What Joan Collins did Today

Whispers was invited to one of Dame Joan Collin's birthday parties many moons ago. The invite came via a telegram, those funny old things of yesterday before email. The party was at the Rainbow Room that deliriously gorgeous penthouse room in Kensington High Street. Outside as pink flamingos wandered in a sumptuous park, we all toasted Joan's 5? birthday.
We digress, Dame Joan today launched a fab new dinghy called Joie de Vivre for the firm Uniworld. We have the picture. Nice.

Pic by Lee Tulloch  http://www.leetulloch.com

Eleven Bridge opens

Despite Sydney's nightlife seemingly vanishing before our very eyes with the new Lock Out laws, celebrity chef Neil Perry re-opened his Rock's restaurant as Eleven Bridge on Monday night. Previously named Rockpool, Perry closed the eatery six months ago.
A favourite with celebrities and fine diners- Whispers once sat at a table next to Joan Collins , Russell Crowe and media mogul Lachlan Murdoch (and that was a slow night), the foodie world was stunned when Perry suddenly closed up shop with a restaurant in a prime location and famed the world over.
But always one step ahead of his rivals, Perry had always planned to turn Rockpool into a more informal diner and Eleven Bridge was born.
You can peruse the new restaurants menu here but don't be too shocked at the prices. Hey, it's The Rocks and the NSW Government has just announced plans to spend $200M on refurbishing Circular Quay and The Rocks. Already a major tourist area it badly needs a re-vamp and Perry who also designs menus for Qantas is not one to miss a trick.

"Secret" wedding not so secret

It's being billed as the 'secret wedding' of Ginia Rinehart, heiress to her mum Gina Rinehart's fortune and one of her favoured children, to her ex-SAS bodyguard.
To be held on Hamilton Island the Oz media is hyperventilating about the "exclusive" guest list that includes Hayseed Central Barnaby Joyce and hamburger king Jack Cowin. Can you bear the excitement?
Whispers has been to Hamilton Island twice but the last time was 10 years ago. It's quite lovely but it's the sort of place you need to take your own company so it's ideal for the Rinehart clan and their pals. 
Mind you it's not a patch on Tangier in Morocco where Whispers attended the 70th birthday of publishing mogul Malcolm Forbes in 1989 and got sat at a table twice removed from Elizabeth Taylor who threw a bread roll at yours truly having mistaken us for someone else.
Even more exciting is the fact we can present you with a snap of Gina & Ginia from the website of the irrepressible Kua Hee Che. It doesn't get much better than this.
Below is a photo of the Concorde arriving in Tangier which Malcolm Forbes hired to jet his 200 guests to Morocco. Whispers only scored a regular flight and in Cattle Class at that. We didn't complain. 

CELEBRITIES WHO DATED / MARRIED THEIR BODYGUARDS:

Scarlett Johansson     Kim Kardashian                    Heidi Klum                        Joan Collins          Roseanne Barr

"Hanging In The Vatican"

Aussie media have joined the Billich Roadshow and headed off to California where colourful Sydney couple Charles & Christa Billich, owners of the Billich Gallery in The Rocks intend to take LA by storm. The town of make believe and the fabulous Billichs were always destined to collide.
The pair will launch themselves at their "good friend" Hugh Heffner's Playboy Mansion. Christa is no slouch in the publicity department and could teach Hef a few tricks. Occasionally a journalist, still wet behind the ears, trots out the Billich line like this chap in the Fairfax business publication BRW. The writer repeats the claim the Billichs have made for years : "His portrait of Pope John Paul II is hung at the Vatican."
Hung at the Vatican ?. Perhaps lying against a wall in dusty basement somewhere along with the thousands of other trinkets, bauble and gifts that flow into the Vatican, the White House ,Buckingham Palace and so on.

Billich fans (?) : Ian Thorpe and the late King of Tonga

It's one of the neatest publicity doddles in the book. Gifts are never sent back (postage !) and the sender often receives a polite, form 'thank you' letter.
Try it yourself and send Prince William and Kate Middleton a gift for their new baby to Kensington Palace.
Critics have been unkind to Charles calling his works anything but art. In 1995 the Sydney Morning Herald's art expert John McDonald labelled Billich’s painting as “a slippery form of graphic design backed with a high-powered marketing strategy". 
The BRW scoffs at their stable mate's words but McDonald's most salient point was that amateur collectors may be buying Billich works in the belief they were an investment that would increase in value.
Charles & Christa are immensely likable. The Shuttle attended one Billich extravaganza in Surfers Paradise in 2002 (another natural home for the couple). While Christa and 2 girls posed nude on the ballroom stage at the luxury Sheraton Mirage resort, Charles sat at an easel wearing a beret & smock and painted the trio. Dozens of punters formed a queue to buy their 'investments' including White Shoe aficionado and property developer Keith Williams.

