No Magic from Mike

Whispers was looking forward to the opening night of Channing Tatum's Magic Mike at the Entertainment Quarter yesterday but alas, the new Covid drama has shut down the production before it got off the ground. What a disappointment, especially for the performers who travelled so far to bring us some fine danicing and good looking flesh. No word yet if it will open again or when. On Wednesday the media were invited to film a scene from the show and told that mask wearing would be strictly enforced. Almost like a portent of what was to come. Meanwhile here's some vision of the show from Youtube.

Magic Mike hits town

These chaps are some of the cast of Magic Mike, a show devised and created by Hollywood heart-throb Channing Tatum. It opens this Sunday in Sydney at the Entertainment Centre at Fox Studios. Whispers has no idea what it's all about but we'll be there to report on it. With bells on.

Going Down on The Titanic

Yes it's true. 

Whispers almost went down with the HMS Titanic and we're rather pleased. There is a fascinating new exhibition of over 360 Titanic artefacts on display at the Byron Kennedy Hall at Fox Studios.

The promoter of the show Tom Zaller is pictured above on the Titanic's Grand Staircase. Actually that's not the real staircase, it's the one that was created for the film staring Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Zaller is actually one of the very few people who has been down to view the wreck of the Titanic in one of those tiny submarine thingys and it inspired him to create this exhibition which premiered in Moscow, has been to Perth and is now in Sydney.

Everything else on display are original mementos from The White Star Line. Visitors are led through various rooms to view a first class cabin, nice, and then middle class (oh dear) and lower class where ten people shared one bunk (just kidding). The exhibition culminates in the Memorial Gallery, where visitors learn the passenger’s fate on the cold early morning of April 15, 1912. There is a complete list of the unfortunate passengers who didn't survive and a list of those who did in each of the boats. And..there is a Real Iceberg ! Yes a real one.

Visitors are given a Boarding Pass with a passenger's name and you can check whether you live or die ! Whispers was in the name of Mme Léontine Pauline Aubart (left) from Paris, and fortunately she survived in Lifeboat 9 with her maid Emma Sägesser.
#  Léontine Pauline Aubart was a 25 year old singer and the mistress of millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim who was also on board but did not survive. Apparently she went on to become a society hostess in Paris holding wild parties!

Compare the First Class Cabin with Second Class- 4 beds in a tiny room, and Third Class...shudder..we dare not show you (nothing has changed)

China gets less grand as you go downmarket to Third Class. At least they gave you a plate and some cutlery

 

They're back !!!

Tropfest attracts the biggest stars in the business

 Admittedly Whispers has been a critic of Tropfest in the past. But overall, it really is a fantastic event.

Tropfest founder John Polson & Jamie Foxx- a Tropfest fan

How pleasing then to announce that reports of
Tropfest's death have been greatly exaggerated (we are guilty too). Fortunately they have found a new sponsor and the event will take place on Sunday February 14th this year. The location will be Centennial Park and the weather should be perfect at that time of the year instead of the original December date which really can be quite humid.. And that's a Very Good Thing. And congrats should go to Tropfest found John Polson for persevering in the face of adversity.
# A few years ago Whispers was privileged to lunch with actor and Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx at Royal Randwick. Foxx enthused about Tropfest which he had just attended calling it the very best short film festival he had ever attended : "I intend to tell everyone back in LA about how fantastic it is" said Jamie.
For more details, bookings etc go to the Tropfest official website here.

Malcolm Turnbull is not who you think he is !

Whispers has come across all manner of odd tales but this one really caught our eye. The Internet is awash with conspiracy rumours and we love this one : our newly minted prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull is not who you think he is. 'Crisis actors' is one of the weirder conspiracy claims of the "truther " movement (they also say the Earth really is flat & the Moon Landing was faked) : these are actors who pretend to be 'victims' of the so-called 'false flag' events where the truthers claim every terrible action is a staged secret government plot as they lead us onto the New World Order, take away every citizen's gun in the USA and so on. Part of the grand conspiracy is that actors play the part of world leaders.
Our favourite was the claim that HM Queen Elizabeth was actually the Golden Girl star Betty White (they do look similar in a low light) but now it has been revealed : Malcolm Turnbull is in fact the star of Hannibal Lecter films Anthony Hopkins. Not only that, former PM Julia Gillard is in reality the Hollywood actress Jodie Foster !
Whispers has encountered all 4 of these personalities in person including being a guest at a dinner at Turnbull's Point Piper mansion, a book launch hosted by Julia Gillard, a small reception at Sydney's Fox Studios for Jodie Foster and 2 movie premiers with actor Hopkins.
Crucially : we have never seen all four at the same time in the same room !. We report, you decide.

Gatsby Rules !

