Russell Crowe, Kidman & Urban Move House

Antonia Kidman and husband Keith Urban have finally taken possession of a new $17M penthouse in New York at 200 Eleventh Avenue in the West Village overlooking the Hudson River.

The duplex apartment has one outstanding feature: it's own special lift to transport the couple's car to their  19th floor home which has it's own garage adjacent to the flat.

In a city were parking can be a veritable nightmare, this has to be the ultimate luxury.

The building was designed by architect  Annabelle Selldorf who installed freight sized lifts into which a tenant can drive, sit back and relax while remote sensors guide the lift to the correct floor and then the car into it's designated parking area.

All the flats were snapped up as soon as they hit the market and Kidman & Urban's neighbours include celebrity decorator Jamie Drake and  Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana. Actor Kelsie Grammar who had eyed off one of the 2 penthouses decided to pass and purchased in an equally smart building at 100 Eleventh Avenue.

Kidman & Urban have a growing real estate collection including Bunya Hill in the Southern Highlands of NSW, a beach side block on the South Coast with 2 Heritage listed 1920's weatherboard bungalows  on it and an estate in Nashville.

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And still anxious to move to larger premises from his Finger Wharf penthouse in Woolloomooloo, actor Russell Crowe has inspected a Bellevue Hill house for the third time now.

Headingly House

Fashion designer Carla Zampatti and husband John Spender, the former Australian ambassador to France have put their beautiful 26 room stucco mansion Headingley House on the market for $23M.


Crowe is reported to have offered $20M in his bid to find a backyard for kids Charlie & Tennyson. 

With so many rooms the Crowes should easily be able to house Danielle's father Don Spencer a TV children's program host who plans to live with the family.
And our spy in the Crowe camp tells us Rusty & Danielle want to add a girl to the family before too long.

That Oprah Winfrey Guest List in Full

Russell & Oprah sailing today on Sydney Harbour

She seems to have swept the nation of their feet-Oprah Winfrey's tour Down Under is generating the sort of excitement last seen when Princess Diana made her last public appearance in 1996.

As the Social Shuttle exclusively reported, young Bindi Irwin is to be a guest on one of the two Oprah shows to be filmed tomorrow at the Sydney Opera House in front of an invited audience of 7500. The lucky guest's names were drawn out of hat of over 340,000 who applied for the tickets.

Bindi Irwin

Today Oprah sailed on Sydney Harbour with Russell Crowe and wife Danielle. Russell will be a guest on Oprah's show along with Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman , Portia de Rossi and Olivia Newton John. Jon Bon Jovi will perform while John Foreman and his orchestra will play the finale of the 2 shows which are to be screened in the USA in early 2011.

On Thursday Oprah will be a guest at the re-opening party for the $660M re-vamped Star City Casino where Jon Bon Jovi will perform again. He'll be joined on stage by Bob Geldorf.

And Friday-she's off on a private holiday up north with her personal staff . Then we have to hope that amongst the 8% of Americans who have passports, some watch Oprah and will buy the expensive travelogue they see !

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Shari-Lee & pal Lizzie Buttrose

Appearing in the NSW Supreme Court today-Shari Lee Hitchcock who is demanding a bigger share of the estate of the late billionaire Dick Pratt. 

Dick Pratt

Shari Lee, whose 12 year old daughter Paula was fathered by Pratt is suing his widow Jeanne Pratt and the Pratt estate for a greater share.  Paula was left a magnificent beach side house in Watson's Bay and a farm on the NSW south coast. There are also 4 properties in dispute that appear to be held by  a maze of Pratt corporations: a multi million dollar Quay Apartmen,t  2 country properties and a paper mill in Tumut. 

Despite daughter Paula also receiving $20M in cash both she and her mother claim they weren't left enough to live on  by the late cardboard king. Dick Pratt died of cancer in 2009 leaving an estate valued at nearly $6B.

