"Poundshop Marilyn"

Ouch!. It's what a British journalist called a celeb who wore the famous Marilyn

Monroe dress to this year's Met Gala. We couldn't possibly comment. Here is the famous frock and MM singing to President JFK.

We reveal identity of Marco's Mystery Blonde !

Marco Pierre White with the glamorous interesting cast of the upcoming Hell's Kitchen

The adverts for the 7 Network's new series of Hell's Kitchen starring celebrity chef Marco Pierre White have been running non-stop. A youngish Marco appears in numerous snaps including one with Gordon Ramsey with the claim that he "made Gordon cry".
 But another snap flashes up with a glamorous blonde giving the handsome (younger) Marco a juicy kiss on the cheeks. 
But all is not what it seems as Whisper's ever eagle eye spotted who that blonde was - the androgynous British singer Marilyn who had a hit song in 1983 called "Calling Your Name". Marilyn- real name Peter Robinson - is well know to Whispers who at one time promoted the then struggling singer.

Along with his close pal Boy George the pair often flopped on Whisper's living room floor at our Notting Hill Mews house after Tuesday's night's legendary Blitz nightclub where kids know as the New Romantics would gather.
Indeed there is a scene in the forthcoming film based on the life of legendary The Who manager Kit  Lambert who also occasionally bedded down on Whisper's living room floor.
At the time Whispers was working on a film being shot at Pinewood Studios called Saturn 3 with famed Hollywood great Kirk Douglas and the late Farah Fawcett Majors. A scene in the Lambert film includes an extraordinary but amusing meeting between Marilyn, Douglas, Lambert and Farah Fawcett Majors in the Mews street at 6 am in the morning.

This wasn't the first encounter with a Hollywood star for Marilyn. Before his recording success, famed actor Jack Nicholson flew Marilyn / Peter - who at the time looked exactly like Marilyn Monroe- to Los Angeles and arrived at a gala show biz party with Marilyn on one arm, and on the other Australian model Linda Kerridge (pictured above left) famous for her Monroe impersonations. As only Nicholson could get away with- a male and female Monroe. Ahhh, the memories.
# Whispers once asked singer Marilyn what his mother thought when he dolled up and left their suburban London home for the evening : "she just cries" he responded.

Kit Lambert                   Kirk Douglas & Farah Fawcett Majors                                   Jack Nicholson

From Nancy Sinatra

We'll have a report soon on the new Marilyn Monroe documentary that has been years in the making and which will present sensational new evidence about her death.

B/W Moment: The Unsung Aussie Orry-Kelly

 The Sydney Film Festival is now in full swing and there is one movie that should not be missed. Produced and directed by Academy Award winner Gillian Armstrong, it is the story of one of Hollywood's most celebrated artistes Orry-Kelly who died in 1964.

Gillian Armstrong

The chances are you have watched a movie where Orry George Kelly-his birth name, designed unforgettable costumes for the most famous legends of the day from Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.  Kelly is also Australia's most prolific Oscar winner having won three for costume design and nominated numerous times.

  Kelly (left) was born in Kiama NSW in 1897 before he embarked for New York in 1923 where he shared an apartment with Cary Grant and then to LA and a Hollywood career. In many ways he is similar to Aussie legends Sir Robert Helpmann and Peter Allen, both born in rural communities but with fathers who actively encouraged them in their pursuit of the arts.

Armstrong's film is titled Women I've Undressed after an unpublished manuscript Kelly wrote which reputedly detailed his affair with movie legend and his former flat mate Cary Grant. 

What do you wear in bed?

It was a question posed To Marilyn Monroe who famously responded "Chanel No 5".
Ten years ago, director Baz Luhrmann made a mini–romance film in the form of a commercial for the perfume starring his pal Nicole Kidman  with Nicole being the kind of woman who would wear Chanel No. 5. Now he has produced another film-commercial starring supermodel Gisele Bündchen (in our pic with Baz) and actor Michiel Huisman from the HBO series Game of Thrones. 

