Several loyal readers doubted Whisper's tale that they encountered a very young James Murdoch asleep at a party at the home of the late Lady Mary Fairfax, Fairwater in Sydney's Double Bay.
But it's true and we now show a pic we snapped at the event.
From left to right is billionaire James, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Primrose Dunlop and well known News Ltd photographer Frank Viola.
Young James was just 15 a the time and doing "work experience" on his father's newspaper TheSunday Telegraph and accompanied the other two to Lady Mary's. At the time Primrose was writing a social column for the newspaper.
We told how Primrose met the Qantas Trolley Dolly and Egyptian royal Prince Lorenzo Giustinian at the shindig.
Often known as Prince Montesini, Lorenzo says his title is a very old one from the Ottoman Empire.
Sometime later the pair decided to get married and organised their nuptials to be held in Venice as half of Sydney and Melbourne's high society travelled to the canal city for the wedding.
Alas, Prince Lorenzo got cold feet and decamped the night before they were to be married and ran off with his best man Richard Straub while assorted media searched Europe looking for the errant bridegroom.
Meanwhile Primrose, heiress to a considerable stockbroking fortune in Melbourne nabbed a European noble and is now known as Countess Zofia Krasicki v Siecin.
The recent reports that Fairwater, the former home of the late Lady Mary Fairfax has sold for a whopping $100M brings to mind a chat that Whispers once had at Fairwater with Lady Mary, who died in 2017, and the famous "spoon bender" Uri Geller.
Whispers arrived very early for a gala charity ball to be held in a marquee in the garden at the Fairwater mansion. Arriving minutes later and also early was Geller who was in town at the time.
Connections: Uri with Theresa May
We started to chat as Uri grilled Whispers on who the guests would be for the night- the usual shakers & movers of Sydney society. Soon Lady Mary joined us and during the conversation as Uri asked Mary about the history of Fairwater, she commented that she had left the property to the National Trust with a provision that her staff were entitled to live there for the rest of their lives. It was the second time we had heard this from Lady Mary.
But anyone can change their mind and, obviously she did as Fairwater was sold recently to a tech billionaire making it the most valuable house in Australia.
# As the night progressed Lady Mary sent her loyal butler to retrieve some silver forks and spoons from her collection which Geller proceeded to bend for the 200 guest's delight- and in front of Whispers who was no further than 2 feet from the man. Uri also commented that the guests may find strange things happen with their personal items.
The lady who accompanied Whispers to the function, a writer for the National Enquirer found her late mother's watch, a sentimental item she always carried in her handbag but which had never worked, started ticking. She also found an eye-brow pencil in her make-up bag (branded "ESP") had split down the middle. Spooky !.
A giant (bent) spoon outside Geller's new museum in Israel
The local manager of the French champagne company Veuve Clicquot found his car keys had twisted completely out of shape and he had to catch a taxi home. Likewise a well known hairdresser who accompanied Whispers and our date up the long Fairwater driveway while leaving the party commented that Geller, as he passed him on the way out had tapped his shoulder. Reaching into his pocket to get his car keys- he found them twisted beyond recognition. We report- you decide!.
Uri Geller has moved from the UK to Israel where he now lives. He is opening a museum in Old Jaffa in a splendid building which will house his vast collection of items including his amazing car covered in bent spoons and forks. Is Lady Mary Fairfax's cutlery among them?
# Uri thanks Lady Mary Fairfax in the forewood of his latest book.
She is probably the last of an era. Lady Mary Fairfax who died on Monday at age 95 was farewelled today at a service at the church of choice in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, St Marks in Darling Point. Lady Mary was the second wife of Sir Warwick Fairfax, the heir to the Fairfax publishing empire which at it's peak published the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne regarded as two of the great broadsheets of the world. Whispers attended numerous parties at Mary's Darling Point pile Fairwater. Fairwater has been left in trust to the National Trust with the stipulation her loyal staff live there until they too pass on. Indeed we also spent a week at Lady Mary's New York penthouse on top the Pierre Hotel which was once the most expensive apartment in the world and which had it's own full sized ballroom. Mary wasn't there at the time but she arranged for her loyal chauffeur and his wife to host us.
Lady Mary's charity parties were the stuff of legend with guests like Prince Edward and Albert, Prince of Monaco ( Lady Mary was the Honorary Consul for Monaco) hosted in a giant marquee in her garden that backed on to Sydney Harbour.
