Hugh Jackman & Deborra Lee-Furness

Hugh Jackman & wife Deborra Lee-Furness at the Met Gala

Gratuitous Hugh Jackman photo

Hugh Jackman & Sydney's New Year's Eve

Actor Hugh Jackman who stars in the film The Greatest Showman is aiding in the organising of the sensational New Year's Eve fireworks that will be on display on Sydney Harbour on Sunday night. The Sydney celebrations are usually the first in the world and are viewed by 100s of millions around the planet. What fantastic publicity for Jackman's new flick!
Below is Hugh at the Sydney Opera House and below that a trailer for The Greatest Showman.

Lord Sugar Vs Piers Morgan #1

Whispers noticed this snap on twitter 2 days ago. It's a pic of a young lad at Sydney's prestigious Knox Grammar school. He grew into one of Australia's most loved movie stars. Over drinks that evening we showed it to a pal who works for the MailOnline where it dully ended up today.
Aren't we nice to our fellow struggling hacks?
# Hugh Jackman is the lad in the middle in the plain t-shirt.

Cate conquers New York

Hugh Jackman, Deborah Lee Furness and Wendi Murdoch at the Park Avenue Armory

Currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW is the new video installation by renowned German artist Julian Rosefeldt (pictured below) which features Cate Blanchett .
The work presents a series of monologues that Rosefeldt has created by editing and reassembling a collage of artists’ manifestos, from declarations penned by the futurists, dadaists and situationists, to the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Sol LeWitt, Yvonne Rainer and Jim Jarmusch.

Blanchett performs these ‘new manifestos’ while inhabiting 13 different personas – among them a school teacher, a newsreader, a factory worker and a homeless man – to explore the power and urgency of these historical words in our world today.
It's on until 19th February 2017 and Whispers will be attending a special viewing next Tuesday. Hopefully there will be some guests of the caliber who turned up in New York as the Gum Leaf Mafia invaded the Park Avenue Armory for a special US screening. As you can see from our exclusive photos it was movie star heaven.

Whispers at the Tony Awards

excited show biz folk..

We go to all sorts of lengths to bring the latest glossy news to our readers. And if that means New York then so be it. Here are our exclusive pics from the fabulous Tony Awards last night and gosh, Hugh Jackman wasn't compering or even singing !
The big winners : Fun Home won five Tony Awards, the most of any musical at the 69th Annual Tony Awards. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens also won five Tonys, including Best Play, the most of any non-musical play.

 And we went one step further and whipped out the I-phone on the Red Carpet. Spot the stars and their sensational frocks- they're all household names. That yelling is quite normal- it's the media who go quite mental at these times. Fortunately they are corralled in a pen.

New Wedding Craze

Maybe not a craze but it's certainly popular. Australian gay couples are getting hitched in New York at a furious pace. Last week we had Rupert Noffs (right) the brains behind Gideon Shoes, the brand of choice for young Hollywood types, swapping wedding bands with
his long time partner Matty Bennett in Central Park.




Now on the weekend fashion photographer James Houston and restauranteur Brian McGrory (right) promised undying love to each other in the Big Apple.
And the famous Gumleaf Mafia turned out to cheer on the happy couples with Baz Luhrmann, Hugh Jackman and Melissa George joining other famed gay wedding enthusiasts Elton John and David Furnish.
And gosh, aren't they handsome couples?

 
## One guest at the 80th birthday party last week for artist Charles Billich was TV presenter Krystle McGill who had just flown in from Hollywood.
The bubbly Krystle says she has some pretty exciting news but can't reveal anything just at the moment. And to ensure Nosey Parkers like moi didn't pry details from her she brought along a minder in the form of an agent.              
 

Krystle caused quite a stir at this year's Golden Globes when actor Jon Voigt turned the tables on her and decided to interview her as seen in the clip below
 

Peter & Hugh's Goodbye to Joan

 One little fact unreported about Joan Rivers' star-studded funeral- as she wanted it to be- was the song she was finally bade goodbye with that brought tears as well as applause to her last exit. The late Australian singer Peter Allen was a good friend of Joan's and each would go to see their respective shows in whatever city their paths crossed. Indeed the Shuttle who worked with Peter in London recalls Joan turning up to see Allen sing on three occasions when he appeared at a club called Madisons in Camden Lock.
And so Hugh Jackman who portrayed Allen in The Boy From Oz bicycled to Joan's farewell to sing the song Peter originally wrote about the late Judy Garland : Quiet Please There's a Lady on Stage.
Here is Peter's original recording of that song.

Picture Post

at the State Theatre for the launch of The Rover : Guy Pierce, David Michod & Robert Pattinson

At the Gold Dinner for the Children's Hospital at the Carriageworks which raised over $1.1M : Helen Coonan

Backstage at the Tony Awards in New York : Hugh Jackman, Idina Menzel and Clint Eastwood

Cate Blanchett at the State Theatre for the Sydney Film Festival premiere of How To Train Your Dragon 2

Letter from Las Vegas

THE MYSTERY surrounding the absence of Sydney party girl Sharon Sargeant has been revealed : she's been spotted by the Shuttle's spy disguised as a one-armed-bandit, hitting the bright lights of Las Vegas.

