"A Theme Park For Every Human Desire"

 The title is a quote from broadcaster Philip Adams about Sydney's Kings Cross where he partied in the 60s and 70s with the late media mogul Kerry Packer. Bizarrely, the Coca Cola sign that signals the beginning of 'The Cross' is now  National Trust listed.

Playwright and author Louis Nowra who has lived there for yonks has written a superb history of Kings Cross, a place he says : "attracts the sane and the mad… but that at times it’s hard to tell the difference."
The Cross is a no-holds barred place -backpackers, prostitutes, strippers, chefs, mad men, poets, beggars, booksellers, doctors, gangsters, sailors, musicians, drug traffickers, movie stars, eccentrics, judges and artists and a former Prime Minster (Paul Keating) live side by side in elegant terrace houses and cheap flats. And slam bang in the middle are George Miller's studios were he filmed Babe and Happy Feet.

Part flaneur, part historian and part eyewitness, Louis Nowra is the best possible guide to a place both real, and a state of mind. The Cross attracts hordes of tourists from all over Australia and the world. It's history began as a sort of melting pot for European expats- there are still gracious old Art Deco buildings lining Macleay Street packed with little old Hungarian and Polish ladies who fled from WW2. During the 20s it became the night time entertainment area offering every conceivable sin man desired- from strip clubs to bordellos, gay bars and 24 hour drinking clubs, illegal gambling casinos and even a few opium dens. The legendary Razor Gangs fought duels in the back streets over the cocaine trade.
 The illegal casinos were frequented by visiting celebrities and  local politicians including premier Sir Robert Askin who like a character out of Casablanca would have his winnings thrust into his hand and be ushered out a side door just before his own cops would raid the joint (mainly to collect bribes).

Norton & Goossens

The list of memorable characters is too long to chart: like the practising witch Rosaleen Norton who became entangled with the British conducter Sir Eugene Goossens (he attended her orgies) whose career crashed when he was stopped at customs retuning from the UK with a suitcase of porn for Ms Norton.

Mr Sin- Abe Saffron

 And Mr Sin Abe Saffron who came from humble beginnings to dominate The Cross for 40 years like an Antipodian Al Capone- just as powerful and deadly and finally like Capone, they could only get him for tax evasion. Owning a string of strip joints and the all male revue bar Les Girls and with a finger in every club and bar in the area, Abe made an art of bribing politicians and police including the Commissioner. And he saw off the US Mafia when they tried to muscle in on the action. When Saffron died he left around $30Million but it's rumoured there was another 30 or 40 hidden away.

Louis Nowra & wife Mandy Sayer

                                                                                                             
Things began to change in the 1960s with the mass influx of US  soldiers on 'R&R" leave from Vietnam and the appearance of Bernie Houghton reputedly the former boss of the infamous Air America who arrived with suitcases stuffed with cash and a new passport courtesy of his spook friends in ASIO. And with the opening of his Bourbon & Beefsteak 24 hour nightspot came hard drugs.

The unexpected can still happen in Kings Cross. Two years ago the Shuttle witnessed an impromptu one hour performance by comedian Robyn Williams at the Kit & Kaboodle when he arrived with actor Elijah Wood for dinner. The Beach Haus club became Leo Di Caprio and his entourage's favourite club of choice as he nightly commandeered 6 tables (leaving about 3 ).  And actor Russell Crowe could be often found popping in to the Portuguese Chicken bar around midnight after a munchies attack.
There's more, much much more in Nowra's book

Not Such Happy Feet 2

Every time the Shuttle has encountered film director George Miller over the past few years he has been wearing his 'lucky shirt'- a black silk number with three embroidered red peppers. Sadly it looks like his luck is waning of late.

After the brilliant success of the Oscar winning Happy Feet, the charming cartoon film about penguins, it's successor Happy Feet 2 has opened  in the USA with dismal takings of only $22M which doesn't bode well for it's future success.

Most reviewers are praising the 3D effects in the kid's movie but the bad box office takings are creating spin off damage. It's rumoured around 200 staff will be laid off at Miller's Sydney animation studios based in the magnificent art deco Metro Theatre in Kings Cross.

Further rumours are flying around that Miller's new Mad Max movie Fury Road could be in trouble. The flick is the fourth in the series and will star Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. The first three shot Mel Gibson to international stardom .  
Fury Road has already had some major hick-ups with an 2003 starting date with the late Heath Ledger in the lead role being cancelled followed by shooting in Namibia being post-poned because of the Iraq invasion.

Now pre-filming which was to start in a few weeks outside Broken Hill where many scenes from the first 3 films were shot has been abandoned.  Recent and unusually heavy rains have transformed the desert which doubled as a post nuclear war terrain into a green paradise !.
Location managers are desperately looking for a similar area in Australia. They could always try Maralinga in SA which is a real-life post-nuclear frontier. Seven giant nuclear bombs and hundreds of smaller ones were exploded there between 1955 and 1963 making it the most nuclear bombed country on the planet. 

Pig / penguin man wins great award

George Miller

A small group gathered at the East Sydney Tech and the Roundhouse to celebrate film director George Miller who was awarded France's most prestigious artistic award, the Order of Arts and Letters, known as the Order of France.

Miller was presented his award, a very nice ribbon and medal by French ambassador to Australia Michel Filhol at the opening of the French Film Festival in Sydney.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Miller

The director of iconic films such as Mad Max and Happy Feet will join an elite group of artists outside France to receive the award, including Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg.

The Order of France was established over 50 years ago to recognise people who have made significant contributions to the arts.

Another recent recipient of the award, French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who made the superb flicks Amelie and Delicatessen, was there to witness the event and meet Miller for the first time. His latest film Micmacs opens the festival.