With great style, Mary would invite selected media (like Moi) and we would be treated as equal guests, usually joining a line-up with her staff to be introduced to the royal guest of the evening. In a way it summed up not just Lady Mary's exquisite manners but the way she treated all people of varying backgrounds equally. Having risen to such great heights and privilege, Lady Fairfax devoted her life to charitable causes for the disadvantaged.
At one of Mary's parties we attended spoon bender Uri Geller was the star guest, Mary sent her butler to retrieve some of her silver cutlery which Geller proceeded to bend while dozens of guests found keys in their pocket bent out of shape or watches stopped or started. One guest, the representative of a French champagne company spent the night sleeping in his car when he found his car & house keys twisted out of shape.
Party guests: Albert of Monaco* Prince Edward, Uri Geller * James Murdoch
Pals: Ron & Nancy Reagan, Pope John Paul
When Lady Mary arrived at her New York penthouse just as Whispers was departing, she engaged us in a detailed conversation as to whether she should purchase a new Rolls Royce or a simpler Cadillac in which she was to be driven to Los Angeles (inviting us to accompany her but we had to turn her down as we were traveling on to London). Mary eventually purchased a sparkling new Roller and was duly driven to LA and when she asked her chauffeur to arrange for it to be shipped to Sydney he pointed out it was a left-hand drive:" Perhaps Madam should sell it and buy another one in Sydney". Instead she donated it to a local California charity to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
While in the US Mary would always drop by the White House in Washington to dine with her pals Ronald & Nancy Reagan. As a Catholic convert, they say she had The Pope on speed dial.
At another party at Fairwater Whispers photographed a young lad who had lain down on a sofa and promptly fallen asleep. He turned out to be a 14 year old James Murdoch on work experience for his dad Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph. Mary's family purchased a portrait painting of Lady Mary by Whispers and artist Skid Stuart in 1995. We like to think it may still hang in the drawing room along side her Rodin statue.
Lady Mary Fairfax, born in Poland is survived by her sons Warwick Fairfax , Garth Symonds from an earlier marriage to businessman Cedric Symonds and children Anna Cleary, Charles Fairfax and 12 grandchildren
James Fairfax AC (pictures above left with Edmund Capon), the former chairman of publisher John
Fairfax Ltd, passed away age 83 on Wednesday at his Southern Highlands home Retford
Park in Bowral. James was a great philanthropist and art collector and the son of Sir Warwick Fairfax. In our snap above James donated a substantial body of precious art works of old masters worth then, around $35M to the the NSW Art Gallery.
Barry Humphries at the NSW Art Gallery & one of James' donated works
In 2016 Mr Fairfax bequeathed his Retford Park
homestead, worth around $20 million, to the National
Trust for the Trust to preserve in perpetuity for the local community. For the past few decades Fairfax lived and traveled with his companion Ray Hansen who died in 2015.
When the young Warwick Fairfax Jnr, James half-brother launched his ill-fated move to take back the family business Fairfax Newspapers in the 1980s James recived an estimated $200M. He was a director on the Fairfax board from 1957 until 1987, and chairman from 1977 to 1987.
Spending half the year at a property in the UK, James retired permanently to Bowral in 2003. One of the highlights of the social calendar in his Sydney days was an annual masked drag ball where guests, mostly well heeled bachelors from Sydney and Melbourne competed and spent a small on extravagant gowns. James Fairfax
is survived by step mother Lady Mary Fairfax who like James has bequeathed the family home Fairwater in Double Bay to the National Trust on the proviso all her staff live there for life. James leaves behind two half sisters, Annalise Thomas and Anna Cleary, his
half-brothers, Warwick and Charles Fairfax. Below : Retford Park
Whispers asks this question because of a sudden spike in a story we penned in 2010. It's the tale of how we spotted a 15 year old James Murdoch asleep on a sofa at a party at Lady Mary Fairfax's home Fairwater in Double Bay. At the time Murdoch was accompanying the Sunday Telegraph social writer Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop (pictured right) on 'work experience'. Our spy disguised as a Tiffany's compact in Jerry Hall's handbag and which sends us regular reports on hubby Rupert Murdoch's movements has produced no news about the Murdoch clan that may have inspired over 100,000 readers from the UK to click on the tale in the past few days.
