Alan Jones Stays Loyal

Les Murray, John Serafino and Alan Jones

 How 24 hours can change the world.
 Just before it seems his world was to crash, broadcaster Alan Jones was hobnobbing with city tailor John Serafino who hosted drinks at his new Pitt Street store to celebrate his half a century dressing Sydney businessmen and radio stars.

Aaaron Zerefos checks out the finery

Amongst Serafino's customers are Jones and his rival John Laws , singer Kamahl plus a host of corporate names who flock to John's store for their expertly tailored duds. Serafino travels to his store every day and has done so for the last 50 years and just recently moved to new premises. He has a sale on at present with a 50% discount. Check it out at 51 Pitt Street near Circular Quay.

Right Royal Punch Up

Barry Everingham

Verbal fisticuffs have broken out between Australian republican advocate and Melbourne journalist Barry Everingham and the vocal defender of the British Royals, the immaculately attired and coiffured  David Flint who is head of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM) .

David Flint

Everingham, who has been described as the "ultimate name dropper" is something of an expert on the royals and has reported on royal weddings for US cable TV MSNBC.
 He penned a biography of Princess "Pushy" Michael of Kent and his royal connections appear to be impeccable.

He's sipped cocktails with the late Princess Margaret and was once told by HM The Queen at a party on the Britannica in Kuwait Harbour  to "be as naughty as you like" before she quizzed him about Sultan Qaboos of Oman's new palace in Muscat (the Shuttle has been inside-it's magnificent!).
 Everingham is a contributor to the ABC's The Drum and News Ltd's The Punch. One delightful piece from his biog tells how he once danced with Imelda Marcos after being commanded to by Lady Mary Fairfax.

Writing for Independent Australia, an on-line forum in a piece called Fantasies & Follies of Flint Everingham says:
"David Flint’s rantings and slurs on anyone who disagrees with him is a disgrace to the monarchist cause"  calling Flint a "disgraceful upholder of a moth eaten, out-of-date and insulting system of inherited privilege" . Heady stuff.

Flint has cried foul and responded a week ago in this piece on the IA website crying 'defamation' and says numerous furphies have been perpetuated about his relationship with former PM John Howard who successfully scuppered the Republcian referendum in 1999.
Howard appointed Flint ( a former head of the Press Council ) as head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) but that appointment ended in tears when Flint resigned in 2004 after being interviewed by Rado csar John Laws on his morning show whilst the ABA was investigating Laws over the 'cash for comments' scandal.

We feel sure there is much more titilation to come from this scuffle but in the meantime, here is David Flint wearing his Mystic Meg hat with predictions in 2010 where he confidently predicts the mining "Super Profits Tax will end in a legal minefield " (hasn't happened yet) and that Julia Gillard will be defeated at the general election in 2011. She won.

In The Houses Of The Muses

Martin Browne, Susie Hagon,Ross Steele

Photographer Susie Hagon has published her second book of photographs: In The Houses Of The Muses.

It’s a collection of portraits of Australian identities and scenes from Alexandria in Egypt where Susie has been involved in the project Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the ambitious scheme to re-build the fabled Royal Library of Alexandria reputedly burnt to the ground by Julius Caesar in 48BC.

The project was the brainchild of Egyptian noble and Alexandrian born Prince Lorenzo Montesini, or to give him his full title : Prince Giustiniani, Count of the Phanaar, Knight of Saint Sophia and Baron Alexandroff.  

Hal Salter

John & Caroline Laws

A launch party organised by French language expert Professorr Ross Steele was held at the Wagner Gallery in Paddington and drew a diverse crowd including racing identity Angela Belle Sweeney, Prince Lorenzo, social figures like Robert Hampshire and Glen Marie Frost, renowned winemaker Brian McGuigan, artist Kerry Lester, folk song expert Warren Fahey, Caroline Laws (Susie’s mum ) and her step-father radio tsar John Laws. Antique dealer Martin Browne did the honours and launched the book.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (by Susie Hagon)

Kerrie Lester

Angela Belle McSweeney

Contact the Wagner Gallery on 02)9360 6069 or go to Susie’s website to enquire about copies of the book.

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.

Russell Crowe Unhappy With Waiters

Word came at about Mid-day. Russell Crowe who occupies the penthouse at the end of the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo was unhappy with the noise.

Glen Wheeler & Maria Venuti

It was the annual Variety day when the kid's charity takes over seven iconic restaurants along the wharf for a long lunch while a number of local show biz stars entertain.
Russell wasn't unhappy for too long when he heard what the event was for and although invited to join the throng he declined but sent a very large cheque instead.

Over $200,000 was raised.

And that's what it's all about. Raising lots of money for kids. The theme was a Wharfies day and there was one special treat-The Singing Waiters.

