Frank & Arnie's Not So Secret Lunch

He's not normally shy of the media but the Shuttle couldn't get a word out of famous private eye Frank Monte when we phoned him today to ask if it was true that he was spotted two weeks ago lunching with ex-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the movie star hang-out, The Ivy in Los Angeles.

Monte in LA

Arnie

Our source, a local paparazzi contacted us after he saw Schwarzenegger arrive and disappear inside the restaurant for two hours. When he later asked a friendly waiter who Arnie had lunched with the waiter said an Australian businessman  named Frank Monte made the booking. Both men arrived and left separately.

Is Arnie going back into the movie business and what is his connection with Monte ?.

We do know that for years Frank Monte has been working on a film script about his adventures as a young PI in the 60's when he was hired by the then New York governor Nelson Rockefeller  to mount an expedition in the remote Asmat region of New Guinea to search for his son Michael Rockefeller who disappeared while on an expedition.

Respected journalist Paul Toohey later wrote a book Rocky Goes West  in which he recounted Monte's role in searching for the missing heir. There were several theories about Rockefeller's fate- that he had been taken by a crocodile or shark or that he had been captured by headhunters and cannibals. Toohey says Monte found Rockefeller's skull and delivered it to the explorer's family in the US.

The Rockefeller family have never denied or confirmed that fact but Michael Rockefeller was officially declared dead in 1974.  Years later the History Channel said Monte had been paid $250,000 for his services.

Michael Rockefeller

And Schwarzenegger's role ?. Another Shuttle source in the top US artist's agency William Morris says that the agency and Schwarzenegger jointly owned the rights to Monte's film script for years but Arnie dropped all his film commitments when he became Governor of California in 2003.

Is he now going back into the film business as a producer?. The story of the missing Rockefeller heir would make a compelling and exciting drama. For years Monte has hinted that the Rockefellers remained sceretive about their son's life and death beacuse he was gay, long before the gay American writer Tobias Schneebaum revealed that as a friend of Michael Rockefeller's he had listened in awe to the explorer's tales of previous visits to new Guinea and how he had discovered a 'free and easy' lifestyle there.

exclusive: famous PI Frank Monte narrowly escapes death

He isn't saying much to the media but famous private eye Frank Monte may have been the victim of a deliberate attempt to snuff him out on Tuesday afternoon. Monte was walking down a back street in Double Bay when a speeding car slammed into him and knocked him flying into a parked van.

Monte with client Donald Trump

Monte's distraught fiancee, marketing executive Sharon Sergeant says she looked on in horror as she saw a car with darkened windows swerve towards the high profile investigator and narrow clip him. A few inches closer and he risked being impaled on a plank of wood sticking out from the parked van. The van's driver rushed to the back of his vehicle believing the car had hit his truck .

Does Monte have enemies who would like to see him done in ?. Maybe. There are plenty of high profile businessmen and thugs who are behind bars because of Monte's investigations. And any number of irate husbands who have been tracked by his team of PIs when they wander from the marital home. Monte once held the world record for aiding in divorce cases in the days when hard evidence was needed to secure a divorce. .

Having only recently returned to Sydney, Monte was the USA's most sought after gumshoe competing only with the celebrity PI Anthony Pelicano. Pelicano is currently in jail for a number of offences involving his work with the late Michael Jackson.

These days Monte specialises in uncovering intellectual property theft and internet fraud. Although in semi-retirement and living in the luxurious Icon building in Kings Cross-a favourite with visiting movie stars while they film at Fox Studios because of it's high security, Monte still oversees a team of investigators around the country and maintains offices in Los Angeles and New York where he concentrates on security work. He has looked after royalty, Arab sheiks and film stars and was once a bodyguard  for the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis when he was married to Jackie Kennedy.

Born in Italy and brought up in the Italian expatriate community of Cairo, Monte moved to Oz where he worked as a policeman on the beat before setting up shop as a private eye. He first came to prominence when he was hired by the New York governor Nelson Rockefeller to look for his missing son Michael who had vanished in the wilds of New Guinea. Although the young Rockefeller's body was never found, Monte discovered the missing heir's skull in the village of a tribe of headhunters and duly delivered it to the father. Recent gossip is that DNA testing has finally confirmed it to be genuine. The Rockefeller clan have closed ranks and  refuse to discuss any aspect of Michael's life and death.. At the time, Nelson Rockefeller had tried to keep the news of his son's disappearance from the media because his son was gay and Nelson was planning to run for the presidency.

In the USA Monte was a regular fixture on shows like Larry King Live and Howard Stern and the subject of hundreds of magazine profiles

All Monte will say about the accident  is that he's haken and stirred, feeling very bruised and taking it easy for a few days. Police are investigating the hit and run and taking it seriously. The small street behind the uber smart Cosmopolitan Cafe in Double Bay isn't the sort of lane a car would drive down so fast. Sargent says she wandered over to look in the window of one of the small boutiques along the lane and caught the action out of the corner of eye. She was convinced her future hubby had been badly injured.

for sale

Monte won't say if he's received any threats-a hazard of the work he does, but he's recently been spotted in a more humble Mercedes where he once drove a Rolls Royce Corniche, which by co-incidence tSS has discovered is up for sale on the net with details of it's previous high profile owner.

Perhaps he should move into a new line of work and concentrate on the side business he had in New York, producing stage shows and the world's first live internet program.

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