Baz Luhrmann and The Great Gatsby bandwagon rolled into Sydney tonight for the Australian premiere and it was a huge hit with the audience.

The film's stars flocked to the Hoyts Cinema Complex in Moore Park, right next door to Fox Studios and Centennial Park where much of the movie was filmed. All that was missing was Leo DiCaprio who had other filming commitments but there were heaps of movie stars to keep hundreds of fans screaming their heads off and defying the pelting rain.
Forget what the critics say : Gatsby is a visual feast and a joyous romp through The Roaring Twenties. It's the first 3D film that the Shuttle has been able to sit through comfortably. Catherine Martin's sets and designs are sensational, over the top and there really is never a dull moment in this flick.
No-shows but reported elsewhere as attending : Ricky Martin, Seal and Kate Ritchie.

Gatsby fever strikes

The modelling Stenmark twins                                       Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch braved the rain

the brolly brigade at The Great Gastby

Baz Hits Paydirt !

Baz Luhrmann's latest offering, the 4th interpretation of The Great Gatsby may have been receiving less than stellar reviews but it's a runaway box office success.

Gatsby opened in 3535 cinemas across the USA on Friday and raked in over $51M just behind Iron Man 3's $71M for the weekend ( Iron Man has made almost $1B to date). This is a major success for Baz and the estimated $180M Gatsby budget should be re-couped in no time once the movie receives it's world-wide release. And various government mandarins both State and Federal who put money into the film will be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

The Shuttle's spies disguised as Aussie tourists in New York say the film seems to be particularly popular with young females- no doubt because of Leo Di Caprio but there is a real buzz about Joel Edgerton's performance. And the Gum Leaf Mafia are having fun playing spot-the-Sydney location posing as Connecticut.

Gatsby opens in Sydney on the 22nd of this month with all the film's stars on hand and an after party for 1000 guests at Fox Studios.

Gatsby's Garbo

MEET GORGEOUS actress/model  Kasia Stelmach who attended the Myer fashion show last Thursday.

The Shuttle's spy disguised as a potted Aspidistra on the 3D set of The Great Gatsby at Fox Studios tells us Kasia stars in the flick.
 The rumour is that she plays the exotic movie star Greta Garbo although mysteriously she is listed as 'Geraldine Peacock-Prada Woman'  Prada Woman ?. Did they have Prada in the twenties?.
 Kasia has appeared in one previous film, a shortie called Grace Of Others in 2011. We reckon Kasia has a big future ahead so she is now officially a Social Shuttle Discovery (well OK, the Shuttle's and Baz Luhrman's!)

 *Talk filtering out the set of Baz Luhrman's fabulous production says the movie's $120M plus budget  has been exhausted recreating New York and the Hamptons and Warner Bros have put their foot down, refusing to fund Baz who wants to re-film some scenes with Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire, hence the release date of the movie being pushed back to 2013.
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Wolverine AKA Hugh Jackman currently residing in Sydney while he films The Wolverine around town has sent us a pic of himself just fitting into his Knox Grammar (very posh) School blazer.

We've uncovered a school pic of Hugh in that very jacket.
Wasn't he handsome even then !

Miranda Kerr Nude!

THE SEASONAL fashion battle between the 2 Australian department store chains begins this evening with David Jones fashion parade in their city store and Myer at Fox Studios on Thursday.

DJ's star recruit Miranda Kerr struts the boards tonight. Here are some exclusive snaps of Miranda that will be published in the latest Harper's Bizarre. The pics are by the best and most unpretentious fashion snapper New Yorker Terry Richardson and if you haven't yet discovered his diary, go here. It's fun.


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So the closing ceremony of the London Olympics is receiving mixed reviews and Sydney 2000 still retains it's title of The Best Ever Olympics (according to then IOC boss Juan Samaranch). Indeed the Sydney opening and closing bashes were better co-ordinated but one Aussie is receiving rave reviews for his commentary on the BBC. Armani clad ("Giorgi is a friend") Ian Thorpe with the UK Daily Express and the News Statesman amongst others praising the 5 times Gold Medal winner.

The Thorpedo with artist Charles Billich in March this year

exclusive : Great Gatsby Gaff #1

Above is a screen capture from the trailer (below) that has just been released for Baz Luhrmann's $130M
Great Gasby 3D epic that is having the finishing touches put on it at Fox Studios. It's a scene from New York's Time Square set in the 1920s.

Luhrmann imported half a dozen fabulous automobiles from the USA and rounded up dozens of similar era cars from around Australia. With the magic of cinema the right-hand drive vehicles magically become left-hand drives. Sydney's Centennial Park doubled up as The Hamptons and Long Island and several mansions including Strickland House in Vaucluse capably passed for grand US estates. The old Balmain power station looks perfect as industrial New York and only the trained eye-judging from the great clip below-could spot the parts of Sydney that stand in for 1920's Manahttan. While the film's stars Leo Di Caprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey McGuire have long departed Sydney, around 200 technicians are beavering away at Fox on the production.

