The Great Fairy Bread Scandal

It's a delicacy that has delighted Aussie children for decades. No birthday party for any child under 10 is worth it's salt if the caterer doesn't supply copious quantities of the unique Ausse delicacy: Fairy Bread. A simple concoction: white bread and butter (nothing healthy like Rye)and covered with hundreds and thousands.

So it was understandable that the mighty Rupert Murdoch News Corp empire and it's dozens of newspaper outlets screeched shock, horror when it got wind that a sinister anonymous "woke" mob were demanding a change to the name. The moniker Fairy Bread was deemed an insult to , well we aren't quite sure what..fairies?. We'll never know as for some reason the tale which swept the tabloid pages of the Murdoch tabloids have inexplicably vanished

Possibly because the whole thing was a hoax but by whom? That's still a mystery. Radio annnouncer Ben Fordham had already declared the mini drama a scam during the week but News Corp scribes were not having it. Until Friday that is when the penny finally dropped. At least the mini scandal has delighted fierce Murdoch critic and ex-prime Minster Kevin Rudd who has gleefully tweeted news of the minor furor to his million plus Twitter followers.

. The only real mystery is why the wondrous Daily Mail /MailOnline didn't pick up and run with the hoax. Right up their alley.

Drinks with Rupert

Media baron Rupert Murdoch's Christmas drinks party in London is a much sought after invite by the powerful and not so great especially for politicians after his various news outlets in the UK publish totally partisan by-partisan tales about elections. Boris Johnson was there will bells on although rumored new Labour front-runner for the leadership Sir Keith Starmer possibly either didn't get a guernsey or if he did, tossed it away after.....

The Sun just ran a scathing article claiming he was a millionaire pretending to be working class and was no pal to workers. He might be a millionaire but his back ground is most definitely working class unlike the Boris the Toff at No Ten whose background is most definitely Upper Class and who went to Eton unlike Starmer who went to a humble northern Grammar School.

However one unexpected guest who lingered in the shadows was actress Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton. Blanchett and Upton have just sold their holiday home at Pittwater and after selling the family home at Hunter's Hill for a grand price, they have relocated to England and purchased a large Manor house (they also have a flat in London and a house in Los Angeles). Cate still owns half a dozen apartments in Sydney bought as an investment for her children.

Blanchett is a Greenie at heart and although Rupert claims he believes in Climate Change most of his editors are unbelievers. Perhaps Aussies who have made it big in the big wide world can't really afford to turn down an invitation from Rupert who is known to make offers folk can't refuse.

# Whispers has been to several parties hosted by Rupert Murdoch. He's a friendly, chatty type of bloke although at the opening of his Sydney Fox Studios when Whispers asked him an innocuous question and he read our name tag stating we were from a rival newspaper he responded: "oh just fuck off"

News Corp Fail # 1

An occasional series:
Published yesterday in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, one of Rupert Murdoch's leading Aussie tabloids.

A story on the death of ACDC co-founder Malcolm Young who passed away sadly from dementia at the young age of 64.
Earth to editor : Malcolm was not a bass guitarist, he was a rhythm guitarist (big difference !) who many regarded as one of the greatest on the planet. Better luck next time. Vale Malcolm.

Love Match of The Century

Who doesn't love an engagement? Whispers reckons this is the best comment to date:

Brouhaha in Bronte

Clare Strang & Matt Handbury

Bronte House, built in 1838 is a magnificent National Trust property owned by the local council. It's sweeping lawns cascade down a slope and join the park that backs onto the quaint Bronte Beach noted for it's trendy cafes frequented by many of the young elites that live in the Eastern Suburbs.
Bronte House's most recent tenant, Matt Handbury, a nephew of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has just relinquished his lease after a number of years living there.
Before Handbury Sydney style expert Leo Schofield resided there and gave some pretty good parties. One which Whispers attended was a birthday bash for the late painter Margaret Olley where the entertainment featured the world famous artists Richard Tognetti on violin and Simon Tedeschi on piano.
Now Bronte House is up for lease again - one of the provisos for a pepper corn rent is that the beautiful gardens must be opened to the public for a certain number of days and the tenant is responsible fo r upkeep &repairs which can be pretty pricey.
Green's councilor, the exotically named Dominci Darugland Boondi Boondi Wy Kanak (pictured left) is demanding that confidential documents relating to the tenancy be revealed to the general public. Fellow Waverley councilors are resisting Kanak's request claiming that the papers contain confidential financial information about previous tenants.
Meanwhile Handbury who is boss of Murdoch Magazines with his HQ based on a wharf on Sydney Harbour is looking for new digs. Worth an estimated $370M he & wife Clare Strang could probably afford to move near his cousin and future News Corp boss Lachlan Murdoch in Bellevue Hill while Whispers awaits with baited breath to see just who the new tenants in Bronte House will be. Hopefully they'll be the entertaining kind.