 Titled The One That I Want it's about the 21st-century woman who has it all but draws the line on her career when her marriage is in trouble. But you have to see it for yourself. We were lucky to have New York's top social snapper Patrick McMullan supply a us a few pics from the gala A-list premiere of the film hosted by Karl Largerfield in New York.

After Party

Michelle Leslie,        Meiche Buchan               Martin & Michelle Walsh                 actors Michael Caton & Roy Billing

 

 

 Once the race has been run and you are either a winner or a loser (the Melbourne Cup of course ) you will certainly want to party on.

Late afternoon at the Champagne Bar in Paddington's Bellevue Hotel is the place to gather during the racing season. This year they have opted for Piper Heidsieck which will soothe any shattered nerves or heighten the senses if you won or lost big on the big race. We aren't too sure if Piper was Marilyn Monroe's favourite tipple as the poster says, but it is a favourite of the movie set in Hollywood. And look at who was at the launch party, all manner of exciting people. 

The Bellevue Hotel: 159 Hargrave Street, Paddington NSW 2021 Tel : +61 2 9363 2293

Grin And Bear It!

Robert Redford at Sundance

A BIG THUMBS UP  for actor Nash Edgerton's short film Bear which premiers today at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The Sundance Festival was created in 1978 and the actor Robert Redford is chairman,.

Directed by Edgerton, Bear stars Nash with Teresa Palmer and Warwick Thornton. Below is a clip from the film which was produced by Lauren Edwards and John Polson of Tropfest fame.

Joel & Nash

 Nash Edgerton's credits are possibly longer than his brother and fellow actor Joel Edgerton who has now finished working on The Great Gatsby. Nash has worked as a stunt double in umpteen Aussie productions and on Gatsby, stands in for brother Joel.

### Michelle Williams, the mother Heath Ledger's baby daughter Matilda Rose has been nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the film My Week With Marilyn.

Mardi Gras come-down

 Sunday : Driving down Oxford Street today is like entering a war zone. The trash and litter from the estimated 700, 000 spectators has been collected overnight but the human flotsam and jetsam is everywhere. It's pretty clear thousands of party goers never made it home-they chose to continue the celebrations at the numerous "recovery parties" that can last 2 days.

   Behind all the fabulous colour and movement, inventive costumes and year long planning , there is a serious side to Mardi Gras. While tSS was correct in nearly all predictions-George Michael was there (he gave the parade a plug in his brilliant concert on Thursday night) largely unnoticed in the VIP section, we were wrong in one aspect. There was no tribute to TV star Eddie McGuire.

Olympic ice-skater

AFL footballer

on edit # The person who passed themselves off as a noted gay "activist" to our tSS staffer was just bizarre. Perhaps it was heady excitement of the night.  Our apologies to the 'activist' (what does one call him ?) but imitation is a form of flattery. You are in good company though. Actor Matt Damon has experienced the same recently.

                                                   ****************************

     On the same night at a house in Bellevue Hill, veteran good manners and deportment queen June Dally-Watkins was celebrating her 81st birthday.

      June once almost took Hollywood by storm in the 1950's when she set up business in LA after taking a successful fashion show to the US.

   She set about grooming a host of newly signed starlets, including a young Marilyn Monroe on how to behave at movie premiers, parties and such. Studios sent all their new contracted actresses to Dally-Watkins for mentoring.

   In Rome she met and was wined and dined by Gregory Peck who proposed marriage on a moon-lit night overlooking the Roman Forum. Peck wanted the pair to live in Monte Carlo. Instead she returned home to Sydney to care for her ailing mother and eventually married John Clifford-a dead ringer for Peck. Her Double Bay school still tutors a new breed of nice young gels how to behave correctly in polite society.

opening Pandora's box

 

         Jonathon King & friend in one of his discreet publicity snaps

Britain's most irreverent blogger Madame Arcati who has a habit of getting up the nose of many a tabloid editor for her ability to scoop them, brings news about former pop identity Jonathon King's planned auto-biography.

