Cleo Clanger

Feel for the staff of Cleo Magazine who probably read today via the Daily Telegraph that they would lose their jobs as the magazine closes. Cleo came as part of the package when the James Packer sold out his publishing interests to the giant German Bauer Media Group in 2012.

First published 44 years ago with the venerable Packer favorite Ita Buttrose as editor (a shout-out to Ita who Whispers found themselves with in a Surry Hills post office queue just a few days ago), Cleo was aimed at an older female audience. Recently their Bachelor Of The Year awards have received plenty of publicity (aided by some self-important publicists who seemed oblivious to the rapidly changing world of media). Circulation has hovered around 53000 a year with a claimed readership of 173000 and a claimed 300,000 online readers.
But just look at Whispers'(thesocialshuttle.com) online readership (left : Google's figures) . Daily views are around 2300 with monthly views around 72000 which is not dissimilar to a monthly magazine or a local newspaper (and a shout out to our daily 300 approx readers who are in Russia). Of course it's very hard to compare and many factors influence readership but compared to a blog run by 1.5 (part timer) and a dyslexic cat who claims to be the sub-editor, something must give in these print publications and the large staff needed to run them.

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Meanwhile as the Happy Couple, Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall announce their engagement, Don Rupioni's beloved Sun Newspaper is under investigation for claims it was also involved in phone hacking. We couldn't help but notice a recent cover. As one irreverent wag from that august publication put it : "how dare they, that's our job"

Wharf4Ward A Winner

Sam & Kochie from The Morning Show were in good humour as were Peter Overton and Karl Stefanovic

Dannii Minogue says You Can                                             X-Factor finalist Jae Waetford visits the You Can centre

 The third annual Sony Foundation Wharf4Ward at the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo was another stellar success raising over $700,000 for the new Sydney You Can Centre. You Can is a joint initiative of Sony Foundation and CanTeen to support young people who have been affected by cancer. And the stars turned out including X-Factor judges Dannii Minogue and Ronan Keating and numerous TV presenters and entertainers.

sharing a joke : Jessica Rowe , Natarsha Belling & Ita Buttrose.         Titomatic and Boxing champ Jeff Fenech

Dannii Minogue went on a Luvvie bender

Singer Samantha Jade shows how to arrive.

Storm Uechtrit & Ronan Keating, Troy Casser-Daley....and what where these waiters and the snapper doing ?

rules made to be broken especially at The Garden For Life Bar created by Alex Zabotto -Bentley

Black Is White

Let us cast our minds back to 1937.

Earl of Gowrie

Mrs Eric Sheller of Darling Point put forward, to a group of well heeled ladies, the idea of holding an annual charity ball. Soon the The Black and White charity committee was formed and thus Sydney's annual society get together began it's life with the then Governor General of Australia, the Earl of Gowrie,as the  guest of honour at the first Black and White Ball held at the Trocodero, the most glamorous event the city had ever seen.

The Town Hall

Lord Gowrie, late of the 3rd Battalion Highland Light Infantry, the Cameron Highlanders in Dublin, a companion to Lord Kitchener on his visit to Australia had been appointed by King George VI as Governor General to the former colony under the British born working class Labor Party Prime Minister Billy Hughes (later known as the Little Digger), the longest serving Australian parliamentarian in the countries history.

Fast forward to 2011 and last Friday night at the Sydney Town Hall where the 75th Black and White Ball was held with an impressive 450 guests.. One guest of honour was the interior designer Leslie Walford who has decorated grand houses from Belgravia to Beverley Hills and Sri Lanka.and is the son of the committee's founder Mrs Sheller.

Ita Buttrose & Professor Ross Steele

 And what a fab night it was. Like stepping back in time to an era of restrained elegance. They even rolled out the red carpet (only slightly soiled) while dozens of bemused (and confused) by-standers gathered at the foot of the Town Hall steps and gazed in awe at the spectacle unfolding before their eyes.

Leslie Walford & Susan Diver

They had no idea what it was all about of course but there was colour and movement, glamorous ball gowns and a Scots bag-pipe band to serenade the swells as as they arrived in line after line of limousines.

