Hitched and Un-hitched

Married in Sicily yesterday: Luke Ricketson and Kate Waterhouse

Separated yesterday : Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise

Will Shane Warne Succeed where Gordon Ramsay Failed ?

Sad news today and a further blow for embattled restaurateur Gordon Ramsay as he announces that his Melbourne restaurant- maze Grill at the Metropole Hotel-part of James Packer's ritzy Crown Casino, is put into liquidation.

Despite the gleaming new restaurant receiving excellent reviews and a reported turnover of nearly $14M in the one year it was open, it was loosing money and becoming a drain on Ramsay's declining restaurant empire.

Melbourne's maze Grill

The Crown Casino by the Yarra River is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the biggest in the world. With 3 hotel tower blocks including the Metrople, endless fast food outlets and a string of 5 star restaurants , luxury stores,cinemas, theatres, a ballroom and a convention centre it is one of the most opulent gaming establishments on the planet.

Stars like Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Tiger Woods  have called it home while in Melbourne on extended visits.
Fine dining restaurants at Crown that are going gangbusters include the Japanese Nobu part owned by actor Robert de Niro (who officially launched Nobu in 2007) and  Bistro Guillaume owned by French chef Guillaume Brahimi who also owns Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. In both establishments it often takes weeks to book a table.

Diana at the Commonwealth Day lunch with Samantha Riley

But if Ramsay couldn't make a go of it , will our newly minted Metrosexual Shane Warne do any better?

rough trade?

It's been reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald that Warnie will be attending this year's Melbourne Cup (with Liz Hurley) and will be opening a night club at Crown.
Warnie's new sophisticated image has come some way since the Shuttle sat with him at a Commonwealth Day lunch for Princess Diana in Sydney in 1996.

When we asked if he was a friend of Diana's Shane replied "no, I haven't met her yet" (she was at the next table). Asked if he thought she may be a cricket fan he said "not sure-but I think she likes rough trade !"

Model Mischief

 The drama following the gaff made by host of the show, Sarah Murdoch in the announcement of the winner of the 2010 Australia's Next Top Model has been on-going

Feathers are flying in the modelling world after the top agency Priscilla's was dumped from the up-coming series and replaced by Chic run by the legendary agent Ursula Hufnagl who manages Miranda Kerr.

Taking over the reins as producer of the show Sarah ditched the production company Granada Media Australia and hired her sister-in-law Elisabeth Murdoch's  new TV production vehicle Shine. It's the sort of thing you can do when dad-in-law Rupert and husband Lachlan own most of the cable network the show features on.
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When gap toothed Victoria's Secret model Jessica Hart  scored the prestige job as top model in the Myer's G'Day Australia USA fashion spectacular in Los Angeles, she was at first reluctant to take the offer having just returned from working in the US.

However a financial offer made  by Myers sealed the deal. It was the kind that she couldn't refuse. Now there are rumblings in the huge Myer Emporium about whether former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins will continue in her role this year as ambassador for the chain store.

Miranda Kerr with a new bub to look after and under contract to the David Jones chain won't be attending this year's summer/spring collections.

Insiders are saying Myers are looking for a knock out blow to take DJ's fashion crown. Step forward Jessica.

The Shuttle's spies in New York report the gap-toothed beauty also has an ulterior motive for the trip back to the States. She has been getting up close and personal with  Stavros Niarchos who has had an on and off affair with Paris Hilton over the past few years and that has turned into a full blown affair with Niarchos begging Jessica to return to the US, according to friends.
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Billionaire James Packer's $45M Vaucluse  mansion ( right) is steaming ahead with massive earth-shifting machines digging deep into sandstone in preparation for an underground garage to house 13 vehicles, staff quarters and a huge swimming pool and presumably a kiddie's pen for children Indigo and Jackson.

James appears to be determined to dispense with all shreds of his father Kerry Packer's empire. Having sold off his dad's beloved Channel Nine network and the ACP magazine publishing titles that filled the Packer coffers, James has now purchased a controlling interest in the Ten TV network.

the Bondi Beach pad

When father Kerry died  James inherited a $6B fortune and lost a billion in just six months. He still lives in the sprawling Packer Bellevue Hill complex-2 mansions surrounded by the grounds of 2 more that were purchased and demolished, and his 3 storey apartment that he built directly opposite Bondi Beach.

