Lord Leveson, Vile Perverts & Mayan Predictions

Did the good judge know what was coming ?. Lord Leveson leaped on a jet bound for Australia a few days ago after releasing the first part of his report into the hacking claims against Rupert Murdoch's newspapers that have seen dozens of journalists, police and public servants arrested.

King, Leveson Starr, Glitter & Max Clifford

 The Jimmy Savile scandal had already descended across Britain with over 400 assault claims about the dead DJ. Tabloids who just one year ago printed hand wringing eulogies about the track suited, cigar chomping Leeds' resident back pedaled like crazy.

One of those at the forefront of the decline of England's red tops into celebrity obsessed glossies propped up by sordid tales of sex was the celebrity agent Max Clifford who was the first port of call for those claiming they had been abused by a celebrity and who wished to sell their tale for a few thousand pounds.

Now Clifford has been arrested over alleged sex claims involving the Savile investigation.
Another arrested was the comedian Freddie Starr who spent time in Australia last year in 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.  Clifford shot Starr to fame when he sold a tale to a tabloid : Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster.

And with bizarre synchronicity, the former pop star Gary Glitter was also arrested and questioned by the very same Savile police on the same matter. It was Max Clifford  who sold stories of an alleged sex assault by Glitter, to the News Of The World. Glitter was found not guilty of the charge by a jury.

Rebekah Brooks & Flame Mitchell

Another show business identity who has tangled with Clifford is Jonathan King who spent time banged up by Her Majesty.
 Clifford represented  men who sold their stories of alleged abuse by King to several newspapers.

The world is soon to end according to the Mayans (and PM Julia Gillard).
Jonathon King produced a film Vile Pervert about his ordeals and time in jail (the judge labelled him a 'vile pervert' during the trial).
In Vile Pervert, King through song and dance warns Max Clifford of the certainty of Karma and makes predictions that several identities who reveled in his trial and jailing, would come to a sticky end.
To date several have including former News Corp executive Rebekah Brooks ( Flame Mitchel in Vile Pervert)  and Max Clifford (Waxie Maxie in King's film).
You can download or view Vile Pervert on line here.
In Sydney today Lord Leveson said he "was watching developments in the UK with interest".
Below is King's 1975 hit Una Paloma Blanca :

Put The Union Jack Out

Today begins four days of celebrations for the diamond jubilee of HRH Queen Elizabeth 11 of Australia (and other places). We expect to see the streets of Sydney lined with Union Jack bunting. Yesterday Her Maj went to the races at Epsom for the Derby with mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins singing the national anthem. The only time the Shuttle has encountered The Queen at the races was at Royal Randwick when she visited in 2001 and the royal party arrived by coach and horses to parade down the track in front of a few hundred thousand punters. As the crowd were stopped  from crossing the track (including us) to allow the procession to pass, a crusty old pensioner oblivious to the who the VIPs were, moaned to the policeman holding us back saying :"I don't care if the bloody Queen of England's coming, I need to place a bet!"
PS: The little couple at the back waving excitedly from the commoner's enclosure are John & Jeanette Howard. Johnny was at the Palace this week to get a shiny bauble for ensuring Australia remained a British colony.
Here is an exclusive message from Her Majesty for Shuttle readers on this special occasion :

Twitter Trends...

Ahhh. Twitter.

The opportunity to read every intimate detail of people's lives as they go about their daily activities. Surely the prime example of information overload. The current Twitter trend is Jonathan King, the pop personality who just appeared at the Leveson Enquiry in London.

Leveson is looking into the amazing revelations that the pontificating media so beloved off the masses has been engaged in an unholy hacking into people's private lives.

King's video of his song about the mass killer of dear old ladies  Dr Harold Shipman is a current trend. A Shuttle reader has directed us to another video.

Knowing we are a great fan of Marlene Dietrich (having shared an adventure with her..a tale for another day) we have a video of the film goddess singing live in Bournemouth in 1966.
It's Jonathan King's timeless song Everyone's Gone To The Moon. The song has been recorded by so many greats from Nina Simone to Bette Midler and was King's first big hit, selling over 4 million copies when released.

Not the greatest recording but an example of why Dietrich was a true star :

A Christmas Tale

Alex Day

The Shuttle spent Christmas Day in the company of good friends at a lavish lunch, eating turkey and quaffing Bollinger ( as one should).

One guest at the table was a well known music industry lawyer who regaled us with tales of court room battles between artists and their record companies. He described his first job as a green barrister sent to London to handle a case against a hugely popular Australian band who were suing  EMI over the band's claim that the record giant had failed to promote their latest album which languished at the bottom of the charts.

