Will Hugo Weaving pick up an Academy Award?

Colin Freils & Judy Davis

The new play Faith Healer by Brian Friel just opened at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Surry Hills. It's a series of four monologues with actor Colin Friels, Alison White and Pip Miller.

Keith Robinson & Hugo Weaving

On the opening night we not only had Friels at the after party but his wife Judy Davis who has picked up 2 BAFTA awards, 3 EMMYs and 8 ACCTA awards. Not only that she starred in the Academy Award winning film My Brilliant Career. That movie was produced by Australian producer Margaret Fink who Whispers took to the ritzy Sardi's Restaurant in New York after she had nabbed the Oscar at the awards in LA. As we swept into Sardi's waiters snapped to attention as the maître d led us to the very best table.

"Crikey, you must be really well known in this town" offered Margaret. Whispers didn't have the heart to tell her that when we telephoned to book a table we said we'd be bringing the winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Film.
Also at the Belvoir party- Hugo Weaving who is getting rave reviews for his part in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge which received a standing ovation from Hollywood's film community a few night ago when it premiered in Tinsel Town. Talk is Weaving is in hot running to pick an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. pics by William Yang
Faith Healer is on at the Belvoir until 27th November.

Book Launch Brings out Movie Crowd

He wasn't well known by the general public but within Australian cinema the late Albie Thoms was a name to be reckoned with. He completed his memoir My Generation days before he slipped away from cancer at aged 70, three weeks ago.

Albie Thoms, Charles Higham and Frank Thring

Bryan Brown & Gillian Armstrong

Thoms was a leading figure in the revival  of the local film industry in the 1970s when he began Ubu Films inspired by the French New Wave , British and US underground film movements.

Many of today's most recognisable names came within Albie's orbit and were inspired or encouraged by Thoms to pursue their dreams at a time when their hopes of success at best may have seen them appear in an episode of an ABC drama or a commercial TV cop show, in front of, or behind the camera.

Peter Clifton & Glen A.Baker

Claudia Karvan

At the celebration to honour Albie Thoms' life and to launch his just completed autobiography, many turned up to discuss old times. Actors Claudia Karvan, Bryan Brown and Judy Davis joined directors Bruce Beresford, Jan Chapman and Gillian Armstrong along with producers Jim McElroy, Margaret  Fink and Oz Magazine's Richard Neville.

Publisher Richard Walsh & Jim McElroy

Wendy Whiteley

Richard Neville

Over 300 guests packed Paddington Town Hall's newly decorated auditorium to take in screenings of some Albie's first movie productions like Bluto and Blunderball which were praised in their day by the late US film critic Charles Higham.
 There was also time to re-tell one of Albie's favorite stories : Thoms was commissioned to produce several episodes of the TV series Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo (still big in Eastern Europe) and the guest star was the high camp actor Frank Thring, star of Hollywood biblical blockbusters like Ben Hur.                                      
As the crew brought on yet another struggling  kangaroo in a sack for the day's shoot- Thring quipped  "If that's the star's friggin' dressing room, what's mine going to be like?"

Up The Workers!

Bob Hawke & John Singleton

To harbour side Balmain and the launch of The Workers Bar in Darling Street. The Workers is part owned by media mogul John Singleton who also hosted the launch party and it's part of Unity Hall, the pub Singleton owns and the location for a legendary meeting of unionists in 1891 that coincided with the famous Shearer's Strike in Queensland.

Out of that strike and the Balmain meeting came the formation of the Australian Labor Party, the first 'worker's party' in the world and now the longest surviving political party that is still in government under the  leadership of PM Julia Gillard.

Ned Kelly (?), Benny Elias & Sally Singleto

So who better to invite to launch the Worker's Bar than the great legend himself, former trade union boss and the 23rd prime Minister Bob Hawke.
 Bob is 83 and as sprightly as a 40 year old. He's also a great pal of Singleton's and told a fairly racy joke about his friend which we won't relate here. Suffice to say it's not hard to see that Hawkie is still one of Australia's most beloved political figures who during his tenure at the top received approval ratings of around 80%.

As for Balmain it's hardly a worker's paradise anymore and the fine convict built sandstone houses and terraces are more likely to be inhabited by bankers, stockbrokers and celebrity figures like playwright David Williamson and actors Judy Davis and Colin Freils who have a large waterside mansion. Still there are plenty of young professionals living locally and The Worker's bar is bound to become a favoured watering hole.

A Night For Awards

the Emmy's kick off this morning in Los Angeles with two Australians up for awards : Nicole Kidman for her portrayal of Martha Gellhorn in the film Hemingway and Gellhorn while the reclusive Judy Davis ('best actress in the world' :Woody Allen) will be attending to see if she picks up the Best Supporting Actress gong in the political drama Page Eight.

Nicole Kidman as Martha Gellhorn with co-star Clive Owen

Trevor Ashley : Diamonds Are For Trevor

In the evening the stars of the Australian stage and local Hollywood types will gather at the Sydney Opera House for the Helpmann Awards. The Shuttle will be on hand to see if the brilliant rising drag star Trevor Ashley picks up an award for his superb show Diamonds Are For Trevor while Tim Minchin is nominated for Best Comedy performance.

Judy Davis' husband Colin Freils may get Best Actor in A Play for Red and no Sydney theatre event is worth it's salt without either Cate Blanchett in attendance or getting a Best Actress Award as she may for her role in Gross Und Klein. And Miranda Otto should be there along with the Otto clan including dad Barry Otto ('best actor in the world' : John Gielgud). Miranda has been nominated in the supporting role in The White Guard.

Bruce Beresford has been nominated for his direction of the opera Mice And Men.
Prince, Kylie Minogue, Foof Fighters, Sade and Keith Urban have all been nominated in various categories.
For the full list go to the Helpmann Awards website and check back at the social shuttle later tonight.