Charles vs Norman

Two years ago at the Lawson Menzies Auction house in Annandale where they sell second hand furniture (their prize art auctions are held in the city) a Billich print came up for auction. There are 2 Australian artists whose works bring groans from the regular bidders:  Norman Lindsay and Charles Billich. The Billich print fetched $1.

Some 1999 words still ring in the ears of the Shuttle. At a Sydney reception for the International Olympic Committee, President Juan Antonio Samaranch the crowd parted and a Charles Billich painting was revealed by a local minor IOC official who beamed proudly . Standing nearby was the high flying solicitor and Sydney Olympic's chief Rod McGeoch (husband of the respected publicist Deeta Colvin). A look of horror spread across his face as he exclaimed to the official : "Oh no ! you are not going to give him that are you ?" . He shook his head in disbelief.

Hef waiting to greet Charles & Christa !

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Victor Lownes

The Billich action takes place at the PlayBoy Mansion home of Hugh Heffner. Hef hosts a lot of parties. Anyone can hire the Playboy Mansion for a party or event, a product launch, Barmitzvah or wedding and every now and then Hef may wander through a room to make the punters feel they are getting their money's worth.

James Hunt : Mark Hamill

The Shuttle has been to many Playboy parties in LA, New York and London. The US parties give tackiness a new meaning. The London parties at the old Park Lane Playboy Club were a tad better but the weekend parties thrown by Victor Lownes (the UK Playboy boss) at his Stocks Mansion in Herfordshire were sensational.
At one memorable party that lasted 3 days with a permanent Champagne and Dining Marquee, the Shuttle shared a hot tub with 3 Bunnies, racing car driver James Hunt (subject of the film Rush starring Chris Hemsworth ) and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill . Guests were bussed to and fro from London by helicopter and with each arrival a movie star or celebrity would alight-Joan Collins, Tony Curtis, or Rod Stewart.      Below : The Master at work :

Get A Glimpse Of Joan Here

Joan at Flemington

Do not fret-the Chloe & Kim Kardashian charabanc may have fled town after turning down the $150,000  fee for an appearance at the Melbourne's Spring Carnival for Swisse , but Joan Collins now has a Sydney show as part of her one woman bandwagon. The Shuttle's Kardashian spy disguised as an over-priced handbag says their agent ordered Kim to return asap to LA to cash-in field offers from major US networks to discuss her collapsed publicity stunt marriage.

Warnie & Hurley at Ladies Day

Joan was at the Ladies Day at Flemington yesterday looking as glamorous as she ever did in Dynasty, hard as that may be, and her outfit could definitely have come straight from the 80's series.

There are still tickets available for
A Night With Joan at the State Theatre on Monday evening, 7th November but be quick. They are going fast. Book at Ticketmaster.

below is a promo clip from A Night With Joan with such memorable lines as
"a woman who would reveal her age would reveal anything"!

Melbourne Cup Hat Of The Day

In the end, it looked like the QANTAS debacle was a bonus for Sydney with every pub, bar, restaurant, hotel ballroom, park and garden packed with hundreds of people celebrating the Melbourne Cup.

John Ibrahim & Chelsea Mitchell

Charlotte Dawson & pals

There were parties everywhere one looked.

A few of the smartest : the  Moët & Chandon party at the W Hotel hosted by TV personality Charlotte Dawson with a room full of good looking young punters including Liberty & Somer Watson from Coco Ribbon in London's Notting Hill Gate plus some fine food and plenty of champers.

The Chandon luncheon in Centennial Park with social heavyweights like Glen Marie Frost, Deeta Colvin, Melissa Hoyer and Victoria Morish and top party designer James Gordon.

