Elle of a Town

 Leggy Elle McPherson jetted into town yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 6am and while Whispers was invited to greet her at the airport it was just a tad too early.

McPherson is traveling with the famous fashion snapper Gilles Bensimon to shoot  a cover for..Elle Magazine. But more about this after Tuesday when Whispers gets up close and personal with The Body.

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Sydney town is up for grabs today !

The election to decide who runs Sydney Council will be under way from 6am today and despite a field of candidates the word is that it's down to just two : current Lord Mayor Clover Moore who has held the position for 17 years and current councilor and sister of former PM Tony Abbott, Christine Forster. Although Moore has enjoyed great support from young hipster and the gay community, her grasp on the Mayoral robes could be well & truly shaken by Forster who is openly gay. Forster could lure the huge gay and lesbian (and transgender) community away from Clover with her pledge to revitalize the once Golden Mile of Oxford Street that once had over 15 gay nightclubs, bars and hotels but has since been reduced to just 3.

      Christine Forster                                                                                                                  Clover Moore                                         

                                         

The State government's recent new law that gives businesses within the city 2 votes has seen an extra 20,000 or so businesses register to vote and they may overwhelmingly support Forster. A vox pop poll by Whispers today found surprisingly, a lot of support has shifted from Moore to Forster. We should know by tonight if  a new regime sweeps into office at the Town Hall.

Mrs Keating's Raincoat

Min Keating and our Paul Keating portrait

The Keating clan assembled last week at St Patricks Catholic Church in The Rocks to farewell their beloved matriarch Min Keating who died at the grand age of 94. Min was the mother of former Prime Minister Paul Keating and notable businesswoman Anne Keating. Whispers & Min had a long association first formed via our own late mother who was a long time pal of Min's.
 In the late 90s Whispers held an exhibition of Warholesque style photographic screen prints on a blustery June night in Kings Cross. It was a huge success with many of the portraits being snapped up by their subjects including Kylie Minogue and Elle McPherson along with Lady Mary Fairfax's daughter Anna and brother Charles purchasing a picture of Lady Mary for the family art collection.

Unashamedly influenced by Andy Warhol (he was an old friend) the famed New York society photographer Patrick McMullan who had two regular social pages on Warhol's Interview Magazine flew out for the opening night of the exhibition. Patrick was chuffed to meet members of Sydney society including Lady Sonia McMahon and Min Keating who was pleased to see a portrait of her son Paul in the exhibition. As we all dined later in a nearby restaurant Min finally left at around 2am.

McMullan was startled to receive a rather frantic phone call from Min at his hotel at 7am the next morning. Min had left her raincoat at the restaurant but it was a very special one- purchased by son Paul on one of his Prime Ministerial trips to the UK.
"I dined out on this for weeks to come when I got back to New York" said Patrick later. " Having the PM's mum telephone is like having the US presidents mum on the blower.".
But what has he done with those photos from the night?,  Somewhere in his extensive archive is a series of pics taken after Min left the dinner, of each of the guests parading in Min Keating's fetching leopard print raincoat, including Lady Sonia McMahon!
" I seriously though of holding an exhibition in New York titled The Prime Minister's Mother's Raincoat" said McMullan. "It's the sort of arty thing that goes down well in the Big Apple"

Charles Turns 80

 
Sydney based, Croation born artist Charles Billich (left with wife Christa Billich) has turned 80 and he threw a bash to celebrate. Charles looks at least 10 years younger-how does he do it?
" I surround myself with beautiful people and they keep me young " was the reply and there were heaps of them with around 200 venturing into the sensational Billich Gallery in The Rocks on a Saturday night to party. One thing we love about Charles (apart from the art of course), the Pommery keeps flowing out of his very own stylishly decorated magnums. Here a few snaps from the night and below, some Billich art.
 And not just one birthday cake..80 !. OK they were only cupcakes but it's a neat idea.