Up until the late 1980sw the B & W Ball was  the cities premier social event. Then a  sort of unfounded and ill-informed criticism was perpetuated in the popular media . Just who in the hell were these ladies, probably with too much time on their hands, many with wealthy husbands , organising these over the top shindigs where hundreds would gather to drink champagne, dine on fine fare and dance the night away all in the name of charity?.

Bronwyn Bishop MP & Angela Bishop

In light of the latest report here-where some of Australia's most well know charities have been exposed for spending up to 60% of donations on  "operating costs" one fact has been ignored. The ladies of the Black & White Committee work for free. They cajole, pressure, plead for every single aspect of the ball.

Caterers, waiters, alcohol suppliers, venues, entertainers, doormen, prize donaters and so on-not one single one is paid. Everything is donated and every penny raised goes directly to charity

The Town Hall looked as splendid as it can at times although sadly the great organ on the stage-the largest in the world -remained silent but a terrific 1940's style band belted out numbers from the past 70 years.

The traditional 'Derby' went off went off without a hitch (although we noticed one gent at a front table, an 87 old retired Admiral almost had a heart attack when the starter's gun was fired) and the throng were soon up and dancing a storm.

The Derby

One guest- Bronwyn Bishop MP who spent the first half of the evening in Canberra at the Parliament House reception for HM The Queen caught a plane to join her TV presenter daughter Angela Bishop at the ball.

Four former presidents of the committee were on hand but the current president, Sue Diver deserves a gold star stamp for her superb efforts. Having survived 75 years, the Black and White Ball looks assured of a future for many years to come.

Ita Bows Out

At the beginning of August when the Shuttle brought it's readers the exclusive story that publishing identity Ita Buttrose was considering a run for Sydney Lord Mayor, the mainstream media thumbed it's nose at the tale.

Ita Buttrose

"A fantasy "proclaimed one (who should know better considering the amount of scoops we have fed them) but sure enough, three weeks later the 2 Saturday broadsheets presented their "exclusive" stories on Ita's Town hall ambitions.

Buttrose had been approached by a well known businessman who represented many others who wished to break independent MP and Lord Mayor Clover Moore's stranglehold on inner Sydney politics. They had done the research and their polling reckoned Ita was a shoo-in for the job.

Town crier Graham Keating & Clover Moore sydneyindymedia.com.au

On the weekend Ms Buttrose announced that she would not be contesting the election, probably after a long hard think about the grind of the job with it's many brickbats and few bouquets as she was sure to win.

Which leaves the dog-collar wearing mayor Clover Moore a cinch to be re-elected. Although Moore has stumbled of late over the largely unused bike lanes and unsuccessful attempts to curb nightclub drinking hours, she is sure to romp home with no credible challenger on the horizon.

Meanwhile powerful shock jock Alan Jones continues his weekly brickbats directed at Moore but they are expected to have little affect with a largely North Shore and Southern Shire audience, none of whom vote in the mayoral elections.

This weekend a group of Oxford Street businessmen will be drowning their sorrows at Justin Hemmes' Beresford Hotel having seen their dreams of propelling Buttrose into office, crash and burn.

The Original Masterchef

Simon Eckersley at Tony Bilson's book launch

Ita Buttrose,Tony Bilson, Margaret Fulton

 He's always referred to as the 'Godfather of Australian cuisine' or the 'original Masterchef' and chef Tony Bilson undoubtedly deserves the titles. From small beginnings with his Tony's Bon Gout  that opened near the railway line at Central Station, Bilson was undoubtedly the first to introduce nouvelle cuisine in the 1970s and all others have followed since.

His next venture Berowa Waters Inn became a legend. Only accessible by sea-plane and nestled over the calm Berowa Waters it was packed every night with a 3 month waiting list for a table. His 'apprentice' there-Tetsuya Wakuda has gone in similar fashion with his city restaurant having an even longer wait time for tables and Tetsuya the biggest food star in Japan.

Another Bilson successful chef is the Dancing With The Stars champion Manu Feildel. And that's par for the course with Bilson whose first cook book Fine Family Food published 15 years ago is still used to inspire and instruct competitors in 'Masterchef Australia'

Tetsuya and Lucio

John Bell

In 2006 Tony was inducted into the Restaurant & Catering Hall of Fame and the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide honoured him with a special award for his contribution to the industry.