Sargeant has featured many times on the Social Shuttle as well as the UK's Daily Mirror and numerous European publications because of her outrageous antics. She's also a pin-up girl for a US battalion in Afghanistan .
Apart from being spotted at Hugh Jackman's recent Oscar party in Los Angeles she also attended the Adultcon Convention in Vegas.

But what news of her permanent fiancee, the private eye Frank Monte ?. Our spy says he was spotted deep in conversation with some serious looking gents at a private dinner at the ritzy Sahara Hotel. Apparently they were the security managers of Las Vegas' top casinos and Monte was imparting some advice. One rumour has it that Monte was involved in unmasking the recent $32M card sharp attempt at Melbourne's Crown Casino. Monte was seen arriving at the casino last month for 3 days that coincided with a visit by Crown owner James Packer.

Rose Shines at Premiere

Rose Byrnes who was in Los Angels last week for the G'Day USA events flew into Sydney yesterday to attend the world premiere of her new film I Give It A Year.

The movie, a romantic comedy looks at the trials and tribulations of a pair of newlyweds during their first year as a married couple. Directed by Dan Mazer, Rose stars with Anna Faris, Simon Baker, Rafe Spall and Minnie Driver.
While in town Rose will be completing some vocals on Hugh Jackman's production of X-Men, Days of Future Past in which she plays a world authority on human genetic mutation. Isn't our Rose talented?

Below is a trailer for her new flick:

Jack Vidgen Grows Up

Jack Vidgen at 16 has survived puberty and still has his voice and amazingly, can still hit those high notes. The then 14 year old whose success on Australia's Got Talent  was sealed with a kiss on the cheek from macho Irishman Brian McFadden is still capitalising on his win and has been working non-stop for the last 2 years,
He still has a little trouble with his hand movements though but he's well on the way to becoming an Oz version of Wayne Newton. Las Vegas beckons.

Here he is at the gala G'Day USA dinner in Los Angeles last week where he sang the Star Spangled Banner for an audience of top Aussies like Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Rose Byrne, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Paul Hogan, models Elle McPherson and Miranda Kerr , Hugh Jackman, our favourite Qantas pilot John Travolta.

Here's Jack singing in our exclusive video from the event :


 

Vale James Miller.
Popular publican and man about town James Miller has been found dead by friends from a suspected overdose at the young age of 38.
Miller owned some of Sydney's most popular inner-city pubs : The Norfolk in Surry Hills and The Santa Barbara in Kings Cross.
Handsome, outgoing and friendly, Miller was named last year in Fairfax Media's Sydney Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People.

Our Jackie Does it Again !

She's one of our favourite actors and a friendly sight around Sydney. No airs or graces, down to earth and always happy for a chat :
 Jackie Weaver has done it again and been nominated for an Academy Award for her 'performance by an actress in a supporting role' in Silver Linings Playbook.
Jackie appears opposite heartthrob Bradley Cooper and the legendary Robert Di Niro. 

Hugh Jackman has been nominated for best actor in  "Les Misérables" and Naomi Watts as best actress in "The Impossible".

Les Miserables Murdochs

Wendi & Rupert at last night's premiere

Rupert and Wendi Murdoch graced the red carpet at last night's Sydney State Theatre premiere of Les Miserables joining local actors and the two male stars of the film Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe.


The Murdochs were in Melbourne last week to attend the memorial service for the late Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert's much admired mother who died at the grand age of 103.

The Shuttle attended many parties at the home of Matt Handbury and his then wife Fiona at their harbour side mansion Altona (currently being rented by the Jackman clan). Fiona, who has since divorced Matt often spoke of the animosity between the Handburys and Murdochs. Matt inherited his mother Helen Handbury's  magazine empire which she as Rupert's sister inherited from Sir Keith Murdoch.

Now a Murdoch family insider Rodney E.Lever who assisted Murdoch in the creation of his media empire has penned a series of articles for the political website Independent Australia telling of the strained relationship that now bedevils the Murdochs : Rupert is estranged from his oldest son Lachlan and daughter Elisabeth who is married to Britain's ace PR consultant Mathew Freud.
While Matt Handbury attended Dame Elisabeth's service in Melbourne as did Lachlan and his wife Sarah Murdoch (Fiona has since become the Countess of Dartmouth), the Murdochs all went their separate ways and declined to attend the refreshments afterwards or to mingle with the other 1000 guests.

Oscar Talk for Les Misérables

 

Les Misérables has premiered in London and there is already talk of Oscars for the stars - Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.
Jackman and Hathaway have both sung together at previous Academy Award ceremonies and Jackman also recommended Anne for the part of Fantine in the current production.



                 

Tom Hooper, Amanda Seyfried,Hugh Jackman

Seems like such a long time ago when the Shuttle drank with Hugh at the Erskineville Pub after premier party for his 1999 movie Erskineville Kings. Asked if he had ambitions for a Hollywood career, Jackman responded with these memorable words:"would be so nice but the competition is pretty tough". As for the numerous drinking sessions we shared with Russell Crowe during his rise to fame in his Sydney days, the less said about the better !

