Society Surgeon's Wrist Slap

SYDNEY SURGEON Michael Zacharia, a favourite nip and tuck doctor in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs has been fined $15,000 for prescribing steroids, growth hormones and testosterone by the NSW Medical Tribunal.

It's quite a blow for the talented doctor who is a regular on TV shows like Extreme Makeover and is regularly consulted by glossy magazines like Cleo and Woman's Day.
Society ladies ( and quite a few men) swear by Zacharia's ability to lose a few years off the face with minimal surgery that looks like the patient has just been on a long relaxing holiday.

One well know partygoer on the Sydney social circuit who spoke to the Shuttle today (we know she's 59 years old but easily gets away with 40) said : "Michael is the best plastic and cosmetic surgeon in town. He is a very caring and thoughtful doctor who talked me out of some heavy surgery I wanted and eventually did the most minor things. And it took at least ten years of my looks!"

Michael and his wife Stephanie Zacharia burst onto the Sydney scene about 15 years ago after re-locating from Adelaide and were an instant success as a new young glamour couple on the circuit.
For a few years Stephanie published the Australian version of Ocean Drive, the top US celebrity and social magazine from Miami.

Although the two have now parted ways they are still good friends and Michael has been building a steady clientele from the North Shore and in the East.

Michael thinks he is being made a scapegoat and is quoted saying : "I have had this issue placed against me but really there are lots of other doctors who are performing exactly what I was doing - thousands of other doctors both here and over in America"

Oddly, the drugs Zacharia prescribed are easily available on script in the USA and UK but Australia's medical profession is known for it's conservatism and for frowning on drugs that patients may actually like (doctors fought for years to be able to prescribe Prozac and Viagra).
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Fourteen year old Jack Vidgen has been telling his Fcaebook friends about his current trip to the USA . Jack is holidaying in New York for a week before heading to Los Angelas for the G'Day Australia celebrations there later this month :

"New York is INSANE!!! It's incredible.. Went to New Jersey today and checked out 'Carlo's Bake Shop' (from the show Cake Boss) and there was about a half-hour wait to even get into the bakery.. Then caught the Subway back to Times Square (this scary looking guy kept staring at me and I got freaked out lol). I'm off to see 'WICKED' now.. I'm sure it'll be amazing!"

Scary looking guy on the subway?. Why isn't Sony providing a limo for their top selling, angelic looking young star ?

After winning Australia's Got Talent last year Vidgen also appeared in a star studded event in Las Vegas. He's also become a big star in South America and his Youtube videos have now received over 14 million hits.

                        

"If you don't know Patrick-you should go out more" : Andy Warhol

      What better way to start a new year off than a shameless plug for a pal. The above quote is genuine-tSS was there when the late Andy Warhol said it. Patrick McMullan has been New York's top society snapper for going on 20 years now-in fact he's probably the USA's most sought after photographer for social get-togethers.

     Patrick has regular columns in Warhol's Interview Magazine, Vanity Fair (for which he's a contributing editor) New York Magazine, Ocean Drive,  and a few others. His pics appear in basically every US newspaper and around the world. He's one of the guys on the inside. Even Paris Hilton 2009's 2008's famous party girl says no party is complete without Patrick in attendance. He's also published 7 best selling books of party snaps. tSS can't quite remember where we met Patrick-it was most likely at a very disreputable Greenwich Village bar called the Ninth Circle.

        For the past 2 decades we've made an annual pilgrimage to visit Patrick in his Fifth Avenue apartment near Washington Square where he's lived since he left college. Soon we'll bring you a video of interview with Patrick conducted there. When we first started crashing on Patrick's sofa we usually had to cobble together a few dollars for breakfast the next day, Now McMullan employs around 40 people and 20 photographers around the USA. tSS occasionally helps out. I think he might own the building now.

       tSS once flew Patrick to Sydney for an exhibition of our snaps of various celebrities at a King's Cross gym transformed for the night into a gallery. He was a huge hit with the local media and our own party guests like the late Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue, who signed her snap which was later sold at a charity auction for the Bobby Goldsmith HIV charity bringing around $8000. Kylie loved the pic and asked us where we took it.."somewhere or other" was our reply, not wanting to remind her that it was in a bar when she trying to be incognito and she told tSS to "fuck off" at the time.

