The Oprah Bandwagon Arrives

They're streaming in from all over the country. The 7000 who have won tickets to attend the 2 Oprah Winfrey shows to be filmed at the Sydney Oprah House. Later today another few hundred arrive from the USA in a Qantas 747 piloted by movie star John Travolta.

On Wednesday Oprah herself and her personal staff arrive  in Cairns in QLD on Oprah's own jet.

When she finally arrives in Sydney on the 10th, a cavalcade of limos will speed her and the entourage to the Four Seasons Hotel near Circular Quay in an extraordinary move that is reminiscent of a US presidential visit. Accompanying Oprah is her great friend Gayle King who is also editor-at-large of O Magazine. Oprah and Gayle will share adjoining hotel suites.

Not only will police give Oprah an escort, traffic will be stopped along the motorway to ensure her trip, normally a 20 minute drive gets the US chat show host to her hotel in 10 minutes.

A dozen local security personnel (armed with pistols) have been hired to supplement Winfrey's own security guards and local and Federal police will be on hand. All locals who have been hired to work with Oprah have been required to sign confidentiality agreements. If anyone is found to disclose personal information and it's proved to have come from them, they are required to pay back twice what they are paid to work for her.

And the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be adorned with a giant O sign during her stay .Welcome to the Oprah roadshow.

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The historic Sydney Barrack's  Mint last night hosted the after party for the film  premier of Love and Other Drugs with the stars of the film  Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway on hand. They were a pretty friendly couple, chatting to guests and circulating at ease for about 15 minutes.

Naturally both love Sydney (when has any visiting celeb said differently ?...Eminen the only one who hated the place).

# actor Ryan Kwanten has returned to the USA after winning the GQ Magazine Man of The Year Award. Kwanten's star continues to rise in the States with the success of the vampire series True Blood. Oddly no Australian TV outlet has yet picked up the popular cult series.

And actor Firass Dirani who portrayed the 'colourful' Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim in the hugely successful series Underbelly 3 won the Actor of The Year Award. Dirani has just finished filming The Killer Elite with Robert de Niro.

A victory for the little man !

To the Channel 7 studios for a public performance by Justin Bieber. This was a dangerous mission. About five thousand teenyboppers were there in the streets in the grip of Biebermania. Bieber is minute, tiny-perfectly formed. Undeniably as cute as a button, confident and extremely professional.

Someone I first mistook for a slightly older fan, his mum, confirmed my suspicions. Far from being a phenomena on youtube with the home produced films of his singing, Justin has been attending every known class for dance and song since he was about 3. Which isn't long ago.

The police called off the outside performance claiming it unsafe. Those of us privileged to be inside stood as far as we could from the giant plate glass windows facing Martin Place that seemed to throb as waves of tearful hysteria come from the wild eyed girls in the street.

Justin was singing and dancing in front of us, the fans outside were going berserk. 3 constables manned the barricades just a metre from the windows which I was sure were about to crack as the girls surged forward to rip little Justin to pieces. There wouldn't be much of Justin to go around.

Firass Dirani

Another small star had a victory of some sorts. Firass Dirani who stars as nightclub promoter John Ibrahim in the purported tale of Kings Cross police corruption Underbelly, The Golden Mile has been voted Cosmo's Bachelor Of The Year at the Zeta Bar in the Hilton Hotel. Firass is about the same size as Bieber but thankfully, the camera lies. He looks like a 6 foot hunk in the series. He does have piercing blue eyes though. Or are they contacts?.

By contrast the party at the Bulgari on the same night to launch their exhibition of famous jewellery was as good as it gets. The chilled Louis Roederer champagne and Belinda Frank's catering helped.

The Bulgari family have been buying up some of their previous masterpieces for years and this exhibition features some of the treasures. It was in Rome last week, will be in Sydney for another 7 days and then heads for Paris. They won't quite say who owned some of the diamonds and rubies but a few names get mentioned in passing.

Diamond Liz

The Duchess of Manchester was a Bulgari fan. Elizabeth Taylor still is. Apparently when Liz was filming Cleopatra and began her affair with Richard Burton, her then husband Eddie Fisher plied her with Bulgari jewels in an effort to woe her back.

Burton did likewise and won the fight. Taylor ended getting Fisher's invoice from Bulgari which he had refused to pay. Bulgari never did get payment but figured having Liz wearing their creations was more than enough in publicity value.

The Seven Wonders

One amazing necklace must be seen to be believed. The Seven Wonders of The World is one large emerald surrounded by 6 slightly smaller ones in a diamond encrusted necklace. That's about 160 carats of emeralds and around 116 of diamonds.

It was purchased by an Italian industrialist as a wedding present for his wife. Years later when she had to go into an aged nursing home she sold it back to Bulgari on the understanding it wouldn't be re-sold while she was alive.

When she was filling in the form for the retirement home she got to the part that said "occupation'. "I've never worked " she puzzled." what should I put " She wrote-'well off' !.