Cate Blanchett Talks About The Future

Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton are one of the great theatre success stories. Not only has their marriage remained strong but their ability to work together has been a spectacular success for the Sydney Theatre Company.

With two major plays under their belts-A Streetcar Named Desire and Uncle Vanya, both of which wowed audiences in Australia and the USA where hard bitten critics on the Washington Post and the New York Times heaped praise upon the productions, the pair have also attracted major sponsors to the struggling theatre company including fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

They have just announced the 2012 season and there are some surprises in store with some old favourites re-surfacing including Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood opening in May with the mellifluous tones of actor Jack Thompson.

Jacqueline McKenzie

In January Peter Evans presents a bold new production of George Bernard Shaw’s enduring classic of wicked wordplay Pygmalion with Jessica Marais playing Eliza Doolittle.

Two of Australia’s most respected actors, Pamela Rabe and Hugo Weaving ( who acted in Uncle Vanya) play the deliciously deviant Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses while the Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre's Sex With Strangers opens in September with Jacqueline McKenzie.
You can book tickets here.

Cate and Andrew also spoke to Richard Glover on the ABC's Drivetime show about their theatre work and the recent attacks upon Cate when she openly backed a Climate Change tax. Cate also revealed her first acting inspiration was seeing the great Melbourne stage actor Frank Thring (left) on stage and thought that if she could get away with playing Bob Dylan, she thought she could play Thring in a biopic about his life.

 Irreverent/ Irrelevant facts :
# The Shuttle attended the premiere of Don't Look Now and sat behind Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. They chatted all the way through the film until Cate appeared on screen.
# Frank Thring's father Frank W.Thring invented the clapperboard, still used in film making today.
# Frank Thring appeared in numerous Australian movies including Ned Kelly (1970), Skippy (1968) and Mad Max (1985) but was in demand for Hollywood costume epics where he acted in El Cid, The Vikings, Hercules Returns, King Of Kings where plays Herod and Ben Hur where he played Pontius Pilate.

Here is a clip recorded not long before Frank died in 1994 with him at his best :

The Shuttle Scoops The World Again !

Following our exclusive story below about top private eye Frank Monte who has announced he will sue the former publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk, the rest of Australia's media has finally caught up today with the story sweeping the majority of news outlets including every TV network and newspaper.

Fraser-Kirk is suing her former boss Mark McInnes and David Jones department store for 'sexual harassment' in a $37M lawsuit. Both worked at the top department store where McInnes was on a rumoured $8M yearly salary.

Monte announced sometime ago ( again in another Social Shuttle scoop) that had been hired to do background checks on the public relations officer. Whilst some media outlets speculated just who had hired the high flying gumshoe-the Shuttle was shown exclusive background material the ace investigator had uncovered. It makes for sensational reading.

Monte, pictured here in New York where he drives a Ferrari, has offices in the USA and Australia and has been featured on top US talk shows including Howard Stern, Larry King and Oprah Winfrey.

Some questioned why Monte would announce that he was investigating someone when presumably discretion and secrecy is needed in his trade. But a fellow private eye told us today that the disclosure was probably part of a well planned attack upon the case against DJs and McInnes, and that Monte whilst being extremely high profile employs a number of covert operators with their boss overseeing their work.

When Kristy Fraser-Kirk's solicitors announced the multi-million dollar lawsuit in August on the day David Jones launched their Spring fashion shows, the tide seemed to turn slightly against her from sympathy to cynicism.

Monte announced today he will sue Fraser-Kirk for libel after stories appeared in the media regarding his surveillance work. He has hired the top barrister Clive Evatt. However the Shuttle had wind of the story 24 hours before the announcement.

As they say-this show will run and run and as one astute reader of the News Corp Melbourne tabloid Herald Sun said upon reading of Monte's lawsuit :

"This is a hoot! Better than the stuff Hollywood turns out." !