Duncan Fallowell , a Long Lunch & "Massive C*ck"

Duncan Fallowell

The Wikipedia claim that travel writer, author and social commentator Duncan Fallowell was also the famous British blogger Madame Arcati- as reported on the Shuttle,  turns out to be a hoax.

This will come as a great relief to both writers who were besieged by readers demanding an explanation -quite apart from Fallowell and Arcati being mortified that others may think they were one and the same person.

It was  another piece of Wikipedia mischief where posters slightly alter entries.
Some famous ones include an entry in singer Robbie William's page that "in 2006 he ate pet hamsters for a living in and around Stoke ": that the entire village of Denshaw near Greater Manchester was "the home to an obese population of sun-starved, sheep hurling yokels with a brothel for a pub and a lingering tapeworm infection " :  that "Italians drink children’s blood." :   that US pro-golfer Fuzzy Zoeller had admitted to "polishing off a fifth of Jack after popping a handful of Vicodin pills": that  David Beckham "was a Chinese goalkeeper in the 18th century." :  Plato was "an ancient Hawaiian weather man and surfer " and our favourite : Stephen Fry " regularly wears a gorilla suit to bed.

Who then is Madame Arcati ?. Well that mystery is still to be solved but we believe one man may hold the secret : writer Victor Olliver, star astrologer for the English publication The Lady, who is known to be an intimate of Arcati.

Karl Stefanovic : "long lunch, massive c*ck ""

Still, these Wikipedia frauds are no-where near as good as the tale perpetuated by celebrity TV interviewer Richard Wilkins who launched his book Black Ties, Red Carpets, Green Rooms last week at Kit & Kaboodle.
In 2009 Wilkins announced on the Today Show that actor Jeff Goldblum had died after falling down a cliff in New Zealand. The story swept the world in news reports before an embarrassed Wilkins said he had been the victim of a hoax.
And was this a hoax ? Launching Wilkin's book, TV presenter Karl Stefanovic, fresh from a long lunch with Channel Nine boss David Gyngell,  said ( in front of Wilkin's three children) there were three things he knew about Wilkins : "he has great hair, he's a great bloke, and he has a massive c*ck " !


For more on Duncan Fallowell's books go to his website here.
Madame Arcati has an excellent review of Fallowell's book here. 
 Victor Olliver's astrology website is here.

Sexual Frenzy & Unmasking the Real Madame Arcati

Duncan Fallowell  ( Prospect Magazine)

 The novelist and travel writer Duncan Fallowell has a remarkable revelation.

In his latest book, How To Disappear : A Memoir for Misfits Fallowell says he had 40 ‘sexual partners’ in the month following Princess Diana’s death, ‘including a group of women in a naturist Jacuzzi in Brighton.’ We learn this in an interview with the writer conducted by the British Blogger Madame Aracti.

Princess Diana's funeral in 1997

The Evening Standard's Londoner's Diary has also picked up the tale :

“People were impassioned but slowed right down, which are the two best conditions for sex,”. “On September 29, several weeks after all these events, I noted in my journal that I’d had 40 sexual partners in the month following Diana’s death, including a group of women in a naturist Jacuzzi in Brighton where I’d found myself by chance.“Most of the encounters had something accidental about them, and were not coarse or contrived. I’m not bragging. And I’m not going into details. But I’ve known nothing like it since and it wasn’t only me. One could hardly venture out without some interaction taking place in which strangers became friends.“It reached an airy culmination off Portobello Road around 10.30 one morning. I was on my way to buy fruit from Nellie’s barrow when a pair of eyes crossed my path, there was the look, I followed him down an alleyway and hey, presto, it was all happening, screened by the packing cases in a little warehouse behind Woolworth’s.”Well, how was it for you?

The Shuttle has read two of Fallowell's travel books : One Hot Summer in St Petersburg and Going As Far As I Can about his travels in New Zealand. That book upset the Kiwis badly which alone should be an endorsement. Both books are a superb read and Fallowell has some heavyweight fans. Graham Greene became one as did William S.Burroughs.

But researching Duncan Fallowell via the Internet we came across this intriguing piece in his Wikileak's page :

"Fallowell currently maintains a weblog Madame Arcati."

Is it true ?. We should be told.

you call that a drag queen ?

       Trolley dollies on Air New Zealand have got their knickers in a twist over their new uniforms (pictured right). The hosties complain that their new threads make them look like 'drag queens off the Mardi Gras 'pink' flight".