Model agent Grant Dwyer & Don Spencer (he's Russell Crowe's dad-in-law) Fran McPherson (yes- she's The Body Elle McPherson's mum), Helen Appelton & Noushin Rahimia

Nightclub boss Karim Gharbi & glam date, Hans Whitman & Shari-Lea Hitchcock, Angela Belle McSweeney

Charles Billich's self portrait & some of his famous nudes

exclusive : More Fallout from the Hacking Scandal

Mary-Ellen Field                                                                                            Mark Colvin

One of the lesser know victims of the tawdry hacking scandal in the UK was the Australian Mary Ellen-Field who guided the career of supermodel Elle McPherson, as reported in the Shuttle in 2011.
Elle became suspicious that messages between her and Field were ending up as gossip items in the media. She unceremoniously sacked Mary-Ellen who had helped McPherson build her reputed $65M fortune.

As has now been discovered Elle's phone had been hacked by News Corp tabloids and Field was innocent. When McPherson sued News Corp the case was settled confidentially and Elle was soon fronting a TV show produced by the corporation.

Field was left in the lurch and launched a lawsuit against News Corp.
Now she has been forced to withdraw after being unable to definitely prove a link between her sacking and the hacking of McPherson's phone. Faced with little help from her former employer (they breed those girls tough in the Shire) she has been left with a huge legal bill, her own and News Corps' costs.

At least Mary-Ellen can hold her head high. As we reported back in April 2011, ABC News radio's Mark Colvin was the first Australian outlet to interview Field over her dilemma.
London born Colvin, one of Australia's most respected broadcasters kept in touch with Field to see how her case was going and they developed a friendship.
And when Mary-Ellen Field discovered Colvin was under-going dialysis she offered him a precious gift : one of her kidneys. The transplant took place in December 2012.
Colvin is now recovering and will hopefully be back on the airwaves soon.
 As the saying goes : It's an ill wind that blows no good. Out of the shocking hacking scandal that has engulfed News Corp, one person has emerged as a heroine with dignity and every reason to hold her head high, albeit facing financial ruin.
Perhaps News Corp could finally show a smidgen of class and pick up Mary-Ellen Field's legal tab.

Jack Vidgen Grows Up

Jack Vidgen at 16 has survived puberty and still has his voice and amazingly, can still hit those high notes. The then 14 year old whose success on Australia's Got Talent  was sealed with a kiss on the cheek from macho Irishman Brian McFadden is still capitalising on his win and has been working non-stop for the last 2 years,
He still has a little trouble with his hand movements though but he's well on the way to becoming an Oz version of Wayne Newton. Las Vegas beckons.

Here he is at the gala G'Day USA dinner in Los Angeles last week where he sang the Star Spangled Banner for an audience of top Aussies like Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Rose Byrne, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Paul Hogan, models Elle McPherson and Miranda Kerr , Hugh Jackman, our favourite Qantas pilot John Travolta.

Here's Jack singing in our exclusive video from the event :


 

Vale James Miller.
Popular publican and man about town James Miller has been found dead by friends from a suspected overdose at the young age of 38.
Miller owned some of Sydney's most popular inner-city pubs : The Norfolk in Surry Hills and The Santa Barbara in Kings Cross.
Handsome, outgoing and friendly, Miller was named last year in Fairfax Media's Sydney Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People.

Packer or Branson for Byron Bay?

It's the talk of Byron Bay : the star's hide-away Rae's on Wategos has been put on the market by owner Vincent Rae and the word is that entrepreneur Richard Branson is interested in adding the boutique hotel to his chain of luxury inns that include a small palace in Morocco , two islands and the magnificent Roof Gardens atop a department store in London which features 1.5 acres of English countryside complete with flamingos.

Vincent Rae

James Packer

 Rae's is situated on Wategos Beach which is just around the corner from the main part of Byron Bay and features sweeping views of the ocean, lush gardens - part designed by Salvador Dali- 8 penthouses and a clientele to die for : Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, Keith Richards and Elle McPherson all stay there.

