Skye hits 60

 right: party girl Skye Leckie with fashion journalist Melissa Hoyer

Skye Leckie has reached 60 (believe me, that seems very young to some of us) and she held a shindig to celebrate at her Southern Highlands farm. Skye recently featured in the "reality" TV show Filthy Rich & Homeless where she lived on the streets for a time to see just what it was like. It made for riveting TV especially for a lady who enjoys a fairly sumptuous house in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs with her family and husband, the former TV boss David Leckie plus a pretty nice stretch of land in the ritzy south. As a dedicated charity worker- she's helped raise $millions for the children's hospital in Randwick Skye put her expertise to work and housed one homeless family she met during her homeless experiment.

Check out the magnificent hat on guest Jonathan Ward in our snap. Jonathan is the designer for the famed R.W.Williams and his fashions feature in stores around the world.
There to cheer on Skye: publicists Deeta Colvin and Nikki Andrews who between them created the legendary Cointreau Balls that guests flocked to from all over the world during their heyday in the roaring nineties.
********************************************************************************

Our exclusive snap here shows film director Baz Luhrmann who is now living in New York and developing new film projects.

Last week he was in Queensland celebrating here with the QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the occasion: Baz is to film a new biopic of Elvis Presley on the Gold Coast. I guess it has a passing resemblance to Memphis.

Prime Minister Update

 We like to keep tabs on the Prime Ministers of the world. They're very busy. In the above snap former Oz PM Kevin Rudd interviewed- as he called him..the Comeback Kid of Malaysian politics, 93 year old PM Mahathir Mohamad.

In New York where New Zealand PM Jacinta Arden is wowing the United Nations, former Australian PM Julia Gillard interviewed her for the New York Times.

Ms Gillard gets about- she was in Berlin yesterday meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

 And last but not least, our newly minted Oz PM Scott Morrison partied this week with celebrity hairdresser Joh Bailey at the beautiful Southern Highlands' property of David & Skye Leckie.
And Malcolm Turnbull?. We'll let you know shortly as we are sure to encounter him next week somewhere around the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

How Tom Cruise aided James Packer

Some remarkable revelations in the new book by Pamela Williams Killing Fairfax which is published today.
When James Packer feel into a slump in 2001 after some less that stellar business dealings, he came under the care of superstar Tom Cruise who helped boost James back to his old self. Cruise and Packer have been friends for years and Tom has holidayed on James' converted ice-breaker the Arctic P on the Mediterranean and attended James and Erica Baxter's wedding.
The association gave rise to the rumour that James had joined the Church of Scientology under Cruise's guidance.

Most of the Scientology reports appeared in Fairfax newspapers, now disliked by James. His father Kerry Packer was furious at the reports and sent Fairfax boss Fred Hilmer a copy of the United Nations Human Rights charter warning him  that he was violating the charter. The book also says James Packer rounded on Fred Hilmer at PM Julia Gillard's Christmas party last year at Kirribilli House telling him "Don't come up and try to be my friend...Fred. Fuck off."

James Packer is known for not suffering fools gladly. In 2009 it's reported he told  Nine Network  supremo David Leckie also to "fuck off' at a party for Sam Chisholm at the Sydney Opera House and then invited Leckie outside to ''sort this out".

James with Jodhi ...and wife Erica

At a Nine Network TV season launch at Garden Island when James with then wife Jodhi Meares, he spotted News Ltd gossip writer Ros Reines, called her aside and tore strips off her over reporting about his private life.

when media moguls collide..

                               Sam Chisholm                                                 David Leckie
 

Days out from the launch of Paul Barry's James Packer biography comes news of a  confrontation at the Opera House's Bennelong Restaurant at a party to  celebrate the career of 5'2" powerhouse and former Channel Nine boss and Packer associate Sam Chisholm.

As David Leckie-the man who is credited with bringing the Channel Seven network to the fore on behalf of billionaire owner Kerry Stokes  (and rewarded with yearly $10M bonuses)-approached the son of his former boss Kerry Packer , James rounded on Leckie and told him to "f**k off' in front of startled on-lookers and then invited Leckie outside to "sort this out".

James Packer is apparently furious over Channel 7's coverage of his business affairs. Leckie, who once worked for Packer and who has not long recovered from an unfortunate incident where a car door slammed on his finger which turned septic and became a life and death emergency, remained calm.

As the 2  6'2" media moguls stood nose to nose, tiny Sam, known as Little Rambo in board rooms and worth over $100M calmly reached for another drink.