A screenshot of our statistics shows how readers can suddenly flock from a certain country depending on the current post. As an example, when we published the claim that former Sydney and now Los Angeles based private investigator Frank Monte was heading to New York to work on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, readers from the USA flocked to Whispers at the rate of around 40,000 a day. But why an older tale about James Murdoch has suddenly gained new traction is a mystery.
The Keating clan assembled last week at St Patricks Catholic Church in The Rocks to farewell their beloved matriarch Min Keating who died at the grand age of 94. Min was the mother of former Prime Minister Paul Keating and notable businesswoman Anne Keating. Whispers & Min had a long association first formed via our own late mother who was a long time pal of Min's.
In the late 90s Whispers held an exhibition of Warholesque style photographic screen prints on a blustery June night in Kings Cross. It was a huge success with many of the portraits being snapped up by their subjects including Kylie Minogue and Elle McPherson along with Lady Mary Fairfax's daughter Anna and brother Charles purchasing a picture of Lady Mary for the family art collection.
Unashamedly influenced by Andy Warhol (he was an old friend) the famed New York society photographer Patrick McMullan who had two regular social pages on Warhol's Interview Magazine flew out for the opening night of the exhibition. Patrick was chuffed to meet members of Sydney society including Lady Sonia McMahon and Min Keating who was pleased to see a portrait of her son Paul in the exhibition. As we all dined later in a nearby restaurant Min finally left at around 2am.
McMullan was startled to receive a rather frantic phone call from Min at his hotel at 7am the next morning. Min had left her raincoat at the restaurant but it was a very special one- purchased by son Paul on one of his Prime Ministerial trips to the UK. "I dined out on this for weeks to come when I got back to New York" said Patrick later. " Having the PM's mum telephone is like having the US presidents mum on the blower.".
But what has he done with those photos from the night?, Somewhere in his extensive archive is a series of pics taken after Min left the dinner, of each of the guests parading in Min Keating's fetching leopard print raincoat, including Lady Sonia McMahon! " I seriously though of holding an exhibition in New York titled The Prime Minister's Mother's Raincoat" said McMullan. "It's the sort of arty thing that goes down well in the Big Apple"
$100 million- that's the going price for a house regarded as one of Sydney's finest, certainly the most expensive. Elaine in Double Bay has been in the Fairfax publishing family since 1891 and is next door to Fairwater still home to Lady Mary Fairfax and which also doubles up as the Monaco Consulate (Lady Mary is Honorary Consul).
The Shuttle has partied at Elaine many times- it was rented for many years by society figure Elizabeth Fox(pictured on the right). One of it's best features is a full sized ball room that opens out onto expansive lawns that lead to a private beach with views across the harbour to the Sydney Opera House. Elaine's current owner John B.Fairfax is selling his home unlike sister-in-law Lady Mary, she has willed Fairwater to the National Trust with the stipulation that her staff live there rent-free for the rest of their lives..
Lady Mary Fairfax's former New York penthouse- the most prized in that city , is up for sale again for $125M US.
The 16 room palace at the top of the Pierre Hotel has sensational 360 degree views of the city and Central park. Lady Mary purchased the pad in 1986 and made a foray into New York society, eventually selling up for $21.5M in 1999, a record then for NY. In typical Fairfax style she departed New York for California in a brand new Rolls Royce purchased for the journey after doctors forbade her from flying for a fortnight after an eye operation.
After telling her trusted chauffeur they would ship the car back to Sydney , when he informed her it was a left hand drive rather than right hand, she said "oh well, we'll find some deserving charity in LA to donate It to and they can auction it".
Mary still lives in her home Fairwater (left ) in Double Bay which is also the Monaco Consulate-Lady Fairfax is the Honorary Consul . She has donated Fairwater to the heritage Trust but all her employees must be allowed to live there for the rest for their lives.
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 ?.
When you are the richest woman in the world and in line to be the richest person on the planet, what's a few million dollars here and there.
Gina Rinehart is buying up property abroad and has purchased 2 luxury apartments for nearly $44M in Singapore's new Seven Palms Sentosa Cove project. That's off-the-plan as they haven't actually been built yet and Gina's taking a bit of risk here with the Asian property market swings of highs and lows putting Dubai's property plunge to shame.
