New Royal Baby Snaps with The Queen

Our exclusive photographs of Prince George with his parents the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and his great grandmother HM The Queen

It's more mischief from the British photographer Alison Jackson whose amazing pictures can be seen here. And Prince William ? : he is in fact 30 year old Simon Watkinson who is an Adelaide born engineer living and working in the UK but cleaning up as the best royal impersonator in the business.
Below is an Alison Jackson video of Kate & The Queen at the hairdressers.

exclusive : Royal Baby is a Girl

Rachel Johnson is the editor of The Lady, the longest continually published women's magazine in the UK and she is an impeccable source .

 Writing in the UK Daily Mail she informs us that Kate Middleton's baby is a girl. Her information comes from The Lady's astrologer Victor Olliver who is very very good at these things. He predicted  a definite win for Barack Obama when other astrologers were hedging their bets. 

Topless Kate Middleton Pics & an Aussie Connection

William & Kate in Malaysia

While the brouhaha over the topless photographs of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge gets more dramatic by the day, an Australian connection is emerging.

A fortnight ago Bauer Media, Europe's largest privately owned publishing firm purchased Australia's largest magazine empire ACP for around $500M. Bauer Media also own the Closer brand of magazines. The topless photographs have been published in the French edition of Closer and the editor is unrepentant with reports now emerging that there are further pics to be published next  week.

Bauer have issued a statement deploring the use of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton and have complained to the magazine but the French edition is published under license by an Italian publisher Mondadori.

Bauer CEO Paul Keenan says he has asked Closer to remove the pics : "We deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures and have asked that Closer France takes these pictures down immediately from its website and desist from publishing any further pictures"'. Bauer are said to be reviewing the Closer license with Mondadori.
                                                                                                                           
Where does this leave the Australian Woman's Day, the biggest selling weekly magazine and new Baeur acquisition ?. WD is in fierce competition with New Idea (owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes' Pacific Magazines) and barely a week goes by without the 2 glossies running a feature on Prince William and Kate. A month ago we can imagine a bidding war would have erupted between the 2 mags for the topless photos. New Idea was the first to breach an agreement, not to mention that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Shuttle has worked on a number of occasions with the British royals including the late Princess Diana on her last visit to Australia. We once attended a dinner for HRH Prince Edward at Lady Mary Fairfax's pile Fairwater. Twenty guests had paid $10,000 each for the privilege of dining with Edward (the money went to charity) with the promise of a snap with the royal. The Shuttle obliged but not before an arrangement was made with Edward's minders- 2 charming but lethal looking gentleman from Scotland Yard's Royal Protection Squad. The Shuttle was to be searched before we left the function to ensure we had not taken any covert pics of Edward, perhaps rubbing his bald spot and so on. We were happy to oblige.
But where were Kate Middleton's minders while she was holidaying in France and for that matter, Prince Harry's when he was in Las Vegas ?.

Sharon Sargeant Vs The Middletons

Britney Spears attacks paparazzi

Lord Justice Leveson

At the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking in the UK, the picture editor of The Daily Mail-the newspaper that receives more web hits than any other publication on the planet-Paul Silva gave evidence that Pippa Middleton the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, typically has eight or nine photographers camped outside her door and estimated that they produce between "300 to 400 pictures" of her daily. Silva says these photographs arrive on his desk and most are literally, snaps of Pippa either entering or exiting her front door and are of no value.

It's an example of the nature of today's so-called 'papparazi that has seen thousands of young kids armed with an inexpensive digital camera swell the ranks of the 'media' section of show-biz events.

For old-timers (like the Shuttle) they're a pain in the neck. Most of them are arrogant and seem to have no connection to the celebrities they snap. They show little interest in the subject matter. It's like big game hunting with a lens and as long as a 'kill' is made that's all that matters.

Frank Monte

Pippa Middleton

The Shuttle dates back to the days when they were just three photographers at any event in London. Richard Young was one and he was a welcome addition to any show biz shin dig or high society party. Likewise New York's Patrick McMullan. Both are still going strong and the difference is they are welcome at any event because not only do they have a personality, they know how to play the game.

In Los Angeles the paparazzi are even worse. Agencies are hiring illegal immigrants at around 6 a time to stake out a movie star's home. They have strict instructions. Two will have cameras, two will be 'spotters' and they other two 'agitators'. Their role is to annoy, cajole, flirt or otherwise to get a reaction from the star. A smile is as good as a scowl from their prey.

And so it leads us to Sydney party girl Sharon Sargeant who as we reported last week, was  photographed at an exclusive Fijian resort while her partner, private investigator Frank Monte held secret discussions with Fijian government officials. The snaps came from an unlikely source-a well known American show business star who had spotted Ms Sargeant bathing topless at the beach.