In the course of his investigations for the record company, he was introduced in great secrecy to the 'hit-picker' employed by the company to assess whether the Aussie band's release would be a hit. The hit picker, an ageing musician who had seen better days had assessed, after several bottles of wine and many tokes on a hash pipe that the record was doomed to failure.

COLDPLAY

Overall the legal costs were in the millions of dollars. It would have been cheaper just to promote the album but anyone who has been unfortunate enough to deal with record companies  will know how an artist's fate can rest on the the late night worries of an executive fearful of making the wrong choice, picking a dud, losing his job and being stuck with a mortgage.

One young singer/songwriter Alex Day has just broken the mould and is currently at No 4 in the British music charts having sold 52,881 copies of his composition Forever Yours in the last week, pushing COLDPLAY into fifth place with just 50,000 sales.

Alex has no record deal. He promotes himself on YouTube.

Official Charts Company MD Martin Talbot has said that "Forever Yours is certainly one of the most successful self-released tracks we have ever seen, the Official Charts are based on sales, and sales alone, so Alex’s achievements this week are a genuine reflection of the passion of his army of fans, and of course, the power of social media."

Contrast Alex Day's success with the hullabaloo over shows like X-Factor with their millions of viewers around the world and rewards heaped upon the winners by the music giant Sony.

Local X-Factor winner Recce Mastin sold 70,000 copies of Good Night while Australia's Got Talent winner Jack Vidgen sold a similar amount. Both had the entire Sony network behind them plus a reputed million dollar budget and nightly TV adverts promoting them.

Alex Day did have help from a hit maker from way back-Jonathan King who describes here how he and Alex beavered away to beat the music industry at it's own game.

Forever Yours:

Murdoch The Movie-The Empire Strikes Back

Getty/The Beast

In January the Shuttle brought news of a proposed movie based on the life of Rupert Murdoch-the Sun King who has arrived in London to try and stem the fallout from the great hacking scandal.

Getty/The Beast

'Murdoch' the movie was commissioned by the UK's Channel 4 and written by TV script writer Jesse Armstrong but 4 decided against making it. It's now being handled by a top agency Creative Artist's Agency who are looking for a producer and backer.  Presumably Fox Studios won't be bidding for the rights any time soon.

Colin Myler- editor of the late NoTW (Getty/The Beast)

The script blurb reads : "As his family gathers for his birthday party, Rupert Murdoch tries to convince his elder children to alter the family trust so that his two youngest children by his newest wife will have voting rights in the company."  The events of the last week must surely mean that it's just a matter of time before this film is made.

All movie scripts evolve over time and we proposed a number of actors to take leading roles including Barry Humphries (manager of gigastar Dame Edan Everage) as Rupert Murdoch (he's already played him in the Hitler Diaries) and Hayden Christensen as the good looking James Murdoch.

New characters have moved into the frame though, so to speak. In particular Rebekah Brooks the CEO of Murdoch's News Corporation who from all reports, Rupert regards as  one of the family. And Andy Coulson the hapless former adviser to British PM David Cameron.

Fortunately The Daily Beast has come up with an updated cast list which looks spot on and you can see from our pictures some of the proposed new cast for the movie.
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As the scandal swirled around the News Corp bunker at Wapping in East London and in the offices of the 168 year old tabloid News of The World, journalists were already seething over the flame haired CEO of News Corp and the former editor of the newspaper Rebekah Brooks who most of the hacks had come to the conclusion had led the the tabloid into treacherous waters with her 'take no prisoners' style of editing.

There are reports of writers being berated for up to an hour at the 11am editorial meeting and tales of younger journalists fleeing to the toilets in tears over Ms Brooks threats that they would receive their marching orders unless  they came up with a major celebrity or political based piece of scandal to fill the pages.

In it's final weeks a YouTube video was doing the rounds-unbeknown to Rebekah-that was viewed with glee by the staff. It's a clip from a movie called Vile Pervert produced by pop mogul Jonathan King who spent time as a guest of Her Majesty and has often complained that the tabloid unfairly distorted reporting of his predicament.

A World First-Online Movie Premiere

Reese Witherspoon & Robert Pattinson
st Friday's premiere

Attending the launch of Water for Elephants at the State Theatre last night was always bound to be a gruelling affair.

 Especially with the film's stars , the gorgeous Reese Witherspoon and heart throb Robert Pattinson in attendance. Pandemonium duly broke out with police having to hold back dozens of wailing teenage girls demanding a piece of Pattinson.