Murdoch Books and Matt Hanbury, Tony Bilson's publisher hosted a party at the Radisson Hotel where Tony's current venture  Bilson's is located, to launch Bilson's new book.
                                                                                          Insatiable-My Life In The Kitchen is a must read in which the bon vivant  recounts wild nights and wild appetites with an extraordinary cast of artists, painters, writers and politicians. It's a Who’s Who of Australian cultural life from the late 1960s to the present-day.

Stars may head towards Bilsons when they touch down in Sydney (Leo DiCaprio three times now) but the proof of Bilson's pulling power is the number of foodies that flock there whenever in town. In the past 3 months he has fed Rick Stein, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey, Paul Bocuse, Anthony Bourdain and A.A.Gill.

Those sipping Moet & Chandon at the launch included Ashley Dawson Damer, Ray Hughes, Margaret Fulton, Tetsuya Wakuda, Ita Buttrose, actors John Bell and Graeme Blundell and Lucio Galletto.

Buy Tony Bilson's Insatiable here

The Social Shuttle Scoops The Rest

It's becoming the norm-tales that appear first in the Social Shuttle and are picked up around the world from the UK's Daily Mail and Sunday Mirror, the Times Of India along with Australian tabloids.

Three weeks ago we published the exclusive story that media personality Ita Buttrose may stand for election as Sydney's Lord Mayor against the incumbent Clover Moore.

Ms Buttrose's could well sweep Moore out of office. She has a reputation for hard work and her credentials for the post are impeccable having worked for both Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer.

And Ita's profile has sky-rocketed since the tele-movie about her life, Paper Giants-The Making of Cleo received huge ratings.

Now the Sydney Morning Herald is to publish a story later today on Ita's mayoral bid as will the Daily Telegraph as our snaps of their websites show.

Even smaller tips appear here first.

One week ago we told how film director Baz Luhrmann had imported 6 superb left-hand drive vintage vehicles to appear in his $120M re-make of The Great Gatsby and lo and behold, the Daily Telegraph warmed to the theme with their exclusive photographs yesterday of Leo DiCaprio and Gatsby co-star Tobey McGuire practising driving a beautiful Duesenberg, one of two sourced from a US automobile museum.

On the 30th July we told of the drama in Double Bay when the suburb's very popular star-spotting restaurant and coffee shop, Dee Bees run by the amiable Graeme Goldberg shut-up shop, albeit as the signs on the windows say, temporarily "for renovations ". It took a full week for the Daily Telegraph and the local newspaper for the penny to drop and for them to get on board.

You read it here first!

Ita Ignites A Storm with Rupert Murdoch Claim

What was Ita Buttrose AO OBE thinking ?. Was it a carefully planned statement or a throwaway line ?. Certainly three of Sydney's top society gossip snoops believe the former.

Ita Buttrose and Prof. Ross Steele

Ros Reines ( Sunday Telegraph), Andrew Hornery ( Sydney Morning Herald) and Annette Sharp (Daily Telegraph) were speaking yesterday at the Secret Women's Business charity lunch at Quay restaurant and basically inferred that Ita had known exactly what she was doing when she made the claim about Rupert Murdoch.

It's already had a run on the top US political website Raw Story and from there it is just a matter of time before it hits the British tabloids.

Ita was talking during the second part of her Australian Story interview- Ita Tells Me So.

Near the end of the program Buttrose- former editor-in-chief of Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, said that Rupert Murdoch instructed her to have a subject tailed because legitimate reporting techniques were not producing the desired results.

“I assigned a reporter to do it but [Murdoch] wasn’t happy with the result and said, ‘No, that wasn’t good enough. Have you followed this person?’” she recalled.
“I can’t give this instruction,” Buttrose later told then-News Limited chief executive Ken Cowley. “I’m not having anybody that works for me, for whom I’m responsible, follow anybody. I don’t want to be a part of it.”