65 year old King is a British singer, songwriter, TV personality,impresario and writer according to his wikipedia entry (did he write it himself ?)-but it's all true.  His first hit song when he was still a uni-student  "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", in 1965 sold 4 million copies around the world. No mean feat in the days when mass media didn't really exist. This was followed by some weird and wonderful show biz antics with King at times in fright wigs or adopting different personas to flog successful records (records-that's what they were called in those days kids)..who also discovered and produced the ginormous band Genesis , produced the Bay City Rollers and our personal favourite-The Piglets.

One older Shuttler worker here has admitted, somewhat reluctantly, to dancing joyfully to one of King's biggest hits Una Paloma Blanca in the 1980's in an Ibizia disco before it became the gay haven it is today and one could express such inhibitions watched only by puzzled local Spanish waiters.

The UK Independent's columnist Pandora ( days after Arcati broke the tale) has labeled King's book as  " his latest bid for attention". A somewhat unusual claim from a newspaper regarded as a more intellectual tabloid but which still carries tales of the earth shattering news of the marriage break-up of 2 people called Jordon and Peter Andre. No, we aren't to sure who Peter and Jordon are either but Britain is obsessed with them since the demise of reality star Jade Goody.

They seem a nice pair but what they actually do is a mystery although older Shuttlers may re-call there was a mildly successful singer by the name of Peter Andre in Sydney who left for the UK years ago. That's to the land where attention seeking has become an art form and Britain's media is only too happy to assist.

King ran foul of the law and was a guest at Her Majesty's Pleasure over accusations of underage sex (the law in the UK has since lowered the legal age to 16) but says on his website he has an appeal before the European Court which he is confident of winning after discovering proof he wasn't in the UK at the times the offenses are said to have happened.

King has probably confused many of Britain's sex obsessed tabloids. Rather than slink out of prison as expected, coat over head into a waiting car to speed off-he walked out broadly smiling , thumbs high in a victory stance. Such antics just puzzle the British media who demand everyone express permanent shame. Regular visitors to London will notice most pedestrians comply.

For Jonathon King's own view of his trial, a must see is his movie Vile Pervert where King plays all roles. It is quite hilarious.

## The Shuttle hopes King's book is as fascinating as 'Brando Unzipped', the biography of the late Marlon Brando by a long-time associate Darwin Porter (a relative of Brando's pal Tennessee Williams) which revealed tales of Brando's insatiable sexual appetite and his propensity to star-f**k every Hollywood identity from Marilyn Monroe , Tallulah Bankhead, Rock Hudson, Cary Grant and James Dean (who apparently liked his nipples twisted and ciggies stubbed out on his chest with Brando happy to oblige). One story told of Brando boasting about Marlene Deitrich's oral skills and how she would helpfully get down on her knees and scrub the kitchen floor afterwards ( well, she was a Virgo and that sounds about right).

Plus the news that far from being "working class" as Brando like to portray himself-he was from a wealthy middle-class family and was expelled from military school after organizing an orgy with fellow students.

   

            Madame Arcarti                                                               a youthful Marlon Brando

## Speaking of Tennessee Williams, the Shuttle attended the preview last night of Liv Ullman's STC production of "A Streetcar named Desire" and will post a longer review later-after we attend the official opening night on Saturday. Needless to say, Cate Blanchett is simply amazing as Blanche Du Bois which should please Cate's husband Andrew Upton who we encountered before the play looking very nervous and frantically texting on his mobile phone.

That was until Cate suffered an accident when a scene where Stanley throws a radio at Blanche. The prop grazed Cate as she fell on all fours. Audience members thought it was all part of the show but when Cate disappeared off stage, the stage manager cut short the performance. Cate's fine except for a small nick on the forehead and was back performing tonight-just one of the hitches that need to be ironed out before the gala premier later this week.