The Shuttle's sub-editor, a dyslexic moggie named Mildred Pierce with a fierce catnip addiction prone to making more mistakes than she corrects, however draws our attention to a major boo-boo that will hopefully disappear from the final production due to be released in early 2013.

The Ziegfeld Follies ran on Broadway from around 1907 to 1931 as well as making it to the big screen in several lavish productions. Yes, that's the Ziegfeld -not Zeigfeld!

Kylie Conquers!

 At times the rain teemed down but it didn't dampen the spirits of a few hundred thousand people who lined Oxford Street for the 2012 Sydney Mardi Gras. And the Queen of the show was definitely Kylie Minogue with a four float tribute surrounded by over 150 dancers. Tonight the party rages on at Fox Studios and by Sunday afternoon Darlinghurst will be littered with sequins, lost stilettos and collapsed bodies.
Go to SMH for more great pics. (picture by Janie Barrett)

Life Changing Moments On The Bridge

Just the other day we had David Hasslehoff proposing to his Welsh girlfriend Hayley Roberts at the summit of Sydney's famous Harbour Bridge.

James Cameron & wife Suzi last month on the Sydney Harbour Bridge

It's one of the all time great tourism successes-shackling together groups of eager climbers and leading them to the top to take in the awe inspiring sight over Sydney's magnificent harbour. The Shuttle did it once. By the time you get to the peak the oxygen levels kick in. It's an instant high and you feel like taking on the world. Hence The Hoff and his fiancee following in a long line of those making life changing decisions (one reader unkindly suggests it was a publcicit stunt..surely not ?). Marriage proposals are the norm for couples chained together in their bridge issue overalls.

Oprah Winfrey and gal pal Gail did it as our picture shows. Michael Caine and his gorgeous wife Shakira climbed as did Richard Branson and even the Vienna Boys Choir have all made been to the top.

Now a Christmas visitor who was spotted on the bridge, movie director James Cameron has announced that he will be leaving America and moving South of the Equator. The director who spent December and January in Sydney with his family checking out facilities at Fox Studios has bought a 1067 hectares farm in New Zealand and will be moving there to live.

Oprah

In April this year Cameron, who directed two of the all time most successful films, Titanic and Avatar will move to the property which is about 90 minutes from Wellington and the Weta Digital studios that won an Oscar for it's work on Avatar. He will spend the next twelve months working on the sequel to Avatar.

Earth to News Corp #4

Another colourful feature in the glorious Daily Telegraph, Rupert Murdoch's flagship Sydney newspaper.

In a picture gallery titled Celebrities-Then and Now featuring stars when young and how they look today, such as Kelsey Grammer, Drew Barrymore, Andre Agassi etc, this one caught our eye with the caption:

Celebs then and now :  Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin as child stars in 1994 film "The Good Sons"

Followed by this one with the caption:

Almost unrecognisable from his years as a child actor..Macaulay Caulkin in 2011.

..err..yes, probably because it isn't Macaulay but his younger brother Kieren Culkin.
Macaulay is still recognisable even at the age of 30 as you can see from this snap from 2011:

 With Fox Studios boss Kim Williams, a stickler for detail taking over the helm at News Corp and all of Murdoch's Australian newspapers, be warned-there will be no more of this nonsense. 

Big News at News Ltd

It was an announcement that caught everyone by surprise today - the resignation of the boss of the Australian arm of News Ltd, John Hartigan.

Kim Williams

Even more surprising was Rupert Murdoch's following announcement in Melbourne today, that the Foxtel boss who also runs Fox Studios, Kim Williams will take Hartigan's place. Murdoch will now takeover as CEO of Australian operations.

It's a sure sign that no matter what happens with News Corp in the USA or UK, Murdoch is ensuring that the highly profitable control of his Australian operations is under his command. A court case in the Melbourne courts is currently tarnishing the image of Murdoch's most beloved publication The Australian, the countries only national newspaper set up by Rupert in 1964.

Gough & Margaret Whitlam

And the choice of Kim Williams who has never worked on a newspaper is an extraordinary departure from standard Murdoch practice. Williams is a no-nonsense boss and considered not only articulate and clever but bordering on the intellectual and certainly not a 'right winger' like most of News Ltd's major executives.

He is also married to Catherine Dovey, daughter of former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam who broke the Conservative stranglehold on Australian politics in 1972 when the Coalition was finally defeated after 23 years in power.

Whitlam swept into office on a wave of enthusiasm for change and for Australia to get out of the Vietnam War with the backing of the Murdoch media. Three years later Murdoch was to turn on Labor and give his support back to the Coalition.

