loss indeed and most especially for his family- wife Katerina who David married this September and sons Seigfried, Max, Jack and Lewis, his parents, Bill and Maggie and brothers, Michael and Peter, and first wife, Lisa.

# Unforgettable Cointreau Balls included a circus tent on the sand hills at Wanda near Cronulla, Beach and various factories around Sydney and the Maritime Museum with a Titanic theme.. Guests would be collected by limo (impossible to book one for the night) and delivered to an unknown location to dine on cuisine by Sydney's best chefs, sip champagne and of course, drink Cointreau.  Below: scenes from the Cointreau Ball

Louis Vuitton Goes Down Market

The Shuttle had an invitation to last night’s “glittering VIP” opening party for Louis Vuitton’s magnificent new George Street emporium but had to turn it down due to a prior engagement.

“But how can you miss it” pleaded  a breathless PR operative “when we have an amazing list of top celebrities coming ?”

“like who ?”. 

“Lara Bingle , Erica Heynatz, Melissa Doyle, Miranda Kerr !”

“anyone we may not have run into last week ?”

“Cate Blanchett, she’s cutting the ribbon ?

“look we love Cate but she’s a tad over exposed in Sydney at present . Who else?”

“ Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones?”

“Love Ronnie but I'm seeing him at a private party this Sunday. We’ll send our photographer to get a few snaps"

“terrific, I’ll make sure he has a good spot on the black carpet”

“you mean a carpet with one of those boards with your name plastered all over it ?”

“Yes”

“No thanks. The whole idea is to have shots that are different to the paparazzi pics-you know maybe with the product inside the store and so on”.

Ronnie & Jo Woods at LV

And so it went and driving that night at 6.30pm over the Harbour Bridge our cynicism was confirmed. Opening anything on a Friday is verboten in this town mainly because you miss the Thursday deadline for Sunday’s society pages. 

But hearing  LVHM overlord Phillip Corne being interviewed on 2GB (nighttime audience-Long Bay Jail, nursing homes, the deranged etc) tell the befuddled listeners they could save for years to buy a Louis Vuitton piece which could be handed down through their family, or of the two South American peasants who saved a lifetime to purchase a LV suitcase (presumably with no money left to travel ) the madness of the modern world was confirmed.

They did get one thing right-using top party designer David Grant. A veteran of many Olympic Games events and the legendary Cointreau Balls, there is none better.

On Wednesday we had a long conversation with one of Australia’s top movie PRs who has promoted some of the biggest stars in the world and we both agreed about the new breed of publicists armed with a "communications degree” who can do everything but communicate.

The opening of Louis Vuitton was reminiscent of  the opening of the Martin Place Armani store a few years ago.

The Shuttle phoned the PR firm (new in town) to politely inform them we would be attending.

“Oh we can't have media inside” was the snooty reply “we have VIPs coming. You can stand outside the marquee” Miss Bossy Boots said.

“Who ?” we asked. 

“Lady Sonia McMahon, Boy George and Julian Clary”

“Well the reason I’m ringing is because Lady Sonia asked me to escort her” I replied “and Boy George told me today that Armani can ‘f"ck orf” unless they gave him a few outfits and Julian Clary will be in Brisbane. Well that's what he said at lunch two days ago".

We went with Sonia in the end and it was usual suspects (without Lara Bingle as she hadn’t become one yet). No Boy George and no Julian Clary.

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Cate with LV head honcho Philip Corne

Cutting the ribbon for the opening of a new store seemed an odd job for one of the world's top movie stars but Cate Blanchett had a good reason to last night (apart from the set of new LV luggage delivered to her a few days ago)

Now that Giorgio Armani has dropped out as a sponsor for the Sydney Theatre Company-step forward Louis Vuitton. And the brand comes with it's own champagne label, Moët & Chandon, perfect for those all important patron   parties.

Dita Von Teese has them by the balls

an understated Joh Bailey at a Cointreau Ball

In the late 1960's Princess Soraya of Iran, in Sydney for a visit asked the Gucci clothier Frank Marcovic "is there any such thing as society in Sydney ?." "Of course there is" replied Frank, reeling off a list of names like the Packers, Fairfaxs, Hordens, Graces, Lloyd-Jone sand so on . Most were media proprietors or department store heirs along with the occasional country property dynasty like the Macarthur Onslows.

"One went to parties where they were at and got into the social pages and that was it" says society maven Diana Fisher, once a BlueBell girl in Paris and married to Humphrey Fisher, the son of the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was all lost on Princess Soraya. They were all in trade after all. It went downhill from that point. Parties became and continue to be 'product launches' . Corporations expect lots of free press when they feed and water the media and the so called "A to D" list that seem to ensure a few inches in the social pages.

Budgets are smaller now but were huge in the mid 90's when PR queen Deeta Colvin ruled the roost with her legendary annual Cointreau Balls that lasted a decade.

To even have been to just one was considered a major coup and a step up the social ladder (tSS went to 6).

The Cointreau Balls were planned in great secrecy with guests never knowing where the event was to be held until they actually arrived at it.

