Snapped !

 Out and about with our Box Brownie:

13 year old Robert Irwin (son of Steve) looks like becoming a regular on the US Tonight Show as he wows 40 million viewers and Jimmy Fallon

Our favorite snap from The Logies tonight : Kerri-Anne Kennerley with French chef Clare de Lune (Clare is the one on the right)

Spotted at Ottos in Woolloomoloo on Saturday: noted barrister & film-maker Charles Waterstreet with Germaine Greer

OK for some: when ace PR agent Judi Hausmann entertains at home she gets chef Marco Pierre White to whip up dinner while hospitality guru Mandy Foley supervises.

Peas in a Pod : Robert Irwin (left) & his late dad Steve Irwin on the right. Both at age 13!

Hello Sailor at the Wharf4Ward

Natalie Bassingthwaighte & hubby Cameron McGlinchey  plus Hamish & Andy or Ham for short                 

Kerri-Anne Kennerley channels her inner Big Bird in bright yellow while James Tobin waves

Ronan Keating with Storm Uechtritz plus X-Factor's Jai Waetford

 Sony Foundation's biggest annual fundraiser, Wharf4Ward, went off with an expected bang at Woolloomooloo Wharf and raised a whopping $880,000 for the Sony Foundation's national youth cancer program, You Can.

Held across all six top restaurants at the Finger Wharf in Woolloomool- Otto, Chinadoll, Kingsleys, Criniti's, Manta and AKI's — Wharf4Ward 2014 with a nautical theme proved to be a spectacular afternoon.
Sony Music artists joined personalities from TV networks Seven, Nine and Ten at what is shaping up to be the social event of the year - and there can't be anyone who has not been touched by cancer either via a friend or family member.

You Can is establishing specialised youth cancer centres around Australia for 16-25 year olds with cancer, who are currently falling through the gaps in our health care system.
Australia's first You Can Centre opened in Perth in May 2013, with a $1.8 million donation from Sony Foundation, and a second is currently under construction at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

And top entertainment for the day included Human Nature and X-Factor winner Dami Im with the Royal Australian Navy Band.
And a fashion note - surely it's time Australian blokes dressed in pastel light suits and ditched those heavy black numbers especially on a glorious summer day


 left : Sam Armytage looking very summery
 

Here's young Jai Waetford interviewing celebs!

Meow Mix :" Vagina Like a Force Field"

World War 3 has broken out between 2 of Sydney's leading ladies of the media.
 In one corner is perennial TV star Kerri-Anne Kennerley and squaring up to KAK is News Ltd columnist Annette Sharp (right)  in the Daily Telegraph.                 

In a piece titled "IT'S a terrible thing to grow old in television '  Sharp has hauled Kennerley over the coals for calling her "anti-woman' in an interview in the coming August edition of the Australian Women's Weekly.  
Sharp, who was once challenged to a bike ride around Sydney by Russell Crowe had already fired a few shots at Kerri-Anne who will be 60 this year in this article about the Logie Awards : 50-somethings used the Logies to remind TV their assets are bountiful. She implies Kennerley had to "move heaven and earth " to score a ticket to the gala TV awards now that she is "out of contract".

Kerri-Anne was dropped from her morning TV show in 2011 after decades at the Nine Network, ironically where Sharp was once in charge of publicity. In 2003 at a gala party at the Nine studios to celebrate 70 years of publishing the Women's Weekly, Kerri-Anne was seated at the table ( a guide to your status at the network)  next to Nine supremo  Kerry Packer .
 

Kerri-Anne & John at the Pol Roger Champagne dinner.

Since Nine dropped her chat show Kerri-Anne has been signed by Kerry Stoke's Seven Network and performed on Dancing With The Stars last year and it's rumoured she may front an interview programme for Seven although Sharp infers that project may not be as solid as Kennerely believes.