Leo Schofield             Margaret Olley                            Richard Tognetti                    Simon Tedeschi

Rupert Murdoch & Jerry Hall : so much to discuss

One of the madder tales doing the rounds and which is bound to be repeated ad infinitum is the rumour that billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is dating the Texan model Jerry Hall. Jerry is pictured here with her former boyfriend Warwick Hemsley and with her daughter Georgia May Jagger during Sydney visits.
What could this newspaper obsessed mogul possibly have in common with fun loving Jerry?. Well according to Nick Davies in his best- seller Hack Attack about the recent hacking scandal, perhaps pillow talk could involve a discussion about how Rupert's tabloids hacked the phone of Bernard Doherty who was Mick Jagger's publicist when he was married to Jerry which provided a string of exclusive tales about the couple's divorce for the Murdoch newspapers.

exclusive : More Fallout from the Hacking Scandal

Mary-Ellen Field                                                                                            Mark Colvin

One of the lesser know victims of the tawdry hacking scandal in the UK was the Australian Mary Ellen-Field who guided the career of supermodel Elle McPherson, as reported in the Shuttle in 2011.
Elle became suspicious that messages between her and Field were ending up as gossip items in the media. She unceremoniously sacked Mary-Ellen who had helped McPherson build her reputed $65M fortune.

As has now been discovered Elle's phone had been hacked by News Corp tabloids and Field was innocent. When McPherson sued News Corp the case was settled confidentially and Elle was soon fronting a TV show produced by the corporation.

Field was left in the lurch and launched a lawsuit against News Corp.
Now she has been forced to withdraw after being unable to definitely prove a link between her sacking and the hacking of McPherson's phone. Faced with little help from her former employer (they breed those girls tough in the Shire) she has been left with a huge legal bill, her own and News Corps' costs.

At least Mary-Ellen can hold her head high. As we reported back in April 2011, ABC News radio's Mark Colvin was the first Australian outlet to interview Field over her dilemma.
London born Colvin, one of Australia's most respected broadcasters kept in touch with Field to see how her case was going and they developed a friendship.
And when Mary-Ellen Field discovered Colvin was under-going dialysis she offered him a precious gift : one of her kidneys. The transplant took place in December 2012.
Colvin is now recovering and will hopefully be back on the airwaves soon.
 As the saying goes : It's an ill wind that blows no good. Out of the shocking hacking scandal that has engulfed News Corp, one person has emerged as a heroine with dignity and every reason to hold her head high, albeit facing financial ruin.
Perhaps News Corp could finally show a smidgen of class and pick up Mary-Ellen Field's legal tab.

exclusive : Why Rebekah Brookes Visited Australia

While media mogul and US citizen Rupert Murdoch was visiting Darwin this week and castigating the ruling Labor Party over the 457 visas, the former CEO of his British newspaper interests, Rebekah Brooks was staying at Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch's lavish Bellevue Hill mansion.

Brooks and her husband racehorse trainer Charlie Brookes hit the town with the Murdochs playing tour guides. The Icebergs restaurant at Bondi Beach was a particular favourite with the foursome dining there twice.

The Shuttle can now reveal the reason for Brookes visit that coincided with Rupert Murdoch's annual check-up of his Aussie interests : she is being lined up to become boss of Rupert's new Australian operations when his publishing interests come under a new regime as he splits his newspapers from his movie and TV interests.
Brookes still has to face a UK court later this year over the hacking scandal but an impeccable News Ltd source tells the Shuttle that Murdoch is determined that Brookes heads up his local publishing interests for at least 3 years with the expected election of a Tony Abbott LNP government in September.
 When the hacking scandal exploded in the UK last year and Murdoch flew into London, he declared that looking after Rebekah Brookes was his first priority and when she was forced to resign, he gave her a reputed $20M payoff.

Memorable Moments *1

Most Humble Media Mogul of The Day

Rupert, Dame Elisabeth, Sir Keith & Helen Handbury

Rupert Murdoch- today speaking with great affection in Melbourne at a memorial service for his mother, the much loved Dame Elisabeth Murdoch who passed away at the grand age of 103 on the 5th of December. :

Rupert & wife Wendi

 "Parenthood came late to my father (Sir Keith Murdoch) so he lavished affection upon his children and mum took the role of being the disciplinarian.
 I always remember her spanking me when I did something naughty like pulling my sister Helen's pigtails !"