Come the big night, the lucky few hundred clutching their invites in whatever costume had been decreed, would wait at their doorstep for a limousine to arrive-every limo in town was booked-to whisk them off to some mystery location, perhaps an abandoned warehouse decorated to fantasy level by party designer David Grant who still organises all major events for internationale Olympic Committee.

Once it was a circus tent in the wilds of the Cronulla sand hills-a road having been bulldozed for the queue of white limos depositing guests. Another was in an abandoned steel mill outside Newcastle. and yet another in the Naval Museum decorated as the Titanic. We all went down with the ship clutching our champers.

The final in the early 2000's was in a fabulous disused art deco cinema in the suburbs with a Hollywood theme (tSS went as a Betty Ford clinician).

It was all just one giant advert for the undrinkable Cointreau which received millions of dollars in free press and presumably cashed in on the sales that followed, done on a smaller budget than imagined says Colvin. And so successful and egalitarian.

One could find oneself seated next to Lord Portalington, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue or Lady Sonia McMahon. Or once when tSS found ourselves deep in conversation with who we presumed was an eccentric artist named Charles Gosford who actually lived in the town of Gosford just outside Sydney.

We thought it highly amusing he should take the ordinary seaside town's name as a title until informed he was actually the Earl of Gosford from Scotland. These were world class parties-the moniker given to everything in a land uncertain of it's station on the planet, much like a new shipping terminal or the upgraded Pitt Street Mall.

A whole team of the brand's French executives would fly in by private jet for the night. Such a long way to travel but the writing was on the wall when the French champagne stopped for the last 2 parties along with the funding of the extravagant balls when they realised that no-one at the events actually drank Cointreau.

No-one was that mad to risk the worst ever hangover even though the limos stayed to deliver the very last guest home safely.

Now it's all about to return. Well partly.

Dita Von Teese , the femme fatale and queen of the fishnet and corset has been invited to fly to Australia in September in her capacity as global brand ambassador for Cointreau for a one-night-only performance of her burlesque show Be Contreauversial.

The show, created for Cointreau is an update of Von Teese's classic "Martini Go.lass" performance in which she discards her scanties and frolics in an over sized martini glass. All rather tame from days past but probably apt for these times.

## As for Frank Marcovic who hosted Princess Soraya all those years ago. He died of a heart attack in 2006 in his Palm Beach house following a lengthy and sweaty encounter with a rent boy who managed to unshackle himself from the bedpost to summons help, alas too late.

Business-like, he enquired of the investigating police officers as Frank's body was removed by the coroner :"will I still get paid ?"

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Twiggy Forrest

Friday : To the Ocean Room at the Overseas Terminal with a host of big names-Christine Anu, James Packer, Russell Crowe ,Cate Blanchett and PM Kevin Rudd for the launch of Generation One. the brainchild of Australia's richest man Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.

Twiggy may be worth a cool $15 Billion but he remembers his roots. Forrest went to a mainly indigenous school and maintained life-long friendships with his Aboriginal schoolmates. Sadly the last one died last year aged only in his 50s.

Forrest is encouraging Big Business to hire more indigenous Australians and hopes to get a least 50,000 in employment within a year.

getting into bed with the Smiths

Mr & Mrs Smith, the British boutique hotel guide experts have finally launched their Australasian guide to the best inns around the country. Not only is this a guide to some of the most interesting and luxurious hotels in some of the most exotic locations , the guide also guarantees the best rates if you book via the Mr & Mrs Smith website

You won't find a Sheraton or Hilton in this book but you will find some fab places where Paris Hilton likes to relax. Victorias at Wategos in northern NSW is one such place where Paris bedded down. It's also hosted David Bowie, James Packer, Mick Jagger, Nicole Kidman and HRH Prince Harry who true to form, caused havoc in the numerous local night spots at the popular Byron Bay resort just around the corner from Wategos beach. (Victorias also has a Lear jet and helicopter on hand)                   
                                                                  Sigrid Thornton

                                                             Victorias at Wategos

Mr & Mrs Smith use a variety of guest writers from all fields to compile their reviews and reports. In this edition actress Sigrid Thornton, Vogue editor Kirstie Clements and party organizer David Grant contribute.
      Grant is the genius event organizer behind the legendary Cointreau Balls (they're now a university study subject) in Sydney and more recently has been overseeing major functions and parties at the last 4 Olympics. He hangs his hat up after the 2012 London games now that reduced budgets are eating into his ability to turn a small drinks affair into a bash never to be forgotten.

The tome was launched at chef Christine Mansfield's new eatery Universal in East Sydney.

       Vogue editor Kirstie Clements & David Grant


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Tonight sees 2 parties that tSS will be at with bells on. The 2010 Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras has it's official launch in Oxford Street with promises of a special star guest (last year it was comedian Joan Rivers) and at the Bennelong Restaurant in the Opera House former Prime Minister Bob Hawke celebrates his 80th birthday with a host of Labor Party luminaries including current PM Kevin Rudd.