Attack of The Clones

Whispers feels a Silly Season may be upon us with the claims Hollywood Heart throb Zac Efron has been "spotted in Byron Bay". The claim emerged in the MailOnline, renowned for it's reliability (hey- they nick stuff from us !).
They claim Zafron has been tooling around the "hippy paradise". Hippy paradise?. Perhaps 30 years ago. Byron Bay is a Millionaire's Paradise these days with a run down house (if you can find one ) in the Hinterland going for $2Million.

Fortunately a "social influencer" ( what that?) was on hand as a witness claiming "'Don't mean to alarm anyone but Zac Efron was literally eating at the same cafe as me when this was taken,' she wrote." To prove her point she took a snap, so easy these days of smart phones, of the Hollywood star herself.

Only just a couple of years ago the star of Aquaman  Jason Momoa was also spotted in Byron Bay, errr except it was in fact some geezer who appeared on The Bachelorette - Nathan Favro, as our screen shot from the always reliable Daily Mail shows. Well they're both very hairy so easy to confuse.

It was maybe 15 years ago Sydney's media went haywire and descended upon the          Woollahra Sailing Club when word spread like a bush fire that Sex & The City star Sarah Jessica Parker was spotted sipping cocktails at the bar. The TV show was at the height of it's fame and yes- Whispers went as well.  It was pretty obvious it wasn't Sarah Jessica but someone who did look remarkably like her. No matter how many times we told the assembled paparazzi and scribes their dreams would be dashed they were having none of it and the Daily Telegraph's Sydney Confidential gossip column snared an exclusive interview with the young lady ( a UK tourist) about her reasons for slipping into town. She played along loving every moment and it took 2 days for Sydney Con to back down and admit their mistake.

Bette Midler                             John Denver                    

              left: Hugh Grant      Rupert Everett                        

Whispers knows what it's like. Around 30 years ago while peering into a Harrods window in Knighsbridge we became aware we were being stalked. Finally the man built up the courage to come over and said "you are John Denver yes? Can I have an autograph? ".  "Of course" we replied grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled To my adoring fan- signed- Bette Midler thrust it in his hand and jumped into the nearest taxi. Actor Rupert Everett related a similar episode that happened at Miami Airport when a fan came up and said " I love your work Mr. Grant can I have your autograph?" Rupert obliged by writing in the man's paper back book "Fuck you- regards Hugh Grant".
Some years a go in Sydney Whispers was on a visit and attended a party at an Oxford Street nightclub only to be introduced to "the famous UK New Romantic star Steve Strange". Famous indeed and we had no idea who this Steve Strange was as we had left "the very famous New Romantic" Mr Strange to look after our little Mews flat in Notting Hill Gate 3 days earlier.

Hugh Grant :Thumbs Up for Social Shuttle & Others

OK the title is an exaggeration.

We feel sure Hugh Grant would love the Social Shuttle even if when he asked your scribe one day what his occupation was and heard the reply (Australian journalist ) he responded "that's a contradiction in terms".

Grant was talking today on the Richard Bacon show on the BBC's
Radio Five Live which was broadcast from the offices of The Independent newspaper in London. He said he was still deciding if he should sue the News Of The World after being shown evidence by British police that he was a victim of phone hacking in the scandal sweeping the British media.

The actor is hopeful to see the end of tabloid newspapers : “We don’t need them  we don’t want them and the sooner they go out of business the better."

On the  tabloid's invasion of privacy he said: "They would go temporarily out of business because they rely almost entirely on stealing people’s privacy, but then I think they would actually be grateful because in six months, a year they would have to go back to being real journalists and they would feel good about themselves.”
 
 Journalist Nick Davies who first wrote of the hacking scandal and who wrote Flat Earth News, a book about media manipulation was also on the programme and said  Grant was "thinking along the right lines”.

Ironically, when Grant was busted in Hollywood with Devine Brown it was the making of his career. Never looked back really. We feel sure thousands of vicars all over the UK will rest easy if the NoTW goes to the wall plus websites like the Shuttle could only find a vastly increased audience (currently around 2000-2400 readers a day ).

# More news on the purported libel case that may be mounted by a Melbourne based celebrity against Facebook and it's founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Shuttle has read some of the legal advice on the case and Zuckerberg's words may come back to haunt him.

