Strangest story of the week

Broadcaster Phillip Adams who chairs the Late Night Live program on the ABC's Radio National is a particular favourite of Whispers. Each day when we are traveling by car we avidly listen to Adam's show when it is re-broadcast. His mixture of guests with their take on world affairs is always fascinating as is Adam's presentation.

But now word reaches us the Adams and an ABC crew have been banned from visiting India. They have been denied visas after planning the trip for weeks. Why? This is a real mystery. Many consider Adams a bit of an old 'lefty'. Indeed former Prime Minister John Howard on one of his regular attacks upon the ABC and the (ill-conceived) view it was too "left wing" famously pondered "where is the right-wing Philip Adams.?"
Australia's media seems to have ignored this bizarre insult which can only be political but India's Hindustan Times has the scoop.

Whispers has spotted Adams around town in the past but he now appears to have retired to the country after selling his magnificent Paddington home. On one memorable occasion we attended a party in Queen Street Woolahra for the launch of the famed Prince Lorenzo Montesini's (left) autobiography, wittingly launched by Philip.

A French Honour

Brian * Emile * and Gene Sherman

Gene Sherman owns the up-market Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Gallery in Paddington. Now for the second time she has been honoured by the French government for her contribution to the arts and culture presented at a small cocktail party as our snap above shows.
Pinning on the medal is France's Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Monsieur Christophe Lecourtier.

And watching were some proud family members - husband Brian and son Emile. Brian Sherman who sold his investment company for $$mega-millions now concentrates on his charity Voiceless started by he and his daughter Ondine which raises awareness of animals suffering in factory farming and the kangaroo industry in Australia.
 Emile Sherman is probably best known as the producer of the 2011 Academy Award winning film The King's Speech. Currently he's working on several TV series : Love Nina and Codes of Conduct, a science fiction film How To Talk to Girls at Parties starring Nicole Kidman and a re-make of the Lynda la Plante Widows starring Viola Davis.
And if you haven't been to the wonderful Sherman Gallery you'll find it at 16-29 Goodhope Street, just off Five Ways in Paddington.

Media madness

The Village Inn                  Karl Stefanovic & Lisa Wilkinson wear vests to "support" tradesmen

 Some times media beat-ups are just too ridiculous to let pass without comment. But the sight of the line-up of this morning TV crew in 'support' of 'tradies  was about as gormless as TV can be.
The Village Inn is a newly renovated pub in trendy Paddington. The Inn has posted a sign with a dress code. It's hardly onerous. Those "hi viz" vests worn by tradies' (tradesmen) are banned. This is similar to just about every venue, restaurant & hotel in the inner city. Some media seem to think this is an insult, and have given the impression that tradies themselves are actually banned. The Sydney Morning Herald even jumped into the fray with claims that tradies had been posting facebook messages on the Inn's profile page threatening revenge if the pub ever needed work done. As though there is some sort of cartel of tradesmen

Paddington used to be a working class suburb where houses cost a few hundred pounds. These days you wouldn't get a property there for under a million dollars. It's been like for about 40 years.
It's amazing that there was still a pub that hadn't been renovated.  We don't know how much the Village Inn spent renovating the joint but it would be in the 100s of thousands of dollars. Tradie labour isn't cheap. At $180-300 an hour you can see how the costs would run up pretty fast and why the Inn owners would need to put their prices up. The notion that tradies, having made a small fortune renovating the place, would then complain because the Inn owners need to recoup the costs of their wages is nonsensical.

Meanwhile where does Karl Stefanovic who said "get lost you  hipsters" live? Possibly less than ten minutes from the Village Inn in a lavish penthouse. As for Lisa Wilkinson, Whispers often sees her at fashion shows or at the Randwick Races. We've never spotted her yet protesting about the strict dress rules there or anywhere else. But we will ask her why.

Moran Art Prize

The Moran family have at times been steeped in controversy. They also live now as a happy family unit in the extraordinary Swifts in Darling Point. Swifts, built in 1876 by Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth is possibly the most valuable house in Sydney with it's many acres.    

The Moran Art Prizes are amongst the most valuable in Australia and the awards were given out today in the beautiful Juniper Hall  (also owned by the Morans and faithfully restored) in Paddington.
Louise Herman won first prize with this stunning portrait of photographic artist Bill Henson who has also been surrounded by controversy over his work.
Alisha Staines picked up the Student Prize Year 10-11 for her photo those that don't jump will never fly (left) and below that is Emily Riley's Colour of Life the winning snap in Student Year 9-10

The exhibition of all the winning photographs and much much more is now on at Juniper Hall in Oxford Street Paddington

Right :  Bill Henson, Lewis Miller, Edmund Capon & Peter Moran with Louise Herman accepting her award.

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Cirque du Soleil opened last night in the big top at the Entertainment Quarter at Fox Studios.

Attending as our snap shows: actress Claudia Karvan and her son, Alex Greenwich MP and Sharri Markson the Media Editor on the Australian Newspaper.

Gary Shead's new exhibition

 Gary Shead with Shakespearean actor John Bell                                                          Peter Kingston & Stuart Purves

Gray Shead is regarded as one of Australia's finest lyrical, figurative painters. His new exhibition opened at the Australian Galleries in Paddington and is based on Dante Alighieri’s 14th century literary masterpiece The Divine Comedy.. By evening's end the gallery had sold nearly $750K worth of paintings but at his prices that may not be that many. They ranged from $16500 to $375,000. Here are a few snaps from the night. You can view the exhibition online here or at the gallery at 15 Royston Street Paddington until October 5th.