What the Shuttle wasn't expecting was the roasting we got when we finally got in touch with the girl known as Shazza who made her displeasure known in a 5 minute tirade down the phone.  Surely she would be happy to know an American star- and we do mean a top movie star who was quite taken with Sargeant's charms-thought enough of her to pass on the pics?. Sadly we cannot reveal his name despite Ms Sargeant's threat to take legal action.

However-just to show there are no hard feelings, we decided to publish two more from the set !

Tabloid Tales :"Kate's Pregnant!"

Daily Telegraph

Australia's top selling tabloid The Daily Telegraph (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) brings us the tale of how dozens of magazines world-wide have reported the false claim that Prince William's bride Kate is pregnant.

A 'staff writer' tells us how "a tally of incorrect US gossip mag covers shows their editors have made fake hay while the sun remained behind clouds this year" when reporting the non-existent pregnancies of Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and more.

These mad claims were brought undone when that US TV network of repute Fox News ( proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) compiled the list of glossy magazines which made the phoney claim.

Our staff writer even has a dig at the Oz glossy New Idea (referred to as No Idea by industry wags) which also fell for the Kate Middleton 'pregnancy' claim.

Alas, our News Corp scribe missed one small fact in his/her mention of the New Idea. Just who was the source for their claim?.

Step forward a 'royal photographer' who is interviewed for the cover piece that screams :
YES. KATE'S PREGNANT!...Exclusive interview with official royal photographer

New Idea

The snapper in question and "royal insider" is Arthur Edwards who gushed to New Idea :" Kate looked great but I just got a feeling she wasn't quite herself".

And just who does our 'royal insider' take his royal photographs for ? (from the press pen along with every other photographer)...why the popular top selling UK tabloid The Sun (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch)

Diana: the gift that keeps on giving

Brisbane based writer John Morgan has published the latest in a long line of Princess Diana death books claiming that Diana’s post-mortem samples were switched with those of another woman.

He says that the cover-up could only have been ordered by The Queen.

Morgan says in the UK Daily Express that : "There is a lot of evidence which points to the toxicology testing being carried out on samples that did not come from the body of Princess Diana,... and that the documents were, along with others, withheld from the inquest jury"

"The evidence I have studied indicates that there are two lots of samples. One belongs to Diana, which is held by the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Paget, and the other lot are samples from another body and held by Charing Cross Hospital.

“Diana’s UK post-mortem samples were switched ahead of the toxicology testing.”

“I am asking why?” So are we. It seems that Diana had been drinking on the fateful night and this is a possible reason as according to a Fulham mortuary worker her "stomach smelled strongly of alcohol".

But then Diana's body was supposedly embalmed in France before it was returned to London. And why was a mortuary attendant sniffing around Diana's stomach ?

All these questions and more maybe answered in "Diana Inquest: Part 4: The British Cover-Up "
apparently the fourth volume in the saga.

Needless to say the tome has been warmly received by Mohamed Fayed who calls the book "heroic".

Tupou IV

Fayed has reportedly backed a 90-minute film "Unlawful Killing," by British actor and director Keith Allen which contains a "shocking "photo of a dying Diana which will be shown for the first time. Despite the fact the snap can be viewed on the interent and really isn't  all that shocking.

 Diana conspiracies have become Mohamed Fayed's raison d'être and he has accused Prince Phillip in the past of conspiring to murder Diana and Dodi.

Just 2 weeks ago at the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton ,  royal 'watcher' James Whittaker was reporting live for the Nine network when he announced the arrival of Dodi Fayed at Westminster Abbey.


Fayed

"I mean Mohamed Fayed" he soon corrected himself, and then commented how gracious it was that the royal family had invited the hapless former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi who died with Diana in the Paris smash.

The portly figure in a morning suit and bedecked with medals was in fact, Tupou IV, the King of Tonga.

William's grandmother HRH The Queen was crowned in 1953 and one guest was Tupou's grandmother, the enormous girthed Queen Salote of Tonga who held an umbrella aloft shielding her and an aide as they travelled in a coach to Buck House in the pouring rain.

Princess Marina who was watched the passing parade with the writer Noel Coward asked who she was.
"Queen Salote" said Coward.
"And who is that with her ?" said Marina. " her lunch " responded Coward !

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Famous Last Words:
As the shenanigans of the enterprising Ibrahim family-owners of nightclubs and unidentified enterprises, plays out in the media and the courts- now with 2 nights of gun shots being pumped into various Ibrahim abodes by unknown would be assassins, we noted the words of a NSW Detective commenting on the mayhem.

Fadi Ibrahim is currently appearing in the Central Criminal Court, alleged to have conspired to bump off a man who he believed was one of the hooded men who pumped a dozen bullets into he and his girlfriend as they sat in a Lamborghini outside his North side house two years ago.

