Picture Post

The future King & Queen of Australia (etc) are in town showing off their son and heir Prince George.
We've tracked down a snap of grandma Her Maj on a previous tour in 1954 looking quite splendid in a canary yellow Norman Hartnell gown. Katherine's yellow frock is by Roksanda Ilincic.

Meanwhile in Melbourne last week at the Supernova Pop Culture Festival Austin Power's Mini Me actor Verne Troyer  ( above) was a guest. 

 Next month in Sydney get set for a tour in May of Cirque Mother Africa pictured here at their last gig at Dollywood with the irrepressible Dolly Parton.
 Check out the Shuttle's Youtube interview with Le Dolly.

Elton John Goes Potty

The Hope Estate in the beautiful Hunter Valley produces not only excellent wines but has become the venue of choice for visiting performers including Neil Diamond, The Who, Whitney Huston, James Taylor and Carole King. Last week Dolly Parton sang there and this weekend Elton John gives two concerts.

Any excuse to visit the Hunter should be grabbed and vintner Michael Hope by combining with promoters like Michael Chugg has won big time with this concept and is cleaning up. Over the past year he has built a brand new amphitheatre and early next year has George Michael and Rod Stewart in his line-up of star acts.

Hope Estate

Now the local Cessnock Council wants in on the action. Visitors to the Hunter always marvel at the glorious landscape but the roads are a real shocker and full of potholes. Over the past month the council has taken heed of local’s complaints and has been discussing a $50,000 levy to be charged to the concert promoters which would add an extra $3 to ticket prices.

The powerful Tourism Transport Forum says it’s an “absolutely appalling” idea : “you have a council that’s reaped a benefit from having a vineyard on its doorstep for decades and now it wants to tax people for having fun”, seemingly ignoring the notion that Hope has now over taken the Sydney Entertainment Centre for staging large concerts.

Small local business owners are backing the council and one who wished to remain anonymous and who says he represents 30 others told the Shuttle today:

“We have no problem with the Hope Estate concerts but they bring an extra 35,000 people to the Hunter on concert days and few other businesses see a benefit from that. The visitors spend all day at the Hope Estate which controls all their spending. Food and drinks must be purchased at Hope. Hampers cost about $100 and some tickets cost up to $699. The thousands of extra buses and cars are causing havoc on the already creaking roads and we are expected to subsidize the roads for Hope”

Looks like this one may be destined for the courts.

Dolly Parton & Horny Hillbillies

Ms Dolly Parton swept into her Sydney press conference yesterday and the media was treated to a full on  performance.
Dolly's a real professional and armed with just a small bundle of notes she smoothed her way past every curly question with ease. Such as when she was asked to comment on Dr Conrad Murray's guilty verdict in the Michael Jackson death trial.

Dolly said she adored Michael and he was just a little angel, so talented and ..well by the time she was finished there was no way we were going to ever get her to comment on the court case.

Dolly's never had kids with her husband of 45 years Carl Dean but she does have 11 siblings.
"My parents were just horny hillbillies . My husband is not from the country but he is horny." she says,  describing herself as "a white trash princess".

In between praying to God everyday and being inspired by the bible, Dolly says her beauty routine is pretty quick taking only about 30 minutes to get her makeup on and dressed. 
As for her hair :"I don't know how long it takes to get ready as I'm not there at the time" she quips saying she has dozens of wigs.

Dolly also had a nice word to say about Anthony Albanese the Federal Transport Minister who paved the way for Dolly's 14.5-metre bus she'll be travelling in while on tour in Australia.
"I don't know if he's here today, but if he is, you can come up here and I'll smear lip gloss all over you."
Customs had refused permission for the bus to enter the country saying it was too wide for our roads but Albanese sorted that out. Plus a similar back-up vehicle.  Dolly's publicist says the media has no chance of getting snaps of the buses and they'll have no hope in spotting them.
It may be easier than he thinks as the buses are left-hand drive and wider than any other vehicle on the road. Let's hope Dolly looks both ways when alighting as the doors will be on the wrong side as well.

She's already done one show in Perth and one Sydney show is a sell out but she'll be back for another show on the 29th November. 
Below is a clip from Dolly's presser at the Hotel Intercontinental.