In the past week it has been revealed that Facebook hired a big PR firm to spread tales about Google. The escapade has completely backfired on Facebook.

Reading Facebook's introductions it goes to great pains, like many other social media websites, to point out that it cannot be held responsible for the content on Facebook as it is 'stored ' on outside servers which are not controlled by Facebook.

The Rumpole's advice is that the claim is nonsense as it attempts to avoid responsibility for publishing and a journalist, editor or publisher could make the same claim that their product is carried on outside newsstands etc.

But he also points to a speech given by  Zuckerberg in 2010 and where he proclaimed that "the age of privacy is dead". Our learned friend says the statement points to the 'intent' of the net tsar to re-write privacy laws without having the right to !.
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US  giants Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores have censored a book cover featuring Australian androgynous model, 19 year old Andre Pejic who has become the darling of the fashion world.


Read the story in the Mail Online.

A very famous blow job

It's becoming the most famous blow job since actor Hugh Grant got busted on the Sunset Strip just as Devine Brown was about to dive into his crutch.

Emma Booth as Hollingsworth

Kim Hollingsworth's hilarious blow-job scene in the hugely popular Underbelly The Golden Mile which is drawing audiences on Sunday nights of up to 3 million viewers.

A facebook group has started, The underbelly blow job which has over 55,000 members.

It's dedicated to the scene from the premiere last Sunday week when prospective hooker, the real life Kim Hollingsworth, played by Emma Booth began working as a prostitute in Kings Cross and  entertained her first client in a motel. 

When the client says 'I just want a blow job" Hollingsworth bends down, unzips the punter's fly, takes out his penis and starts gently blowing on it. Well she was a Convent girl. Hollingsworth worked as a prostitute for a few years before joining appropriately, the NSW police where she was posted back to-yes-Kings Cross.

Holingsworth was eventually drummed out of the force when her hooker past was revealed and the fact she had had an affair with Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim whilst still in uniform. Hollingsworth sued for unfair dismissal and initially lost but then made a small fortune modelling for men's magazines and Playboy.

Kim Hollingsworth

Last night she gave an interview on '60 Minutes' in which she described how she had had sex with "thousands of men' before being successful in her application to join the police force. Whilst training at the academy she was recognised by a detective who asked her to work in a brothel he was opening. When she complained to the powers that be, she was asked to return to the Cross and work as an undercover cop in the disguise of a prostitute. When she appealed her dismissal  from the force the police were ordered to re-instate her. Holingsworth eventually left the force after persistent harassment and is now an animal rights activist.

Peter O'Brien as Freeman

     Just how close is the new Underbelly series to the real thing ?. There is much muttering from those who were around at the time the series is set in-the 80's and 90's about inaccuracies. The 'overlord' of the Cross is depicted as the 'colorful racing identity'  George Freeman played by Miranda Otto's husband Peter O'Brien who appears as a mentor to the young John Ibrahim who at  age 40 now  controls Kings Cross nightlife. But Ibrahim would have been in shorts and still at school in the early 1980's when Freeman reigned supreme running protection rackets and several illegal gambling casinos. Freeman was dead by 1990 when he had largely been out of Kings Cross activities for a few years and Ibrahim just 20.

And so far there hasn't been a single mention of the true crime boss of Kings Cross-Abe Saffron, or Mr Sin as he was dubbed, who died in 2006  and who from the late 1940's either controlled all strip joints , gambling casinos, prostitution and anything that made an illegal buck or had a share in these illegal activities and a army of stand over men who exercised control. 
In his 2008 book, "Gentle Satan: My Father, Abe Saffron" Alan Saffron described how as a schoolboy, every afternoon he would go to his father's motel where his headquarters were located and went to a special room to count bundles of money into colour coded paper bags with each colour representing different bribes-to police  magistrates and even the state premier Sir Robert Askin. Perhaps Abe will pop up as the series progresses.

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Accidents Happen is the gorgeous Geena Davis's latest film and it had it's world premier at the Cremorne Orpheum last Thursday night.

Geena and her co-stars (c)tSS

Geena & husband Reza Jarharry (c)tSS

 Descibed as a 'black comedy' it's about a family beset by a series of accidents and how they cope with them.

Filmed in downtown St Ives on the North Shore of Sydney 2 years ago, the all Australian cast speak with American accidents.
The film is set in Connecticut.