Sharon Sargeant & Frank Monte

Liberty & Somer Watson, Alison Barton-Chen

The Finger Wharf, which the W Hotel forms part of, had a dozen parties with every restaurant packed to the rafters, with the very swish Otto's booked out weeks beforehand.

Cup cakes at the W

Radio king John Laws was there with wife Caroline and Malcolm Coppleson , Frank Monte with party girl Sharon Sargeant and keeping a low profile, nightclub tsar John Ibrahim with his girlfriend Chelsea hosting a table with about a dozen friends.




At the Cup itself at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne , international stars were few on the ground.
Shane Warne and Elizabeth Hurley failed to show nor did Joan Collins. Kim Kardashian is in Sydney for a party tonight (pursued by the world's media)

The W Hotel

But they will be there on Oak's Day (Thursday) which is far more genteel and fashionable, along with Sarah Jessica Parker who flew in to Melbourne on Monday but lunched at the Chandon's Greenpoint Brasserie in the Yarra Valley. The only star of note at the Cup-actor Adrian Grenier.


And amongst the wild and wacky costumes that appear on Cup day-the prize goes to multi-millionaire self promoter Dick Smith for his simple but effective Dick Smith's Ozemite hat !. That's Dick's political statement on his annoyance that the iconic Aussie spread Vegemite has been snapped up by a foreign corporation and a clever plug for the new spread he is marketing.

Your Melbourne Cup Form Guide

It's come a long way since Jean Shrimpton-The Shrimp- shocked and outraged and positively delighted the crowds at Flemington in Melbourne in 1965 and established once and for all time, The Mini Skirt was here to stay ( it looks so tame today).

Today as a few hundred thousand racegoers descend upon Flemington racecourse for the Melbourne Cup we've provided a handy form guide for the fillies and their jockeys to look out for in the Birdcage, Member's Stand and the private marquees (hover around the Emirates for the real action)

Starting with the richest :
Billionaire James Packer and wife Erica (be nice to them and they may invite you back to James' private bar at the Crown Casino for their karaoke night) and Richard Branson.
Celeb receiving the most for showing up (about 200 grand) Sarah Jessica Parker.

Lovebirds Shane Warne and Elizabeth Hurley. Burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, Kim Kardashian  Rebecca Judd and the real star of the day who should not missed (easy to do as she's so tiny) Joan Collins. And there is bound to be a few surprises like Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire

Mumm champagne, Moet & Chandon, Bollinger will all be hosting marquees and in "Millionaire's Row", the Emirates marquee is styled on St Petersburg's Catherine Palace with the Zhivago restaurant and powder room for ladies, and a Jo Malone perfume stylist demonstrating how to "accessorise" with 23 fragrances.

 Myer's have their "Butterfly House" with Jennifer Hawkins complete with  fluttering laser-cut butterflies, as the PR sheet wittily says..'to show off the social butterflies". 

Garden guru Jamie Durie has flown back from the USA where he hosts a cable TV show to create a "vertical garden installation" in a three-level marquee and VIPs will  be chauffeured to and from the track in luxury Lexus vehicles.

Irreverent / Irrelevant Facts : The first Melbourne Cup in 1861 was filmed and this was the very first  movie to be screened commercially.

The first prize in 1861 for owners of the winning horse-a nice watch while today's prize purse will be $3.5M. The Shuttle's favourite horse name of all time : Whykickamoocow.

The Vanity Fair Academy Award's Party



Selena Gomez & Justin Beiber



It's the most sought after invite at the Academy Awards ceremony. The Vanity Fair Oscar's party hosted by editor Graydon Carter.

Most of those attending the awards either rush off first to the Governor's Ball and then, if invited to the Vanity Fair bash or Elton John's Aid's benefit. The big plus at the Vanity Fair do is that they invite all the older Hollywood legends so it becomes a mix of ageing and newer starlets, sporting stars, new and old music identities and the real Hollywood power brokers like Summer Redstone  and director Oliver Stone.



Joan Collins in that dress that sent her to hospital





Sandra Bullock



Rupert & Wendi Murdoch

Tom Ford



Chris Hemsworth




New York's top society snapper (and the most famous in the USA) Patrick McMullan as an associate editor at Vanity Fair has exclusive access to the party.

 Here are some of his snaps. There is much more at David Patrick Columbia's New York Social Diary

all photographs copyright : Patrick McMullan Inc.


Serena Williams



Mick Jagger