God Abandons Rupert!

It just goes from bad to worse for Rupert Murdoch.
With News having just posted a $1.9 Billion loss today, yesterday the Church Of England (CEO : HM The Queen) announced that it had sold it shares in News Corp for $3 million because of the "bad behaviour" of some of it's newspapers.

Andrew Whittam Smith is the First Church Estate's Commissioner and in charge of their finances. He is also the founder of the Independent Newspaper which along with The Guardian has been on the attack over the great hacking scandal and other matters previously. It was he who made the decision to sell the Church's stake in News.
A former journalist and the son of an Anglican vicar, Whittam Smith is far from being a prude and was once president of the British Film Board Classification and was responsible during the 90s for liberalising what naughty parts Brits could see in videos and films. Until then it had languished about 50 years behind the rest of Europe.
He also thinks Scotland Yard may soon be feeling the collars of both James Murdoch and his father for having breached Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and is quoted as saying:
"“It means that if you have presided over an organisation that has conducted criminal activities, either you have the orders, or you gave permission, or you connived, but if you did none of these things, then you were neglectful. That, I believe, is the trap in which the directors of News International find themselves."

Could this be why Rupert and James are both moving permanently to New York?. Given how the British courts are now closely co-operating with US courts in extradition matters ala Julian Assange, perhaps both could seek sanctuary in Australia House in The Strand and ask for asylum.

"Invasion Of The Super Yachts"

The UK's Daily Mail has published a  feature on the many fabulous gin palaces that have invaded the Thames & London for the Olympics. It's deja vu time and just like a re-run of the Sydney 2000 Olympics when basically the same boats arrived in Sydney and lined up at the wharf in Blackwattle Bay, the only place large enough to host a billion dollars worth of luxury boating.

Hopefully those flogging luxury goods in London will not make the same mistake as several did at Blackwattle and set up stores nearby. A 3 star restaurant opened hoping to cater to yacht owners and several luxury goods purveyors like the South Australian Pearl jeweler who flew in a million dollars worth of gems and built a small boutique from the ground up for the  2 weeks of games. All went broke after the fortnight. Most of the boat owners flew in and stayed at hotels while the only people onboard their boats were staff.

Illona at Canary Wharf

the Murdochs at the Lowy dinner

Frank Lowy

One luxury ship in London is Frank Lowy's  Ilona that is moored at Canary Wharf, not far from his good friend Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.HQ. Lowy owns the giant Westfield Shopping Centres. Rupert & Wendi Murdoch flew to Sydney from New York in 2008 to attend a dinner in honour of Lowy at the Royal Randwick Racecourse as the Shuttle's exclusive pic shows.

Lowy fled Czechoslavakia to France in 1946 but was arrested by British troops and incarcerated at a detention camp in Cyprus, eventually making it to Israel and joining the Haganah. He arrived in Australia in 1953 and partnered with Hungarian immigrant John Saunders to create Westfield, now the largest shopping centre owners in the world. The Shuttle attended a breakfast at the Regent Hotel in Sydney for Henry Kissinger (see pic below with Ros Packer) in 1998. When Kissinger left the stage he was mobbed by the many politicians there but brushed them aside, making his way to Lowy's table where the 2 remained in deep conversation.

The Greens Leader & Jimi Hendrix

Dr Bob Brown (above) the leader who has taken the Australian Greens party to such extraordinary heights with 9 Senators now holding the balance of power in the Upper House for the next six years, resigned today as party leader and as an MP.

The openly gay Brown plans to spend more time at his Tasmanian property with partner Paul Thomas. Needless to say the media, notably News Corp which vowed in an editorial to "destroy The Greens" has already begun to promote conspiracy theories for his resignation, pinning it to the Carbon Price (earth to News Corp-it's a price not a tax) and so on, ignoring the fact that next year Brown would undoubtedly be re-elected and faced serving in the Senate until he was 75.

What is less well known is that Brown in 1970 as a young doctor having graduated from Sydney University was working as a locum at St Mary's Hospital in South Kensington when Jimi Hendrix's body was brought in.