If you haven't seen them check them out in our video. They are one of the most successful corporate acts of all time. Three opera singers pose as waiters at a party, serving drinks. Then they burst into opera favourites to the surprise of the party goers. So successful is the act that it has been franchised around the world-to the UK , USA , Asia and Europe.

Benny Elias, Sami Lukas

Country music star John Williamson & Meg Doyle

Picture : News Corp Boss Sleeps In Street

Luna Park

John Hartigan

There he is in our snap-John Hartigan the boss of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd empire in Australia.

He'll be sleeping rough tonight at Luna Park (motto : Just For Fun) along with over 200 other CEOs to raise awareness and cash for Sydney's homeless which is reaching epidemic proportions.

In a city where one house (Altona) just went on the market for an estimated sale price of $60 million, there are families living rough in caravans, cars, on church steps while hundreds of young people sleep rough at train stations and so on.

The Mathew Talbot men's hostel in Woolloomooloo, just a stones throw from the Finger Wharf with some of the countries most expensive restaurants and the penthouses of Russell Crowe and broadcaster John Laws, accommodates around 35000 people a year and serves 600 meals a day.

So far the combined CEOs have raised over $1,230,000 $3,326,064 but aim to quadruple that overnight. Hartigan, who reckons he can "sleep on barbed wire " is the biggest fundraiser to date.

You can go to the website of the CEO Sleep out 'Rise To The Challenge' and donate in the name of your favourite CEO (if you have one/) or register to sleep-out with them

exclusive : Golden Tonsils Comeback !

The powder blue Rolls Royce Drop head Coupe  blasted it's horn yesterday as the Shuttle waited for a ferry at the Rose Bay marina. The driver gave a cheery wave.

It was retired radio legend John Laws heading for Catalina Restaurant. Accompanying him was his long time manager John Fordham.

On Melbourne Cup Day at Otto's Ristorante on the Cowper Street Wharf where Laws usually lunches-it's just a short drive in the golf cart he keeps at the end of the pier where he lives in one of the two sumptuous penthouses, next door to Russell Crowe- I asked him if he was planning to return to radio.



Laws with Kerrie Packer



"No-one has offered me a job !" he replied.

Yesterday afternoon Fordham's office confirmed that Laws will be back in 2011 at 2SM when the 3 year non-competition clause in the retirement contract he signed with 2UE runs out in December.



Fordham & Laws



And he'll be taking his gold mic with him. Laws loves gold. Everything he has is gold-his spectacles, sunglasses, rings, cuff links, the dials and buttons on the Roller-even the spurs on his riding boots.



John will back in the morning slot that was his domain up against 2GB's Ray Hadley who dominates the time slot. And he will syndicated to 90 stations nationwide on the network owned by Bill Caralis.



Laws never made any secret of his contempt for former stablemate Alan Jones who he called "the parrot". Jones eventually bought 2GB with partner John Singleton and Laws is bound to take exceptional delight in attacking the 2GB ratings. Will all those truckers and working mums and dads return to Laws ?. Time will tell.



In the meantime the one-time highest paid radio star in the world will be taking his 'princess' Caroline off in early December to spend Christmas in his usual haunt-a leisurely Mediterranean cruise followed by 2 weeks at the Gritti Palace in Venice.

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One man who will welcome John Law's return to the airwaves is budding Upper House MP Frank Monte who was a regular on his radio show when Laws would interview Monte while the gumshoe was in New York.

Today Monte's election website went up : http://www.electfrankmonte.com/ with the logo - Reliable Mature Honest Independent. I fight 4 your rights & protection.

With some of his policies that are very anti-Lord Mayor Clover Moore he should find himself welcome on Alan Jones show as well given Jones intense dislike for Sydney's dog collar wearing mayor and state MP.

The Shuttle gave up reading Monte's extensive list of media mentions-it's quite amazing. No wonder he is referred to as "the world's most famous private eye".

There is also a package of bumper stickers to buy. It looks the PI has learnt a few tricks during his time in the USA and picked up some electioneering tips there. With the current ruling state Labor Party on the nose with voters and the Opposition Liberal/Coalition Party not exactly exciting the electorate, a hand full of independents like Monte may well hold a balance of power after the March 2011 ballot, just as they do at a Federal level.

News Corp a Step Behind the Shuttle



Americain

 4 days after the Shuttle reported that restaurants on the Finger Wharf at Woolloomooloo had been raided by police on Melbourne Cup day, the Sunday Telegraph has caught up to speed.

In a piece titled The A-listers, the bookies and the cops, a reporter repeats the tale of how bookmakers working the wharf were busted by the Gaming Squad and told they would be arrested along with punters if they didn't cease gambling.