Lady Mary Fairfax
The last Aussie to splash out on property abroad was newspaper heiress Lady Mary Fairfax who bought the 3 storey penthouse in the ritzy Pierre Hotel in New York in 1988 for $12M . That pad came with it's own ballroom, 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms and featured spectacular views over Central Park. Lady Mary had plenty of cash to splash about at the time having picked up at least $250M in the failed takeover bid of Fairfax Newspapers by her son Warwick Fairfax which ended in tears although the extended Fairfax clan became immensely rich in the process.
The Pierre Hotel
The Pierre Ballroom
Fairwater
This month that clan will gather at Lady Mary's Sydney harbour side mansion Fairwater in Double Bay to celebrate her 90th birthday. Fairwater doubles-up as the Monaco Consulate as Lady Mary is the Honorary Consul. When Mary passes the house has been left in trust to the nation although it's stipulated in her will that her retainers, servants, chauffeurs and gardeners can live there rent free for the rest of their lives
As for that Pierre Hotel penthouse, Lady Mary sold it for $21.5M in 1999, a record for a New York apartment.
That record was soon eclipsed by another Aussie newspaper baron Rupert Murdoch who paid $44M for a flat in the Rockefeller Centre but he was soon topped by David Geffen paying $45M for socialite Denise Rich's sumptuous pad on 5th Avenue (the Shuttle partied there for Milton Berle's 80th birthday). All this expensive real estate is put in the shade though by a penthouse that has just gone on the market for a whopping $95M in the mid-town Manhattan City Spire building
Professional sceptic James Randi has issued a press release telling all another of the world's worst keep secrets. At 81 Randi has announced he is gay.
And because no-one picked it up, or at least commented on it before now,
therefore, according to Randi this proves that the paranormal
doesn't exist in any form. There is an interview with Randi here.
On Randi's website (where you can
apply for a special Randi visa card and donate $50 to Randi's
'non-profit' organisation) you can book for something called the
Amazing Meeting, a seminar to be held, suitably, in a casino in Las Vegas in July.
Featured guests include the world's most humourless man Richard
Dawkins , author of the world's most unreadable book The God Delusion,
and the crude and misogynistic illusionists Penn
& Teller amongst a host of others who will get together and discuss
all the things they don't believe in. Religiously. And do a lot of
magic tricks.
Some forums you may not want to miss: Feminist Scepticism – Rebecca Watson hosts an interactive panel
discussion with several activists and experts, covering topics such as
the lack of women at sceptical events and how feminism is compatible
with scepticism.
and one perhaps the former closeted Randi may be at : Scepticism
and Sexuality – Join JREF Challenge Coordinator Alison Smith and a
panel of guests on a journey through the myths of sex that will take
you through misconceptions about STDs, homosexuality, pregnancy, and
even basic anatomy.
If that doesn't grab your fancy try this Learn
to Juggle! – Do you want to learn to juggle? Join famous juggler
Michael Goudeau in a hands-on training session that will leave you
juggling like a pro.
The only person missing in the stellar
line-up is Christopher Hitchens. He'll be at the Sydney Writer's Festival
next month where he plans to tell us how he is going to
arrest Pope Benedict XVI.
Randi has kept some strange
bedfellows, so to speak, over the years. He's a fellow of the Committee
for Sceptical Inquiry, an assorted collection of academics and stage
illusionists along with a host of well known names like science fiction
master Isaac Asimov, Dawkins (has this man ever laughed in his life?) and
Carl Sagan (always suspected of being an Alien). You can even book for lunch with Dawkins and Randi. Or you could stick pins in your eyes. tSS once visited the
late writer Arthur C.Clarke in Sri Lanka when Randi had just departed
after staying with Clarke for 2 weeks. Clarke was considered a sceptic in public but in private
he said he didn't know what to believe in. Although he did say he was
glad to get rid of Randi who had landed on him and kept ogling the
house boys whose warm smiles he mistook for invitations.
The
local version, The Australian Septics boasts the superb writer Phillip
Adams as a member. Adams was head of the Australian Film
Corporation for decades and helped get off the ground the careers of
thespians like Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. He writes a
weekly column for Rupert Murdoch's personal favourite publication the Australian. Adams is also fascinated, in a strange schizophrenic
fashion, with ancient Egyptian culture and in particular their beliefs in the
afterlife. His house and country farm are packed with precious Egyptian
antiquities including a sarcophagus.
charming bender
But back to the old and
gay Randi . He's spent a lot of time attacking spoon bender Uri Geller
over the years. Geller sued Randi once and lost but as part of the
evidence introduced by Geller's lawyers were some phone tapes of some
young lads discussing with Randi various payments they were demanding
in a purported blackmail attempt .The boys claimed they had had sex with Randi. Randi says he was never charged, others say differently but it was in 1968 so who knows ?.