Woollahra Village Weekend

The inaugural Woollahra Village Weekend- or WVW13  as it's billed, opens today with all manner of village type events or "3 days of Fashion, Food, Art, Literature, Music and Community Fun" as the official blurb says.

Go to the website to see a list and times of events.

After Party

Michelle Leslie,        Meiche Buchan               Martin & Michelle Walsh                 actors Michael Caton & Roy Billing

 

 

 Once the race has been run and you are either a winner or a loser (the Melbourne Cup of course ) you will certainly want to party on.

Late afternoon at the Champagne Bar in Paddington's Bellevue Hotel is the place to gather during the racing season. This year they have opted for Piper Heidsieck which will soothe any shattered nerves or heighten the senses if you won or lost big on the big race. We aren't too sure if Piper was Marilyn Monroe's favourite tipple as the poster says, but it is a favourite of the movie set in Hollywood. And look at who was at the launch party, all manner of exciting people. 

The Bellevue Hotel: 159 Hargrave Street, Paddington NSW 2021 Tel : +61 2 9363 2293

Sign Of The Times?

Rumours are swirling around the ritzy art galleries of Paddington and Woollahra that 2 of the areas most important galleries and dealers are to join forces.

Tim Olsen, the amiable owner of the Tim Olsen Gallery and son of Australian artist John Olsen is said to be teaming up with respected dealer Rex Irwin.
Irwin would possibly have one of the countries best client lists and Tim has impeccable connections in business, social and show biz circles. Together they would form a formidable duo.               
The pair were recently spotted in a huddle at Tim's exhibition of new works by actor Noah Taylor (right) a fortnight ago, as our exclusive picture shows. That's one of Noah's paintings behind the 2 dealers. Can't quite work out what it says.

Stage Heavyweights attend Awards

                                       The winners of the 2012 Sydney Theatre Awards have been announced with around 300 members of the Sydney theatre community attending the auditorium at Paddington RSL to cheer on their fellow thespians.
 International stage royalty presented awards including Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones and Barry Humphries.
Best Mainstage Production went to Belvoir Street's Medea while Best Actor in a Leading Role of a Mainstage Production was won by Josh McConville for Griffin’s The Boys.

Angela Lansbury

Lucy Durack

James Earl Jones & wife Cecilia Hart

 Caroline Brazier won Best Actress in a Leading Role in an Independent Production for I Want To Sleep With Tom Stoppard, while James Lugton won Best Actor in a Leading Role in an Independent Production for The Taming of the Shrew.
 South Pacific was awarded Best Production of a Musical, while Lucy Durack won the Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Legally Blonde, and Ben Lewis was awarded the Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Love Never Dies.


 Wacky Hairstyle of The Month

David Lynch.  New York Social Diary

Pictured : filmmaker David Lynch with his magnificent cockatoo parrot inspired thatch at a recent fundraiser in New York for the David Lynch Foundation. Fab!

Be Good To Your Mumm

Laura Csortan

The Bellevue Hotel in Paddington has opened a bar for the Summer racing season and it's the place to go during or after the Saturday races.

The 2012 Mumm Spring Carnival Bar is open for business and even better, there is food provided by top chef Damien Pignolet as well as a terrific choice in various Mumm NV sparkles. They even have ordinary drinks as well like beer and wine.
Wednesday night's opening bash was a fairly small affair with some of our favourite faces like gorgeous Laura Csorton (who will host the bar) Gigi Edgley, Kerri Anne Kennnerley, Sophie Faulkner and actor Roy Billing. Roy is one of those thespians who is never out of work. Following his superb performance as the infamous drug baron Robert Trimbole in Underbelly he also appears on Sunday nights in the hit ABC series Irish Jack with co-star Guy Pearce and has a TV movie Cliffy about the famous long distance runner Cliff Young to be released in 2013 along with Mystery Road which co-stars Hugo Weaving and Ryan Kwanten.

Damien Pignolet

The Mumm Bar also has a celebrity DJ in the form of actor Alex Dimitriades resting after his hit performance in The Slap. The bar is upstairs at the Bellevue and features leather sofas , a dining area with a private dining room plus a sun deck but more importantly, rows and rows of Mumm Champagne behind the bar.

The 2012 Mumm Spring Carnival Bar : Hosted By Laura Csortan / DJ - Alex Dimitriades / Canapés by Damien Pignolet
matched with NV Mumm Champagne
Caulfield Cup :Saturday 20th October. Cox Plate: Saturday 27th October
Derby Day :Saturday 3rd November, Melbourne Cup : Tuesday 6th November ($120 pp)

Sass & Bide Sunnies

The ever expanding Sass & Bide empire now incorporates some great sunglasses and they threw a small party at their elegant Paddinghurst boutique (..that's half way between Darlinghurst and Paddington on Oxford Street) to celebrate. The collection that costs from $260 to about $380 a pair include retro style sunglasses, big lense sunglasses as well as modern cool sunglasses which are all made in Italy with love!

 The designing duo Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton arrived fashionably late for their party.

Sass & Bide's Sarah-Jane and Heidi

a hug from Daimon Downey

Sneaky Sound System's :          Miss Connie Mitchell & Black Angus

To view the range go to the Eye Wear Boutique or Sass & Bide.