"This isn't acceptable" said the copper outside the court "and I advise the Ibrahim family to keep a very low profile so they go about their business unnoticed" while in the background, the diminutive Fadi in a snappy Italian suit and mirrored sunglasses clambered into a brand new silver, million dollar Rolls Royce Phantom!

Prince William Clone Making a Royal Mint

Simon Watkinson

Even as a child in an Adelaide primary school 29 year old Simon Watkinson received comments about his resemblance to the heir of the British throne, HRH Prince William.

Simon says his grandmother looked like William's granny as well.

A civil engineer who has been working in London for 4 years, Simon has struck pay dirt working for an agency as a William look-a-like and is the most successful royal clone in the UK at present. He is commanding fees of up to $4000 a day and is in high demand by corporate sponsors. People hire him and a 'Kate Middleton' just to walk around at parties which is nice work if you can get  a grand a pop.

One of the most gifted artists who specialises in royal look-a-like photo and video shoots, artist Alison Jackson has used Simon several times in books and films. Three Australian TV networks have interviewed him outside Buckingham Palace and he regularly gets swamped by tourists who, if they can't have the real thing, they'll have Simon as the next best thing. The British mobile phone company T-Mobile used him and a bunch of others in a spoof wedding video that has gone viral.

It's an odd thing the look-a-like business.  Jason Thompson (above)from Sydney is making a mint in the USA as HRH The Queen, hosting corporate events. He greets guests on the red carpet upon arrival or arrives with a big entrance singing a song and then wanders the crowd intermingling with guests and chatting. Jason says the number of times female guests courtesy is alarming. (he also does Dame Edna Everage and Steve Irwin).

Jeanette Charles in Naked Gun

Probably the most famous royal impersonator is Jeanette Charles who at 84 has had a lifetime of employment acting as the head of the royal family. Jeanette appeared in numerous films from the National Lampoon series to Austin Powers and the Naked Gun series as The Queen.

She did dozens of TV and newspaper advertisements and was once hired by a Paris based businessman who paid her a small fortune to accompany him in a limousine throughout Europe to get tongues wagging that he was able to get up close and personal with a British royal. The story goes that it worked and he scored  numerous lucrative government contracts in France, Italy and Russia.

Simon Watkinson should be making a very nice living for the next decade or so, even if he does have more hair than the real thing !

Hold my hose: William and Michael Middleton clean the car by Alison Jackson

Breaking news : The Chasers comedy team who scored world-wide fame when they gate-crashed APEC in Sydney as Osama Bin Laden have been banned from covering the royal wedding for ABC TV on orders from Clarence House : Below is the film of the Chasers at APEC:

exclusive : Footage From the Royal Wedding Rehearsal

OK we fibbed. This video has gone viral on youtube with over 6 million hits but we bring it to the Shuttle for those who haven't yet viewed this wonderful offering from T-Mobile.

Aussie Love Song for Prince William and Kate's Wedding a European Hit



David & Eden : Lovers Electric



An Australian singing duo Lovers Electric who have been living in Berlin for the past few years quietly building a cult following have had their new release adopted by Germany's biggest TV network as the theme song for the April 29th wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Originally from Adelaide, David Turley and wife Eden Boucher's new love song "Love Can Save Us" began being aired last Friday on the top commercial TV network RTL and it will be featured during every show in which the Royal wedding of the century is discussed, RTL promos as well as the actual live broadcast when an estimated 35 million Germans will watch the network's coverage.

The exposure is certain to catapult the two into fame throughout Europe

David and Eden were in London about 18 months ago rehearsing when an invite came out of the blue to audition for RTL producers. They performed 3 songs live and the producers immediately snapped up the song. The pair moved back to Germany to work on a new album of love songs "Impossible Dreams." The single and  album will be released by Universal Music in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on April 22

The pair who have been together since they were both 17 have music and performing in their blood. Eden used to perform with her 6 sisters, dancer mother and musician father while they travelled Australia in a camper van. 

David has been playing piano, composing and singing since his school days, encouraged by his poet father and pianist mother who is also a songwriter.

Lovers Electric have slotted nicely into the hip artistic Neukölln district in Berlin with both claiming the area is inspirational in the composing of their pop-rock songs. The pair are also active in agitating for refugee and asylum seeker rights . David is quoted as saying : "Our songs are often about a greater concept and how perfect the world can be if we all care for one another".

The opening verses of 'Love Can Save Us' and video can be viewed on Lovers Electric's website and below is an earlier song and video "Could this be.."