Byron locals say a Virgin big-wig was spotted in town last week and Richard Branson is a regular guest. It's the sort of hotel that would fit in perfectly with the Branson stable and the local council has approved plans for an underground car park, new terrace, spa and cocktail bar. But does the Virgin boss have a rival?

Branson's Necker Island

Branson's Kasbah Tamadot in Morroco

Rae's is also one of billionaire James Packer's favourite holiday spots in Australia and a local in the know has told us that a Packer associate has made discreet enquiries about the sale. And the price?. Only very interested parties are being told but earlier this year a duplex opposite the beach and near Rae's went for $9M. A fraction of what Rae's would be worth.

Bodies Everywhere-Floating In Water

To our favourite art gallery in Woolahra-the Tim Olsen Gallery for a new exhibition by Martine Emdur (pictured below).

Vee & Grant

Fran McPherson & Sarah Grant

Martine is known for her oil paintings executed on a grand scale with the main subject being nude swimmers submerged under water.
Emdur, from Bondi Beach captures her great love of water and presents timeless images of the human form enjoying expansive surfaces of uninterrupted water. The languid nudes surrender themselves to the ocean, their warm bodies juxtaposed against the cool water.

She's been exhibiting at major galleries around Australia for over ten years and is a collector's favourite with prices ranging from $6000 for a smaller work and up to $80,000 for one of the large canvases.
Isn't there some sort of Freudian treatise on all this water-something to do with sex?. Perhaps we'll ask her famous brother, the TV star Larry Emdur next time we see him. 

PJ Lane & Ashley Talbot

You can be sure when Martine exhibits the gallery will be packed and the red dots numerous. Amongst what looked like a well heeled crowd: top auctioneer Tim Goodman, model agent Grant Dwyer with a stunning blonde named Vee Troyak. (is Vee his new discovery?). P.J Lane turned up with his new girlfriend Ashley Talbot but they don't really want folks to know they are an item. So we wont tell a soul. Also there- photographer Rex Dupain (right with Tim Olsen) and one of Australia's hardest working models Sarah Grant who brought her pal Fran McPherson. 

You may have heard of Fran's oldest daughter who is also a model-Elle McPherson.

Martine Emdur at the Tim Olsen Gallery 4-22nd April.
 63 Jersey Road, Woollahra 61 2 9327 3922  

Out & About In London & Paris

Collette Dinnigan has shown her latest Spring/Summer range in Paris where she always draws praise from fashionistas and style writers.

When she returned to the States Nicole Kidman donned a Dinnigan design for that all important airport snap when she departed from Sydney earlier this month while model Jessica Gomez (right) was spotted in Collette Dinnigan tangerine sparkles bustier dress in Las Vegas last month

                                                   

Yasmin Le Bon and Elle McPherson ( above) ham it up at the Women of Beauty and Style Awards in London at Fitzrovia’s Sanderson Hotel . Both models ( who are 47) won Rodial’s Beautiful Awards .


left : Nick Minchin and pals party at the NME ( New Musical Express) Awards after party at the Wyld Bar in Leicester Square.

pictures by Dave Bennett











 # Chris Hemsworth is starring in Ron Howard's new film Rush about champion driver Niki Lauda and the 1976 crash that almost claimed his life.
Hemsworth takes the role of an old Shuttle pal, the racing legend James Hunt who died of a heart attack in 1993. Hunt was a charming and likable cove who was a regular on the social circuit in London and Paris. The Shuttle once caught a lift in the same car as the racing driver to a weekend party at the British Playboy Mansion Stocks in Hertfordshire.

James Hunt

Chris Hemsworth

Our driver was a well know Sydneysider who had a reputation as a speedster and who  had just purchased an enormous four wheel drive, then a rarity. The roads to Stocks were pretty smooth and he put his foot on the accelerator presumably to impress champion Hunt sitting in the back seat.
 Trying to engage Hunt in conversation was impossible. He remained ashen faced the entire journey and gripped the back of the front seat. Later over a drink at Stocks we asked him why he was silent on the trip down : " I simply cannot stand speed unless I'm in the driving seat" was the reply.

