Court drama in the Southern Highlands

Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban's SH home Bunya Hill and local resident Miriam Margolyes

The gentle rolling pastures of the beautiful countryside of the Southern Highlands are abuzz as the latest court drama over a local newspaper and a property developer plays out in the local court. The Highlands are a weekend retreat for many well heeled Sydneysiders with their hobby farms and numerous celebrities like Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes and the late British politician Lord McAlpine
Top Sydney barrister, Charles Waterstreet was at Moss Vale Local Court this morning  representing newspaper executive Cristian King .
The prosecution relates to an investigative editorial ran by the local newspaper, LattéLife Wingecarribee, last year entitled 'Yuill Be Right’.
The article revealed that local real estate agent Angus Yuill of Campbell-Jones Property in Bowral had been trading without a property certifcate or licence for nine months, resulting in enforcement action by NSW Fair Trading.

left : barrister Charles Waterstreet and Cristian King

Mr King has been charged with intimidation, offensive behaviour and obstructing a vehicle in a public place. He is pleading not guilty to all charges.

King arrives at Moss Vale court today

Evidence was given by Campbell-Jones Property principal,Angus Campbell-Jones and his receptionist,Ana Calvert on 20 March 2017.
However, the hearing was adjourned to 18 May 2017 due to an allegation by Ms Calvert that Mr King had intimidated her at McDonald's restaurant in Moss Vale following her testimony although Mr King says he was at the courthouse at that time.
Mr Waterstreet, a family friend of the King's, has taken a special interest in this case and said "It is an honour to represent a journalist."

 Below: Highlands' competing newspapers : LatteLife and the Fairfax newspaper Highland News

Home & Away actress loses bid for AVO against reporter

Former Home and Away star Holly Campbell who is now a councilor on the Wingecarribee Council in the Southern Highland has lost a bid to take out an AVO (Apprehended Violence Order) against reporter Cristian King from the local newspaper LatteLife Southern Highlands.

Magistrate Mary Ryan refused to uphold the application and stated that King, who defended himself in court, was simply doing his job as a reporter on the 2 occasions he asked Cr Campbell questions following council meetings and that his actions did not warrant her being in fear of her life. 
 Cr Campbell had posed for Cristian at a social event less than a week ago. During cross examination by King aged 20, the photograph of Cr Campbell smiling was submitted as evidence and she was asked, "what emotion does your face in that photograph display"?
At a prior court date Cr Campbell asked Magistrate Ryan if she could stop LatteLife from printing because they ' say bad things about me'. The Magistrate reminded Cr Campbell that "we live in a democracy and as an elected official she should get used to it." 
 

Bunya Hill 

# For the benefit of our many overseas readers : the beautiful Southern Highlands is a couple of hours drive from Sydney and is the most expensive country property in Australia. With it's green rolling pastures and numerous antique shops in picturesque villages it attracts many of Australia's wealthiest citizens who own weekend retreats. Superstars Nicolle Kidman and Keith Urban own the former governor's residence Bunya Hill, Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes spends most of her spare time there  while the late Lord McAlpine owned a magnificent property with award winning gardens.  #Whispers is a contributor to LatteLife and once produced glossy videos and real estate brochures of Southern Highland's properties in conjunction with the late Bill Ranken.

Arrivals #2

Having fled back to his native Geelong leaving behind a broke Big Picture Agency in the UK, the unfashionable haired Darryn Lyons who labels himself Mr Paparazzi has announced his candidacy for Mayor of the illustrious Victorian city.

Lyon's Agency went bankrupt in the UK last year with photographers claiming they were owed unpaid royalties.  In 2008 Lyons was ordered to pay actress Sienna Miller $40,000 in damages for harassment and he lost an appeal against Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling who won a court case against his agency,
Virgin Atlantic also launched an inquiry after it discovered employees were feeding Big Pictures confidential celebrity travel details. Last year Lyons left his garish London flat with it's Warhol prints ( although how Andy managed to paint Lyons when he died in 1987 is a mystery) by co-incidence just as the Leveson Inquiry was getting underway.
Now settled in Geelong Lyons has joined the Liberal Party (have they no shame ?) and a few days ago announced that he would " call upon ideas from overseas, particularly London, and use my high-profile contacts to benefit Geelong. "My ideas from worldly knowledge and travel knowledge about looking at other cities and how it works and looking at the concept for success is my key platform for the future,". Yes dear. Whatever.
Alas the voters of Geelong may have other ideas if comments in the local newspaper are an indication: these are some of the nicer ones.."No way", "Good grief, please get us a leader with business smarts and a personality. Blue hair belongs at Bingo sessions". "Ratepayer funded cosmetic six packs for all council members as the first priority."

Geelong

 " craves attention, delusions of grandeur and no style what so ever"..."Geelong must be the laughing stock of Australia over this farce"....."People were stupid enough to vote for Tony Abbott so anything is possible."...."It's not often you see mutton dressed up as mutton."

Miriam Margolyes Becomes An Aussie and annouces : I'm A Dyke!

Actress Miriam Margolyes has had a long associtation with Australia : her partner is a local and when not travelling the world to appear in films and stage plays, Miriam retreats to a magnificent property in the Southern Highlands of NSW.

