Fab car but it was sold

 Seda Star danced for joy when she spotted the new Lamborghini

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
 



Tony Graziana ( right) throws some pretty swell parties at his Woolloomooloo auto showroom Scuderi Graziana and the launch of the new 2017 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster 50th Anniversary model was a must to attend.

 This set of wheels costs over One Million $$ and it had been sold already. Tony wasn't saying who to but he did say he would be happy to order another one if we were interested. We'll think about it.
One nice aspect of Tony's showroom is the first floor. Here you will find some gorgeous cars that previous owners have purchased and kindly "run in" for you. Among some of the most luxurious brand names cars to be had: Bentley, Porsche, Mercedes and even the famous "James Bond"Aston Martin DB5. But not one, two are there for sale..

Has Clive's Titanic 2 sunk already?

Desperate business news for billionaire millionaire politcian Clive Palmer as his business interests hit the wall. Clive's Queensland nickel mines have just gone into voluntary administration as of Monday with the loss of 237 jobs after the Queensland government refused to bail out the ailing mines on the claim Palmer refused to allow them to inspect the books with a fine tooth comb.
In 2010 we reported how Clive startled guests at his lavish Christmas bash as he handed out keys to a brand new Mercedes to 55 of his 700 employees. And the largesse continued with Clive giving Fijian holidays to the rest along with stays at the Sheraton Mirage resort.
Palmer is now embroiled in a tussle with residents at his Coolum Resort as reported in the local Sunshine Coast Daily. And as if like a foreboding portent of more dramas at the resort Clive's favorite dinosaur Jeff (pictured ) went up in smoke early last year.
But what of Palmer's ambitious plans to recreate the Titanic with his announcement in 2012 he planed to rebuild the hapless ship and as we reported, OAPs (pensioners) would be banned from the boat seeing it would be sailing in international waters.
Whisper's Chinese spy disguised as a credible Shi Pei Pu (look her up) has been hovering around the Jinling  Shipyard in Jangling asking pertinent questions about the construction of Titanic 2 but alas, she received just blank looks.
The notion of recreating the most famous wreck in history was not only ambitious and romantic but reeked of a fabulous publicity stunt that was bound to end in tears. Will Clive's political career survive?
Below is the promo video of tests in Hamburg of a model of Titanic 2 cleverly disguised as an old Thames barge.

25 Years of Wilko

Richard with Tracey Grimshaw

 To Luke Mangan's superb restaurant, the  Glass Brasserie in the Hilton Hotel for a select gathering of Nine Network bigwigs and stars to celebrate Richard Wilkins's 25 years on the telly.

Tony Bennett at Glass Brasserie

Mangan is a great pal of Wilkins so the venue was an obvious choice. And there was a surprise guest who called in to wish Wilkins the best- crooner Tony Bennett.

 Glass is quite spectacular with it's huge glass windows fronting George Street. It was designed by New Yorker Tony Chi and really does conjure up the feel of a Big Apple skyscrapper venue. But it's the food that is the reason to be there and plenty of nibbles created by Mangan were served.

Wilkins like many of our best imports hails from New Zealand where he was once a school teacher who started a band called Wilde & Reckless and travelled to Australia to support Grace Jones. He scored a job as a presenter on the fledgling MTV show which was cancelled after about 2 years. Snapped up by the Nine network, he's been in work for the past quarter decade reporting from the red carpet at the Academy Awards  and travelling the world to interview stars. Lucky man !

                         
 right : Karl Stefanovic attempts to hypnotise Luke Mangan

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Christopher & Fiona Day

Sandersons who have showrooms in Rushcutter's Bay selling Mercedes cars hosted a drinks party for the  launch of the new M Class and B Class luxury motors. Just a small crowd and nearly everyone of them confessed to actually owning a Mercedes.  
Christopher & Fiona Day who own the wonderful Christopher Day Gallery in Paddington say they love their new B Class Merc particularly as it parks itself.