During the credits of the show the following statements appeared :

“Mr. Murdoch has never asked any journalist to do anything improper,” 
a ( News Corp) spokesman said.
“Mr. Cowley has never been asked by Mr. Murdoch to have a reporter conduct surveillance of any kind on any individual and nor would he have agreed to it had he been asked by Mr Murdoch or anyone else,” 

Buttrose has been one of Australia's most successful female publishers having worked for both Murdoch and Kerry Packer. In 1972 she was hired by Packer to launch the Australian edition of Cosmopolitan but when the deal fell through, she and Kerry devised Cleo, one of Packer's most successful publications of all time. The story was told in the recent two part telemovie Paper Giants.The Birth of Cleo.


And even odder was her brother Julian Buttrose's friendly exhortation to spare fellers to give Ita a call and ask her out on a date. The last few times we've seen Ita out and about ( as our picture shows) she has been on the arm of the French tutor Professor Ross Steele. In fact the two sat front row at the Myer parade just ten days ago.


The ABC program Australian Story can be watched here.

First Ita Buttrose, now Rudy Giuliani

The rumours still roam about town that publishing identity Ita Buttrose may stand in the coming council elections for Lord Mayor, a role she has every chance of winning given her popularity and celebrity status. Despite being contacted by at least two media organisations Ms Buttrose's office has not returned calls with a denial. Perhaps she should take some advice from a former New York  mayor on her bid.

In a little reported conference ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani  told delegates at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane that he was still contemplating whether he would stand for the Republican party in the 2012 presidential primaries.

Giuliani said " “President Obama is an incumbent president, whether you agree or disagree with his policies, incumbent presidents have a very good chance of being re-elected.”

You can read Vanity Fair's report on Giuliani here and note that they have elevated (or demoted) Australia to being America’s most electorally significant state and claim : "But as they say: as Australia goes, so goes the nation "

Ita Buttrose : Missing In Action

Finally a daily newspaper has picked up on our tale that Ita Buttrose may be drafted in to run for Lord Mayor in council elections 9mainly ebcause we told the ungrateful bugger)

Our source is an Oxford Street businessman who represents several others who have requested anonymity.

The writer says he has had no response from his email or phone calls to Ms Buttrose which seems odd as Ita is known for being the epitome of good manners  (see : A Guide to Australian Etiquette)

Likewise last week the Shuttle received no response from an emailed request for a comment from Ms Buttrose on the claim. But why not ?. If the rumour is untrue it would be a simple matter to just say it isn't so. Silence says it may be true ! And when have we ever been wrong ?  Watch this space.

Ita Buttrose For Sydney Lord Mayor ?

Ita Buttrose

More on the push by a group of inner Sydney businessmen who have become disgruntled with Clover Mayor, the local Sydney MP and Lord Mayor of Sydney.

Both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph have followed up on our story about the growing anger over bike lanes that have sprung up around already crowded city streets. Much of the anger has been caused by the loss of hundreds of parking spaces which has resulted in increased parking fines for motorists which in turn funds the bike lanes which are used by only a handful of residents.

The Pedestrian Council of Australia has called the lanes a "compo time bomb ".
Clover Moore also seems to have lost support in the normally left leaning chain of inner city newspapers published by the Alternative Media Group.
The Shuttle has learnt that the business group plan to bring in publishing identity Ita Buttrose to run for Lord Mayor as an independent, an election she would have every chance of winning given her popularity and fame.

Not only does Ita have impeccable business and political connections she is seen as an astute business person in her own right having worked for the late media mogul Kerry Packer as well as being Editor in Chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for Rupert Murdoch and eventually her own publication ITA. She was also for many years the chairperson of National Advisory Committee on AIDS.

Clover Moore with Bill Clinton

Buttrose was behind the creation of the magazine CLEO which proved to be a money spinner for Packer and went on to edit his personal favourite publication the Australian Woman's Weekly that under Ita became  per capita, the largest-selling magazine in the world.

Ita was featured in the telemovie series  Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo earlier this year. Actress Asher Keddie played Ita in the series and will reprise the role in the follow-up series later this year.

Clover Moore has been the independent MP since 1988 and Lord Mayor since 2004. Her popularity has plummeted lately and she only just scrapped back into parliament in the state election earlier this year.

Liz Brewer, Ita Buttrose & International Terrorists

Madame Aracti has drawn our attention to a new book published in the UK by one of that countries top public relations experts Liz Brewer.