The Vaucluse house, which James spent $18M on buying 3 houses to knock down and build the ultimate play pad will be ready in about 18 months time.

Meanwhile there was a rumour being touted at the Hobart to Sydney yacht race in January that the Z-Sydney, the luxury gin palace owned by James Packer that has played host to Hollywood movie stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes is for sale with James shopping for a new vessel and in talks with the ship yard that built the world's second biggest 'super' yacht, Al Said for Sultan Qaboos of Oman . In 2007 Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes also joined James and wife Erica aboard their luxury converted minesweeper the  Arctic P on their Mediterranean cruise after their Hotel du Cap-Eden Roc wedding.

read more at 'PS' in the Sydney Morning Herald.

how to lose a billion $$ or 2

Packer and ex-model Erika Baxter marry in France.(c)

Paul Barry's Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? The James Packer Story is about to hit the shelves and is eagerly awaited by those who are looking for an insight into whether the 'third generation' syndrome-where the grandson of self-made successful men can dilute the fortunes built up over decades and handed down through a family has come into play.

James Packer is son of the late media mogul Kerry Packer who transformed his father Sir Frank Packer's  one newspaper into Australia's dominant media company with TV stations and a magazine publishing empire.

It's reputed that James has lost two billion dollars on his Machau casino venture. Young James, it's claimed, ignored advice from various advisors to take note of Chinese superstitions about Feng Shui or indeed , taking on the Chinese at their own game and in a location where they dominate. He built on the "wrong" side of a river , is one claim,and was hoping to reap in a fortune at the gaming tables via sponsored gaming tours from the Chinese mainland.

This was complicated when the Chinese government began a crackdown on civil servants who were popping over to Machau and losing small fortunes of government funds at the roulette tables.

James Packer has divested himself of all his father's media assets including the once successful Nine TV network and Kerry's personal favourite that the Packer fortune was built upon-the Women's Weekly-once the biggest selling magazine in the world and still with a healthy circulation. In 2005 when the Shuttle attended the grand soiree thrown by big Kerry at his Nine studios to celebrate 50 years of the Weekly's publication, James was absent.

Insiders say unlike his father, known for his legendary grilling of business owners when about to purchase a corporation, James seems to rely on the advice of  investment bankers which can complicate a decision if a sale involves large fees from negotiations. They say his desire to outdo his father is so driven that he makes quick decisions that have seen him now reduced to the 4th richest Australian while Kerry was always number one.

Kerry Packer was regarded as a tough operator but always fair and was a low-key philanthropist who would think nothing of donating a few million dollars to purchase a fleet of ambulances outfitted with cardiac arrest units after a nearly fatal heart attack in 1990's. There are still dozens of older Packer employees who still live on generous pensions from Kerry long after they left his employment. Loyalty was the older Packer's trademark.

Father Kerry apparently despaired when James joined Scientology upon advice from his good pal, actor Tom Cruise. Although he has since left Scientology he still regularly holiday's with Cruise. James also sold Kerry's much loved Arctic P- a converted minesweeper on which James and newly wed wife Erika Baxter honeymooned on the Med with Cruise and Katie Holmes after their wedding in the South of France in 2007.

An example of James Packer's odd decisions was the launch of his new Nine's network season in 2001 at Garden Island when James spotted the Murdoch gossip columnist Ros Reines . Packer exploded at the sight of Reines. took her aside and berated her for 5 minutes about her intrusive articles about his private life.  It dominated the media for days, his TV season launch ignored.

An Eastern Suburb's hairdresser claims he took a recent call from James who remonstrated with him for commenting on wife Erika's hair to salon clients. 

Perhaps he should take advice from former partner Lachlan Murdoch, born on the same day as Packer, who left his father Rupert's empire and sold off his News Ltd shares to retire from public life. James and Lachlan together lost over $200M when they invested in Jodee Rich's One-Tel mobile phone company against their respective father's advice.

  James Packer & ex-wife Johdi Meares at Garden Island (c)
 

Paul Barry who wrote best-sellers about Kerry Packer and former entrepreneur Alan Bond is to launch his book in Sydney next week.