Lady Mary: 'stick it next to the Rodin'
tSS once attended a dinner at
Lady Mary Fairfax's house where Geller was a guest. Lady Mary asked her
butler to fetch the "best family silver" which Geller held aloft and
bent within seconds. He announced that people should check their
pockets and watches. Some watches had stopped, one guest who brought along a watch that had ceased ticking years ago found it had started again and 2 people found their house
keys twisted in strange shapes. If it was a trick we couldn't see it from 3 feet away. Lady Mary had the bent silver with the Fairfax crest, framed and hung next to her Rodin statue.
Later we buttonholed Geller
over drinks. As we pointed out who were the richest people in the
room at his request, we asked the extremely charming bender about his contact with his critic
Randi and he replied-"I'm so sick of that old queen-he never shuts up
about me".
Sorry Mr Randi-everyone's known for decades.It isn't news to us.
A funny little film : the late TV host Don Lane was a believer in
Spiritualism and put the famous British medium Doris Stokes on the
map-he throws a tantrum and tells James Randi to get off the set of his show.
Pictured left: James Murdoch, Primrose Dunlop and News Ltd snapper Frank Viola.
Calling in for a brief visit to artist Mary Shackman's exhibition at the Charles Hewitt Gallery was our favourite Egyptian royal, Prince Lorenzo Montesini Giustiniani with the new man in his life, a large handsome fellow Egyptian by the name of Remy.
Prince Lorenzo (right) and Remy
An Alexandrian by birth, Lorenzo heads the Australian Friends of the Alexandrian Library in Egypt. His stylish autobiography MyLife and Other Misdemeanours was released by Penguin in 1999 in which Lorenzo recalled with enormous gusto his early years in Egypt,his arrival in Australia, his military service in Vietnam, and his tumultuous relationship with his late partner Robert Straub along with the events surrounding a certain wedding in Venice.
left at the altar-Pitty Pat
It's 20 years since most of Sydney and Melbourne society travelled en mass to Venice for the nuptials of Lorenzo and Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop, the daughter of establishment figures Sir Ian and Lady Potter. He had the title-she had the cash. A future inheritance estimated then at nearly $200M. Was it love?. Although the 2 had previously met when they both lived in Melbourne it seems love blossomed after a chance meeting at a soiree at Lady Mary Fairfax's home in Darling Point, Fairwater which doubles as the Monaco consulate. Lady Mary has hosted many parties for visiting royalty like Prince Albert of Monaco and the British royals.
Lorenzo was a guest and Pitty Pat was covering the party for the social column she wrote for the Sunday Telegraph. Her newspaper work experience junior for the night was a 15 year old JamesMurdoch , son of Rupert and now boss of the UK News Ltd corporation. While the 2 lovers eyed each other off, young James promptly fell asleep on a sofa on his first night on the job
The wedding was never to be. Lorenzo got cold feet the night before the ceremony and fled for parts unknown with his lover Robert Straub, his best man. The bride was left waiting at the altar. Montesini and Straub had met when they were army conscripts in the Vietnam War and had been together ever since working as Qantas trolley dolly's. Straub passed away about 14 years ago from cancer.
Mary Shackman & Elizabeth Fox
Prince Lorenzo tells tSS plans are well underway after initial teething problems, with a new Hollywood production company to immortalise the events on film. With a script written by award winning writer Louis Nowra who wrote K-19: The Widowmaker, Map of the Human Heartand the much celebrated Cosi, and director Stephan Elliot of Priscilla Queen of The Desert fame.
Lorenzo now travels between Sydney and Alexandria to check on his pet project the Bibliotheca Alexandrina that stands on the spot reputedly where the once famous Royal Library of Alexandria stood during the Ptolemaic dynasty, built in honour of Alexander the Great.
Also at Mary's exhibition was Elizabeth Fox, once labelled as Australia's Secret Weapon during the bid for the 2000 Olympics when she managed to secure the 3 crucial winning bid votes from South America including that of her home country Columbia. She never told us how it was done.