How refreshing then to see the first on-line launch of a new movie Me Me Me written and produced by pop impresario Jonathan King (left)

It's the tale of mysterious drawings and graffiti that appear all over London ala Banksy and signed Baby Draw. A London tabloid work experience journalist is sent by the editor to track down the perpetrator of the art works and when she finds him-a good looking lad named Johnny Bambino (played by Henry Stansall) they embark on a love affair. After the trainee hackette pens an article about Bambino, he becomes a huge pop star

The movie pokes fun at much of the current shallow celebratory obsessed society and there's a nice twist at the end. It's a colourful and light hearted musical-the producers describe it as :
"The Rocky Horror Show meets Mamma Mia"
From the opening song Don't Let Him Touch You by The Angelettes (performed by The Sirens)
 the pace never lets up.

And amazingly-it's a freebie !. You can watch it on-line or download ( as we did) and play it on your large flat screen with the sound at top level. You'll love it !

Watch or download Me Me Me at the movie's website .
Here are The Sirens with Don't Let Him Touch You.

Another Movie From The King

Everyone over 30 years of age should know Jonathon King : impresario, pop singer, song writer, journalist and record producer. He's the man behind such massive hits as Everyone's Gone to The Moon and many from the famous Genesis band. In fact he gave Genesis their name. He's sold over 40 million records in his day, reported for Entertainment Tonight and helped bring the Eurovision Song Contest to a world-wide audience using his undoubtedly brilliant promotional skills.

He's even responsible for the most annoying hit of all time-Una Paloma Blanca. For a time in every beach bar from the Costa Del Sol, Puerto Rico or the Gold Coast in Queensland  the song launched a million Happy Hours for holidaying Brits. ( The Shuttle once heard it being played over and over in the smartest cocktail bar on Paradise Island in the Bahamas while movie star Richard Harris sang along.)

King had a slight mis-hap with the law a few years ago and was a guest of Her Majesty for about 3 years. Unlike others who may plunge into depression, King put his time to good use assisting less articulate inmates (he was Cambridge educated) with their court appeals. He became one of the most popular blokes in the slammer.

When he left prison, instead of skulking out in embarrassment, he emerged in a jaunty baseball cap and gave the assembled media a cheery wave.

Jonathan King produced a film that describes his experiences during that period of his life. It's titled

Vile Pervert-The Musical ( apparently the sentencing beak gave King the moniker in a stern dressing down during sentencing).

 He also has an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights as King says he can prove he was in the USA when the alleged offences took place and at his trial prosecuting shenanigans prevented him from presenting that evidence.

Vile Pervert is available for free and it's incredibly amusing. King wrote the songs, the script, acted in numerous parts, produced and directed the film and it's a must see. Why he never pursued a career in Hollywood is a mystery. He entered Vile Pervert in the Cannes Film Festival and publicised it by driving up and down Boulevard de la Croisette in a red Rolls Royce with a huge sign atop of the car.

You can either watch Vile Pervert here or download it for future viewing. It's well worth watching a few times. And he has another film in the works titled Me Me Me- which we will bring news of when it's available.

King also published his autobiography last year-65 My Life So Far which is a terrific read and has exclusive tales about some of the world's most famous pop stars.

In the meantime here is the legendary Jimmy Saville introducing Jonathan King on Top Of The Pops with his famous Una Paloma Blanca. I guarantee you won't be able to get it of your mind for hours after watching !

Jonathan King probed by Madame Arcati

For the unenlightened, Madame Arcati is one of the UK's most famous bloggers with an extremely healthy and envious world-wide following. And she has a habit of getting up the collective noses of British tabloid editors and journalists.

Although one suspects Madame may also have a large fan base on the Street Of Shame as she exposes some of the nonsense and vagaries of the variety of pompous poseurs who now eek out a living writing the drivel that appears in many British newspapers as they plunge towards an uncertain future.

MA reminds tSS of the former News Ltd journo, ex-Liberal Party flack and shareholder activist Stephen Mayne who has become the bane of Rupert Murdoch's life by asking difficult questions at News Corp shareholder meetings.

Mayne started the website crikey.com.au in 2003 and (with help from tSS) quickly built it into the leading political, business and social comment website in Australia. Despite having to sell his house to pay a few libel lawsuits (without our help) he sold crikey in 2005 to former Editor-in-Chief of the Sydney Morning Herald Eric Beecher for a cool one million dollars.

That's a long-winded introduction to say, why comment on a book when Arcati gives such good review ? Read her views on pop mogul and self confessed "vile pervert" Jonathan King's autobiography. 65 My Life So Far by Jonathan King.

King has been penning best selling songs since he was a university student in 1965 when he wrote the much recorded 'Everyone's Gone To The Moon". His book is flying off the shelves and apparently has become a wildly popular read for holidaying Brits on the Mediterranean. tSS will read it when Amazon finally get's it's act together.

A small extract from Madame Arcati's review :

"Oh, JK! How could you? Or rather, how could you not?