Today she formerly became an Australian citizen and was presented with her citizenship certificate by prime minister Julia Gillard at a ceremony in Canberra. Miriam spoke about her long time Australian female partner and as an after thought announced to the assembled dignitaries :"if anyone doesn't know, I'm a dyke"

A Dickens Of a Time

TODAY MARKS THE 200TH year since writer Charles Dickens was born and celebrations are being held around the world including in Sydney.

The Centenniel Park Dickens statue

The NSW Dickens Society will be gathering at the base of the recently restored statue of Charles on the corner of Dickens Drive and Loch Avenue South, Centennial Park.

According to the society there will be speeches, readings from Dicken's books and 'entertainment pieces'.

Charles Dickens, born in Portsea in 1812 became a popular writer during his lifetime and sold many of his stories via instalments and serials, a sales method that he was basically the first to develop successfully.

Dickens early life was relatively peaceful in the country but when his family moved to Camden Town in 1822 his father's finances dramatically changerd their lives.  John Dickens lived beyond his means and was eventually imprisoned in the Marshalea Debtor's Prison in Southwick. Soon his entire family joined him there except for Charles who was sent to stay with a family friend. A series of strenuous jobs with long hours to pay for board gave Dickens plenty of inspiration for his books, most of which are a commentary on the harshness of British life at the time, but with kind hearted heroines and heroes to save the day. Dickens' books are a far more accurate account of life in England during the 19th century than many history book

Miriam Margoyles

At the Glen Street Theatre in Belrose Harry Potter star Miriam Margoyles is presenting  Dickens Women until Feb 13th.

Jeremy Hunt

Dickens two sons Alfred and Edward were encouraged by their father to emigrate to Austraia at the advent of free settlers and both prospered.

Edward married the daugher of a stock and station agent and managed the business and was elected to a seat in the State Legislative Council for 5 years. Alfred, successful businessman died during a trip to the USA.

When Dickens wrote his books they were so popular he was responibe for bringing to the notice of the great public some of the more shocking conditions others lived in and thus was the inspiration for change,

British Parliamentarian Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is planning to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dickens by giving every one of his Cabinet colleagues a copy of one of the great author's works. Each book - carefully chosen to encapsulate something about the recipient - will be presented at Cabinet today.

Let's hope they don't mistake them for government  policy discussion papers. Plenty of  Hunt's Tory partners on the right would gladly return to Dickensian times,
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  Australia's X-Factor winner 18 year old Reece Mastin has been touring non-stop since his win and has released a best selling album and a top i-tunes seller.


 Now he has become a gay pin-up after this picture of a topless Reece appeared on a gay music website.
It's spread all over the net.

The Great Gatsby-Spot the Bloopers

Jeff Duff

While the News Corp Daily Telegraph is bringing the world exclusive snaps from the set of The Great Gatsby and tales of Leo DiCaprio's weekly new handbag girlfriend, the Shuttle's on-set spy has been supplying us with a few tidbits.
As we exclusively reported a few weeks ago, the singer Jeff Duff has been cast in the movie as a friend of Jay Gatsby (apparently director Baz Luhrmann has been telling friends that Duffo-as he was once known-exemplifies the sort of eccentric character Baz aspires to).

Now we have noticed a glaring gaff spotted in a series of snaps from the set, that were featured in the UK Daily Mail (courtesy of News Corp). The originals can be seen here and we re-produce a couple of screen shots.
 No, it isn't the beat-up about Tobey McGuire looking very smart in 1920's gear topped with a boater and wearing a pair of 2011 Nikes. (our spy says the snaps were taken as Tobey wandered around in between takes and he had slipped of his movie shoes).
It's the series of splendid 1920's automobiles.

Each one of them is a right hand drive vehicle and of course, in the USA cars are left hand drive.

Is this a first for the fans of movie mistakes who scour the flicks and to date, have clocked up as many as 600 similar mistakes in the Harry Potter movies, over 300 in Pirates Of The Caribbean and about 260 in just one Lord of The Rings film?.
It makes the famous scene from 1959 Ben Hur where a trumpeter is spotted wearing a modern watch pale into insignificance.
Perhaps the viewers will never notice. But then again, The Great Gatsby is being filmed in glorious 3D.

Poppy, Paris, J.K & Anne

Poppy Montgomery

Press Association (c)

As Chancellor of Edinburgh University, Princess Anne was on hand too present Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling with a Benefactors Award.
Rowling donated $15M to the University to establish a new Multiple Sclerosis (MS)unit. Rowing is pretty generous with her donations but considering she has an $1B fortune she can probably afford to be. Her mother died of MS in 1990.  It was on a slow train journey that she conceived of the idea of Potter traveling to a Hogwarts. Which gives a whole new meaning to British rail delays.

Hilton giving the money while she was in Mumbai.PIC/SATYAJIT DESAI

Meanwhile Australian actress Poppy Montgomery is to play Rowling in an unauthorised bio-pic of the writer detailing her rise to fame from an impoverished single mum to the world's richest author.

And Paris Hilton has caused a family squabble when she handed a $100 note to a beggar in Mumbai. The unfortunate lady who handed it to her brother-in-law to exchange for local currency set off a fight that ended with the note being torn into pieces.

Paris just tweeted :

ParisHilton 

How can I reach this woman & send her even more in her currency? Can whoever interviewed her tweet me please? 

1 hour ago

 

See, even party girls have their little problems.