Duncan Fallowell , a Long Lunch & "Massive C*ck"

Duncan Fallowell

The Wikipedia claim that travel writer, author and social commentator Duncan Fallowell was also the famous British blogger Madame Arcati- as reported on the Shuttle,  turns out to be a hoax.

This will come as a great relief to both writers who were besieged by readers demanding an explanation -quite apart from Fallowell and Arcati being mortified that others may think they were one and the same person.

It was  another piece of Wikipedia mischief where posters slightly alter entries.
Some famous ones include an entry in singer Robbie William's page that "in 2006 he ate pet hamsters for a living in and around Stoke ": that the entire village of Denshaw near Greater Manchester was "the home to an obese population of sun-starved, sheep hurling yokels with a brothel for a pub and a lingering tapeworm infection " :  that "Italians drink children’s blood." :   that US pro-golfer Fuzzy Zoeller had admitted to "polishing off a fifth of Jack after popping a handful of Vicodin pills": that  David Beckham "was a Chinese goalkeeper in the 18th century." :  Plato was "an ancient Hawaiian weather man and surfer " and our favourite : Stephen Fry " regularly wears a gorilla suit to bed.

Who then is Madame Arcati ?. Well that mystery is still to be solved but we believe one man may hold the secret : writer Victor Olliver, star astrologer for the English publication The Lady, who is known to be an intimate of Arcati.

Karl Stefanovic : "long lunch, massive c*ck ""

Still, these Wikipedia frauds are no-where near as good as the tale perpetuated by celebrity TV interviewer Richard Wilkins who launched his book Black Ties, Red Carpets, Green Rooms last week at Kit & Kaboodle.
In 2009 Wilkins announced on the Today Show that actor Jeff Goldblum had died after falling down a cliff in New Zealand. The story swept the world in news reports before an embarrassed Wilkins said he had been the victim of a hoax.
And was this a hoax ? Launching Wilkin's book, TV presenter Karl Stefanovic, fresh from a long lunch with Channel Nine boss David Gyngell,  said ( in front of Wilkin's three children) there were three things he knew about Wilkins : "he has great hair, he's a great bloke, and he has a massive c*ck " !


For more on Duncan Fallowell's books go to his website here.
Madame Arcati has an excellent review of Fallowell's book here. 
 Victor Olliver's astrology website is here.

"Off With Their Heads "! Charles & Camilla Attacked & Diana's Portrait

Video has surfaced of the attack upon Prince Charle's and The Duchess of Cornwall as they headed through London streets to the Royal Variety Performance. Apparently Camilla was poked in the chest with a stick shoved through the window. One protester loudly shouts "off with their heads !". No wonder the pair looked so alarmed. That's precisely what happened to many of their forbears.

Still it should have set them up nicely for the show-Susan Boyle, Robbie Williams and Australia's very own Human Nature currently wowing audiences in the USA with their nightly Las Vegas show.

Meanwhile we have uncovered a covertly filmed scene of Camilla having Princess Diana's portrait removed from Clarence House and replaced with her own.

It is of course, a spoof by the wonderful and talented artist Alison Jackson. Check out more at her website.

The Hacking Scandal that Will Not Die

Andy Coulson

2 days after the Shuttle wrote about the News of The World newspaper phone hacking scandal that refuses to die, it's been revealed that the former editor of that newspaper has been grilled by British police over persistent claims that the illegal hacking into mobile phones was far more prevalent than previously claimed.

Andy Coulson who was editor of the NoTW between 2003 and 2007 was questioned on Thursday.
Coulson now works as the communications manager for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In 'Allo 'Allo 'Allo broadcast on the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program, former features editor of the NoTW , Paul McMullan demonstrated how easy it was to hack into a phone and claimed Coulson must have known of the illegal practice.

 The scandal originally came to light when Royal minders noticed very personal stories about Prince's William and Harry appearing in tabloids

Singer Robbie Williams also revealed during the program that his phone had been hacked into by a tabloid and that he hadn't carried a phone for over 2 years because of it.

                                                   

                                                       

Perhaps the British parliament should hire Sydney and LA based private eye Frank Monte who was interviewed on the Channel 7 program Today Tonight a week earlier on new Internet programs that allow people to hack into phones and read text messages.

 Monte says the applications are proving very popular among housewives looking to catch out a cheating husband, cutting him out of potential work.

Perhaps that's why he may be headed for the Upper House in NSW. He intends to stand for election in the March 2011 state election.

The announcement of his election bid was first featured on the Shuttle. Rupert Murdoch's Mx newspaper followed our lead with a story about Monte's election bid on it's front page in Friday's late edition.

Robbie Williams revelation-Jason Donovan the Wimp

The ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent on Tuesday night in  a segment titled 'Allo 'Allo 'Allo, delved into the scandal still brewing on the Murdoch newspaper News of The World's hacking of well known figure's mobile phones.

The newspaper's Royal Correspondent and a private investigator served jail terms over the affair back in 2007 but some in the British parliament are agitating for a full judicial enquiry.

The program interviewed former top British policeman Brian Paddick, once the most high profile openly gay policeman in the UK, Max Clifford an agent to the stars and a former Labour government minister all who say their phones were bugged, a highly illegal act.

Most informative was when interviewer Eric Campbell asked actor Jason Donovon as he arrived at a red carpet  premiere if he was concerned about phone hacking- "Mate I’m not here to talk about phone hacking. Come on. It’s a film, I mean, come on” was his reply.  Perhaps the current batch of celebrities who rely on tabloid publicity are fearful of upsetting those who provide the exposure.