What with all the celebs you've fucked, discovered, promoted, befriended, detested, wanked, created, re-invented, guided, supported and, yes, fucked again with your self-proclaimed 8" phallus over the decades, how could you not have had an index compiled for this monster-sized tome of star goss that is your autobiography? It took me half an hour to find the Madame Arcati mention on p570. And then I only found it by deductive reasoning.

Please, please get one done for a future reprint! Listen to a gnarled old index-loving clairvoyant."

Madame's wish may come true. On his website King says his self-published book may be about to be picked up by a major publisher.

Watch one of King's great hits-Johnny Reggae by The Piglets

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## Friday-we set our sights on Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, climate denialist and the man who single handedly won the Falklands War !

opening Pandora's box

 

         Jonathon King & friend in one of his discreet publicity snaps

Britain's most irreverent blogger Madame Arcati who has a habit of getting up the nose of many a tabloid editor for her ability to scoop them, brings news about former pop identity Jonathon King's planned auto-biography.

65 year old King is a British singer, songwriter, TV personality,impresario and writer according to his wikipedia entry (did he write it himself ?)-but it's all true.  His first hit song when he was still a uni-student  "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", in 1965 sold 4 million copies around the world. No mean feat in the days when mass media didn't really exist. This was followed by some weird and wonderful show biz antics with King at times in fright wigs or adopting different personas to flog successful records (records-that's what they were called in those days kids)..who also discovered and produced the ginormous band Genesis , produced the Bay City Rollers and our personal favourite-The Piglets.

One older Shuttler worker here has admitted, somewhat reluctantly, to dancing joyfully to one of King's biggest hits Una Paloma Blanca in the 1980's in an Ibizia disco before it became the gay haven it is today and one could express such inhibitions watched only by puzzled local Spanish waiters.

The UK Independent's columnist Pandora ( days after Arcati broke the tale) has labeled King's book as  " his latest bid for attention". A somewhat unusual claim from a newspaper regarded as a more intellectual tabloid but which still carries tales of the earth shattering news of the marriage break-up of 2 people called Jordon and Peter Andre. No, we aren't to sure who Peter and Jordon are either but Britain is obsessed with them since the demise of reality star Jade Goody.

They seem a nice pair but what they actually do is a mystery although older Shuttlers may re-call there was a mildly successful singer by the name of Peter Andre in Sydney who left for the UK years ago. That's to the land where attention seeking has become an art form and Britain's media is only too happy to assist.

King ran foul of the law and was a guest at Her Majesty's Pleasure over accusations of underage sex (the law in the UK has since lowered the legal age to 16) but says on his website he has an appeal before the European Court which he is confident of winning after discovering proof he wasn't in the UK at the times the offenses are said to have happened.

King has probably confused many of Britain's sex obsessed tabloids. Rather than slink out of prison as expected, coat over head into a waiting car to speed off-he walked out broadly smiling , thumbs high in a victory stance. Such antics just puzzle the British media who demand everyone express permanent shame. Regular visitors to London will notice most pedestrians comply.

For Jonathon King's own view of his trial, a must see is his movie Vile Pervert where King plays all roles. It is quite hilarious.

## The Shuttle hopes King's book is as fascinating as 'Brando Unzipped', the biography of the late Marlon Brando by a long-time associate Darwin Porter (a relative of Brando's pal Tennessee Williams) which revealed tales of Brando's insatiable sexual appetite and his propensity to star-f**k every Hollywood identity from Marilyn Monroe , Tallulah Bankhead, Rock Hudson, Cary Grant and James Dean (who apparently liked his nipples twisted and ciggies stubbed out on his chest with Brando happy to oblige). One story told of Brando boasting about Marlene Deitrich's oral skills and how she would helpfully get down on her knees and scrub the kitchen floor afterwards ( well, she was a Virgo and that sounds about right).

Plus the news that far from being "working class" as Brando like to portray himself-he was from a wealthy middle-class family and was expelled from military school after organizing an orgy with fellow students.

   

            Madame Arcarti                                                               a youthful Marlon Brando

## Speaking of Tennessee Williams, the Shuttle attended the preview last night of Liv Ullman's STC production of "A Streetcar named Desire" and will post a longer review later-after we attend the official opening night on Saturday. Needless to say, Cate Blanchett is simply amazing as Blanche Du Bois which should please Cate's husband Andrew Upton who we encountered before the play looking very nervous and frantically texting on his mobile phone.

That was until Cate suffered an accident when a scene where Stanley throws a radio at Blanche. The prop grazed Cate as she fell on all fours. Audience members thought it was all part of the show but when Cate disappeared off stage, the stage manager cut short the performance. Cate's fine except for a small nick on the forehead and was back performing tonight-just one of the hitches that need to be ironed out before the gala premier later this week.