Polo Champs Miss the Big Match



Jean-Paul & Nina Clarkin at Windsor last week



The annual Paspaley Polo takes place today in Centennial Park and with the world's largest supplier of cultured pearls celebrating it's 75th year it promises to be an extra special event.

 Sadly two of the world's great polo players will miss the day.

Carina Clarkin, the UK's top female player and her husband , the handsome and debonair Jean-Paul Clarkin have left Sydney for New Zealand after playing at the Windsor polo match last week.

Carina, known as Nina is the niece of the beef baron Lord Vestey and the Vestey family connections with Australia are deep and varied.

Lord Vestey was once the largest single land owner in Australia until 1966 when dozens of his Aboriginal stock men went on strike demanding equal pay with whites.

When Gough Whitlam was elected Prime Minister in the early 1970's he forced Vestey to hand back traditional lands to the Gurindji tribe.

Vestey also owns several cattle ranches in Venezuela-or did until President Hugo Chavez sent in troops to occupy them. In 2006 he settled a dispute with Chavez by handing over 2 of his best properties to the Venezuelan government.



Lord Vestey & The Queen

 Jean-Paul's late father Paul Clarkin was a mentor to both Princes William and Harry and Nina's mother Rosie dated their father Prince Charles and was part of his inner circle.

Nina, a good friend of William's is expected to be a guest at the wedding of William and Kate Middleton.





Lord Vestey visited Australia earlier this year on behalf of St John Ambulance ( HRH The Queen is patron). He holds the lofty title of The Lord Prior of St John. He also attended the Royal Easter Show with the Social Shuttle's resident landed gentry and contributor Bill Ranken.

And Lord Vestey and Nina Clarkin have another claim to Oz-Sam Vestey's great grandmother was the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba.

Will the Shuttle Prove Lucky for Collette Dinnigan & Kate Middleton?

In 1979 the Shuttle's resident psychic adviser Mandy Miami was looking for a new British designer to showcase at the New York nite spot she was managing-the Mudd Club. She chose an up and coming young couple David and Elizabeth Emanuel for her British Invasion Fashion Show that scored the Emanuels a front page story in the prestige Woman's Wear Daily.



The Emanuel wedding dress

 And she predicted an amazing success for the 2 designers and that one shining moment was in store for them very soon- one of their designs  "will be seen throughout the entire world like no other has ever before".

In 1981 Princess Diana wed HRH Prince Charles in a now famous Emanuel wedding dress, watched on live TV by billions of people around the world.



Miranda Kerr in Collette Dinnigan



On Tuesday evening the Shuttle attended the opening of Collette Dinnigan's new Woollahra boutique. The news had just broken of the engagement of Kate Middleton and Prince William. Collette is one of Kate's favourite designers and Kate is a regular at her London store. Today Ms Dinnigan fielded phone calls from media outlets around the world asking for her advice on Kate's wedding dress.

In Vogue UK she is running at odds 16/1 along with Alice Temperley another favourite, that the future Queen will wear one of her designs on her wedding day.

However the chances of Kate choosing a non-British wedding dress designer are pretty slim. The British media would rip her to shreds if she wore a foreign design-even a colonial one. But Collette does a nice line in beautiful Christening gowns for that inevitable Royal baby that will be with us in a year or so !

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Society maven Marie Sutton , the woman who managed to gazump the entire world by getting Princess Diana to attend the Victor Chang dinner in Sydney in 1995 as her last official charity function tells the Shuttle her phone began ringing at 5am this morning and hasn't stopped.

"They're calling from all over the world" she says "radio stations and newspapers in London and America. I even had a TV station in South Africa wanting to send a film crew to interview me".

"There's not much I can tell them" she says. " I've never met Kate and last spoke to William on the telephone 3 years ago".

In the meantime she is busy filling a table for the Black & White Committee charity lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on the 30th November.

The special guest is John Rendall of 'Christian The Lion' fame. He's  just returned from hosting a safari in Kenya and will be giving a talk at the lunch on life in an antique shop on the Kings Road, Chelsea with the lion cub he purchased at Harrods in the 1970s.

And there's a slide show. The pictures were recently exhibited at the prestige Saatchi Gallery in London.

To purchase tickets to the Black & White lunch contact them on (02) 9327 5698 or email susan.diver@rbs.org.au.

Ask to sit on Marie's table and she'll tell you all about Princess Diana !

For those who have forgotten about the Christian saga-here is the youtube video that went viral worldwide. Get the Kleenex out.....

exclusive : Prince William Shops for Household Goods

As our  pic shows HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton have been snapped shopping for a new kettle.

Not quite-this picture is just one of the brilliant series by photographer Alison Jackson who is a genuis with her Royal and celebrity look-a-likes. Check out her photos and videos on her website here.

Below-the Shuttle's favourite vid- Camilla pursued by police.