When Media Moguls dine

James & Erica (left)

Lachlan & Sarah

Heads turned on Saturday night as one of Australia's richest power couples walked into Surry Hill's Winery Restaurant. It was billionaire James Packer (estimated wealth : $6.1B) and his wife, ex-model Erica.

And the guests who joined them shortly after soon got tongues wagging-Lachlan Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife, the model Sarah Murdoch.

This was a joint celebration.
James and Lachlan both share the 8Th September as their birthday. Which makes them typical Virgoans. In Chinese astrology James is Sheep. Sheep are often into new age philosophies.

Perhaps that explains the young Packer's interest in Scientology which movie star and good friend Tom Cruise introduced him to. ( Cruise phoned Packer at the restaurant to wish him all the best)

Sheep can be generous in love. Former wife Jodhi Meares could probably attest to that. It's rumoured she picked up $15M in her divorce from James plus a house and another for her mother.
Ex fiancee Kate Fisher is said to have got a $3M parting gift plus a Bondi apartment.

When James and Kate married they did it in style on the French Rivera at Hotel du Cap - Eden Roc . 100 guests were flown from Australia first class and the 2 honeymooned on the Mediterranean in the Packer's luxurious former ice-breaker, the Arctic P. ( joined by Cruise and Katie Holmes).

Sheep aren't the best in business. Possibly why Packer has dropped a billion since his father Kerrie left him the biggest inheritance in Australian history in 2005.

Lachlan Murdoch is a Pig or Boar in Chinese astrology. Pigs are nice to a fault and possess impeccable manners and taste. They delight in finery and riches. Lachlan fits this to a tee. He recently paid a record $23M for the former French Consulate in Bellevue Hill which came with tennis courts, swimming pool, sculptured lawns, 8 bedrooms and magnificent harbour views. It's also a stone's throw from his good sheep mate Jame's Belleveue Hill compound.

Pigs are so pure they cannot see bad in anyone. James and Lachlan took a pasting in their joint One-Tel venture losing around $300M of their respective father's money when they hung on every word from their former school mate Jodee Rich (pictured left with James & Lachlan) who convinced them it was a great investment.

When Lachlan was CEO of his father's Australian News Corporation he used to walk around the various newspapers enquiring after just about everyone's health. Old timers said he was too soft.

What do the rich give each other on their birthdays?. We aren't sure but Lachlan came bearing Cartier carrier bags for James !
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Following our report that Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer (plus kids) viewed a Seven Shillings Beach house (right) last week, the 1950's style house sold for $19M on the weekend at auction.

The property was sold by cardboard packing industry heir Nigel Butler who prefers surfing most days rather than high finance and business. Although the house is rather run down it does have exclusive access to the beach and a sensational view to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. No news yet on whether the Crowe family will be moving in.

Murdoch's manipulated snap

Phones have been running hot since tSS attended Graeme Goldberg's Dee Bee's party in Double Bay on Tuesday night.

Media outlets are desperate to lay their hands on a photograph of cricketing great Glenn McGrath and his new girlfriend, Italian Sara Leonardi who were sitting quietly chatting at the restaurant.

The Daily Telegraph has run a front page snap today that is photoshopped to place the 2 closer together (right). The original is on the left.

Woman's Day is already spruiking a story for the next issue on their website but showing a much more honest version of the pair as they were seated on opposite sides of the table (below).
Where does that leave Murdoch son-in-law Mathew Freud who made the recent bizarre claim in the New York Times that he and several Murdoch family members were "appalled" by Rupert's Fox News in the USA ?.

Freud, a spin doctor for products like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Birdseye Peas and Nike says this on his Freud Communication's website :

"We get frustrated by our industry’s reputation. Ever been over-promised & underwhelmed? Thought so. We have a unique solution to the problem. TELL CLIENTS THE TRUTH. Is honesty always easy? No, but we believe that in the long-term you’ll respect us for it. We’ll get to make one kind of promise, the kind that doesn’t get broken…We believe that honesty earns trust."

Perhaps Mathew can have a quiet word with his wife's father and remind him of the Australian Journalists Association Code of Ethics and in particular this one:
9. Present pictures and sound which are true and accurate. Any manipulation likely to mislead should be disclosed.
Clearly a case for the PhotoshopDisasters blogspot.

Batty Lord Departs

British Joker

And so we bid a sad farewell to one of the most amusing visitors to this land in the last year, Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley.

The Shuttle was delighted to meet the charming peer at a small farewell drinks party recently where he illuminated us on the latest quest for world domination via the very dodgy proposition that the world's climate is rapidly about to turn upon man and seek revenge for our unthinking decimation of Mother Nature's natural recourses.

"It's all a plot" he says "and just the new face of the extreme left who have found a new way for world domination". 

Monkton put up finance for the popular film feature fantasy  The Great Global Warming Swindle. (the Great Rock' N' Roll Swindle with the Sex Pistols was more fun) and says US President Barack Obama plans to cede US sovereignty to a newly created world government.

Many of these pearls of wisdom were delivered on the most insane TV station in the world-Fox News in the USA via the wacky host Glenn Beck. (Even Fox boss Rupert Murdoch is expressing doubts about Beck's delivery but that is possibly more to do with advertisers fleeing from his show.) Needless to say, the venerable Lord found a willing listener at the home of Australia's radio king Alan Jones who has taken up the cause with gusto.

The Shuttle's probing inquiry to his Lordship never received a full answer-he was pulled away to meet other less troublesome guests. If, as he claims. global warming is part of a communist inspired plot to destroy manufacturing which they hate, how does he explain the USSR's extraordinary surge forward in the early part of the 20th century when Russia went from a feudal society to a mechanized miracle in a few short decades?. It's something we will need to ponder on our own. In the past Lord Monkton has announced that AIDs sufferers should be isolated on an island and that he, as adviser to PM Margaret Thatcher, helped win the Falklands War.

British Aussie joker

Still, as one comedian departs, we welcome the newest Aussie citizen to our shores-Ben Elton.

PS: Today, federal Climate Minister and proud lesbian Penny Wong MP has announced that airports and a few thousand houses in Sydney will be underwater within 50 years as seas rise. 

Now you know why Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch purchased the cities most expensive mansion on the tallest hill in the eastern suburbs.