Leo DiCaprio's New Sydney Neighbour-Bill Gates.

The world's second richest man Bill Gates and his family are in Sydney and have settled in for a month's holiday in a grand Point Piper mansion.

Gates is staying just 6 doors away from Hollywood star Leo DiCaprio who is in Sydney to film Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (in glorious 3D). Leo also has an entire floor at the newly renovated Star Casino where his entourage stay. That floor has been provided gratis by The Star management in return for DiCaprio turning up for the odd party now and then. They throw in the corporate jet as well for Leo's use.

Neville Crichton

Gates and family have now been spotted at several Sydney restaurants including Matt Moran's Aria on Tuesday night  and today he leaves for a few days of sunshine at Hamilton Island .

The Tuscan style mansion that Gates is renting for a reputed $25000 a week belongs to luxury car entrepreneur, New Zealander Neville Crichton. With an underground garage, a spa, a pool and a private beach and jetty, the villa has everything one could desire.

The Ferrari HQ minus tram shed

Neville Crichton has also scored another property victory. Two years ago he spent $4M on his new Waterloo headquarters where one can pick up a new Ferrari or Maserati for some loose change.

the vanished tramshed

Crichton has had an ongoing battle with the local council over a rather dilapidated tram shed that sat right at the front of his glistening new glass and steel showrooms. Locals insisted it should be heritage listed but in a city where so many glorious sandstone convict era buildings have bitten the dust, the tram shed was just an eyesore.

Over the past few months the council demolished half the building, leaving a bizarre half section remaining with a plaque on it. Just a month ago the entire thing finally disappeared leaving Neville Crichton's entrance free of obstructions.

The Most Expensive Book In The World

After the ninth guest rocked up in a Ferrari the Shuttle gave up the count.

Shindigs at auto showrooms usually follow a pattern. A mixture of social faces, a show biz star or two and handful of people that buy the product. We just didn't realise how many Sydney-siders can actually afford these Italian toys. Even a pre-loved model will set you back well over a quarter of a million dollars.

Last week's party at Nevile Crichton's Waterloo showrooms was fairly unique. Twenty of the guests were Ferrari drivers.

The bash was to launch the Ferrari Opus limited edition- an 852 page book bound in red leather. There are three versions of the tome-the Enzo, Classic and the piece de resistance-the Cavallino Rampante that comes with the the diamante studded Ferrari signature stallion on it's cover.

The first two can be bought for about $250,000 each while the Cavallino Rampante will be auctioned for charity and is expected to fetch well over a million dollars.

The three books feature some superb photographs from over the years of Ferrari's racing history or appearances in advertisements and movies and lots of snaps of the legendary Enzo Ferrari . His office at the Ferrari headquarters in Italy is untouched and remains just as it was when he passed away in 1988 as an homage to the great auto designer.

Kerri Anne Kennerley was on hand to pose with the book and there's one Ferrari Opus book for every country.

Not sure how that will go down in Botswana but it should be a hit in the Middle East. The ultimate coffee table book for the Sheik who has everything.

Ligging at Neville's house

Lindsay Fox (left) chats while Neville looks for a buyer.

Suburu owner Kerri-Anne

They were out on force at Neville Crichton's gleaming new Ferrari and Maserati sale rooms in Green Square for the launch of a range of the Italian autos.

2 of Sydney's best known gate-crashers (they are called "liggers" in the UK) and a host of well known business, sporting and show-biz personalities. Will Neville notch up a sale or 2 from the night that generously included a fleet of chauffeured Maseratis to ferry guests to and fro-all the better for quaffing French champagne by the bucket ?. Hard to tell. tSS did a straw poll of some of the more well heeled guests and found few takers.

Daytime TV queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley drives a very practical Subaru which she says she loves as does husband John Kennerley, the man who started Britain's Littlewood Pools and sold out for squillions. They have a Lexus for more sedate moments.

What does nightclub king Justin Hemmes
(right) motor around in ?. Anything he wants with he and his father John's amazing collection of vintage and new luxury cars. But not a Maserati or a Ferrari amongst them and he won't be buying one soon.

Nor does the countries top jeweler Nic Cerrone-a Mercedes, and as for trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, he doesn't drive at all but has a man at the wheel of either the Rolls Phantom or Bentley Continental that slip into the Spanish style driveway of his legendary mansion Boomerang. We gave up after 12 inquiries. Not a Ferrari owner in sight. The 2 liggers ?. They share a taxi or an ancient Ford Falcon when it's running.

Still, everyone looks pretty sitting and posing in the gleaming autos.

Nic Cerrone-always happy to pose for the camera.

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Earlier that night the Oxford Street cabaret club Slide showed off some of it's season's upcoming acts that include the crooner Barry Crocker who pens the occasional play review for the Shuttle. Slide is run by French chef Marc Kuzma who doubles up as maitre de and as drag act, Claire De Lune.

Claire de Lune

Crocker's squeeze Katy Manning, the original Dr Who co-star is still in London and working at the BBC.

Slide maitre de Marc Kuzma with Sharon Sargent and Barry Crocker

Barry played the Private Eye comic strip character in the film Barry McKenzie Hold His Own. It's difficult to tell which came first-Barry Crocker or Barry McKenzie. Did Barry inspire Baz ?.

A question for creator Barry Humphries next time we see him.

Cafe wars vamp up in Bubble Bay

        Graeme Goldberg, the 6'6" Eastender, and host of DeeBees fires the first shot tonight with a customer loyalty party as a re-vamped Cosmopolitan opens directly opposite in the Eastern Suburbs society haunt of Double Bay.

       The Cosmospolitan has been undergoing major renovations since the Sir Standford Hotel shut down last year and is now open for business and drawing many of the older customers who favoured it's expansive outdoor seating area to while away the hours gazing at the passing parade.

 
  Double Bay-or Double Pay (or Bubble Bay) as kids refer to it because of it's expensive boutiques that come and go with great regularity, had hit hard times in recent years that seemed to co-incide with the collapse of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, once the favoured bolt hole of visiting celebrities like Bob Dylan, Princess Diana, Presidents Clinton and Bush and the stage for the final exit of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

         But retailers are reporting a mini-boom with the great US financial calamity as more and more people delay holidays abroad.  Expect GG to roll out the usual suspects-Leo Sayer, Max Markson and boxers Jeff Fenech and Joe Bugner.

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      Meanwhile on Wednesday the New Zealand born businessman and yachtsman Neville Crichton will host a glittering shindig to launch the new Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano at his Waterloo showrooms.

      There has been a parting of the ways between Chrichton and Tony Graziano, the amiable former boss of Ferrari and Maserati in Australia. Both are staying mum on the reasons but it was Graziano who used his connections to secure a deal to transport stars like Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve on their Sydney visits gaining valuable column inches in the media.

      

 It even paid off handsomely when Graziano stepped into the breach to get the most successful Miss Universe winner Jennifer Hawkins to her hometown of Newcastle during her triumphant homecoming tour after Rolls Royce / Bentley sniffed at the prospect proclaiming "we don't have that many customers up there", a reference to the steel city's working class origins. Hawkins repaid Graziano by purchasing the Maserati Tony chauffeured her in.

    

Guests arriving at a function to launch a new harbour cruiser last week were startled to see a glaring Neville Crichton as Tony Graziano 'gate-crashed' the launch and parked a Maserati at the entrance complete with a couple of glamour girls. Graziano is now flogging used autos and specialising in luxury Italian cars.