Tabloid Fail

Yes, Whispers is about to cast nastursions on our media counterparts, imperfect vessel that we are, but Prince Harry & Meghan Markle announced just days ago that young Prince Archie Windsor can expect a sister or brother in the near future. But the Aussie tabloid magazine No Idea New Idea announced on the very same day that the loving California based couple had split. Well what would we know?. Perhaps it's true. I'm sure all shall be revealed this Monday in their next editon. Perhaps they know better than this scribe. Afterall we've been out of the loop for a while with endless lockdowns. It was only just late last year that New Idea announced that Prince Harry had been deported from the USA ( as seen in this cover pic with the Brad /Jen tale). Perhaps the current one is a clone? Is this a QAnon conspiracy revelation? Of course the same glitzy show biz mag also announced that hunky actor Brad Pitt was back living with Jennifer Aniston just as he arrived in Venice with gorgeous model Nicole Poturalski. Who knows..it could all be true.!

Mystic Meg Moment

The Shuttle's spooky prediction has been fulfilled not 48 hours after we suggested that the UK MailOnline might find space for a tale about Sydney wireless announcer Fifi Box, much beloved off local outlets like the Woman's Day and the magazine publishing wags naughtily refer to as No Idea.
Alas, the MailOnline's wacky tale about Fifi landing a black eye on My Kitchen Rules' host, French born  Manu Feildel has been given it's own shiner. The report on Manu, whose accent has taken on extraordinary guttural Marseille tones since his TV success, has fallen flat with readers. The verdict is in according to Mail fans, most who seem to be Australian in this case and who have damned the British tabloid's reporting :
      

 


Update :
A feature in today's Mail gives a riveting account of Sydney model Tahyna Tozzi (incidentally-discovered by the Shuttle) who today married her boyfriend dancer and choreographer Tristan MacManus.  

Kim in London has some kind words for the loving pair :

"A warm and heartfelt congratulations ... whoever you are"

Topless Kate Middleton Pics & an Aussie Connection

William & Kate in Malaysia

While the brouhaha over the topless photographs of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge gets more dramatic by the day, an Australian connection is emerging.

A fortnight ago Bauer Media, Europe's largest privately owned publishing firm purchased Australia's largest magazine empire ACP for around $500M. Bauer Media also own the Closer brand of magazines. The topless photographs have been published in the French edition of Closer and the editor is unrepentant with reports now emerging that there are further pics to be published next  week.

Bauer have issued a statement deploring the use of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton and have complained to the magazine but the French edition is published under license by an Italian publisher Mondadori.

Bauer CEO Paul Keenan says he has asked Closer to remove the pics : "We deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures and have asked that Closer France takes these pictures down immediately from its website and desist from publishing any further pictures"'. Bauer are said to be reviewing the Closer license with Mondadori.
                                                                                                                           
Where does this leave the Australian Woman's Day, the biggest selling weekly magazine and new Baeur acquisition ?. WD is in fierce competition with New Idea (owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes' Pacific Magazines) and barely a week goes by without the 2 glossies running a feature on Prince William and Kate. A month ago we can imagine a bidding war would have erupted between the 2 mags for the topless photos. New Idea was the first to breach an agreement, not to mention that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Shuttle has worked on a number of occasions with the British royals including the late Princess Diana on her last visit to Australia. We once attended a dinner for HRH Prince Edward at Lady Mary Fairfax's pile Fairwater. Twenty guests had paid $10,000 each for the privilege of dining with Edward (the money went to charity) with the promise of a snap with the royal. The Shuttle obliged but not before an arrangement was made with Edward's minders- 2 charming but lethal looking gentleman from Scotland Yard's Royal Protection Squad. The Shuttle was to be searched before we left the function to ensure we had not taken any covert pics of Edward, perhaps rubbing his bald spot and so on. We were happy to oblige.
But where were Kate Middleton's minders while she was holidaying in France and for that matter, Prince Harry's when he was in Las Vegas ?.

Brangelina, Wills & Kate: No Idea

The fierce rivalry between Australia's top selling tabloid magazines- New Idea and Woman's Day has stepped up a notch with WD blindsiding NI with their scoop on the royal honeymoon snaps that have been on offer around the world for over a year and have now caused so much confected anguish in the UK media. British newspapers in the midst of the Leveson Inquiry had all turned down the pics.

Poor old New Idea (some wags in the industry unkindly refer to it as No Idea) really had no hint of what their rival was about to publish.
Both keep in touch of each other's up-coming stories by monitoring agency photo sales and thereby have a pretty good idea of what each other will publish in the next issue : come Monday morning the similarities between each is almost mirror -like.