Aussies on The European Catwalk

 

YOU CAN'T MOVE on the European fashion cat-walks at present for Aussies-Miranda Kerr, Gemma Ward and the androgynous beauty Andrej Pejic (a favourite of Jean Paul Gaultier)

The way was paved of course by the likes of Elle McPherson , but now male twins-the Stenmarks (left) are becoming the ones to watch.

Zac and Jordan Stenmark have appeared in shows for Calvin Klein along with a host of other Australian male models as reported by noted fashion writer Patty Huntington who regularly prowls the fashion precincts of Europe and the USA and writes the informative frockwriter blog.

The Stenmarks hail from Mosman in Sydney and are the sons of former 80's models Susie Stenmark and Stuart Darcy and they come with impeccable social credentials.

Georgia & Paul Stenmark

Andrej Pejic

Second cousin (also) Susie Stenmark was the communications manager for Chanel for many years and before that, the Park Hyatt hotel. 

Another cousin Paul Stenmark is the marketing manager for Laurent Perrier champagne (we lurve Paul!) and is married to the photographer Georgia Moxham whose best pal is Gretel Packer, the late Kerry Packer's much loved daughter .

Lots Of Stars At The World's Most Costly Building

In report after report we are brought the news that the former Star City Casino at Sydney's Darling Harbour has received a much needed make-over (it's rather nice now) that cost a whopping $961 million dollars. (The Shuttle's resident architect says this must rate as the most expensive building  renovation ever undertaken on the planet and suggests the owners re-check their invoices.)

Now re-named The Star, a series of parties have been thrown to show case the joint and it is rather splendid. Leo Di Caprio has even taken a whole floor in the sumptuous hotel tower (reputedly provided free of charge).

We do hope they have enlarged the elevators. The Shuttle was once almost throttled by action star Jean Claude Van Damme in the hotel's lift. It's a long story for another time.

Last night they had a party but Leo avoided the red carpet and inside introduced star act Stevie Wonder to a glittering audience that included Elle McPherson, Tobey McGuire and Russel Crowe.

You can see a couple of photos from the event at the New s Corp's Daily Telegraph which has billed one as  World Exclusive Photo. You have to congratulate the Tele who have had an amazing run of good luck at getting some exclusive snaps of Leo driving cars, on the set of his new film at Fox Studios and so on.

The fact that News Corp owns the Tele, Fox Studios and has invested a mega sum in the new production being filmed at Fox The Great Gatsby (in glorious 3D) is of course, entirely co-incidental.

Irrelevent / Irreverent Fact :Anti-gambling campaiging MP Nick Xenophon on his website It's A Big Fat Lie reckons $12 billion a year is lost on poker machines.

Blast From The Past & Fashion Divas

Sue & Joy Smithers

Following the success of her Fashion Divas of the 70s & 80s party night last week at Slide, former top model Sue Smithers is planning another nostalgia night.

Susie, who trod the catwalks of Paris, London and New York for legendary designers like Valentino and the Yves St Laurent, and her actress sister Joy Smithers organised the get together of top Australian names who were big in the 1970s and 80s and some who are still going strong today.

Agents like Peter Chadwick , Jane Cameron and Martin Walsh  (who looks after Elle McPherson), photographers, make-up artists, Deborah Thomas, an international star model in hey day-now editor in chief of the Woman's Weekly, Deborah Hutton , Terry Schwamberg and hairdressers Lloyd and Trish Lomas.

Martin & Michelle Walsh

Joy Smithers who has acted in a host of top films and TV shows like Bangkok Hilton and Home and Away and Susie now spend a lot of time on the speaker's circuit and the night at Slide was to aid a charity close to their hearts : Hope for Cambodian Children.

Terry Schwamberg

And Susie tells me she now has another top night lined up in Victoria Street, Kings Cross- an Arthur's re-union.