Oprah's Tour- Bigger Than Ben Hur



Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch



Not content with recording several shows at the Sydney Opera House  and taking the country by storm, Oprah Winfrey and her 300 American pals being bussed into town by John Travolta will also be the honoured guests at a concert to re-launch the Star City Casino on December 15th which will headline a number of international acts.

Jon Bon Jovi, U2 and Bob Geldorf will perform in a private concert for 1500 invited guests that will include Winfrey, Cate Blanchett, Nicolle Kidman and Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman, Lachlan Murdoch and wife Sarah and James and Ercia Packer.

When Star City originally opened around 15 years ago the opening act was Diana Ross. Now with a an $800 million dollar re-fit, the venue plans to be the premier gambling saloon in the Southern Hemisphere.

UK Daily Mail on the ball again ! Well almost.

10 days after the Social Shuttle reported that actress Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are facing a battle with locals over rows of hedges and trees planted on their Bunya Hill property in Sutton Forrest in the Southern Highlands, one of Britain's top selling tabloids the Daily Mail has picked up the tale.

Bunya Hill, a Georgian mansion with 45 hectares of prime cattle land and an equestrian centre built for Lord Augustus Loftus the NSW Governor around 1887 also had a role in World War II. In 1942 it housed 60 English women and their children who had fled Hong Kong before the Japanese invasion. Kidman and Urban purchased it for about $6.5M in 2008 and set about renovating the house and lands.

Set on a hill with commanding views , part of the property runs along side a public road and the owners have bull-dozed a mound the length of the property and planted rows of trees to keep out prying eyes.

tSS correspondent Bill Ranken who owns the magnificent Lochesleigh property nearby that has been in the family for 4 generations (considered the best in the state) has long been talking of the growing grumbles amongst locals who notice the slightest change in the area when "blow-ins", as they call them set about "updating" any one of the graceful houses in the area. Incurring the wrath of long time Southern Highlands locals is considered the kiss of death in one of the most beautiful and graceful countryside areas in Australia. One can't even plant a row of poppies without the blessing of neighbours.

When Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes-who spends many months of the year at her Southern Highlands farm between acting jobs, wanted to erect a garden shed, she sensibly petitioned her neighbours to get their blessing before even contemplating putting plans into the council.

Forget the council chambers who have now taken on the matter, Nicole and Keith need to start baking tarts and cakes and hand delivering them about the area to the crusty faced locals.

## Digital Spy has also picked up the tale.

exclusive :Nicole Kidman wishes the Shuttle a Merry Christmas

Missed by every media outlet , Nicole Kidman was at the Woolworth's Carols in the Domain with assorted Kidman clan members. (naturally-in the VIP section)

Nicole, looking extremely pale, was with her parents Antony and Janelle and her 2 nephews, Hamish and James the sons of sister Antonia. tSS asked the star if she really was planning to quit Sydney and received a wink in reply and an "all the best for the holiday season and have a great new year ". And she thanked tSS for pocketing our camera but was happy to pose with fans. Always the gent, we wished her, Sunday Rose and Keith a Happy Christmas !
Aren't we nice ?

Entertaining the Kidmans and about 50,000 others was the Gondwana National Indigenous Children’s Choir . Leo Sayer, Kate Cerbrano and Ronan Keating,

## a missive arrives from a PR consultant almost instantly with a request we give the Domain carol's get-together it's correct name ie : Woolworth's etc. Always happy to oblige as the funds raised go towards the Salvation Army's Oasis Youth Network. How pleasing to know that the huge profits generated by the monopoly controlled by Woolies and Coles on food supply in Australia is put to some good use.
### another missive arrives objecting to the word "monopoly" . We defer..that should read "near monopoly". Roll on the giant German ALDI cut price supermarkets that are springing up around the land.

#### while we receive many lovely emails from readers this odd one arrived from fawaz2002 :

"I would spit in your face if i saw you...you 38 years old Gay piece shit".

Dear fawaz2002
there is a lovely lady who is into the practice you appear to enjoy-she can be found at http://www.spittingmistress.com/. Tell her I sent you and you could get a discount. And many thanks for the compliment-I am in fact 39 and have been for many years. But you are cruel-is 38 old ?