 Now the tattle amongst the industry is that the knives are out at Pacific Publications, publishers of New Idea and a full on industry war is about to be declared. Pacific had turned down purchase of the beach wandering royal snaps on the understanding that rivals had done likewise.

Particularly as New Idea was forced to run a fairly tragic tale titled "SECRET WEDDING PHOTOS..you were never meant to see".. a concocted tale with"intimate"snaps of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt that "proved " the couple had been up to hanky panky before their affair became public knowledge.

Alas, the pics have all been published before and are just a set of publicity stills from their 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith and have lain on photo desks around the world for the last 6 years. Better luck next time folks.

Tabloid Tales :"Kate's Pregnant!"

Daily Telegraph

Australia's top selling tabloid The Daily Telegraph (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) brings us the tale of how dozens of magazines world-wide have reported the false claim that Prince William's bride Kate is pregnant.

A 'staff writer' tells us how "a tally of incorrect US gossip mag covers shows their editors have made fake hay while the sun remained behind clouds this year" when reporting the non-existent pregnancies of Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and more.

These mad claims were brought undone when that US TV network of repute Fox News ( proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) compiled the list of glossy magazines which made the phoney claim.

Our staff writer even has a dig at the Oz glossy New Idea (referred to as No Idea by industry wags) which also fell for the Kate Middleton 'pregnancy' claim.

Alas, our News Corp scribe missed one small fact in his/her mention of the New Idea. Just who was the source for their claim?.

Step forward a 'royal photographer' who is interviewed for the cover piece that screams :
YES. KATE'S PREGNANT!...Exclusive interview with official royal photographer

New Idea

The snapper in question and "royal insider" is Arthur Edwards who gushed to New Idea :" Kate looked great but I just got a feeling she wasn't quite herself".

And just who does our 'royal insider' take his royal photographs for ? (from the press pen along with every other photographer)...why the popular top selling UK tabloid The Sun (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch)

Demi Moore to front Melbourne court

Actress Demi Moore is due in Melbourne next week to appear in court over a legal action she is taking against the top selling magazine New Idea for breaching copyright of her photographs.

The magazine-known locally as No Idea, printed a series of black and white snaps taken at a private party Demi threw to celebrate the Oscars. The snaps show herself, her daughter Rumer Willis, Orlando Bloom, P Diddy, Cameron Diaz and Amanda De Cadenet hamming it up at the after Oscars party in 2008 given at Madonna's house.

Moore lodged a claim in 2008 stating the magazine breached her copyright when it published the pictures on the front cover and on two pages inside its March 8 edition without her permission.

She says she has suffered loss and damage as a result of the publication.

According to the statement of claim, Moore spoke to event organiser Jeffrey Best at the party and the pair agreed that by paying for the photographs Moore would be assigned the copyright.

The trial before Justice John Middleton is expected to run for four-days beginning on Monday.

Other witnesses will give videolink evidence from Los Angeles.

Jamie gets mad

One of the most visibly upset mourners at Johnny Baker's funeral on Friday was his close friend Skye Leckie, tireless charity worker and all round nice girl. Not only had Skye lost a great pal, she had personally organized all the funeral proceedings.

Now husband and Channel 7 supremo David Leckie has a major headache-how to sooth the troubled brows of his network's major talent, the diminutive but perfectly formed ex-Manpower dancer turned gardening guru, Jame Durie.

Durie is furious that gossip mag New Idea (referred to as No Idea by some publishing wags) printed a tale that he had been 'dumped' by Oprah Winfrey after winning hearts and minds when Jamie first appeared on Oprah's show 2 years ago to give gardening hints and went on to become a regular guest.

"Not true" said an upset Durie and an Oprah spokesman backed him up when the Shuttle managed to get through by Skype-saying that despite Jamie filming a series of his Outdoor Room for US cable TV, he and Oprah still maintain a warm relationship. It's high priced lawyers at ten paces which puts Leckie in a difficult position-one of his top money spinners is suing a publication owned by Pacific Publications which in turn is owned by Leckie's boss, Channel 7 owner and billionaire Kerry Stokes.

New Idea only recently apologised to tennis ace Leyton Hewitt and wife Bec over a mistaken tale that linked Bec with a mysterious man who turned out to be her minder. Bec is still considering whether she will take the matter further.

Where this dispute will end no-one knows, but it's just 4 weeks since the Shuttle attended the launch of Durie's new range of garden furniture in his Patio range at the re-vamped Beresford Hotel just off Oxford Street's gay strip in Darlinghurst and while sharing a champers with owner Ashog and Durie, a call came through from the Great One herself. Yes. Oprah had negotiated time zones to place a congratulating personal call to Jamie.

                                       lawyers at 10 paces..OK..they're really Jamie Durie's garden gnomes