Liz was once married to Australian John Rendell of Christian The Lion fame and is the mother of chanteuse and songwriter Tallulah Rendell who wowed audiences in Sydney recently. She was also one of the hosts on the reality TV show Aussie Ladette To Lady where she attempted to convert a bunch of rough and tumble young girls into genteel lasses, suitable enough to mingle with the more refined classes .

party planner Liz Brewer (right) and celebs including
Ivana Trump & NCIS actor Michael Weatherly

Ms Brewer has just published a new book Ultimate Guide to Party Planning & Etiquette which is flying off British book shelves in a country where trying to keep up the standards expected is becoming increasingly difficult in the new 'chav' culture sweeping that great isle.

And Liz knows her stuff having organised some of the top bashes in London for celebrities like Shirley Bassey and Ivana Trump. She's been around celebrities and high society for most of her career that began on the Algarve in Portugal when she opened a nightclub and attracted big names like Paul McCartney and Cliff Richard.

But we also have our own tome - the recently published colonial version : A Guide to Australian Etiquette-for all occasions, from weddings to work by publishing icon Ita Buttrose who was featured in the TV drama Paper Giants-The Birth of Cleo that depicted the 1970's when Kerry Packer lost the contract to publish a local version of Cosmopolitan and instead, under the auspices of Buttrose came up with the top selling magazine Cleo that has been going gangbusters ever since.

Ita Buttrose &Betty Churcher
at the B &W lunch

Ita was a special guest at the Black & White Charity lunch last Tuesday which featured Dame Edna Everage who reminded the audience and Ita that it was her on the 1974 cover that rocketed Cleo to a staggering circulation of nearly half a million copies although it was Ita's idea to feature, for the first time, a man in a dress as she reminded the Dame.

Cleo-1974

Dame Edna retorted that she had no idea who Ita was at the time and thought her name was a reference to an International Terrorist group.

Both books are required reading if one is  to attempt climbing the social ladder in either capitals and from Liz Brewer's interview on Madame Arcati we learn both cities suffer from similar problems. Like the eternal gatecrasher. Liz gives some handy hints to seeing them off and we feel concurs with our view of the local half dozen who plague events here - if they bring nothing to the event in appearance, manners, humour or intellect, what's the point of them ?.

But back to Ita's guide to surviving the sophistication of Australian culture. There are many crossover areas in both Liz Brewer's book and Ita's but the local version give us some much needed tips with a local flavour :

if suffering from bad breath consult your dentist

are you constantly farting ?..avoid spicy food

do you constantly chew gum, smack you're gums and make popping noises ? Don't !

don't let your dog jump in a pond especially if there is green algae !

don't pig out on bread at the dinner table and leave only crumbs

urinating in public is revolting

spitting in public is uncivilised  ...and so on.

Ita also gives some helpful advice on weddings : what to do when the best man is a woman, how to dress for a Muslim wedding, what to do when you run into your ex ! and a host of veritable survival hints even at the football : no player should ever pretend to be their best mate in an attempt to have sex with another player's wife : if a girl has had too much too drink it's best to call a taxi to take her home and most importantly : you never watch a player's mate and his girlfriend having sex!

How can you live without this book ?

Hottest Bachelor Named - Loser Strips

Australia's Cleo Magazine Bachelor of The Year was named last night-Olympic swimming champ Eamon Sullivan (above) described as "charismatic, ambitious,  intelligent, and amazing in the kitchen ".

 Organisers this year sensibly chose ace PR Roxy Jacenko of Sweaty Betty to promote the event-hence acres of coverage on TV networks and newspapers. Roxy is the sort of publicist who doesn't subscribe to the current fad that media workers-photographers, journalists and TV crews are some sort of 'necessary evil' to be tolerated and shoved into a pen and then discarded when it suits.

hosting-Sophie Monk

This years' event was a glittering bash with a black tie dinner at the Ivy ballroom and actress Sophie Monk-still looking for that big break in Hollywood, flew into town to host the event. Sophie confided to the Shuttle that she had been 'celibate' for a year but was looking for a possible candidate amongst the 50 bachelors on show that evening.