Arthur's was the Kings Cross club and restaurant run by Arthur Karvan  and was the coolest nightclub in Sydney for a decade. Every visiting star ended up in a booth at Arthur's gazing over it's balcony at the amazing views of the city skyline or sometimes took to the suspended dance floor that was so packed it shook and shuddered and many wondered how it remained standing-or suspended. It did and it's still there today.

And the little girl in pigtails who often stood shyly on the side on weekends as her parents, Arthur and Gabriel Karvan worked the room ? That was actress Claudia Karvan now starring in the TV series Spirited.

the ever so cool- Arthur Karvan of 'Arthur's'

Aussie Victim of Britain's Phone Hacking Scandal

James Murdoch who has just been appointed as third in command of the mighty News Corp's USA operations has said that the phone hacking scandal in Britain has been "put in a box". But that Pandora's Box threatens to burst open in unexpected ways.

Collateral damage may be far and wide and open up even more lawsuits from those not directly hacked but who have also suffered because of the illegal phone taps.

It's already been aknowledged that model Elle McPherson was one celebrity whose mobile phone voice-mail messages were illegally listened to by the tabloid  News of The World employees, but one of her innocent associates ended up being sacked because of it.

 Mary Ellen Field was the Australian brand manager, legal adviser and confidante of Elle who advised and worked on McPherson's hugely successful range of personalised merchandise that has earned the supermodel a reputed $60 million dollar fortune.

When Elle McPherson discovered that messages between her and her adviser Field were mysteriously ending up as gossipy items in the media, she sacked the firm Mary Ellen worked for. As has been since discovered, Field and her employer were innocent of revealing Elle's confidential information.

On Friday the ABC radio broadcaster Mark Colvin spoke to Field's lawyer Mark Lewis who has issued court proceedings in Britain against News Corp on Field's behalf and who described the recent offer from News for compensation as not being quite all that it seems

Lewis responded to Colvin's question on compensation : " It's only partially true. What has been said by the Murdoch companies is that if a claim can be proved, that they will then compensate the people but the criteria that had been set out by Murdoch - I mean, it's very different, I mean we have a position where they're sort of playing Australian Rules Football and the game we're playing is cricket; they're just two different criteria. "

Read the full transcript on ABC News PM here, listen to the broadcast and download podcasts of previous ABC shows.

 ** The UK's Dail Mail has run a story on Andrew Bolt's continuing court case in which he is being sued by 9 Indigenous folk in a piece headlined : ''They're not really Aborigines': Right-wing columnist sparks race row in Australia".

The case has brought Bolt some unlikely supporters like the Sydney Morning Herald's legal columnist Richard Akland and the top political website crikey.com.au, neither of which could be accused of leaning to the right in the political spectrum with many saying the case amounts to an attack upon free speech.


Bolt : ABC TV



In the past Bolt has questioned the veracity of Climate Change claims and if there really was a Stolen Generation- the practice of white 'protectors' forcibly removing Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander children to assimilate them into mainly white religious missions.

Aboriginal activists say the opposite as in this piece "An open letter to Andrew Bolt from a “half-caste”, “yella fella”, “half-breed” Kungarakan-Gurindji woman"
Read the full story at the Mail Online here.

Kelly & Belly Secretly Wed

Kelly & Belly

He looks after the finances of a host of celebrities like Russell Crowe and Elle McPherson and some of Australia's top business people. She is the gorgeous host of the travel show Getaway

Anthony Bell and Kelly Landry wed in secret in Queenstown , New Zealand 2 weeks ago.

On Friday evening they threw a bash at the exclusive Rose Bay water-side restaurant Catalina for 200 pals, amongst them actress Holly Brisley, TV host Larry Emdur , boxer Danny Green and society maven Marie Sutton.

Known as Kelly & Belly to friends, Anthony Bell's firm Bell Partners  regularly tops the list of the Business Review Weekly (BRW) magazine's most productive performing companies.

 He also owns the enormous gin palace Ghost which is often used for celebrity harbour cruises including by Bono last year and Prince Frederick & Princess Mary of Denmark.