exclusive: At the Billy Joel concert in Melbourne

Fans Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce meet up with Billy Joel

at his Melbourne concert.

Kitsch Week in LA

Those social scribes still holding down a job on a tabloid will be heading for Sydney Airport on Monday for one of the best freebies in town- the annual gala week in Los Angeles known as G'Day USA.
It's a government sponsored promotional week where everything Oz gets shown around LA- local fashion designers, wine tastings, tourism events and err, a discussion on the carbon pricing.

The big do of the week is the LA Black Tie Gala dinner where a few Aussies who have done well in the USA get inducted into some sort of Hall of Fame- this year it's Paul Hogan and Rose Byrne and Qantas pilot John Travolta. Guests include usually every actor in LA that week - Guy Pearce, Naomi Watts, Eric Bana, Toni Collette and it wouldn't be a party without Olivia Newton John. Chef for the night is Curtis Stone.

But wait-there's more : also flying to Los Angeles is the World's Richest Woman and the Aussie version of Christina Onassis, Gina Rinehart and her daughter Ginia Rinehart who is the apple of her mum's eye.

Ryan Johnson  * Gina Rinehart  * Ginia Rinehart

Ginia will wed her long time boyfriend in LA- Ryan Johnson who is the son of the legendary Beach Boys' Bruce Johnson.
On the wedding guest list :  Canadian hamburger king Jack Cowin, John Singleton and Barnaby Joyce MP.  Not invited : Gina's estranged children Hope, Bianca and John.

Margaret Olley Exhibition Opens

An exhibition of the late Margaret Olley's paintings that have never been publicly displayed before opened on Thursday evening at Sothebys in Woollahra. Prices on the 27 works range from $60,000 upwards although most have already been sold. The one at the top which looks suspiciously like Margaret's living room is available for $440,000.

Amongst the guests were long time friends of Olley's including retiring NSW Art Gallery director Edmund Capon, Barry Humphries, movie director Bruce Beresford and artist Ben Quilty who became a good friend of Margaret;s after he won the Archibald Portrait prize for his painting of Olley last year.
2nd-17th March 118-122 Queen St Woollahra.

left : Margaret with Ben Quilty                                                        ********************

Best Look at The Oscars : Forget Angelina Jolie's leg, Rick Rubin pictured with Amanda Santos had the look with his famous whiskers combed to excess when he attended the Academy Awards and the Vanity Fair after party last Monday.

Rubin is the co-president of Columbia Records and possibly one of the greatest record producers in the world with a fortune estimated at $300M.
                                                     

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Madame Tussaud's has just unveiled one of it's waxworks that will appear in it's new Sydney exhibition that will open in Darling Harbour in May.

Nicely timed for today's Mardi Gras it's Felicia Jollygoodfellow from The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, in red, yellow and white feathers. Hopefully they will also include Guy Pearce who played Felicia in the film-he's much better looking.

Partying in Hollywood

Guy Pearce & Kate Mestitz (UPI)

Abbie Cornish

HOLLYWOOD'S GUM LEAF Mafia were out in force at the annual G'Day USA Ball in Hollywood. 

Miranda Kerr, Guy Pearce, Paul Hogan, Jackie Weaver, Abbie Cornish , Olivia Newton John and Rachel Taylor joined Priscilla Presley, John Travolta and Kate Winslet last night at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom

The menu was prepared by popular Australian chef Guy Grossi in collaboration with Wolfgang Puck. A selection of premium Aussie wines served and awards given to notable Australians who have made significant contributions to the entertainment industry including Air Supply and Guy Pearce-who is up for a Golden Globe at tomorrow's awards.
And the entertainment
 ..young Jack Vidgen of course. G'Day USA is an annual program designed to showcase Australian business capabilities in the USA - Australia's largest trading and investment partner.

Kate Winslet

Rachel Taylor

update : Guy Pearce Wins-A Murdoch Gives Award

Anna Torv

Both Guy Pearce and Kate Winslet have won Emmys for their roles in the re-make of the 40's classic Mildred Pierce.

Anna Torv (who The Daily Beast reckons was 'snubbed' of an Emmy nomination along with her co-star Aussie actor John Noble ) from the hit TV series Fringe presented Guy with his award.

Anna is the daughter of Queensland radio network owner Hans Torv and the niece of Anna Murdoch Mann the former wife of Rupert Murdoch and mother of his children James. Lachlan and  Elisabeth.

Anna, named after her aunt is particularly close to her and regularly visits her in New York.



Kate Winslet at the 2011 Emmys

Guy Up For An Emmy

Guy Pearce has been nominated for an Emmy as best Supporting Actor in A Miniseries for the re-make of Mildred Pierce. Actor Bryan F.O'Byrne has been nominated for the same award in the same film.

The mini-series is a re-make of the 1945 film which starred Joan Crawford at her campest and which starred Zachary Scott in the part played by Pearce. The new series has been nominated for a staggering 21 Emmys including Kate Winslet for best actress  in the lead role.

Pearce first found world fame in the Oscar winning movie Priscilla Queen of The Desert but Aussie TV viewers knew Pearce from the soap Neighbours where he starred alongside Kylie Minogue and Jason Donavon.

The Shuttle has uncovered some hot footage of the three former teen heart throbs frolicking on the beach :

Priscilla's Debut In the Big Apple



Tony Sheldon



On Sunday evening the successful Australian musical Priscilla Queen of The Desert opens on Broadway at the Palace Theatre with a host of Aussie stars in attendance including Guy Pearce who starred in the original film, Jackie Weaver and the show's writer Stephan  Elliot who will accompany Olivia Newton John to the premiere.

The brilliant Tony Sheldon who wowed them in London, Canada and New Zealand takes the lead role again and Better Midler is co-producer of this production helping fine tune it for a US audience

By all accounts the New York production has been receiving an enthusiastic reception during the week of previews.

What of the girls who inspired the original story and film ?.

Simone Troy and Monique Kelly were the two stars of Les Girls, the Kings Cross all male review that packed out a theatre in Sydney during the 1960s and 70s. Every night of the week the two drag stars trod the boards on a tiny cramped stage and presented a gala performance to a wide-eyed audience of heterosexuals who couldn't quite believe the dozen sexy, leggy gals with hips and boobs before them were all men.

Simone and Monique tried several times to leave Les Girls but the theatre's owner, the Kings Cross crime king-pin Abe Saffron had them both beaten up.

Eventually the pair managed to set out on their own  as the novelty of Les Girls wore off and the show went into a decline in the early 1980s.

Simone had ambitious plans and financing his own show set off to London and the Wimbledon Theatre with 12 strapping Australian lads who transformed nightly into gorgeous leggy beauties.

Wimbledon Theatre

 The production was a sight to see as the Shuttle did on the opening night. With little cash left Simone was unable to promote the show and the audience consisted of about 200 local residents of nearby nursing homes bussed in with free tickets.

What they witnessed resembled a Busby Berkley musical with a tall and colourfully lit staircase down which the 12 beauties-Simone leading the charge-descended in a flurry of long legs, feathers and sequins. Half way down the staircase turned into a waterfall as the audience sat transfixed.

Let's hope the New York critics are kinder to Priscilla than the one London critic who attended Simone's Les Girls Wimbledon premiere and who slammed the production in an outrage that female impersonators-and colonial ones at that., were  gracing the hallowed boards of Wimbledon

On the up-side the British travel company Saga Holidays that specialised in pensioner vacations gave the show a raptuous write-up and organised day outings to the show.

Simone eventually retired to the Gold Coast in Queensland and Monique still lives in Kings Cross.