One thing they did note-unlike their car, the model on display had little trays ala Rolls Royce in the back passenger seats. What were they for we pondered? . Is one likely to host a drinks party in the back?. It was a topic that occupied us over 2 glasses of Veuve Clicquot and the Shuttle can't quite remember what the outcome was.
Such trivial matters occupy one when looking at luxury motor vehicles.

New York Update

How he does it is a mystery. We are talking about uber social photographer Patrick McMullan who rules the roost in the Big Apple.
If Patrick isn't at your party (or at least one of his snappers) you can write the evening off.

Operating out of a Fifth Avenue apartment near Washington Square he sets off each evening with a fist full of invites, returning in the early hours.
He's published six top selling books now of his photographs that feature in publications like Interview, Ocean Drive, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and magazines and newspapers around the world. He's an associate editor on Vanity Fair. The books  have titles like Kiss Kiss, Secrets of The Riviera, Men's Show and Glamour Girls. The titles are self explanatory.

This week he hosted a book signing for Kiss Kiss to benefit the Coalition for the Homeless, in Huntington, Long Island.

You get his books at his website and see some of the latest happenings in New York as recorded by Patrick or one of his ten photographers that fan out across the metropolis nightly.



# At the New York Mercedes Fashion Week : Shane Warne with  Liz Hurley and her son Damien attended the Moncler show last night

Some Christmas Cheer from Alan Rusbridger & Rupert Murdoch

On the 1st November Rupert Murdoch gave a speech in Sydney praising his personal baby The Australian newspaper. Rupert is famous for saying he never interferes with his editors. Perhaps they just think like him.

Murdoch also promised that in a few years .. "it will be possible to have all the energy we want from economic cheap nuclear plants..it will be safe..there will not be an energy waste problem..we don't have to rush into a lot of mad schemes fouling up the country..windmills and other crackpot ideas.. "

That came as a shock to the  landed gentry of Rupert's beloved Liberal National Party coalition who have accepted $100,000 a time to allow an energy corporation to install windmills on their land.

.."just don't let the bloody Greens mess it up.." he continued.

The Greens hold nine Senate seats and the balance of power and look like picking up seats in the Victorian state election. Getting anything past them in Parliament will be a Herculean task.

The Australian promised in an ill-advised editorial after the August General Election to "destroy the Greens" The newspaper has been back pedalling ever since.



Alan Rusbridger



Fast forward to Friday night's 702 ABC  Sydney Radio Andrew Olle Lecture  given by Alan Rusbridger, editor of the UK Guardian newspaper. Speaking about the media he said :

"And, of course, most topically, there is the prospect of a merger between a wholly owned BSkyB and the four newspaper titles owned by News Corp. That would give one company control of nearly 40 per cent of Britain‟s press as well as a broadcaster with nearly £6bn in revenues compared with the £3.5bn licence fee of the BBC.

Now, I realize that even raising this question immediately translates, in the minds of some, into an argument about Rupert Murdoch. It‟s not. There‟s no one I would want to have that much power."

In his speech Rupert Murdoch said the profits from the current resources boom should be spent on education. How that could be achieved, he didn't say.

In May this year The Australian was at the forefront of a determined campaign to undermine then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who had announced a 40% mining tax on the minerals dug out of land owned by the Australian people and which has driven the extraordinary wealth of the country. He hoped to raise $12 Billion in just 2 years.

The entire News Corp mast heads went into bat for the 3 mining billionaires leading the charge-Andrew 'Twiggy 'Forest. Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer. The 3 funded a multi million dollar ad campaign which News Ltd apparently mistook for news and fact.

The mining tax spelt the end of civilisation as we know it...Forrest, Rinehart and Palmer proclaimed the new  tax would destroy the industry, lead to massive job losses and anyway, they were struggling already as it was.

The ruling Labor Party capitulated. It was the end of Rudd's leadership and he was swiftly replaced by Julia Gillard who limped home in the August election.