       Afterwards we all retired to a restaurant that is now the uber-chic Hugos Lounge (the bar and the only one not owned by 'nightclub identity' John Ibrahim). Joining us were our favourite former First Lady, Lady Sonia McMahon and Min Keating, mother of the then Prime Minister Paul Keating.(left) Everyone got along famously.

      right :   Lady Sonia McMahon with son , Hollywood hearthrob Julian McMahon

 In the morning Patrick received an urgent phone call from Min Keating.  "I left my beautiful rain coat behind" said Min. "Paul (Keating) will be furious " she said. " He bought it for me in Paris when he was on a state visit". Said raincoat was quickly found but as the half a dozen of us who had slept around Patrick's hotel suite arose, McMullan decided we should all pose in Min's leopard print raincoat for a future exhibition. "No-one will believe this" said Patrick...."the Prime Minister's mother waking me at 7am looking for her raincoat-it's like getting a call from the White House". Hopefully the snaps are locked away in a safe.

       Heaven forbid they should emerge. At former PM Bob Hawke's 80th birthday bash at the Opera House  a fortnight ago tSS earned a withering smile from Keating as we caught him trying to avoid the media upon arrival.

  Surpassing Patrick's photographic snaps now are his fashion reports for NBC TV. If you want to know the latest about New York's fashion scene go here to watch a few of McMullan's interviews.

    

that publicist guide in full...an occasional series

Cracking the so-called social scene isn't as easy as it seems. Talent and beauty is all very well but why not take the fast track and hire a publicist. But not just any PR will do. As one of the richest woman in Australia, Lady Mary Fairfax (right) found when she bought the most expensive apartment in New York in 1990-the penthouse of the Pierre Hotel which came complete with it's own ballroom and 4 amazing terraces overlooking Central Park and the NY skyline.

Lady Mary's Sydney parties were legendary-US presidents and the British Royal family members were regulars. Lady Fairfax is the Honoury Consul for Monaco and her palatial harbourside mansion Fairwater the Consulate with Prince Rainier and Prince Albert dropping in as household guests.

She had all the qualities to crack the New York scene-she is mega-rich, a noted philanthropist, has impeccable credentials and top-notch connections and was a regular guest at the Ronald Reagan White House. But did Lady Mary hire the right PR firm ?. An expensive publicist isn't always the best and in the end you are only as good as your publicist's connections.

Whilst New York's social media was intrigued by the media mogulette from Down Under, she really needed 3 of the most connected PRs in town to infiltrate New York's snooty upper class. The Pierre apartment remained largely empty for years except for the occasional visit from Lady Mary's loyal chauffeur and his wife who acted as a part-time caretakers. In 1999, she sold it for the knock-down price of $21M to a hedge fund manager. She was asking $35M.

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Lady Mary may have done better with New York public relation's expert R.Couri Hay.

 Couri Hay is one of Andy Warhol's Factory survivors and a refugee from the legendary nightclub Studio 54 for which he was the publicist and has an amazing handle on the local media from  alternative publications to direct lines to the all-powerful Cindy Adams, Richard Johnson, and Michael Musto. Hay is an often featured commentator on diverse TV shows from Geraldo At Large to Larry King Live.

And he has the Hamptons wrapped up. If you can't make it in the Hamptons-forget New York.

clients: the Ritz Carlton Hotel, British Airways, department store Bergdof Goodman, fashion label Fendi, private eye Frank Monte, jewelers Bulgari & Harry Winston, magazine Ocean Drive and the American Ballet Theater.