     

One commented to a NZ newspaper "I haven't worn that colour since I was 5".  The uniforms were designed by top NZ fashion designer  Trelise Cooper (left).

He based the print design on the Maori symbol, the 'koru', a name given to the new unfurling fern frond and symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace. It's also the corporate design of Air NZ.

tSS hasn't been to the Land of the Long White Cloud ( and is not sure if we should after reading Duncan Fallowell's Going As Far As I Can) but we do have a rather batty aunt there who married a confirmed bachelor Knight of the Realm so he could get respectability and she in turn, the title Lady.

       Once when she visited Sydney tSS drove her to see Bondi Beach where she commented on the number of dark-hued folk about and upon hearing they were mainly Maoris who seemed to love the beachside suburb she replied.."really ! New Zealand seems to be getting lots of them there too !". Well she is slightly crackers and drinks a lot of gin.

            If we ever do travel there (which is likely to be soon on a mysterious project at the amazing Peter Jackson film studios) we will surely catch the Mardi Gras 'pink' flight".

     

      

 But do these uniforms really look like 'drag queen ' outfits ?. More like furnishing coverings to us and really-who cares what the person asking "beef or chicken ?" really is clothed in ?. The only requirement I have is that the pilot is sober, unlike me, on long haul flights.

And they certainly don't look like our favourite Maori drag queen Carmen (left).

            

 tSS has found the perfect Hostie outfit for the new Mardi Gras 'pink' flight. (right). We think we might put the idea to Virgin airline boss Sir Richard Branson (left) with the idea he launches regular Mardi Gras 'pink' flights.


Afterall he took up tSS's suggestion to introduce live entertainment on his first London to New York flights a long time ago. We reckon it's a winner of an idea.

we are the new media

So says film-maker and artist Bruno Grasswill the son of a noted French film director. Bruno was filming everything that moved and didn't, at the launch of top foodie Lyndey Milan's 4th book The Best Collection. Bruno is also married to top ABC TV producer Helen Grasswill, the driving force behind the hugely successful Australian Story (which featured the Shuttle once-we are biased) and Oz sections for the US series Entertainment Tonight.

Both were guests at the swell shindig given by Lyndey's merchant banker boyfriend in his magnificent duplex apartment in the Ikon building in Kings Cross. The Ikon is the home away from home (and the best kept secret until now) of Hollywood royalty and visiting film stars working at the near-by Fox Studios.With the most commanding views of the Sydney skyline from the harbor heads to the Opera House and beyond, it's hard to top these homes.

Lyndey presents food sections on the top morning show hosted by Kerri Anne Kennerley and is food editor on the Packer family pride and joy, the Woman's Weekly (which is published monthy to confuse readers). She is also a hostess with mostess-in every way. Bruno also painted a fab portrait of Lyndey for beau John and when our party gal saw it she immediately requested more cleavage should be added. Those who know the lovely Lyndey know this is par for the course. Delicious nibbles at the party came from Lyndey's recipes and were passed around by the handsome waiters from Mandy Foley-Quin's Stedmans (the French government is trying to lure this top caterer to Paris).
                                  


Food legend Margaret Fulton launched the book. At 85 , Scot's born Margaret has now sold millions of cookbooks and knows a great chef when she sees one.  In between glasses of champers and vintage wines from Lyndey's own cellar we forced down Bloody Mary shooters with oysters. And every time we tried to leave another crate of French champagne was wheeled out. Who are we to disappoint ?. No-one can actually re-call what time they left but the Shuttle woke up this morning clutching a bottle of wonderful Taittinger. Get the book now. For Christmas.

                       




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A darling of the new media Madame Arcati features a video on her blog by writer Duncan Fallowell. It's a superb piece titled  Andy Warhol in Church :



Check out Fallowell's books on his site. They are really very good. Put him on your reading list.Now.

getting it wrong again..

The increasingly tiresome 20 to 1 gets it wrong again.

Hosted by the amiable Bert 'Moonface' Newton, the show that has a bunch of minor celebrities commenting on other celebrities, including this character who claims he is "king of the UK paparazzi', Darryn Lyons whose rainbow coloured hair still doesn't detract from his pudding shaped face.

Lyons made a gaffe to rival the dud TV show he fronted in Australia and his autobiography that was launched in a blaze of publicity and was soon forgotten.

