Vale Edmund Capon

It comes to us all eventually but it's always a bit of shock when someone you admire passes away. Edmund Capon the former director of the NSW Art Gallery has died at age 78 from melanoma.
Pictured above (right) with philanthropist James Fairfax (who passed away in 2017) Whispers thinks the photo sums up Capon's 30 years plus stewardship of the Gallery.
Fairfax was donating over $30M worth of old masters to the gallery at this small get-together and it examples how Edmund was able to seduce and secure funding and donations from the rich and connected.

But more than that, with his unique personality Edmund Capon "opened up" the Gallery to millions of visitors who may not have ever visited the place. In 2010, the year before Capon retired nearly 1.4 million visitors attended the Gallery. 

Right: Barry Humphreys at the James Fairfax art donation function.
Born in London, Capon was an expert in Chinese art and archaeology and managed that division at the world famous Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) before coming to Sydney in 1977 to promote a V&A exhibition. He never left after being offered the position as director of the Art Gallery of NSW. The V&A's loss was our gain. With a unique enthusiasm and an ability to mix with every possible social and business class and treat all with equal respect, Capon became the face of the Gallery and the numbers of visitors rose very year as Capon was able to attract major art shows from all over the world.
Edmund Capon 1941-2019 is survived by his wife Joanna , two children and three step-children.

Edmund Capon (left) with then NSW Premier Barry OFarrell and art patron Stephen Lowy in 2011

Joanna Capon (left) with Edmund and former "first lady" Lucy Turnbull.

Edmund Capon was able to transverse all strata of society and out the Art Gallery of NSW on the map, attracting the general public in their millions along with movie stars like Hugo Weaving pictured here at an Archibald Portraiture prize opening night.

Hollywood comes to The Rescue

Lord of The Rings star Hugo Weaving joined Whispers on the floor of the Teacher's Federation Theatre  in Surry Hills at a rally by the Friends of the ABC to protest funding cuts to the national broadcaster. Under the current conservative government over $300M this year alone has been slashed from the ABC budget by PM Malcolm Turnbull leading to the loss of 800 jobs (despite promising no cuts previously).

It was standing (or seated on the floor) room only as Weaving spread his legs out to enthusiastically applaud the various speakers. They included top selling author  Tom Keneally of Schindler's List fame, Magda Szubanski, star of the ABC'S Kath & Kim and "red" Kerry O'Brien , the retired broadcaster who fronted the 7.30 Report and 4 Corners for many years.

Kerry O'Brien, Magda Szubanski and Tom Keneally at the Save the ABC Rally

Often criticized as being too "left wing" O'Brien read out many of the 100s of letters he would receive after hosting ABC political broadcasts during election days. Most attacked him as being too favourable to the Liberal Party and too tough on the Labor Party.
Szubanski compared the recent same sex marriage survey that found a 62% positive result for LGBT marriage rights with the Aussie public and quoted credible surveys that say 68% of Australians love their ABC.
One speaker pointed out that after slashing ABC TV & radio broadcasts to our South Pacific neighbours which received audiences the UK's BBC would envy,  China has quickly filled the void snapping up 300 of the Australian broadcast wavelengths and now dominate our nearest neighbours.
The rally, which was followed by one in Melbourne and will be repeated around the country are in response to a recent Liberal Party conference where delegates voted to privatize the ABC.

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Out and about canvassing today in the Longman bi-election with the Labor Party candidate Susan Lamb was Hollywood star Danny Glover.
Glover is making quite a splash around Australia and appears to have become an activist for several local matters including Indigenous affairs.

Birthday Boy

It's a very Happy Birthday to former Prime Minister Bob Hawke (pictured here in our exclusive snap on Friday with Labor leader Bill Shorten) who turns 87 today (well yesterday actually). The former union leader won the 1983 general election in a landslide and at one stage was the most popular PM in Aussie history. He was eventually rolled by his (former) loyal deputy Paul Keating.
Whispers often runs into the Silver Bodgie as he is affectionately know, at various social functions and we have featured him on these pages over the years. Always popular with the electorate and he always greets you with a cherry smile and more often than not, a risque joke.
Below: Bob with John Singleton at the opening of Singleton's The Worker's Bar in Balmain (reputedly where the Labor Party was created in 1891) and with wife Blanche d'Alpuget at her book launch Hawke, The Prime Minister, the best selling Australian political biography of all time.