Whatever the outcome of this spat, Kerri-Anne is still a popular party-goer and fixture on the social circuit. She attended Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby premier last week and earlier was at an exclusive dinner at Chiswick Gardens for Pol Roger champagne as our snaps show. It's not like Kerri-Anne is short of money either or needs the work. 
Toy train lover hubby John Kennerely was one of the brains behind Britain's Littlewoods Pools and made a fortune. The pair have recently moved from a palatial Rose Bay home to trendy Woolahra where John has extended his train set (he has hand built a reproduction of Shrewsbury Station) into the garden.
 At Chiswick Kerri-Anne showed off a new pair of stilettos she had picked up in Rodeo Drive where the pair had just holidayed for a fortnight. This looks like a bunfight that may run and run.
                                                                  

Russell Crowe & Annette Sharp

Perhaps the last word should go to top New York publicist Kelly Cutrone who had a spat in 2011 with Sharp's Daily Telegraph colleague Ros Reines who had a few digs at Cutrone's client Rupert Noffs who is cutting a swathe through New York and the Hamptons under Kelly's well connected wing.  Reines savaged Noffs calling him a social climber and for good measure called Cutrone's Sydney launch of Noff's Gideon Shoe store "tragic" and accused Kelly of "creating mayhem" during her Sydney visit.
Cutrone responded in this Sydney Morning Herald profile of Noffs this March :
"What do I care? Oh, wow, I care if some gossip columnist in f...ing Sydney, Australia hates me? It's like a mosquito in my world." Ouch !. What fun. Just in time to brighten up these foggy Autumn days.

Winning lines : Annette Sharp : "One should not brandish a vagina like a force field and expect a torrent of fawning, hyper-ventilating flattery in return." Superb !

In Vogue

Kirstie Clements joined Vogue 25 years ago in a position where so many begin : as a receptionist. Until mid 2012 she had been editor for a decade until one day last year she was shown the door.

Mark Coppelson,Deborah Thomas & son Oscar

Kirstie was a regular sight around Sydney & Melbourne and attended the New York, Paris and London fashion shows. When she wasn't hobnobbing with Valentino or jotting down fashion tips from Karl Largerfeld she was deep in conversation with Anna Wintour.

 As you can imagine, she has a tale to tell and her biography of that era : The Vogue Factor has just been published. The Shuttle has now spotted 3 people reading it on buses and the underground. The book's blurb says : (The Vogue Factor ).. is an insider's account of the beauty and fashion industry, the truth about starving models, the glitz and glamour of the business, and how current media regimes are killing off the fashion bible.

We've read 4 chapters and have to agree-it's rivetting and at the launch party, (the book was launched by Deborah Thomas) some of Australia's most powerful fashionistas turned up to pay tribute to Kirstie- with one  GQ editor cutting his Bali holiday short to attend.

Supporting their mum: Kirstie's sons Sam & Joe

Robyn Holt, Grant Pierce,Nancy Pilcher

Debbie Coffey & Kerri-Anne Kennerley

Kirstie with Cate Blanchett

                        

O What A Bar

Michael Moore & wife Angela

 left  Kerri Anne Kennerley & Jane Ferguson tweeted friends about the O Bar.

Top chef Michael Moore has launched his new venue, the O Bar & Restaurant on the 47th floor of Australia Square.

singer Ivor Davies partying with pals at O Bar

And what a sensational place this is with spectacular views over the Sydney skyline. Not only that, the outer circle of the O Bar revolves a full 360 degrees -ever so slowly-something that only dawned on the Shuttle after the second cocktail when we noticed the Sydney Tower had disappeared and was replaced by the Prudential building with the Harbour Bridge slowly coming into view!

Around 300 guests gathered on Wednesday night to celebrate Michael's new venture and the positive mood of the party indicates O Bar will be a major success. This landmark building already has super smooth elevators that get  you to the top very quickly but even they are being up-graded. As it was a warm Spring type evening the courtyard of the Square was packed so by Summer we predict hundreds will be taking those lifts upwards.

left : X Factor favourite Bella Hunter & top model Michelle Walsh

Some of the nibbles at the opening party were from the Michael's local seafood , seasonal produce and healthy menu : quinoa crusted crab and chickpea cakes with lemon yoghurt, buttermilk organic chicken with buckwheat crust and apricot mustard and kingfish pastrami with coriander, citrus and cumin. Yum.    Check out the food and drinks menu at the new O Bar website.