Le Mis opens in Sydney on Boxing Day. Below is the trailer:

Hugh Has The Edge

Hugh Jackman on the set of The Wolverine with Korean star Psy

He really is the easiest going superstar and when an acting pal asked him to help launch his book, Hugh Jackman was only to happy to oblige.

Hugh Jackman & Drew Carey at the book launch

Dean Carey is the Creative Director of the ACA (Actors Centre Australia) in Devonshire Street,
Surry Hills (a few doors from the Shuttle office. He's known Hugh since long before his movie days and he is very well connected as our pics show. Jackman is also patron of the ACA.

His book The Acting Edge is combined with an interactive website (yes-there is an app as well) that promises to be the perfect aid to new aspiring young actors.

Drew & Ian McKellen

And many of them turned up yesterday to meet Hugh and Drew, share a drink and


perhaps catch a few tips from Jackman who is currently filming The Wolverine around Sydney.

We know most of Wolverine's locations as they seem to coincide with just where we always park the car and all spots are taken by equipment and catering vans.
Still, Hugh is about the only movie star we know who still gives a cheery wave to people he's meet once or twice.

Fairfax : Stating the Bleeding Obvious or Taking The Piss

 The Fairfax family were once the proud owners of titles like the Sydney Morning Herald first published in 1831 and the Melbourne Age established in 1854 and once regarded as one of the greatest broadsheets on the planet.
The Fairfax family have long departed (making hundreds of millions of dollars in the process) and the Fairfax empire has been stumbling along badly ever since. The last remaining family member John B.Fairfax sold his shares for $189M in 2011.
 Reputedly the editor who spent time and money trying to convince Fairfax board members to embrace digital was booted only to be snapped up by The Guardian in the UK which now slightly lags behind the Mail Online as the most popular newspaper website in the world.

Tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald will feature a piece titled Most powerful players in Australian film, basically a list of household names who command power and big money in the Australian film industry. the real heavy hitters with surprising results it trumps !

Well not quite. Sam Worthington, Chris Hemsworth, Geoffrey Rush, Mia Kasalwoska, Rose Byrne, Hugh Jackman, Emile Sherman etc etc are unlikely to surprise anyone. And who is one of their sources ?

Rose Byrne

A photo agency called Jamie Fawcett Photo News run by Jamie Fawcett the photographer bankrupted by Fairfax during a court case in which Nicole Kidman appeared as a witness.
A Shuttle reader sent us an email a week ago with 2 screen shots which we cannot display for legal reasons.
The Sydney Morning Herald had published a story about the arrest of a union official. We had already read the tale the night before on a website called Independent Australia which has been miles ahead of both News Ltd and Fairfax on the same story. In the first screen shot the SMH claimed it had "exposed the embezzlement" of union funds by the official as well as claiming something similar about a Member of Parliament.

By Mid-day the word 'allegedly' had finally been inserted before the damaging claims. Did Fairfax inform their readers of their mistake and apologise as  their code of conduct requires ?. Most certainly not. 

The editor of Independent Australia, David Donavon has ripped into Fairfax over their incorrect claim in their Brisbane Times that a woman had yelled at Prime Minister Julia Gillard during a Queensland community meeting that she was 'white trash', duly reported by the BT and picked up around the country by various news outlets.
What the woman actually said which is clearly audible on BT's own website is that "we are not white trash" referring to herself and her son.

The Sun

And the Brisbane Time's reaction when asked to correct the lie : total denial it had ever happened.

Sydney Morning Herald

Fairfax share price is plunging almost weekly despite it owning a reputed $5B in assets. Staff are being made redundant at a great rate with 29 fired a fortnight ago in Melbourne.
A month ago the Shuttle ran into a former Fairfax editor, now publisher of on-line magazines. Asked to comment on the anouncment that Fairfax will go digital in 9 years he scoffed. "5 at the most and possibly 3" was his reply. 

On Thursday the Shuttle attended the opening of the French brasserie style Aranas Bar in The Rocks owned by the same people as the nearby Lowenbrau beer cellar. We had forgotten it was Oktoberfestt and had to pick our way past a blaring oompah band and some thigh slapping chaps in lederhosen (we are assured they are of German descent). It was a reasonably staid affair with good food and copious amounts of Veuve Clicquot but the Shuttle didn't visit the Gents or we may have witnessed the bizarre urinals that became a feature the following day in the media.

Gina Rinehart

What we did notice is that the venerable Sydney Morning Herald produced a piece that was almost a carbon copy of Britain's infamous The Sun newspaper which 20 years ago would have been it's ideological opposite, quoting the same sources, feminist Ann Summers and former Parliamentarian Meredith Burgmann.

Will readers sign up to a digital version of Fairfax Newspaper to read this stuff ?. And more importantly, why is the world's richest woman Gina Rinehart snapping up Fairfax shares as they plunge. Is it to put it out of it's misery?.
                                  

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 !