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Photo roundup:
Matty Bennett and partner Rupert Noffs are creating a foodie storm in New York with their successful restaurant The Lucky Bee as celebs pour through the doors- below with gorgeous Victoria's Secret model, Megan Williams

 At the AACTA Awards on Wednesday night at Star City: Claudia Karvan * Mel Gibson * Ky Baldwin * George Miller * Paul Hogan * Cate Blanchett * Hugo Weaving

Will Hugo Weaving pick up an Academy Award?

Colin Freils & Judy Davis

The new play Faith Healer by Brian Friel just opened at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Surry Hills. It's a series of four monologues with actor Colin Friels, Alison White and Pip Miller.

Keith Robinson & Hugo Weaving

On the opening night we not only had Friels at the after party but his wife Judy Davis who has picked up 2 BAFTA awards, 3 EMMYs and 8 ACCTA awards. Not only that she starred in the Academy Award winning film My Brilliant Career. That movie was produced by Australian producer Margaret Fink who Whispers took to the ritzy Sardi's Restaurant in New York after she had nabbed the Oscar at the awards in LA. As we swept into Sardi's waiters snapped to attention as the maître d led us to the very best table.

"Crikey, you must be really well known in this town" offered Margaret. Whispers didn't have the heart to tell her that when we telephoned to book a table we said we'd be bringing the winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Film.
Also at the Belvoir party- Hugo Weaving who is getting rave reviews for his part in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge which received a standing ovation from Hollywood's film community a few night ago when it premiered in Tinsel Town. Talk is Weaving is in hot running to pick an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. pics by William Yang
Faith Healer is on at the Belvoir until 27th November.

"No Comment"

One guest at the David Jones Spring Summer fashion parade last night was TV presenter Angela Bishop, pictured right. Angela's mom is the Hon Bronwyn Bishop MP who has just had a horror few weeks culminating in her resignation as Speaker of The House. Something to do with a helicopter. And what did Angela think of Bronnie's Mensis Mensis Horribulus (hey it's Latin for a ghastly month!).
"No comment" was Angela's response. Sensible girl.
And another guest- the delightful actress and film producer Samara Weaving  (who is actor Hugo Weaving's niece) who we are showing just because we can. And she looks fab.

Hugo Weaving Is Well Hung

Katrina Greenwood (aka Mrs Hugo weaving) and daughter Holly

That time of the year : the annual Archibald Prize is awarded for the best portrait of a significant figure in Australian cultural life . And this year it was Del Kathryn Barton's painting of Matrix. Lord of The Rings & Hobbit star Hugo Weaving. The 'Packer's Prize' was the Mathew Lynn pic of crime writer Tara Moss.

 Tara Moss &her portrait

Burlesque star Venus Vamp & her Wendy Sharpe portrait

It's the second year that a portrait of Weaving has been entered and last year's portrait by Nicholas Harding has been sold to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, according to Hugo's wife who was on hand with daughter Holly for the launch party. Hugo was in Melbourne filming so couldn't attend..
The Wynne Prize for Landscape was won by  Imants Tillers for Namatjira while the Sir John Sulman Prize went to Victoria Reichelt for After (books). You can see all the paintings at the website for the Art Gallery of New South Wales while here is a selection taken by the Shuttle after 3 glasses of champagne,
                         

what is it ?

Hugo Weaving at the 2012 Archibald

The Hobbit Premiers in Wellington

Stars of the film: Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, James Nesbitt, Yao Chen and Brooke Fraser

Guests emerged from a Hobbit 'house' and walked a red carpet that stretched 800mtrs through several city blocks watched by 100,000 fans!.