Cracking the so-called social scene isn't as easy as it seems. Talent and beauty is all very well but why not take the fast track and hire a publicist. But not just any PR will do. As one of the richest woman in Australia, Lady Mary Fairfax (right) found when she bought the most expensive apartment in New York in 1990-the penthouse of the Pierre Hotel which came complete with it's own ballroom and 4 amazing terraces overlooking Central Park and the NY skyline.
Lady Mary's Sydney parties were legendary-US presidents and the British Royal family members were regulars. Lady Fairfax is the Honoury Consul for Monaco and her palatial harbourside mansion Fairwater the Consulate with Prince Rainier and Prince Albert dropping in as household guests.
She had all the qualities to crack the New York scene-she is mega-rich, a noted philanthropist, has impeccable credentials and top-notch connections and was a regular guest at the Ronald Reagan White House. But did Lady Mary hire the right PR firm ?. An expensive publicist isn't always the best and in the end you are only as good as your publicist's connections.
Whilst New York's social media was intrigued by the media mogulette from Down Under, she really needed 3 of the most connected PRs in town to infiltrate New York's snooty upper class. The Pierre apartment remained largely empty for years except for the occasional visit from Lady Mary's loyal chauffeur and his wife who acted as a part-time caretakers. In 1999, she sold it for the knock-down price of $21M to a hedge fund manager. She was asking $35M.
*******************
Lady Mary may have done better with New York public relation's expertR.Couri Hay.
Couri Hay is one of Andy Warhol's Factory survivors and a refugee from the legendary nightclub Studio 54 for which he was the publicist and has an amazing handle on the local media from alternative publications to direct lines to the all-powerfulCindy Adams, Richard Johnson, and Michael Musto. Hay is an often featured commentator on diverse TV shows from Geraldo At Large to Larry King Live.
And he has the Hamptons wrapped up. If you can't make it in the Hamptons-forget New York.
clients: the Ritz Carlton Hotel, British Airways, department store Bergdof Goodman, fashion label Fendi, private eye Frank Monte, jewelers Bulgari & Harry Winston, magazine Ocean Drive and the American Ballet Theater.
When the rather splendid Bondi Beach hotel Ravesi- favored base away from home for actors like Keanu Reeves and Terrence Stamp, opened it's new cocktail bar on Thursday night, most eyes seemed to be on the Cockney accented fashion designer Wayne Cooper and his wife Sarah Marsh.
It's less than a year since Cooper was placed on a good behaviour bond in Waverley Court over an incident between he and his then estranged wife Sarah. On Thursday they couldn't have looked happier.or healthier.
Also beaming with good health was actor Steve Bisley and his current partner Amanda Imrie . Bisley will appear in front of a magistrate at the Downing Centre court in December over an alleged fracas between he and estranged wife, publicist Sally Burleigh at their former marital home in Balmain. Sally was last spotted at the Variety Club bash a week ago.
Sarah Marsh & Wayne Cooper at Ravesi's Wine Bar (C)
Ignored by most and dining quietly in a corner were another couple who are enjoying marital bliss with the birth of the third child , David and Anna Cleary.
Anna is the only daughter of Lady Mary Fairfax and heiress to the Fairfax publishing fortune. Like her mother, Anna has become a tireless charity worker and financier husband David told the Shuttle of Anna's plans to bring the all important organizations that deal with the increasing and serious problem of mental health and depression, under one banner. There are already excellent charities like the Black Dog Instituteand Beyond Blue, one headed by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennet which are working away to bring public awareness of depression which is reaching alarming proportions which Anna feels will benefit from greater co-operation.
Fortunately many sporting stars who suffer are now speaking out publicly in attempts to dispel the idea of shame that was once associated with what is, a frequent illness.
Like her mother Lady Mary, Anna likes to take a low key role behind the scenes and put her university education and organizing skills to good use for the benefit of others.
David tells me Lady Mary, now 83 and sadly confined to a wheel chair, is still in good form and in chatty moods, eager to hear the latest as the Fairfax clan meet for lunch on Sundays at the family home Fairwater.
Lady Mary received the ultimate accolade recently when she was featured on the nation's stamps and it's reputed she has given over $15M to charities just in the past 5 years.
It's seems Anna has adopted her mother's motto ; “Touch every life with good.”
