That Time of the Year Again

We mean it's time for those Autumn Winter fashion shows at David Jones. We love these shindigs and not just because of the copious amounts of French champagne (OK it helps) and great nibbles but..the fashion!. It's all about fashion!
VIP guests (that's us)  entered the event space via a subway tunnel, which opened out onto an urban jungle complete with a live graffiti artist, a paved runway reminiscent of Melbourne city laneways, vivid LED street-style lighting, and a live band of drummers. DJs urged us to dance to our own beat. (we always do but we'll dance to anyone's beat if the champers flows).
Designers on show included Akira, Bianca Spender, Camilla and Marc, Calibre, Carla Zampatti,  Ginger & Smart,Josh Goot, Nicola Finetti and the wonderfully named  The Upside and Vanishing Elephant. Plus tennis ace Mark Philippoussis debuted his collection of sportswear Phl!.

Mark Philippoussis & Silvana Lovin * Richard Roxburgh & Silvia Colloca * Kerri-Anne Kennerley * Luke Sales & Anna Plunkett

Megan Gale    * Jon Stevens & Jodhi Meares       *       Jessica Gomes    *       Tom Williams & Rachel Gilbert

Restaurant News

 Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere is abuzz with news of a scathing review of top chef Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill in Perth.
Titled :  "your $326 dinner was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten' our reviewer minces no words:
" From the moment I stepped through your ten-foot-high Japanese-influenced doors and into your airline hangar dining hall, the experience was the most joyless I have ever had involving food. I’m not just talking about the high end stuff. I’m talking about $8.50 kebabs ordered by the roadside at three in the morning after nights out with the lads. I’m talking about failed experiments cooking alone when too drunk to go to the shops. I’m talking about childhood stand-offs with parents ending with me blocking my nose, scarfing the turnip and running from the table crying. Your food was worse, Rockpool Bar and Grill Perth. And you charged me $326."
The blog is authored by someone called  scheissenbedauern ( pictured in his 'selfie')who apparently lives in Brisbane and even that fine city has rankled the poor chap as he explains:
"I recently visited Brisbane for the first time. I never wanted to see Brisbane but got sent for work. I spent the first hour walking around thinking, it’s true, Brisbane sucks. I even wrote some text messages to people. “In Brisbane. It’s everything I expected.”

Read  scheissenbedauern's jottings here. You may also like his other pieces including his lament about supermodel Megan Gale who apparently blocked him on Twitter.
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 In 2010 the Shuttle reported on a ripple of outrage that had run through the Bangkok establishment with the arrival of Australian chef David Thompson  ( pictured above second right) and his Nahm restaurant. "Coals to Newcastle" was the theme, but Thompson has succeeded brilliantly and won over his critics.
Nahm has been named not just in the Best 50 Asian restaurants in the world but is now Number One !
Well we told you so having eaten Thompson's supperb Thai food many times. But don't take our word for it : not only is Thompson Tom Cruise's favourite chef but he also creates banquets for the Thai Royal Family.

Fun On the Runway

David Jones launched their Spring Summer 2013 collection with new Fashion Ambassador Jessica Gomes. With a set of rich white walls, poolside bars, bougainvillea and high shine surfaces DJ's On Seven guests set out on a jet set adventure. Think Slim Aarons, Cap D'Antibes and the Italian Rivera where high fashion meets the clearest of blue skies followed by hot, steamy and decadent Summer nights. Well that's what the press release says. And good luck to them. Here are a few snaps from the evening with guests and models and a couple of bonus backstage snaps of Jessica with Zac & Jordon Stenmark.

Anna Plunkett , Luke Sales, Elizabeth Debicki ,Megan Gale,Gary Bigeni,Suzanne Pritchard, Joh Bailey

Glenn &Sara McGrath, Charlotte Dawson ,Alex Perry, Erika Heynatz, Andrew Kingston,Gai & Robbie Waterhouse

    (photographs : Getty)

Indigenous Wins at ACCTA Awards

It was what the world was screaming out for-another set of film awards !

Miranda Tapsell,Deborah Mailman,Jessica Mauboy                           & the original Sapphires

Host Russell Crowe and Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) President, Geoffrey Rush, were joined on stage by  Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman to honour the year's best achievements in Australian film and television at the 2nd AACTA Awards Ceremony, held at the new The Star Event Centre in Sydney.
 
Since premiering in Cannes in May 2012, the toe-tapping musical drama The Saphirres, about four Aboriginal girls who formed a singing group in the 1960s has picked up awards all over the world and has become box office gold.
 Tonight saw The Sapphires take home six AACTA Awards - Best Film, Best Director (Wayne Blair), Best Lead Actress (Deborah Mailman), Best Lead Actor (Chris O'Dowd), Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Mauboy) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Keith Thompson, Tony Briggs)
 
 The thriller Wish You Were Here won the award for Best Original Screenplay for husband and wife creative team writer/director Kieran Darcy-Smith and writer/actress Felicity Price. Antony Starr also won Best Supporting Actor for his enigmatic performance in Wish You Were Here.

Young German actress, Saskia Rosendahl, received Best Young Actor for her lead performance in the Australian made German language film Lore, directed by Cate Shortland.
A special highlight of tonight's AACTA Awards Ceremony was the presentation of the Byron Kennedy Award to the late filmmaker, animator and artist Sarah Watt (1958 – 2011), accepted on her behalf by her son, Clem McInnes .

Jessica McNamee,          Megan Gale,          Essie Davis     Gemma Arteton,         Brooke Satchwell,    Lucy Durack & 'Taxi'

It was that sort of night !

Russell compared

Hugo was there

Joel Edgerton and new love Lexi Blake

 

Jack Thompson : confirmed luvvie

Introducing The Langham

SYDNEY HAS a new 5 star hotel-The Langham on Kent St in The Rocks. It's actually been there a few years as The Observatory Hotel run by the Orient Express people.

Sarah De Bono

The Shuttle has spent many a pleasant evening there for small shindigs. One for Sarah, Duchess of York and another for the Irish actor Gabriel Byrne who lived there while was he was filming Jindabyne . Keanu Reeves called it home for around six weeks and we once lunched with the late and wonderful British actress Susannah York in the hotel's Galilieo Restaurant.

Langhams are a name-in London and Hong Kong so we expect great things from them. They haven't changed much, just the name at present but it was always a wonderfully elegant old style hotel with superb service and that looks like it will continue. Certainly with their launch party last Wednesday, the future looks cosy. Sydney rock oysters and caviar, grilled duck and other such delicacies all washed down with great lashing of Laurent Perrier dispensed by an army of waiters bearing magnums of the stuff.
Megan Gale says she almost lives in The Langham whilst in Melbourne or London so we trust her word.

 One guest we were eager to meet was the gorgeous songbird Sarah De Bono who was such a success on The Voice. See her video below. Check out the unique staff uniforms :lovely pink Jackie Onassis, Chanel style suits with pearls .And full marks for the little gift as we departed, a bunch of lovely flowers.

Miranda Kerr-It Suits Her

One of the joys of the David Jones department store Autumn/Winter fashion parade-another chance to spot our favourite wife of a Hobbit, Miranda Kerr.  In a Josh Goot suit Miranda shows what the well-dressed business woman will be wearing this year and former DJ's ambassador Megan Gale competes and looks equally as gorgeous, showing us why a million Italian men go crazy when she steps out in Rome. Make-up king Napoleon Perdis helps achieve the look:
 photographs : Getty

Another Day..Another AACTA

a red dog

This is becoming repetitive. Not a week seems to go by without a new film award. Just a few days ago Geoffrey Rush was in Los Angeles helping hand out AACTA gongs to the Gumleaf Mafia and LA locals like Meryl Streep. That was followed by the SAG Awards a few days later.

Cate Blanchett shines

Miranda Kerr

Megan Gale

Last night he looked bright eyed and bushy tailed at the Sydney Opera House handing out more AACTAs to those in the local film industry.
He had some help from colleague Cate Blanchett. Actually that is the Samsung AACTA Awards. It's the re-incarnation of the Australian Film Awards and Samsung have put a hefty sum behind the whole deal hence the media were invited inside to the Opera House instead of being, as is film publicist's wont, bundled into some pen alongside the red carpet out in the elements. So we in the meejah are now very fond of Samsung and almost as happy as actor Simon Baker who keeps popping up on television promoting Samsung products for a reputed $3M a year.

The "Australian equivalent of the Oscars" went off without a hitch and anyone who has done anything in an Aussie film was there including some who haven't like Miranda Kerr. And there was a bar for the media.

The big winner was the film Red Dog judged Best Film. It's a charming feel good movie that was inexpensive to make which should delight the producers as not only has it been a box office success, animals don't get residuals.

The LaPaglia Brothers

And Judy Davis-who Woody Allen reckons is the "best actress in the world" won Best Actress for Eye Of The Storm which is based on the book by the crankiest ever Nobel Prize winner Patrick White. Olivia Newton John, Anthony La Paglia and Magda Szubanski were there as was  Shutle pal Jaqui Weaver who was up for an Oscar last year. She spent a few hours regailing us in the bar and roaring with laughter over some very risque tales of Jacqui's after Oscar party experiences, plus Claudia Karvan who is still having difficult recalling how the Shuttle bounced her on our knee in her dad's bar Athurs in Kings Cross (innocently of course!) when she was seven. Miranda Otto and her sis Gracie Otto and their dad Barry Otto attended. And Barry is the man that Sir John Gielgug once said was the best actor in the world.

SNOWTOWN picked up a gong and qute right too. It's a pretty gruesome true life tale but well made and  based on the shocking serial murders where ten bodies were found dumped in barrels of acid n a disused bank vault in Snowton in South Australia.  Done wonders for the tourism trade I'm told.

Gae Avoids Bomb Drama at Fashion Show

Gae, Robbie, Hoda and Tom Waterhouse

THE WATERHOUSE FAMILY were out in force at David Jone's Summer fashion show on Wednesday night, including the recently married Tom and new wife Hoda and Tom's parents the famous and highly successful horse trainer Gae Waterhouse and husband Robbie.

While the four sat front row to watch Miranda Kerr treading the boards little did they realise the drama that was unfolding in the street where the Waterhouse family home is located. Gae and Robbie live in the same Mosman street and within sugar borrowing distance of the luxury house where plucky teenager Madeleine Pulver was attached to a fake bomb device in a terrifying ordeal that gripped the nation and that was splashed across front pages around the world as the NSW bomb squad liaised with British police to remove the device from Madeline's neck.

Today Gae was able to give police some valuable information about 2 'suspicious' looking individuals she had seen in the street earlier that day.
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Megan Gale at DJs

Meanwhile the sensationally beautiful Megan Gale  who was also at the David Jones event has today been named as the new face and world ambassador for L’Oreal. Megan describes the job "the Holy Grail of modelling".

Perth born Gale is part Maori which explains her dark looks and height. In Italy she has reached goddess like status and cannot walk down a street without attracting the attentions of hundreds of  fans.

Megan is also an accomplished actress and she really should be in many more movies. Easy on the eye and and charismatic as this clip from her 2010 appearance in "I Love You Too " demonstrates:

Department store scandal

Megan Gale and Mark McInnes 

Sad news today as the CEO of the chic department store David Jones, Mark McInnes steps down following a boardroom stoush over his personal relationship with a female staff member.

The shock announcement came in a one line statement although there have been whispers for months now. McInnes who has been at DJs for 13 years completely overhauled the stores after a disastrous flirtation with an imported American CEO who completely mis-read the local market and attempted to turn the 100 year old up-market purveyors of top quality merchandise into a chain of Bloomingdale style stores.

Miranda Kerr & Orlando at Royal Randwick  (c tSS)

McInnes had the city store completely re-furbished back to  it's original style with marble floors, inexpensive but luxurious food halls, grand  floral displays and personal service from white gloved assistants. He also restored the tradition of a pianist at the Elizabeth Street entrance, tinkling away on a grand piano. The punters flocked back and as anyone knows, popping into DJs just for a wander through the emporium is always an afternoon treat.

So successful were McInnes innovations that Mohamed Al Fayed hired the same team who oversaw the decorations, to tart up Harrods.
McInnes was also behind the hiring of supermodels Megan Gale and Miranda Kerr.

Always a gracious host, Mark hosted a lunch at last year's Autumn Carnival at the Royal Randwick Races for the media and various guests with Orlando Bloom and Kerr.

 He will be sadly missed . With a huge promotional budget that paid off in dividends via huge sales for DJs, McInnes will be a hard man to replace. Where he is off to he isn't saying but with a $2Million pay-off, the world is his oyster. As for David Jones, their share price plunged today on the Stock Exchange following Mark's departure.

Greek love thrives in Asia

Tina Kavalis

 A local fashion designer servicing a small but loyal clientele, Greek born Tina Kavilas is in line for the top costume design award at the Asian Film Awards which will be held in Hong Kong on March 30th.

Tina's costumes for the Japanese drama Goemon have been hailed as unique and stunning.

While showing intermittently at the Sydney and Melbourne fashion weeks, Tina sells at a few select stores abroad including the prestige fashion store Browns in South Molton Street, London.

Lacroix, darling !

The Asian Film Awards have only been going since 2007 and follow the Hong Kong Film Festival and may not garner the same attention as the Oscars will this Sunday evening, but they still attract major international stars including of course, China's biggest export Jackie Chan.

The awards are beamed on TV to tens of millions throughout Asia and China. Countries like Thailand, China, Japan and the Philippines have thriving film production industries and stars who rival those in the west for their celebrity status.

Tina has some stiff competition though. Another contender and winner for the last 2 years -Christian Lacroix !.

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George Miller, recipient  of the Medal of France on Tuesday evening at the Roundhouse launch of the French Film Festival told tSS there is every chance he may revive the postponed production-Wonder Woman with supermodel Megan Gale favourite for the lead role.

the Italian Goddess (c) (contact tSS for the unedited version)!)

 Gale, who can wander down the smart shopping lane ways of Paddington unhindered and ignored, is now reaching Goddess status in Italy where she has become one of the most phenomenal stars of recent years.

 Italy has taken to Gale's statuesque and smouldering dark looks-a product of her Australian father and Hawaiian mother, much in the way they worshiped Claudia Cardinale , Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. Gale maintains an apartment on the chic Via Veneto in Rome and cannot step outside the door without drawing dozens of excited fans in a crush that soon builds into pandemonium. Whilst she hasn't yet appeared in a movie, she is sifting through offers from most of Italy's  top directors.

Hamish & Andy-booted from the BBC

Whilst Megan's star zooms in Italy , her boyfriend Hamish Blake -half of the radio duo Hamish and Andy has returned from an experiment in the UK after the duo's  BBC digital radio program was  pulled after only six episodes  To make matters worse Hamish's handsome dial has been somewhat sullied in an ice-skating accident during which he broke his 2 front teeth.