Magic : Miriam Margolyes & Barry Humphries

It's usually a political grab fest with a variety of politicians going head to head: ABC TVs Q&A.

Tonight it was pure cabaret with a Barry Humphries and Miriam Margolyes dominating a panel that consisted of host Tony Jones and fellow panelists, former politician John Hewson, Oscar nominee Jackie Weaver and journalist David Marr.
Miriam spoke of her lesbianism, her anti-Zionism, her Canberra born partner and her wish to take out Australian citizenship.(she knows Don Bradman's batting average in anticipation of the citizenship test).
There are still tickets available for her Dickens' Women show at the Sydney Opera House this Thursday and after watching her performance as Ruth Pinch from Dicken's Martin Chuzzlewit at the end of Q&A , it's a must see.

Q&A can be watched now on the ABC Q&A website.

## In 1991 David Marr published his best selling biography of Australia's Nobel Prize winning author Patrick White. Today is the 100th year anniversary since White was born in Knighstbridge in London in 1912. He emigrated with his parents to Australia when he was 6 months old, living in a Sydney flat with servants and a nanny while his parents lived in the next door apartment.

This Sunday ABC TV screens In The Eye Of The Storm. Fred Schepisi's adaption of White's 1973 book of the same name. The film stars Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush. Not to be missed.

Another Day..Another AACTA

a red dog

This is becoming repetitive. Not a week seems to go by without a new film award. Just a few days ago Geoffrey Rush was in Los Angeles helping hand out AACTA gongs to the Gumleaf Mafia and LA locals like Meryl Streep. That was followed by the SAG Awards a few days later.

Cate Blanchett shines

Miranda Kerr

Megan Gale

Last night he looked bright eyed and bushy tailed at the Sydney Opera House handing out more AACTAs to those in the local film industry.
He had some help from colleague Cate Blanchett. Actually that is the Samsung AACTA Awards. It's the re-incarnation of the Australian Film Awards and Samsung have put a hefty sum behind the whole deal hence the media were invited inside to the Opera House instead of being, as is film publicist's wont, bundled into some pen alongside the red carpet out in the elements. So we in the meejah are now very fond of Samsung and almost as happy as actor Simon Baker who keeps popping up on television promoting Samsung products for a reputed $3M a year.

The "Australian equivalent of the Oscars" went off without a hitch and anyone who has done anything in an Aussie film was there including some who haven't like Miranda Kerr. And there was a bar for the media.

The big winner was the film Red Dog judged Best Film. It's a charming feel good movie that was inexpensive to make which should delight the producers as not only has it been a box office success, animals don't get residuals.

The LaPaglia Brothers

And Judy Davis-who Woody Allen reckons is the "best actress in the world" won Best Actress for Eye Of The Storm which is based on the book by the crankiest ever Nobel Prize winner Patrick White. Olivia Newton John, Anthony La Paglia and Magda Szubanski were there as was  Shutle pal Jaqui Weaver who was up for an Oscar last year. She spent a few hours regailing us in the bar and roaring with laughter over some very risque tales of Jacqui's after Oscar party experiences, plus Claudia Karvan who is still having difficult recalling how the Shuttle bounced her on our knee in her dad's bar Athurs in Kings Cross (innocently of course!) when she was seven. Miranda Otto and her sis Gracie Otto and their dad Barry Otto attended. And Barry is the man that Sir John Gielgug once said was the best actor in the world.

SNOWTOWN picked up a gong and qute right too. It's a pretty gruesome true life tale but well made and  based on the shocking serial murders where ten bodies were found dumped in barrels of acid n a disused bank vault in Snowton in South Australia.  Done wonders for the tourism trade I'm told.

Aussie Films Open Toronto Film Festival

Geoffrey Rush in Eye Of The Storm ( at Luna Park)

Three Australian made films have been included in the Toronto Film Festival including Eye Of The Storm directed by Fred Schepisi starring Geoffrey Rush, Burning Man by Jonathan Teplitzky and Daniel Nettheim's The Hunter.

Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis & Geoffrey Rush in Eye Of The Storm

Eye Of The Storm also stars Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis (the best actress on the planet according to Woody Allen) and is based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Patrick White.

The Hunter with Willem Dafoe, Frances O'Connor and Sam Neill (spotted by the Shuttle today buying cigars in Double Bay)  has been adapted from the book Sleeping Beauty and is directed by Julia Lei.
The Toronto Film Festival runs from September 8th to the18th.

Cate Blanchett Attends Sydney Film Festival

A freezing Sydney winter night and lots of bare legged girls shaking in the cold wind for their art. The show must go on. The Sydney Film Festival opened at the State Theatre with the espionage thriller Hanna starring Saorise Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana. 

Ronan plays a 16 year old assassin who sets out to bump off Blanchett who plays a cold eyed , orange haired spy and Blanchett tries to do likewise to Ronan..

Actor Matt Day & wife Kirsty Thomason

Meanwhile in downtown Surry Hills The Seagull opened at the Belvoir Street Theatre with Judy Davis , David Wenham,Emily Barclay and Bille Brown. Needless to say, a cast like that received a rousing reception and almost a standing ovation.

Maia Thomas* Katherine Hicks * Michelle Vergara Moore * Anya Beyersdorf who star in Black & White & Sex

The notoriously media shy Davis skipped out the stage door-she refused to give interviews for the play while the rest of the cast joined first nighters for champagne and smoked salmon in the foyer.

Film director Gillian Armstrong and daughter Billy

Zoo Lim

actress Sylvia Colloco and husband Richard Roxburgh at The Seagull

Fox Studios boss Kim Williams

Sigrid Thornton & Tom Burstall

Festival director Clare Stuart