Clive Palmer



Just to show there are no hard feelings Clive Palmer, a National Liberal Party supporter threw a $20M bash last Thursday in Townsville for 2000 employees to celebrate the $200M personal profit he had made from just one mine.



Clive's a generous man to those who please him. At the party he announced 55 employees would each be receiving a brand new $50,000 Mercedes-Benz B180 each. Palmer toasted the post-GFC recovery as being responsible for his good fortune.

That's the recovery that Rupert Murdoch said in his speech was "governments wasting billions of dollars " for which Kevin Rudd received world-wide praise for keeping Australia out of recession but whose actions were roundly condemned by the Liberal National Party, but supported by those "bloody Greens"!

Complicated isn't it ?.

2011 STC Launch plus Fashion Week Tribute !

The Sydney Theatre Company announced it's new season at a small shindig at their Wharf headquarters hosted by husband and wife team Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton.

The centrepiece for the 2011 season will be a co-production of Botho Strauss's Gross und Klein (Big and Small)translated by English playwright Martin Crimp which will tour the Vienna Festival, the Young Vic in Britain, at the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen in Germany and the Theatre de la Ville in Paris in 2012. This should seal the reputation of the STC throughout the world after Cate's acclaimed production of the A Streetcar Named Desire in the US earlier this year.

Australian actors who will appear in productions include Jacqueline McKenzie (right) Miranda Otto, Colin Friels and Bryan Brown all who have achieved success overseas.

The German writer's work will be directed by opera and theatre director Luc Bondy.

The STC usually presents 12 productions a year and 2011 will include two new Australian works with the Abbey Theatre production of Mark O'Rowe's hit Terminus as well as Andrew Upton's version of Mikhail Bulgakov's The White Guard which received five-star reviews when it played at London's National Theatre this year.

Another project is Bloodland, written by Wayne Blair, directed by Stephen Page from the Bangarra Dance Co and performed in Yolgnu language and pidgin English. It was inspired by a photograph of an Aboriginal boy up a power pole. The boy was subsequently electrocuted.

All in all, the choice of Cate and Andrew has been the most successful decision ever for the STC board. The duo have taken the company to great international heights with not only critical success but a much needed boost to the companies finances. This year, Streetcar alone made a $3M profit.

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As New York's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and London's Fashion Week draw to a close, we bring you some examples of outfits from some of the wackier world leaders, courtesy of the on-line magazine Foreign Policy in The Devil Wears Taupe !

Famous courtesan freaks out !

 Sucessful publisher Todd Tai networks at First Thursday

OK so we hooked you with a headline-go to the story below for the tale of Madame Lash. 

Off the luxury car home in  Kings Cross of the amiable Tony Graziana's  Scuderia Graziani where one can pick up a Lamborghini, Porsche or Mercedes. Each month he is holding a bash to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation with his  First Thursday parties. This is a great cause-the Fred Hollows Foundation goes to places like Afghanistan and Africa looking after the sight of desperately poor people.

First Thursday is a sort of 'networking' party for young business people which is just what they were doing on Thursday night like crazy with silent auctions for all sorts of luxury goods like Tancredi jewelry.

Entertainment included the Irish comedian Paul Martell who is one of those old fashion joke tellers but he really is hilarious as the act builds up as you can see in the clip below. With a few celebrities and good looking folk, these regular nights are going to become popular very fast so you should consider booking tickets early.

Next month the guest comedian will be Austen Tayshus- one of the very very best. To attend you should contact Helle@RazorBrandAgency.com.

Adpro Management supplied the gorgeous beauties at the party-they are also a model agency -and that's another reason to attend. Business and beauty should always be combined, is our motto !. Fast cars, beautiful women, wine and song and all in a good cause.

What more could you want ?

                                 
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Where was Gretel on her big night ? 

 Hundreds turned up at The Kirk to celebrate the birthday and book launch for Madame Lash except the lady herself. As far as we can ascertain, the fetishist has fallen out with the author of the book, Sam Everingham.