On the subject of celibacy-there was much talk during the evening about the successful TV film



Bachelor shows his charms



 Paper Giants : The Birth of Cleo  just screened on the ABC and it's creating editor Ita Buttrose (who famously declared after divorce she intended remaining celibate), and the late media mogul Kerry Packer's hand in getting to print Cleo Magazine in the 1970s which at times reached sales of up to 250,000 copies a month and is still going strong.

Everyone credited actress Asher Keddie for her role as the lightly lisping Ita Buttrose as having given an award winning performance.

Society photographer Bill Ranken who has been around long enough (he's 81) to know the Packers and all the personalities featured in the film (he's also 'landed gentry') agreed Asher's performance was superb and that Tony Barry as the guff Sir Frank Packer was spot on.

As to the long rumoured romance between Buttrose and Packer, Ranken says it never happened :

 "Kerry never mixed business with pleasure" says Ranken.

"Kerry admired Ita for her talent and he would never have risked complicating the business relationship by making it personal. It was just the usual Sydney gossip that ramped the relationship into a love affair. "

Ranken , whose Society Spy pages can be seen in Latte Life also says the film skipped over Kerry Packer's tipple of choice Fanta and how that choice of drink it came about.

Asher Keddie & Rob Carlton as Ita Buttrose
& Kerry Packer in the ABC's Paper Giants.

"Restaurants around the world would be phoned ahead to tell them Kerry was booking a table and that a crate of Fanta should be on hand. The corporate jet was always stocked with plentiful supplies." says Bill.



bachelors come in all sizes



" In the film Kerry says he went on a bender when very young and woke up with a shocking hangover the following morning. He says in the film and that 'he never wanted to feel that way again'. The real truth is that in between the drinking and waking up there was a scene that resulted in tragedy that Kerry never got over. He swore off alcohol for life and kept his word". Ranken declined to illuminate on what had happened that fateful night.




bachelorette attacks cake

 

The media behaves

Will Royal watering hole feature in new TV drama?

Sharon in Las Vegas

Following our exclusive set of photographs supplied from our Las Vegas operative showing the fiancee of private investigator Frank Monte, the buxom Sharon Sargeant dancing with a US porn star at an adult industry convention, the 2 have split within days of the snaps being featured in a double page spread in the Daily Telegraph. The following day the editor of the Tele's Sydney Confidential, Annette Sharp  revealed that Sargeant was the marketing manager of an escort agency Red Velvet Models

Whilst the escort business is entirely legal, Monte has issued an announcement that because of his high profile in the investigation business both here and the USA, he didn't feel he could be associated with an escort business as his mainly corporate clientele demand complete discretion.

Frank Monte interviewed by Larry King

The pair have now split with Sargeant moving out of Monte's Potts Point Ikon apartment to stay with a girlfriend in Mosman. Monte has said the affair is on hold until Sargeant divests herself of her business and seeks alternative employment. Today Monte flew out to Los Angeles.

                                
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Next Tuesday the new program Australian Druglords premiers on Channel Nine and already many of the residents of Sydney's exclusive Eastern Suburbs are trembling with fear.

The first show concentrates on the cocaine dealer Richard Buttrose who was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 16 years this March.

Buttrose is the nephew of high profile TV and publishing identity Ita Buttrose and came from a well off Vaucluse family and attended the elite Cranbrook school. He would drink at the Woollahra pub, the Lord Dudley, a favourite of several of Britain's younger royal family members including Prince Harry and Peter and Zara Phillips. When in town the young royals stay with James Erskine the boss of Sports & Entertainment Ltd who look after a host of personalities like Michael Parkinson, Shane Warne and tennis ace Todd Woodbridge, Erskine is an old friend of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.

Richard Buttrose

Buttrose would wait at the Lord Dudley for clients to call on his mobile phone and then arrange to meet them directly across the road in a parking lot to do his drug deals. When police stopped him in his Mercedes shortly after a deal, they found 300 names in a little black book, thought to be clients and 6 kilos of cocaine. Later searching his several properties they found nearly $1.3M in cash.

The Druglords film will show police footage of the arrest and the search of his house and it's claimed, at least 6 names who may have been his customers. They are said to include a politician and lawyers.

In fear of his life from drug suppliers said to be connected to the Russian Mafia, Buttrose is serving his time in protective custody.