Director Peter Jackson & Katie Jackson

Dane Rumble

Sylvester McCoy, Lizzie Spender, Barry Humphries

Elijah Wood

Be Good To Your Mumm

Laura Csortan

The Bellevue Hotel in Paddington has opened a bar for the Summer racing season and it's the place to go during or after the Saturday races.

The 2012 Mumm Spring Carnival Bar is open for business and even better, there is food provided by top chef Damien Pignolet as well as a terrific choice in various Mumm NV sparkles. They even have ordinary drinks as well like beer and wine.
Wednesday night's opening bash was a fairly small affair with some of our favourite faces like gorgeous Laura Csorton (who will host the bar) Gigi Edgley, Kerri Anne Kennnerley, Sophie Faulkner and actor Roy Billing. Roy is one of those thespians who is never out of work. Following his superb performance as the infamous drug baron Robert Trimbole in Underbelly he also appears on Sunday nights in the hit ABC series Irish Jack with co-star Guy Pearce and has a TV movie Cliffy about the famous long distance runner Cliff Young to be released in 2013 along with Mystery Road which co-stars Hugo Weaving and Ryan Kwanten.

Damien Pignolet

The Mumm Bar also has a celebrity DJ in the form of actor Alex Dimitriades resting after his hit performance in The Slap. The bar is upstairs at the Bellevue and features leather sofas , a dining area with a private dining room plus a sun deck but more importantly, rows and rows of Mumm Champagne behind the bar.

The 2012 Mumm Spring Carnival Bar : Hosted By Laura Csortan / DJ - Alex Dimitriades / Canapés by Damien Pignolet
matched with NV Mumm Champagne
Caulfield Cup :Saturday 20th October. Cox Plate: Saturday 27th October
Derby Day :Saturday 3rd November, Melbourne Cup : Tuesday 6th November ($120 pp)

Cate Blanchett :"Slugfest, With Pratfalls"

The New York Times is heaping priase on Andrew Upton's production of Uncle Vanya which stars Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh, Hugo Weaving and the Shuttle's favourite Oscar nominee Jackie Weaver.

Andrew & Cate on opening night

Says reviewer Ben Brantley :" I consider the three hours I spent on Saturday night watching them complain about how bored they are among the happiest of my theatergoing life."..."this “Uncle Vanya” gets under your skin like no other I have seen."
 "With her movie star credentials and fashion-magazine looks, Ms. Blanchett (a dazzling Blanche in the Sydney Theater Company’s touring “Streetcar Named Desire” two years ago) is the obvious popular draw here. And she confirms her status as one of the best and bravest actresses on the planet, with a go-for-broke yet artfully contained performance that keeps sabotaging her own natural elegance."
 Brantley not only raves about our Cate but the all-Australian cast gets the thumbs up in this Tamas Ascher directed play. Read the full review here.
Uncle Vanya is a Sydney Theater Company production, presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,

Celeb Sightings in Sydney

Olivia, hubby John Esterling, Delta Goodren at the Downs Syndrome fundraiser

An unusually busy Sydney wet weekend with a charity ball, the finale of the Sydney Film Festival at the State Theatre and new superstar Chris Hemsworth taking a day off to surf at Maroubra Beach before the launch of his film Snow White and The Huntsman this Tuesday at Westfield in Bondi Junction.

Our favourite Academy Award types were at the State Theatre including Oscar winner Emile Sherman (producer of The King's Speech), nominee Jackie Weaver and Hugo Weaving. 

Emile Sherman

Hugo Weaving

Still celebrating his 25 years on TV, celeb interviewer Richard Wilkins hosted the 25 Year Anniversary Fundraiser for Downs Syndrome at Fox Studios and that brought out Hollywood types like Nicole Kidman and Olivia Newton John plus the judges from The Voice-Seal, Delta Goodren, Keith Urban and Joel Madden (they sang for their supper). 
Meanwhile Lady GaGa jetted in from Melbourne and did a walk about outside the Park Hyatt Hotel greeting a few hundred excited Little Monsters and posed for snaps with them.

major Hollywood eye candy at Maroubra Beach yesterday

And that's just the weekend!