Nicole snaps

Nicole Kidman has ruffled the feathers of Sydney paparazzi Jamie Fawcett with her announcement that she cannot live in Sydney because of intrusive cameras.

Fawcett has responded calling Kidman a "hypocrite". It's a bit over 12 months since Fawcett faced the Supreme Court after suing the Sydney Morning Herald over alleged defamatory statements written by tSS friend and columnist Annette Sharp. Fawcett lost the case in spectacular fashion despite having an eminent libel barrister and QC on his team.

tSS attended court the day Nicole Kidman gave evidence in the case and our previous doubts about her acting abilities were swept aside as she gave the performance of a lifetime describing the terror of being followed in car chases by Fawcett. tSS has been with Fawcett on these chases and Kidman was correct to some degree but more often than not, the dramas could be avoided if over zealous minders didn't exacerbate the situation. Fawcett is probably one of the more professional snappers in town now that the place is crawling with kids who have purchased a digital camera and still dream of the riches they think can be made from pap snaps.

The problem is that prices for celebrity snaps are falling and the paparazzi -or the annoying bunch of louts that pass for them these days are becoming more obnoxious. Even worse are celebrity minders and PR's who have mistaken them for genuine media snappers who know the rules.

tSS has also worked for Nicole Kidman 3 times -once at her sister's birthday party were we played pool with then husband Tom Cruise for an hour. Leaving the party early to get some pre-arranged street snaps at Kidman's PR's request, we were suddenly abused by minders and nearly tossed beneath a passing car.

Nicole and husband Keith Urban have also encountered drama with the local council in the NSW Southern Highlands were they have been re-furbishing their magnificent country mansion. A bulldozed mound on their land alongside a main road on which they have planted thick foliage to defeat prying camera lens is now a matter of council debate about it's legality.

Nor are we fully convinced that Ms Kidman is that terrified of the snappers-or Fawcett for matter. As a passenger in Fawcett's car one day when the paparazzo spotted Tom & Nicole cruising through Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Fawcett decided to follow, within 10 minutes Cruise pulled over , walked back and had an amiable chat with us, requesting that we may like to leave him and his wife alone for the day. We complied.

Unlike others who are intrusive, Fawcett is the photographer no-one really spots, except the cleverest like Kidman. As a former private eye for top gumshoe Frank Monte , Fawcett was noted for his discreet ability to wait for hours upon end to catch his target like errant businessman Alan Bond to plant a summons in their hand. He once travelled to Marbella in Spain hunting for Quintex boss Christopher Skase who was holed up in a luxury villa.

Fawcett correctly guessed that Skase would eventually venture into town and sat in a local cafe for a week until Skase finally walked in to be handed a sheaf of summons with his cappuccino.

Christopher Skase in wheelchair and oxygen mask for his extradition court case in Spain,


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And the news you won't read in the tabloids yet and always in the Social Shuttle first... One of our favourite bars, Kit and Kaboodle in Kings Cross was raided last night by police with their dreaded sniffer dogs with the result, Home and Away star Todd Lasance has been charged with cocaine possession, nipping in the bud his plans to travel this week to Hollywood for a movie audition.

very rich entertainers...

BRW ( Business Review Weekly) Has produced their rich entertainer's list. Topping the pile is band ACDC with a income last year of $105M, displacing last year's top lot, kiddie's band The Wiggles.

The Singing Budgie  Kylie Minogue clocked in at around $47M, Russell Crowe at around $25M, Silverchair at  $4.5M and Keith Urban at $20M whilst wife Nicolle Kidman earned $11M.

Ex-Neighbour's soapie star Jesse Spence garnered a whopping $3.5M following his success in the No 1 US TV show House while new entrants to the list included Geoffrey Rush at $1.5M , Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette.

Author Bryce Courtney still dominates as the wealthiest writer at around $1.5M.

Meanwhile everyone's favourite actor Paul Hogan is still battling with the tax department over his fortune after it was revealed today he had been hauled in by them for a grilling.