The Kirk (it has a dungeon)

The Shuttle received a rousing cheer when we assisted up the steep stairs of the Kirk in a gentlemanly fashion, the ex-fiancee of private investigator Frank Monte- Sharon Sargeant who arrived at the same time as we did.

Sharon Sargeant

As the crowd parted  on the red carpet they assumed it was Madame Lash making a grand entrance.  Sargeant has received an extraordinary amount of publicity recently and been flooded with offers from the USA -for what we aren't quite sure yet but presumably it's something to do with the revelation she is the boss of the RedVelvet Escort and Model Agency.

Madame Lash's "autobiography" is the highly entertaining tale of one of Australia's most colourful women  (we've read it) and dominatrix.  Wowsers beware! Gretel Pinniger, aka Madame Lash artist and courtesan to the rich and famous has been shocking and outraging Australia for decades. Never shy of publicity, this daughter of a handsome war hero and philanderer from the Melbourne establishment once wanted to become a nun.

Instead, she threw her leather-clad body into a wild world of sex, drugs and riotous parties. She danced with Elton John, catered to Kerry Packer's brother Clyde's more creative sexual fantasies along with the successful transport boss and newspaper owner Gordon Barton and knocked around with Sydney underworld boss Lennie McPherson.

She also found herself a fabulously wealthy patron, who bequeathed her a generous stipend so long as his name is never disclosed by her .
Which doesn't stop us revealing the world's worst kept secret-that patron was the English publisher Paul Hamlyn who made millions when he and his family settled in Britain after escaping Germany before WW2. Hamlyn spent 4 weeks of every year with Madame Lash. We'll leave it to your imagination what  they got up to. But she does have dungeons in all her homes.
There was a tale that she one locked publisher Gordon Barton in the dungeon of her Melbourne house, hanging from a rack and went on a cocaine bender leaving him there for 48 hours before she re-called he was shackled in the basement. Fearing what she would find when she returned,  a delighted Barton tripled the agreed fee, as he was so pleased with the service.                                                 

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Comedian Paul Martell who was at the premier of the First Thursday charity parties at Scuderia Graziani in East Sydney.

Style pixie for fashion week ?

Tavi

There was much talk at Thursday night's bash for Marie Claire hosted by editor Jackie Frank and heralding Australian Fashion Week which begins this Monday.

Will the 14 year old US fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson be in town?. She's been invited, as have several fashion bloggers, with airfares thrown in.

Tavi has become a teen sensation with her Style Rookie blog. She's been interviewed by Interview and Grazia, attended White House parties, profiled in the New York Times and been guest editor for Fashion Television at the New York Fashion Week.

Some at the party were bitching about whether Tavi is really capable of writing the blog herself at such a tender age and if she really could understand the nuances and vagaries of fashion. She does make references to past fashion eras that were well before her time. Which could mean she does her research. Probably at school at the back of the class.

Tavi is one of our heroines. She's demonstrating the power of the blog and why by 2025 there will be no printed  newspapers or magazines. She's at the vanguard of a generation that is leading the charge of citizen journalism and anarchy media.

designer Jayson Brunsdon & Simon Lock

 The other talk at Marie Claire was just what is the rift between Australian Fashion Week creator Simon Lock and the current owners of the event. Lock's been frozen out and although he sold his share of the Week 5 years ago he did have a 10 year consultancy contract. Simon was at the party but staying silent on the subject.

Don Spencer & Marie Claire's Jackie Frank

 why we love Marie Claire parties

Marie Claire's bash was to show off the art works created by a dozen fashion designers like Marnie Skillings and Sass & Bide . The works will be auctioned over the coming weeks at the Marie Claire website and the funds raised will go to aid the Australian Children’s Music Foundation. 

The foundation was started by TV presenter Don Spencer. Don has a famous daughter Danielle who is married to Russell Crowe. They usually come to aid Don's charity but he said they couldn't make it that night as Russell was off somewhere promoting his Robin Hood movie.

Tavi at the New York Fashion Week