Brown says it was obvious Hendrix had been dead for some hours and the presumption was that he had died from a drug overdose. Despite talk at the time that Hendrix had been murdered, Brown says there was no way of proving as much by an autopsy which he assisted with and he was never spoken to by police over the matter.
And it was Bob Brown who faced the British media that morning to announce that Jimi Hendrix had passed away.
You can hear an interview Brown gave on the subject some years ago to 2GB here on the Greens website.

G.W.Lambert self portrait 1920

Kit Lambert

## Jimi Hendrix who died in at the age of 28 had another Australian connection with some degrees of separation. It was Kit Lambert, the man who discovered The Who who was the first to realise the potential of Hendrix when he saw Jimi performing in a pub in West London. He recalled later :
"He was amazing, not only playing the guitar with first his right hand, then left but eventually with his teeth. I had to have him and in my mind I created an instant record label, Track Records and signed Hendrix before we even knew how a record was produced".

Lambert was the son of the English classical composer Constant Lambert who was the son of one of Australia's first great artists and the Official War Artist at the WW1 Gallipoli campaign, George Washington Lambert.

Madame Arcati & The News Corp Insider

Rumours of her demise were greatly exaggerated. Just a few weeks ago the British blogger Madame Arcati announced her retirement from public life. It was short lived.
Now she is back and has scored an exclusive interview with the former News Of The World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck.
Thurlbeck has had the privilege of now having his collar felt twice in the Great Hacking Scandal that has made the British publishing world exciting once more.

Read Madame's Thurlbeck interview here.

# Neville Thurlbeck has also joined the blogging world here. It's a good read. Our readers in the UK may be interested in his 2000 Mercedes SL280 that's for sale for £5,999. The same model sells for $27,000  (£17,000) in Australia. Anyone visiting for the London Olympics should snap up the bargain. The Shuttle has shipped an automobile out from the UK before. Freight costs approx $1000. It's easier than you think and pays for the trip !

# On the subject of the late News Of The World, was it Mr Thurlbeck who penned a scurrilous article that appeared about the Shuttle a couple of decades ago ?. On the front page no less and mistaking us for a character of dubious morals with a similar name who hailed from Glasgow ?

They coughed up a tidy sum three weeks later that paid for a holiday to Morocco and a brand new yellow Mini car, dubbed 'Rupert' in the great man's honour.

Spot The Difference # 1

An occasional quiz:  match the face with the story !

(a) this man is the head of a controversial organisation that released information sent to it by whistleblowers  which was subsequrntly published around the world. He is fighting for his freedom in London. Clue: MasterCard, Visa, etc refuse to process donations to his organisation.

(b) this man is the head of a controversial organisation that criminally hacked thousands of voice mail messages for information that was subsequently published around the world. He arrived in London recently to launch a new venture ? Clue:You can access many of his products via MasterCard, Visa etc.

Marjorie Orr on Kevin & Julia

Never has an Australian prime minister had to work so hard to justify their existence as Julia Gillard since ousting Kevin Rudd in a party room coup in 2010.

The general public show little interest in Kevin Rudd replacing her but there’s every chance that a leadership spill may become a self-fulfilling event (certainly if News Corp has it away).

Monday’s much touted but disappointing ABC TV 4 Corners program regurgitated claims from 2010 and was much ado about nought, not unlike the great Canberra ‘riot’ of Australia Day when dozens of AFP officers dramatically bustled the PM and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott through a largely docile crowd who had minutes before been merely tapping vigorously on a restaurant window, gesticulating at the two politicians shouting insults no worse than ‘shame shame’. 

Where will it all end?. Perhaps internationally famous Astrology Marjorie Orr has a tip.

 According to Orr (sans the Pluto trines and Uranus square Pluto and other technical jargon):

Julia Gillard’s PMship chart, 24 June 2010 1.03pm is labouring mightily this year with…. by mid-March which is often a sign of an administration's collapse. If by a miracle she survives that destabilising influence returns later in the year...and so on. 

Basically it sounds like Mars and Jupiter may do her in by late 2012.

But there’s more as in Kevin Rudd’s chart:

Kevin Rudd - whom as I recollect no one actually liked when he was in power (in fact he was more popular than any  Oz leader in history, except within the Labor Party Caucus where he was detested) - does have lucky/successful influences in early March especially though he looks to be sagging badly from May onwards….. But he's certainly for all that in a bullish mood through the year with tr Pluto square his Jupiter and tr Uranus in opposition.

Julia is a Libran and Kevin a (by all accounts-the bitchy type ) Virgo.  Virgos holds grudges. For a long time.

So it’s business as usual and Julia will plod on while Rudd plots on, enjoys the speculation and News Corp fans the flames. Which means God forbid, another two years of this.