Looking At Jedward's Crotch(s)

Who could forget their appearances on Britain's Got Talent, as much as we tried. The god awful Jedward, John and Edward the Irish twins who sang out of tune, danced awkwardly like marionettes and basically were just plain bad.

They've had the last laugh of course and have gone on to make millions with the help of Louis Walsh who recognises a money spinner when he sees two. And they really are quite likable in a cringe worthy way.

Now pop impresario Simon Napier-Bell has weighed into the debate with a look at Jedward's trousers, on the outside but with a few comments on what may lay within.

Napier-Bell  has launched many show biz acts in his day including some who have gone on to become legends. Like Marc Bolan and T-Rex and Wham with superstar George Michael.

He also wrote a few songs-one You Don't Have To Say You Love Me was a mega hit for Dusty Springfield and Elvis Presley and which along with Big Spender is still a favourite of drag queens the world over (Napier Bell grumbles that he never receives royalties from the drag acts)

His piece on Jedward is for the  Huffington Post and he descibes them as like "asexual Teddy bears"and gives us an amazing insight into acceptable trouser crotch levels and heights as seen in the world of rock and pop. Not unlike Vogue's Anna Wintour issuing a decree on hem levels. It should  become required reading for anyone intent on cracking Britain's Got Talent or X Factor and as Napier-Bell is in constant demand to judge pop talent quests around the world he probably knows what he is talking about.

Regular Shuttle readers may re-call we acted as a bit of a host when Simon Napier Bell visited Sydney in 2009 and ferried him to and fro to various media interviews.

Simon Napier-Bell

 One, with top TV daytime host Kerri Anne Kennerley left her reeling when she asked him what was  most outrageous thing that happened in the world of rock management and he replied-"possibly when David Bowie said he would let me  f*ck him if I would manage him". Fortunately for Napier Bell he didn't take Bowie up on the offer particularly as at the time the Thin White Duke was notable for his rotting green teeth.

Napier-Bell spends most of time commuting between a sumptuous villa in Thailand and the UK and USA where he hosts a radio show and lectures while writing some best selling books in his spare time.

KAK- shocked

His Black Vinyl White Powder is considered the definitive history of rock and pop from the 60s to the 90's and was required reading on the British school curriculum.

I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch is a rollicking read about his adventures as he attempts to (successfully) negotiate with Chinese party officials to have Wham as the first ever international pop act to appear in China, nipping in the bud the ambitions of Freddie Mercury and Queen. At the time it was one of the most talked about events on the planet.

Simon Napier-Bell is writing regular features for the Huffington Post which can be read here.
 At Simon's website you can find more about his books.
Here is Elvis with You Don't Have To Say You Love Me :

The Streets Ran Red With Blood

It was the 1920s and Sydney was dominated by two rival crime queens who presided over vicious gangs and stand over men. Between them they controlled prostitution, the booming cocaine and heroin trade and dozens of inner city sly grog shops.

Matilda 'Tilly' Devine

It earned Sydney an international moniker as the "Chicago of the South Pacific"


Tilly Devine, a tough Cockney was known as the Queen of Woolloomooloo and her deadly rival Kate Leigh, a former country convent girl, was the Queen of Surry Hills. Both lived to a ripe old age with the law only ever catching up to them for minor crimes.

A state government law dictated severe penalties for carrying guns so the gangs decided razors were an alternative and they used them with deadly accuracy.

Kate Leigh's 1923 police mug shot.

One night in 1931 in Kellet Street in Kings Cross, up to thirty gangsters battled it out with razors, iron bars and knuckle dusters and blood literally flowed in the gutters. Local police sensibly never dared enter the fray while many detectives were on the payroll of the two crime queens.