The SP bookies were made to return all their takings and informed punters they would have to walk half a mile to a local betting shop to place a wager.



 One punter who missed the action but not the betting was marketing executive Sharon Sargeant (left) who was lunching with ex-fiancee Frank Monte at Ottos Ristorante alongside ex-radio Golden Tonsils John Laws and his wife 'Princess' Caroline Laws.

Sharon was powdering her nose when the coppers struck and the bookies fled. Sargeant had placed a wager but never saw her $500 again.

 Even worse, the bet she placed was on Americain , the American horse that romped in first in the Cup ridden by a French jockey. Her potential winnings that vanished with a bookie-around $6000 !

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Notts Ave, Bondi



The Notts Avenue , Bondi Beach house gifted to Kate Fischer when she and billionaire James Packer split has been passed in  at auction after it failed to reach the $8M asking price.




The Packer compound in Bellevue Hill

 

With a prime position overlooking the sweep of the beach, Kate sold the house for $2.8M in 2000 to the New York based Lochtenberg family. .

Kate has forged a new life in Los Angeles where she has converted to Judaism and goes by the name T'ziporah Malka bat Israel.



James & wife Erica



Across the road in Campbell Avenue James still lives with wife Erica

and his burgeoning family in the 3 story apartment he built in 2002

But plans are well underway for the $30M mansion he is building in Bellevue Hill where he purchased 2 houses to knock down

And in country Scone at the Elleston property he inherited from father Kerrie all manner of refurbishments are underway from a new pool to a resurfaced polo field.

more worries for a Royal dynasty

        The world's tallest building is unleashed upon the Middle East in a blaze of fireworks in Dubai.  What would the view be like from that 124th floor ?

       As radio king John Laws ,
spotted yesterday lunching at Aria Restaurant deep in conversation with yet another 2GB boss (which may confirm rumours of his imminent return to radio) would probably say .."sand..lot's of f**cking sand!"

But largely unnoticed with the celebrations was an interview in a recent Dubai magazine aimed at the top end of the market with glossy avderts for the latest Rolls , Bentley or Aston Martin for the more sporty type.

  The sister of His Highness Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman worries yet again that the Sultan has produced no issue and from whence will come his successor ?. She has form here-and intimated before various aspects of her brother's life mainly aimed at his on-going bachelorhood status with nary a potential Sultana on the horizon.

 

   tSS did work in Oman for 3 months, around the same time as the noted gumshoe-or "the world's most famous private eye" as the Sydney Morning Herald recently called him, Frank Monte.

      Our paths didn't cross with tSS having secured employement via Britain which required signing the Official Secrets Act which also fortunately precludes us from disclosing the lowly position we held, unlike Monte who provided security for Omani Royal Family members and hunted out terrorist bases forming there(as detailed in his book The Spying Game).

     The Royal lineage of Qaboos dates back a few hundred years and Oman has been one of the most stable Middle East countries-rarely talked about-before and after  G.Bush Jnr & T.Blair hatched a plot to make the  friendly and generous Arab nations distrust us westerners forever.

      Qaboos only has around 3 million subjects and the capital city-Muscat is mysteriously beautiful and one of the most ancient cities on earth with traces of settlement dating back 5000 years. The people are few but friendly and His Highness has plenty of oil-wells which he has used to transform life for his people.

        In 1970 Qaboos,educated in Britain  at Sandhurst was locked up in the Royal palace upon his return by his father Sultan Said III bin Taimur. He was a suspicious old soul who sniffed a family coup in the air. He was right. The only visitor the young successor was allowed was Brigadier Timothy Landon, (right) a close friend from  Sandhurst and together they informed the old Sultan his reign was over, whereupon he pulled a pistol and accidently shot himself in the foot.

Whisked off in a waiting RAF plane to London, the old Sultan was ensconced at the Dorchester Hotel in a grand suite where he died in 1972-some claim while watching Coronation Street.

      With Landon's help (known in Oman as the "White Sultan") Qaboos transformed Oman into a pleasurable cross between modern living whilst preserving it's ancient customs. Landon was richly rewarded during his lifetime and became the go-between for the Sultanate and just about anyone who wanted to do business there.

   Ever loyal to Qaboos , he died at 65 in 2007 at his grand country estate in England and left a fortune estimated at nearly £80M  ($A140M), aided somewhat by what was claimed was a £IM gift from His Highness on each of his birthdays. At Farnborough airport he maintained his own Boeing jet and crew to visit Oman when summonsed.

Lawrence of Arabia could have been his role model-in more ways than one.

   Sultan Qaboos is hugely respected in the Middle East and much loved by his people-but as his sister says "what becomes of Oman when he passes ?". He is only 69 so there is still time to find a young bride, Perhaps that's what the succession of American male models who fly in for brief visits, advise him on.