Kathy Lette-Swinging from The Chandeliers

Today is Kathy Lette is 53 and she plans to celebrate her birthday with hubby Geoffrey Robertson QC at London's Savoy Hotel where she says she will be "swinging from the chandeliers".

Kathy has been telling the London Evening Standard about her recent encounter with a would be handbag snatcher in London's East End:
"I think adrenaline kicked in. He grabbed it, but I wasn't going to let him have it, so I fought back, I grabbed it back from him. The handle broke, but at least I got it back.
"I just held on for grim death. I couldn't really give chase afterwards because I had my high heels on. Taking a woman's handbag, it is like you are violating her very body.
"From now if I walk in the East End the only handbag I will carry will be in the form of the arm of a really burly bloke."

Kathy had been on her way to a literary event when the mugger struck and attempted to bag the Moschino handbag. As the writer says :
"You don't come between an Australian woman and her handbag".
PS : Kathy's first husband was Kim Williams who has just become the overlord of News Corp in Australia.

Publishing Pitfalls #1

Two months ago we wrote of the doom and gloom at the venerable Fairfax Media publishing house who produce two of the world's oldest and most respected newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age.

As crikey.com.au revealed Fairfax plan to cut up to 200 staff including journalists and sub-editors at the same time they are reaping in tens of millions of dollars in annual profits. Fairfax want to out source sub editing to Pagemasters part of AAP who are in turn 45% owned by News Corp currently the subject of a police and parliamentary investigation in the UK over hacking and whose boss Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a cream pie wielding comedian yesterday.

One complaint over the Fairfax cuts that will further concentrate media power into fewer hands is that standards are likely to fall. Particularly at an organisation like Fairfax which has maintained a long history of high standards not only in reporting news but in presentation.

Fairfax managers should heed our warnings. Just a few days ago we pointed out how the web-site of the Daily Telegraph carries the odd story of how Lady GaGa appeared at the Sydney Opera House although it was in fact the Sydney Town Hall where she wowed 1000 invited guests. The clanger still remains.

There was a reason Lady GaGa chose the Town Hall-it boasts the world's biggest and most magnificent organ which GaGa pounded away on to great effect during her concert.

Is the curse of the absent sub-editor spreading ?. This series of posts in one of favourite newspaper websites London Evening Standard owned by the Russian entrepreneur Alexander Lebedev  caught our eye this morning :

When Wendi Attacks!

It was one of the most anticipated television appearances in modern time. The legendary media mogul Rupert Murdoch was to be grilled by the powerful UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

In the end it was more like being lashed with a damp lettuce leaf but who wasn't impressed by Rupert Murdoch's humble physical appearance that one viewer described as more like Mr Grace from Are You Being Served.

Heir apparent James Murdoch was full of sincerity with his Ivy league, well mannered and scrubbed looks. With Murdoch Sn we saw flashes of his Australian laid back humour but direct answers. And who could not have felt for him when he appeared almost on the verge of tears as he described his father, the late Sir Keith Murdoch who broke tradition when he attacked the British government over the Gallipoli disaster in which Australian and New Zealand troops were treated as useful cannon fodder for incompetent British generals.

Rupert was reminding us that there is a need for an open and fearless media to shine a light on the political machinations that are not always in the best interests of  citizens and he is correct on that.

Sadly Rebekah Brooks appearance was an anti-climax although she presented her case well.

But the winner of the day was Wendi Murdoch who sat loyally behind her hubby, at times trying to stop him thumping the table (a legendary Rupert trait) and who rushed to the defense of her man  when threatened with a custard tart (an annoying stunt that was badly timed).

While James Murdoch looked suitably shocked with a momentary freeze, Wendi jumped to her feet and laid into the tart bearer with a right hook that left the attacker wearing his own pie !

A round-up of reactions to Mrs Murdoch :

Murdoch attack: wife leaps to tycoon's rescue at hacking inquiry London Evening Standard

FURY AT RUPERT MURDOCH PIE ATTACK COMIC            UK Express

@buchu Piegate hits hackgate. Wendi Deng is more sprightly than the portly Met officer who ran across the screen #hackgate.

And as Rupert is 80, there is one person who shines above the others as the ideal candidate to lead the mighty News Corp into the uncertain future-step forward Wendi Murdoch: Warrior Princess

PS : Thank God for spell check but it produces some odd corrections such as :
Rupoer ( as in Rupert)...Ripper !
Gallipolli  (as in Gallipoli)..Gladioli !