 A small club Gastro Park, backing onto Kellet Street was the venue on Thursday night where the NINE network launched the fourth series in the hugely successful crime films based on real life

Chelsie Preston Crayford and Danielle Cormack

Underbelly: Razor, produced by Screentime, will screen on Sunday 21 August at 8.30pm and it's back to the future with the series set in the roaring twenties. In the lead roles Chelsie Preston Crayford as Tilly Devine and Danielle Cormack as Kate Leigh.

 Legend goes that Sydney had become so corrupted by the end of the era that it took until the late 1990s for police corruption to be finally winkled out when the NSW government hired Commander Peter Ryan, the former head of London's Police Training Centre in Hendon to clean out the infamous 'white shoe brigade ' as bent coppers had become known.

For his efforts Ryan was pilloried by politicians and shock jocks and eventually left to become the head of security for the Olympic Games.

Fast forward to 2011 and Mark Standen the chief investigator for the secretive and powerful NSW Crime Commission was found guilty last Friday on drug conspiracy charges with an enquiry announced to investigate the Commission itself and it's involvement with leading crime figures.

Not much changes in the Emerald City.

Kerri Anne Kennerley joins Underbelly actors Conrad Colbey & John Batchelor

stars of Underbelly :Anna McGahan & Richard Brancatisano

Kate (left) and Tilly tried reconciliation in 1948. It didn't last. Kate died in 1964 and Tilly in 1970.

Below is the promo film for the series.

The Most Expensive Book In The World

After the ninth guest rocked up in a Ferrari the Shuttle gave up the count.

Shindigs at auto showrooms usually follow a pattern. A mixture of social faces, a show biz star or two and handful of people that buy the product. We just didn't realise how many Sydney-siders can actually afford these Italian toys. Even a pre-loved model will set you back well over a quarter of a million dollars.

Last week's party at Nevile Crichton's Waterloo showrooms was fairly unique. Twenty of the guests were Ferrari drivers.

The bash was to launch the Ferrari Opus limited edition- an 852 page book bound in red leather. There are three versions of the tome-the Enzo, Classic and the piece de resistance-the Cavallino Rampante that comes with the the diamante studded Ferrari signature stallion on it's cover.

The first two can be bought for about $250,000 each while the Cavallino Rampante will be auctioned for charity and is expected to fetch well over a million dollars.

The three books feature some superb photographs from over the years of Ferrari's racing history or appearances in advertisements and movies and lots of snaps of the legendary Enzo Ferrari . His office at the Ferrari headquarters in Italy is untouched and remains just as it was when he passed away in 1988 as an homage to the great auto designer.

Kerri Anne Kennerley was on hand to pose with the book and there's one Ferrari Opus book for every country.

Not sure how that will go down in Botswana but it should be a hit in the Middle East. The ultimate coffee table book for the Sheik who has everything.

hack-watch : a skeptic in our midst..

Michael Peschardt, the highly likable BBC Australian based correspondent has outed himself as climate change skeptic.

Peschardt was appearing this morning on Kerri-Anne Kennerley's Morning Show during a segment where various journalists comment on newspaper headlines and expressed his view of Opposition Leader (see below) Malcolm Turnbull's successful negotiations with the government on climate change.

Peschardt who originally came to Oz to cover Alan Bond America's Cup bid, and never left, pondered why local politicians should be rushing in so soon before the Copenhagen climate change meeting this month (can't have Aussies making independent decisions !) and the dubious claim this week in the British media that researchers had "massaged" figures despite those researchers claims that hacked emails were being taken out of context.

But as fellow panelist Julie McCrossin-broadcaster, comedian, happy lesbian and journalist said :"now he's in trouble-he's quoting English newspapers "!
                                       ****************************
Earth to Fairfax Newspapers : today is Wednesday 25th November, always has been and always will be on the same day.
Not as your first edition announced this morning as it thudded on the doorstep :Thursday 26th November.

(The fact that dozens of sub-editors have been laid off and standards are falling is entirely co-incidental. )