Ladies Who Lunch

B/W Chair Susan Diver * TV news reader Natarsha Belling * Mem Fox * Julia Baird * Dame Marie Bashir * Kate Carnell

 The Black and White Charity Committee raises funds for Vision Australia to provide support services for children and their families.  Each year they hold the Women Of Achievement lunch at the Four Season's Hotel at Circular Quay.
This is a great event: every penny raised goes to the charity as the ladies on the B/W Committee, cajole, beg, borrow and steal every aspect of the day. They are all unpaid volunteers and it's a pretty good achievement in itself to be able to draw over 500 attendees as they did this year, to pack the hotel ballroom.
Three distinguished ladies of "achievement" give a speech outlining their career and how they got there. Most started from humble beginnings This years speakers were Mem Fox who is married to the billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, ABC TV presenter Julia Baird and Kate Carnell former Chief Minister of the ACT and currently the Ombudsman for Small Business.
Among the guests, Gina Rinehart arguably the world's richest woman with a mining fortune and Dame Marie Bashir former NSW Governor, Professor Ross Steele, one of world's great experts on the French language and Olympian Jessica Gallagher.

Judith Crawley * Daniel Trelease * Maria Finlay * Professor Steele* Jessica Gallagher * Mike Levendi

Women of Achievement

The Black and White Committee has been established for over sixty years now and is made up of a team of hard working ladies who organise several fund raising functions each year. 
Uniquely every single penny raised goes to aid Children’s Services Development Fund of Vision Australia. The Women of Achievement annual lunch was held this year at the Four Seasons Hotel near Circular Quay with over 440 guests who turned up to listen to this year's speakers : actress Marta Dusseldorp, SBS broadcaster Jenny Brockie and the president of the Human Rights Commission Professor Gillian Triggs pictured here in our snap.
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 I Got You Babe
Pictured left is the Black and White Committee's publicist Angela Belle McSweeney. Angela is the mum of Juliet Love who is married to horticultural expert Charlie Albone who is often seen on Foxtel cable TV shows. 
Charlie picked up yet another award at this year's Chelsea Garden Show where he is becoming a fixture. It was at Charlie's garden exhibit attended by Juliet and her mother Angela and Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge that the entire world got to hear that Kate's name for William is 'Babe' when the pair were admiring Charlie's peonies display. 
Isn't that fun ! 



below: Charlie Albone & Juliet Love   William & Kate

Whispers can also be read in the print copies of LatteLife Newspapers distributed in the city of Sydney, Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and the Southern Highlands of NSW.

Lunching With Dame Edna Everage

Sad to see young Cody Simpson got egged yesterday at his Miranda appearance just like Justin Beiber did on his visit here last month.

One star who would make mince meat of anyone foolish enough to upstage her is Australia's roving ambassador abroad Dame Edna Everage.

There are still some tickets available for Dame Edna's appearance at the Black & White Charity Committee's Woman of Achievement lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday June 21st. These lunch time events sell out quickly so hurry up and go to the B&W website here.

Edna will be joined by former Art Gallery of Australia director Betty Churcher and our favourite NSW Governor Her Excellency Marie Bashir.
If you have never been to one of these events they're pretty good fun. A top lunch followed by each of the special guests giving a twenty minute talk about their career and as you can imagine, Dame Edna's talk will be hilariously funny and is bound to run well over time. Take the afternoon off-you won't get out under 3 hours.

Ticket prices are $295 (stage side table), $200 (ballroom) or $155 in the hotel's top restaurant Kables with a live feed. In fact there are always huge screens in the ballroom so grab a seat anywhere even with strangers as they are always a friendly lot. Phone 02 9327 5698.

Governor Marie Bashir

It's the 75th anniversary of the B&W charity and remember-every single penny raised goes to Vision Australia Children's Services. These ladies strong arm (no, they're really very nice) everyone to donate their services including the Shuttle who will be there with bells on (and paying !)

We'll be filming the event so watch out for that but in the meantime here is a small reminder of what to expect: