Skye hits 60

 right: party girl Skye Leckie with fashion journalist Melissa Hoyer

Skye Leckie has reached 60 (believe me, that seems very young to some of us) and she held a shindig to celebrate at her Southern Highlands farm. Skye recently featured in the "reality" TV show Filthy Rich & Homeless where she lived on the streets for a time to see just what it was like. It made for riveting TV especially for a lady who enjoys a fairly sumptuous house in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs with her family and husband, the former TV boss David Leckie plus a pretty nice stretch of land in the ritzy south. As a dedicated charity worker- she's helped raise $millions for the children's hospital in Randwick Skye put her expertise to work and housed one homeless family she met during her homeless experiment.

Check out the magnificent hat on guest Jonathan Ward in our snap. Jonathan is the designer for the famed R.W.Williams and his fashions feature in stores around the world.
There to cheer on Skye: publicists Deeta Colvin and Nikki Andrews who between them created the legendary Cointreau Balls that guests flocked to from all over the world during their heyday in the roaring nineties.
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Our exclusive snap here shows film director Baz Luhrmann who is now living in New York and developing new film projects.

Last week he was in Queensland celebrating here with the QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the occasion: Baz is to film a new biopic of Elvis Presley on the Gold Coast. I guess it has a passing resemblance to Memphis.

Kim Komes to Town

                                                                        

 The Kim Kardashian Circus came to Sydney and the required paparazzi moment was supplied.

Kim and assorted entourage stepped out last night and spent an hour at the new restaurant and bar,  Bar De Thé.

What a coup for them ! It opened quietly less than a month ago in East Sydney and has become a favourite meeting spot for Sydney's smart set.

Final word goes to Foxtel's Melissa Hoyer who was granted an audience with the reality star and received an allotted eight minutes.

And eight was what she got. Not a second more or a second less.

Our Spies on the Ellen DeGeneres show

Top Sydney based journos and style writers Melissa Hoyer (from News Ltd  & Foxtel) and Shelley Horton (right) from Fairfax Media have been posting tales and pics from their trip to Los Angeles for G'Day Australia week.
These snaps are from the Ellen show.
Nice work if you can get it !




Our girls in action:

Melissa's Star Shines

Melissa Hoyer is one of the most respected, well liked and experienced commentators on Australian television covering fashion and celebrity.
Now she has joined the news.com.au team, and will contribute a weekly column and celebrity news stories. as their show business 'editor at large' which signals another step forward as News Ltd gears up to eventually put all their top selling titles behind pay walls.

The Herald Sun in Melbourne has been experimenting with pay per view for several months and although it's had an 18% drop in print sales it still flogs a healthy 343,103 copies daily and it's website and that of Sydney's Daily Telegraph have picked up visitors steadily over the past 5 years.
 Hoyer worked originally as a fashion and society scribe for News' top selling Sunday Telegraph before heading over to pay tv's Foxtel to host her own show titled Fashion (launched by the great man himself-Rupert Murdoch). She currently comments on fashion on Ch7's Morning Show and today filed her first news.com.au story: an exclusive interview with Justin Bieber.
Read Melissa's interview with Bieber here and check out her new website here.

She's Baack...

Eden & entourage tour Sydney Harbour

 Just when you thought it was safe to go to your local kiddies beauty pageant, pint sized pageant queen and chanteuse, 7 year old Eden Wood of Cootie Patootie fame has slipped back into town.

Eden meets a fan at Taronga Zoo

Eden comes with an entourage : make-up artist and hairdresser, agent, manager (her mum) and film crew. She's spent the last few days touring Sydney tourist spots, taken a harbour cruise, visited the Opera House and Taronga Park Zoo and even made it to the top of the Skywalk at Centre Point totally unperturbed as she stepped out onto the glass floor and gazed down at the 309 metre drop while her camera crew looked decidedly pale.

Eden is filming scenes for her new reality TV show having hung up her pageant crown at the grand age of 6. Never fear, locals aspirants are invited to the Cutie Patootie Pageant and Cute Camp, where Eden and mother Mickie Wood will give tips to Sydneysider tiny tots on how to gain success in the industry.
                                       
 Here's Eden's ode to Justin Bieber -Bieber Fever in which she has dreams of marrying Justin and err having his babies!

Cheyenne with Danni Minogue at ModelCo

# Gorgeous New York based model Cheyenne Tozzi ( a Shuttle discovery) attended the ModelCo Summer 2012 Collection at The Pier restaurant in Rose Bay.

ModelCo was started just 10 years ago by model Shelley Barrett who reckoned she had the inside knowledge on what women really needed for quick quality make-up fixes. Her fantastic success proves she was spot on.




Meanwhile across town at Dover Heights in a deserted mansion Channel 7's  Morning Show celebrated five years of top ratings. The locale was host Larry Emdur's previous home having just sold it to move into an even bigger house. Guests included co-host Kylie Gillies and regulars from the show like style queen Melissa Hoyer .
left : Edwina Bartholomew, Larry Emdur & Melissa Hoyer at The Morning Show bash (pic : Belinda Rowland)

A Swell Street Party

Who needs a venue when you can just use the footpath and roadway for a party which is what Theo Onisforou did when he hosted a party to launch the Australian Fashion Walk Of Style in Oxford Street, Paddington.

Simon Lock,Sarah Jane Clark,Theo Onisforou

Dree Hemingway

Just a week ago Nicholas Huxley who has taught many of Australia's top fashion discoveries at the East Sydney TAFE wrote on Facebook that he had counted 27 empty shops in the Oxford Street fashion strip between the Paddington Town Hall and Centennial Park.

 Further down on the gay strip at lower Oxford Street -the 'golden mile' -shops and boutiques are vanishing as are many restaurants which are being replaced by fast food outlets and $2 shops.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore has embarked upon an ambitious scheme to let out many of the empty properties owned by Sydney Council in the Darlinghurst end of the street to artists and students at minimal rents in the hope of reviving the area which at present survives on a dozen or so gay nightclubs and bars.

Tom Williams & Rachel Gilbert

Onisforou who owns the Diesel label and a number of the boutiques in Paddington has been a tireless supporter of local fashion and when Simon Lock who was the mastermind behind the Sydney and Melbourne Fashion Weeks came up with the idea of the Fashion Walk of Style, Theo jumped at the concept and soon convinced Woolahra Council of it's promotional value.

On Tuesday he laid red carpet along the front of a half dozen stores and unveiled the first six brass plaques dedicated to Sarah Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton of Sass & Bide, Akira Isogawa, R.M Williams, Collette Dinigan and the late and much loved Mark Keighery of Marc fame.

Jonathan Ward

Simon Lock jetted in from Dubai where he has just set up another Mercedes Fashion Week to present the awards and the afternoon bash in glorious sunshine fueled by plenty of French champagne relegated the event to the best party of the year, so far. Amongst the guests: model and actress Dree Hemingway (daughter of Margaux Hemingway), R.M William's designer Jonathan Ward, Sarah Jane Clark, John Hemmes of Merivale and fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer.

We look forward to the unveiling of more plaques which can be viewed from the beginning of the Glenmore Road and Oxford Street junction.

more guests arrive..more street is needed...

Wedding Blues

First we had the 'wedding of the year' (Sunday Telegraph) -well it was the first wedding of 2012- when top shoe designer Terry Biviano married footie star Anthony Minichiello at the very grand St Mary's Cathedral in what was described as Sydney's Big Fat WAG Wedding.

The bridal party and guests then de-camped to Swifts, the magnificent 57 room Georgian Castle in Darling Point, home of the extended Moran clan. With it's magnificent ballroom and acres of sweeping lawns, Swifts is becoming the venue of choice. 

Guillaume & Terry

Minichiellio & Biviano

A week ago the beautiful former model and boutique hotel owner Terry Kajos got hitched to her handsome French beau Guillaume Sadourny at Swifts watched on by a host of pals like Stedman's catering boss Mandy Quinn and fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer who twittered updates throughout the day and as the night wore on.

Who doesn't like a beautiful wedding with their gorgeous bridesmaids and happy couple, the partying on the rolling lawns and so on.?
But it appears Swift's neighbours are not sending their best regards and they are asking questions. Is Swifts now operating as a defacto reception centre for commercial events?.


Swifts rolling lawns are surrounded by tall apartment blocks and many residents are complaining that with several recent public events the noise has been extreme and parking in the streets filled to capacity.They say Swift's unique layout forms a 'bowl' that amplifies noise to the tops of buildings in which there are many well heeled and mainly older residents like the department store heiress Lady Walton.

One resident who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday "we were told by Swifts that they were organising a few charity events so that didn't seem too bad but recently they have had what seems to be commercial events and the word is that there are several more booked. We all became quite alarmed when we saw what looked like a commercial style kitchen being installed. Most of us are worried that Darling Point's peaceful atmosphere will be destroyed"

The Shuttle left a message for Woollahra Council to contact us with the current status of Swifts but they hadn't returned our call by Friday's end of business.

Tom The (Sexy) Chippie

His career started as a phone-in to radio hosts Merrick and Rosso in 2000 while on a bricklaying job in Manly. Many years on and he's become a major TV star fronting numerous lifestyle programs and has done a stint on Dancing With The Stars ( a measure of sure success in Oz).

He is of course the impossibly handsome Tom Williams who was such a success on his call to the comedy duo that he was given he's own slot on their show.

Tom, Laura Csortan,Chris Joannou

Rachel Finch

Tom presented his first book last night at the Memphis Room (dedicated to Elvis) in The Winery in Surry Hills and a host of TV pals called by to toast Tom's success. The book : DIY Around The Home is chock full of handy household carpentry tips like how to soundproof a room or build a window planter box.

Tom is also a windsurfing champ and has fronted shows like Gladiators, Australia's Greatest Athlete, The Great Outdoors . Basically, he's a major sex symbol!.

Melissa Hoyer & Larry Emdur

Homage to Elvis

Those who turned up to sip some excellent wine from Wild Oats included Rachel Finch, Larry Emdur, Merrick Watts, fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer and Laura Csortan with her boyfriend Chris Joannou from the band Silverchair while ACP publisher Peter Holder launched the book.


# The Winery is another Fraser Short successful venture along with Kit & Kaboodle in Kings Cross and Gazebo in Potts Point. Fraser has just taken over the Brooklyn Hotel near Circular Quay. Tomorrow a host of writers and TV presenters gather at the Gazebo to celebrate it's birthday.

Wedding Fallout : Julia Gillard Insulted

Hannity

Is it the beginning of a new News Corp attack upon another Labor Prime Minister ?. After they took down Kevin Rudd 2 years ago with their sustained broadcasts at everything that came out of his mouth, the ghastly Fox News channel and Sean Hannity in the USA have insulted Julia Gillard's choice of headwear to the Royal wedding (below). They reckon it looked like a Venus Flytrap !





On the plus side, fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer who can cast a critical eye when necessary gave the PM the thumbs up with her Carla Zampatti outfit, while she was reporting from The Mall for the Seven network.

Who made the PM's flytrap ?. Hoyer speculated that is was either Paddington based Neil Grigg or Woollahra milliner Jane Lambert.