From one palace to another for Sultan Said III bin Taimur-the Muscat Royal Family home and the Dorchester Hotel

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a little scandal for New Year's Day

        As tSS saw in the new year perched high in the air from a 20th floor apartment which gave a commanding view of the superb fireworks, a little contretemps was occurring at the nation's top radio station 2GB to add to the woes of the diminutive but fiery A Current Affair reporter Ben Fordham who has received his fair share of kicks to the bollocks as he confront's fleeing dodgy builders or financial planners who have purloined the savings of a few hundred pensioners and so on.

    Down at the Woolloomooloo Wharf , retired radio king John Laws and his wife "Princess" Caroline were quietly seeing in the new year from their favourite table at Ottos with a few friends.

      Ben is currently filling in at 2GB for regular host, the ranting Ray Hadley who is on annual hols and for hours Fordham announced an up-coming interview with Lawsie-once the world's highest paid radio star. But then the interview was suddenly cancelled, embarrasing Fordham.

John and The Princess

     Various scenarios are being bandied about. Part owner of 2GB is current king of the airwaves Alan Jones who for about 12 years was Law's stablemate at the rival station 2UE where between them, they captured the nation's listeners.

       The emnity between the 2 radio stars was no secret. Laws referred to Jones as 'The Parrot' in private and had a wonderful time on air when letters between Jones and ABA chairman David Flint -which sounded like love letters, were revealed during the infamous

cash for comments scandal when both stars were accused of making paid advertising sound like normal comment whilst receiving millions of dollars for favourable mentions of various products.

        Laws, who had his fair share of run-ins with various government bodies was once  forced to apologise on air when Queer Eye For The Straight Guy Carson Kressley was a guest at the Melbourne Cup and Lawsie said to his millions of listeners "Who is this pompous little pansy prig?". Laws delighted in upsetting various minority groups and was accused of being 'homophobic' but it was all a pose-half his close friends are gay. Anything to get top ratings.

       Ben Fordham meanwhile is facing claims he allegedly concealed a serious crime when he posed as a hitman-suposedly hired by a former 75 year old Mayor of Waverley who claimed a male hustler was blackmailing him. The secret meeting where an alleged deal was done to top the blackmailer (the poor ex-Mayor neeeds new specs if he didn't recognise Fordham' face which is plastered on bus adverts) was secretly filmed and went to air on A Current Affair and the whole matter has become decidedly messy with all involved appearing in various courts. The matter has been held over to next this year.

      All the other media outlets are pondering about the reason just why Fordham would interview John Laws who has been retired for 2 years.

      Elementary, Mr. Watson. Laws long-time manager just happens to be John Fordham who also happens to be young Ben's dad. Fordham ,who also manages major sporting stars is the one who took Laws to such peaks of stardom he is now able to travel the world in style and live in the sumptous Woolloomooloo Wharf penthouse next door to Russell Crowe , and lunch and dine every day at Ottos, a small walk from home

                              John Fordham lunches with his client, John Laws at Ottos.
and for those who miss the dulcet tones of Laws-or that extraordinary hair-here is Lawsie on Muslims

'Teflon John' lunches

It was a day to celebrate. The Melbourne Cup lunch at the uber-chic Ottos at Woolloomooloo Wharf.

Charlotte Dawson, John Ibrahim, Chelsea Mitchell (c)

For John  Ibrhaim, the handsome sun-tanned Kings Cross nightclub identity, he had another reason apart from the million dollar horse race-brother Fadi had been finally released on $1M bail surety after spending 6 weeks banged up on an alleged murder plot charge. Sadly for family patriarch John a condition of Fadi's bail was that he isn't to associate with his brothers. Amongst the group of glamorous blonds with Ibrahim was Australia's Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson.

Hosting a group of guests in one corner was retired radio king John Laws with wife 'Princess' Caroline. Society gynecologist Malcolm Coppleson , gossip writer William Petley and Jane Douglas lunched with Laws.

At another table sat Los Angeles based private eye Frank Monte. Monte announced his engagement to marketing manager Sharon Sargent right after Shocking won the Melbourne Cup at 3pm. Monte who has offices in Denver and New York also has a security company providing bodyguards for Hollywood stars and Arab royalty. Perhaps it will bring him a step closer to his long term project-a film based upon his best-seller The Spying Game in which Monte tells of his experiences searching the New Guinea jungle for lost American heir Micheal Rockefeller Jnr who vanished while traveling up the Sepik River , and guarding the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

The day ended slightly badly for Teflon John when another Ibrahim brother was arrested for allegedly damaging a TV newsman's camera.

Just another sunny spring day in glorious Sydney.