Moonface Bert above pudding faced Darryn (right)

Guffawing that Bond girl Caroline Cossey was exposed as the "first sex change " to appear in a film (For Your Eyes Only) in 1981, Lyons ignores the fact that one of the most famous cases of gender reassignment surgery, April Ashley appeared in The Road to Hong Kong with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby 2 decades before.

The story appeared in Duncan Fallowell's 1982 biography of Ashley, April Ashley's Odyssey.

April's auto-biography The First Lady (published by the distinguished John Blake) had to be pulped when it was discovered to be a re-hash of Fallowell's book. Ashley had claimed affairs with Michael Hutchence, Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif amongst other notables although most denied it .

April should have taken Shelley Winter's advice to a gal pal who needed more lovers to spice up her book when Shelly advised.."if they're gay or dead just say they were lovers and they'll never deny it". At least she was right in Hutchence's case.

# Lyon's Big Picture agency and others like Splash could be badly affected by the new law signed in California today by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that will severely restrict the intrusive actions of the "stalkarazzi' as they are known. The law will put the onus on photographers agencies and publishers of material equally with large fines making them all liable to law suits from aggrieved celebs who claim their privacy has been breached. Which isn't often in Hollywood where the norm is to have your publicist phone ahead to alert the media when one is out on a private shopping excursion.But it does give stars even more control over their public image.

Most LA agencies only have themselves to blame. For the last 10 years they have been loading up unemployed immigrants with cameras, sending them out into the streets en masse to surround a star's house or car to cause havoc. Payment for any resultant photograph is filtered down to the increasingly desperate snappers. Something had to give.

for those about to visit Nu Zulund...

If you haven't discovered the writer Duncan Fallowell then you are missing something important. His book about his travels in New Zealand, Going As Far As I Can is a must read if you are about to hit the snow-fields or anywhere in that amazingly beautiful country. NZ is every bit as sensational as seen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy which only showed a fraction of some of the glorious countryside. Much like Britain or Ireland but without the motorways.

Fallowell's book hit a few raw nerves in NZ itself but was generally viewed as one of the best travel books about any country...and anyway, we all know most Nu Zelunders are barking mad and talk funny but there must be a reason HRH The Queen owns extensive properties there.

Fallowell's wikopedia entry reports " Graham Greene did not like his first novel but thought it belonged to the 21st century. William Burroughs relished his books " . That's a bit like a recommendation from the Gods.

Now Britain's most infuriating blogger Madame Arcati brings news of Fallowell's new venture, a ghost book named The Visitor. She has a creepy video on her site, set in a rambling old house to introduce the novel and drum up interest.

One commenter on Aracti's site asks where it was filmed. The house looks similar to Sherston, the home of the late Lady Edith Foxwell which the Shuttle spent many a weekend at.

The strange figure who arises from the sofa at the end -believed to be Duncan Fallowell, reminds us of the greeting we always got from Lady Edith's butler-similarly relaxed and always delighted when guests arrived. Being in that he always phoned ahead to request they bring the odd dozen bottles of mixed spirits ( Edith's credit having been cut off at the local village vinter).

You will have to visit the Madame Arcati blog to see Fallowell's spooky video but here's another of his we like-talking about drugs at Oxford.




ps: Duncan Fallowell also wrote a biography of April Ashley, the former Liverpudlian sailor who became one of the world's most famous sex-changes . One of the Shuttle staff often visited April in her house in Hay-on-Wye and once accompanied her to the Berkley Square Ball in the days it was still smart-only to be featured the next day in a photo in the Daily Mail and a piece by the late diarist Nigel Dempster as "April Ashley's new Toyboy".

For some strange reason, Ashley's auto-biography recently had to be pulped over a misunderstanding with her publisher and Shuttle associate John Blake-described by the magazine Private Eye as the "distinguished London publisher". You can get other Blake book titles from his website which features exciting titles like "Katie and Peter - Too Much In Love by  Emily Herbert (yes, a tome about that mystery couple),, Jade - Fighting to the End by..err Jade Goody (I guess before the end came), and our favourite Global Warming and Other Bollocks

For more of Duncan Fallowell's great books, go to his website.

pps: thank you for the many emails pointing out the shocking spelling and grammar errors that appear on the Social Shuttle but we must point out that both Shuttlers suffer from slight dyslexia, are often hungover or just plain drunk when hitting the keyboard. Errors are eventually corrected when our charming assistant Sally arrives in the early afternoon. But feel free to mock the afflicted-we can take it !