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."

When Celebrity Support Pays

THE AY FAMILY, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, were detained for 13 months in 2002 as the British government attempted to return them to Germany, where they had first made a claim for asylum.

At the time the youngest, Medya, was just seven when the family were arrested and locked up in 2002, Dilovan was 11, Newroz was 12 and Beriwan was 13.

But the Ay family had some high profile backers who pledged to support them in the community including actor Colin Firth, Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling and Australia's Oscar winning writer Tom Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark which was made into the film Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg,  the Devils Playground the film based on Keneally's life story, and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.

JK Rowling

Keneally, who trained to be a Catholic priest has been a long time supporter of asylum seekers both in Australia and abroad and now after a ten year campaign the four Ay children have settled out of court last week for a compensation claim rumoured to be in the high six figures.

Since their election, the Coalition government of David Cameron has pledged to end the practice of locking up child refugees.

In 2003 Keneally who lives on Sydney's Northern beaches said : "In a liberal democracy you can only maintain a policy of locking children up behind barbed wire by spreading lies and demonising the dispossessed of the earth. In the future, these children will tell their stories. There's bound to be literature that comes out of it, and people will gasp and say, 'How did that policy ever get through?'

A Letter From Hugh Jackman

..written to a sixteen year old Hugh Jackman....

See more at Dear Me : A Letetr to My Sixteen Yearl Old Self with JK Rowling, Alice Cooper, Stephen King, Danni Minogue with donations going to Doctors Without Borders.

Harry Potter Down Under

It's about as far from the madding crowd as one can get. Antarctica is the next stop.

Symmons Plains

JK Rowling

The Apple Isle,Tasmania is one of the most pleasant parts of Australia with a glorious country-side that is reminiscent of the green pastures of rural Britain. And the climate is far better. Glorious summers followed by  snowy winters with piercing blue skies.

Woman's Day, the glossy of repute reports that J.K.Rowling,  the most successful author of the last 100 years with the Harry Potter books and films has purchased Symmons Plains, a mansion that comes with a 865 hectare farm. Apparently she has bought several properties on the island. Other media reports question whether the sale actually happened but Woman's Day insists the tale is true.

'In Like Flynn'

Others who have sought the solace of Tasmania include the late MI5 officer Peter Wright,  former Sydney Morning Herald scribe Leo Schofield and the former UN weapons inspector Richard Butler who once had a contract put on his head by Saddam Hussein.

Tasmanians who have left for the wider world to achieve success and fame : The Mentalist's Simon Baker, Greens leader and possibly one of the most powerful men in Federal Parliament Bob Brown, Mary Donaldson now in line to become the next Queen of Denmark, composer Peter Sculthorpe, cricketer Ricky Ponting and our favourite swashbuckling actor, Errol Flynn.