More forthcoming was singer Robbie Williams who was asked the same question as he arrived at the BBC.

Robbie Williams told the ABC his mobile phone was hacked into by a tabloid newspaper.

And he said that he wasn't worried about any further hacking as he had not used a mobile phone for two and a half years now "for that very reason".

One odd interview was with a former News Corp boss Kelvin McKenzie once editor of the tabloid The Sun who claims there were no more hacking incidents despite News Corp apparently paying damages to more and more people presumably to avoid matters being heard in a court.



McKenzie

 “Where is the proof? They’ve had six years to look at it." said McKenzie.

Max Clifford who reputedly received a million pounds from the NoTW after threatening to sue  thinks differently.

 'Allo 'Allo 'Allo can be viewed here where you can also read the transcript of the show.

Ligging at Neville's house

Lindsay Fox (left) chats while Neville looks for a buyer.

Suburu owner Kerri-Anne

They were out on force at Neville Crichton's gleaming new Ferrari and Maserati sale rooms in Green Square for the launch of a range of the Italian autos.

2 of Sydney's best known gate-crashers (they are called "liggers" in the UK) and a host of well known business, sporting and show-biz personalities. Will Neville notch up a sale or 2 from the night that generously included a fleet of chauffeured Maseratis to ferry guests to and fro-all the better for quaffing French champagne by the bucket ?. Hard to tell. tSS did a straw poll of some of the more well heeled guests and found few takers.

Daytime TV queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley drives a very practical Subaru which she says she loves as does husband John Kennerley, the man who started Britain's Littlewood Pools and sold out for squillions. They have a Lexus for more sedate moments.

What does nightclub king Justin Hemmes
(right) motor around in ?. Anything he wants with he and his father John's amazing collection of vintage and new luxury cars. But not a Maserati or a Ferrari amongst them and he won't be buying one soon.

Nor does the countries top jeweler Nic Cerrone-a Mercedes, and as for trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, he doesn't drive at all but has a man at the wheel of either the Rolls Phantom or Bentley Continental that slip into the Spanish style driveway of his legendary mansion Boomerang. We gave up after 12 inquiries. Not a Ferrari owner in sight. The 2 liggers ?. They share a taxi or an ancient Ford Falcon when it's running.

Still, everyone looks pretty sitting and posing in the gleaming autos.

Nic Cerrone-always happy to pose for the camera.

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Earlier that night the Oxford Street cabaret club Slide showed off some of it's season's upcoming acts that include the crooner Barry Crocker who pens the occasional play review for the Shuttle. Slide is run by French chef Marc Kuzma who doubles up as maitre de and as drag act, Claire De Lune.

Claire de Lune

Crocker's squeeze Katy Manning, the original Dr Who co-star is still in London and working at the BBC.

Slide maitre de Marc Kuzma with Sharon Sargent and Barry Crocker

Barry played the Private Eye comic strip character in the film Barry McKenzie Hold His Own. It's difficult to tell which came first-Barry Crocker or Barry McKenzie. Did Barry inspire Baz ?.

A question for creator Barry Humphries next time we see him.

no joy for Justin

Sydney nightclub mogul Justin Hemmes had his application against police rejected today in the Supreme Court.
Hemmes had applied to have an order overturned- from licensing police to class his Ivy and Establishment venues from today as 'type 2' venues . The classification forces bars to close earlier than usual with alcohol served only in plastic beakers as opposed to glass and is applied when there have been over 12 assaults reported.

Despite Hemmes claiming his various bars have up to 2 million patrons a year passing through without incident and that he had no time to order enough plastic beakers, the judge rejected his application with the comment: "it would have been prudent to anticipate any development" .

 This is a blow to Hemmes who is possibly one of the most gentlemanly hosts and has always had excellent security at his nite-spots. Hemmes is expected to appeal.

more woes

As Justin Hemmes ponders a decline in fortune at his $50M Ivy nightclub complex with the economic dowturn, local police at The Rock's police station have classed the club and his nearby restaurant and bar complex Establishment, with a 'level two' restriction under new laws that come into force next Tuesday.

The restrictions are applied to venues that have had 12 to 18 reported assaults but as Hemmes points out-this number pales in comparison with the over 2 million visitors who pass through his venues each year. Not helping his cause is the alleged sexual assault of a female patron last month.

The restrictions can have a dramatic affect on liquor sales with bars having to cease serving alcohol 30 mnutes before closing time and with drinks served in plastic beakers, something that would not help the uber-chic feel of Hemmes' watering holes. It's reported Justin borrowed heavily to build Ivy after the amazing success of Establishment with it's award winning restaurants, boutique hotel and various bars.

Earlier this year Hemmes put up for sale the mansion that sits above his parents harbourside, abbey style home where Justin still lives. The house was used as a guest lodge but was passed in with a bid of only $6M just as the financial crunch hit like a tsunami wave.

Hemmes is currently appealing in the NSW Supreme Court with cries of foul that the arbitary imposition of the restrictions is unfair.

On the brighter side, Justin's recently ill dad John, and mum Merivale, both looking a picture of health, gave tSS a cheery wave today as they cruised up leafy Macleay Street in Potts Point in the latest Roll's convertible. Both are justly proud of Justin's entrepreneurial achievments which have surpassed his father and mother's fashion and property empire, and daughter Bettina's skills in decorating her brothers nite-spots.
On Tuesday night Justin's Hemmesphere bar played host to a small select reception for visiting singer Robbie Williams who was the special guest star at last night's ARIA Awards.
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Distant Cousins ? # 1:

     
 Luke Steele                                                                                                             Billy Idol