Sally Burleigh (right) with broadcaster Chris Smith and his wife at the Variety Club (c)
James Fairfax with NSW Art Gallery director Edmund Capon (c the Shuttle)
The Fairfax family have long dominated the Australian media world with their chain of venerable newspapers-The Age in Melbourne being regarded as one of the great broadsheets of the world. In fact the Fairfaxs had been the longest continuous newspaper owners on the planet.
That came to an end in 1987 when Warwick Fairfax, the youngest child of the late Sir Warwick and Lady Mary Fairfax-fresh from Harvard, launched a bid to completely privatize the publicly listed company. It was however a bonus to leading Fairfax family members who were major shareholders with brother James and mother Lady Marypicking up an estimated $200-$300M each although they lostcontrol of their newspapers for all time. CousinJohn B.Fairfax picked up a sizable fortune as well. 2 years after Warwick's bid the newspaper chain was in receivership but the Fairfaxs were cashed-up.
One old Master inspects another-Barry Humphries at the James Fairfax art launch (c) the Shuttle
In hindsight and with the advent of the internet young Warwick's scheme, roundly criticized at the time as being overly ambitious looks to have been a smart move. Perhaps he knew more than he let on.. James Fairfax has become a leading philanthropist as well as an art collector who continually donates works to the ArtGallery of NSW. To date the gallery has received works by such masters as van Ruisdael, Rubens,Canaletto, Claude, Boucher, Amigoni, Domenico, Tiepolo, van Mieris and drawings by Ingres, Watteau, Fragonard and Greuze.
Now he has announced he will donate his historic Southern Highlands property Redford House-once the home of the Horden department store family,to the National Trust. Warwick will divide his time between a Sydney apartment and houses in London's Mayfair and Devon.
Lady Mary Fairfax is doing likewise with the family seat-the harbourside mansion Fairwater with it's many acres of splendid gardens which also serves as the Monaco Consulate-Lady Mary being the Honorary Consul. Lady Mary also used part of her good fortune to purchase the then most expensive apartment in the world-forking out $34M in 1992 for the top 2 floors of New York's Pierre Hotel which boasts a grand ballroom over looking Central Park. Recently a Saudi prince paid over $120M for the New York digs.
As for cousin John B. Fairfax, things aren't looking rosy. He decided to buy back into the publishing world around 15 years ago with the then successful Rural Printing Press followed by the real estate advertising heavy chain of Courier Newspapers plus a 10% stake in the old family Fairfax Newspapers group.
Things are looking grim as Fairfax Newspapers stumble from woe to woe. Those "rivers of gold" as Kerry Packer once described classified advertising are drying up. Fairfax newspapers are still hugely profitable but board room battles are never-ending, share prices have fallen and John B is reputedly down about $60M and it's rumoured, has recently negotiated a mortgage ( the Fairfaxs never have mortgages) on the magnificent 120 year family home Elaine. right next door to Fairwater and regarded as far grander as it has it's own ballroom.
While Fairwater will end up with the National Trust when Mary leaves this mortal coil-Mary has stipulated each of her faithful retainers live there for the rest of their lives rent free and have the run of the place. She's good to her staff.
Lady Mary, like all the Fairfax family is good to charity and like the family she married into prefers be a low key helper but many a charity fallen on hard times in this difficult financial climate has praise for the dear lady.
Lady Mary, born Jewish, converted to Catholic faith when she married Sir Warwick. Never one to do things lightly, she had herself confirmed by the Pope.
Once in New York Lady Mary contracted an eye ailment and was told on doctor's orders she must not fly for 5 days. Anxious to return to Sydney Mary had her loyal chauffeur and his wife who accompany her everywhere, purchase a new Rolls Royce to drive from NY to LA. "we'll ship it home from there" said Mary. When the driver pointed out that a left hand drive Roller wasn't the best for Oz roads she replied"well we'll just find a nice charity to give it to".
As for young Warwick Fairfax who brought all this about just over 20 years ago?. He lives quietly with his wife and kids in the USA.
## update Monday 28th ; Fairfax chairman Ron Walker-who brought us Melbourne's Grand Prix in partnership with Bernie Ecclestone has agreed to step down today. This is a major triumph for John B.Fairfax who has been demanding his abdication.
Now John B, and son Nicholas Fairfax look set to take leading roles in running Australia's-and the world's-oldest and best chain of newspapers. These chaps have newsprint in their blood. Hopefully they will lead Fairfax Newspapers back to the glory days. They have an advantage-Fairfax media was one of the first to enter the digital age.