Sub-Edit Howlers #1-Comedy Legend Outed

Perhaps they were being kind and waiting until the death of his beloved wife Delores Hope who passed away yesterday at the grand age of 102.

The UK Daily Mail-as our picture shows- reveals possibly the USA's best kept show-biz secret : legendary comedian Bob Hope who died in 2003 (aged 100) was a cross-dresser.

  Why have their been no rumours ? The snap looks like it was taken for a fan magazine or perhaps the Ladies Home Journal.  Certainly London born Hope appears happy to pose for the readers in sensible shoes, matching skirt and top with a jaunty scarf casually draped around the shoulders.

So much more fashionable than Bob Hope's great friend J.Edgar Hoover (they were both fans of right wing politics) a cross dresser who was forever embarrassing his live-in lover Clyde Tolson.

They would holiday in Florida at Mafia owned hotels and J.Edgar loved nothing more than sitting pool-side wearing cheap make-up, a ridiculous blond Jean Harlow style wig and a gaudy sun frock while flirting with black waiters.
F.B.I motto : A G-Man always gets his man!

Here is a small film on J.Edgar. We're looking forward to seeing Leonardo DiCaprio playing the G-Man in Edgar.

J.Edgar in a pill-box hat

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On the subject of Leonardo DiCaprio- our spy disguised as an aspidistra on the set of The Great Gatsby currently being filmed at Fox Studios says there has been great hilarity amongst the cast with reports that  Leo, rake thin and 5'10", has a  bodyguard who stands at 6'4" and is "built like a brick sh*t house" who has been described as DiCaprio's "decoy" double to fool the paparazzi.
                                                                                                        
And no more so than Leo himself who was both mortified and amused that the bruiser would be mistaken for him.

And who was the offending paparazzo that sent an annoyed DiCaprio and co-star Tobey McGuire plus family back to shore only minutes into what was to be a relaxing Sunday afternoon harbour cruise when Leo spotted a boat following and a long lens poking his way ?

Step forward Jamie Fawcett (right)-scourge of Nicole Kidman and assorted slebs.

Sneak Preview : The Great Gatsby 2

We don't really have any footage-yet, but we are privy to the inner workings on the set of Baz Luhrmann's $150M epic, The Great Gatsby currently being filmed in secrecy at Fox Studios.

Jeff Duff

News comes that alternative singer and entertainer Jeff Duff has scored a role in the epic, playing an eccentric friend of Jay Gastby the movie's hero played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Shuttle first encountered Jeff Duff-then called Duffo- at Country Cousins, a London cabaret restaurant off the Kings Road in Fulham.
Duffo appeared on stage one Sunday afternoon singing up a storm with his Duff Orchestra and wearing a jacket that had a dozen brightly coloured dildos hanging from it. We aren't sure if the dildos were part of Duffo's act but they certainly ensured he wouldn't be forgotten.

As we have previously reported, Leo DiCaprio has been hanging out at the tiny Kings Cross club Beach Haus where he regularly takes a corner booth with a group of male friends.

Last night he attended the opening of the glitzy re-vamped The Star casino. Leo slipped in unnoticed by most. He can be seen here in the Sydney Confidential pages of the Daily Telegraph, chatting to friends including Russell Crowe, and scratching his backside. (that will teach him for not posing for the snappers).

Meanwhile guests at the party were talking about how healthy and slim Russell was looking. He seems to have shed several kilos so all that walking he does in the mornings is obviously paying off.

 Crowe learnt ages ago how to get the paparazzi to leave him alone. When he sets out each day from his magnificent Woolloomooloo penthouse on foot, he wears exactly the same gym suit, shoes and cap thus lessening the price of any paparazzi snaps. They gave up hounding him long ago. The rest of the day he can be seen tooling around Sydney in a sleek black CS Class Mercedes.

Here is Jeff Duff in a video we have tracked down with Jeff singing Stairway To Heaven in his inimitable style. Remember, in The Great Gatsby you may see something similar in glorious 3D !

Mrs Murdoch Steps Out

For the second time in as many weeks the beautiful Sarah Murdoch, wife of Lachlan Murdoch has fronted the cameras.

They're tall, beautiful and Aussie- Sarah Murdoch (centre) with contestants from the show

Sarah hosted a preview of Australia's Next Top Model at Fox Studios last night followed by a drinks party and for once, the media was far too polite to mention that matter that has consumed them for the past 3 weeks.

They should be models : gorgeous Charlotte Dawson with some hunky footballers

But where do they find such beautiful and tall girls?. As you can see from our exclusive snaps another bevy of statuesque teens are battling to win a lucrative modelling career.

They'll choose Australia's Next Top Model : Charlotte Dawson, Sarah Murdoch & Alex Perry