Bogan Bay

Some snaps from sunnier days in Byron Bay, the northern town that has become so popular with the ex-Hollywood set like Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky, Matt Damon, Zac Efron and assorted characters. Whispers has been visiting Byron Bay and nearby Mullumbimby for nearly 40 years. Ever since our pal the late British printing press heir Nicholas Shand re-located from Shropshire and puchased a few hundred acres in "Mullum". Shand set up the local newspaper, the Byron Echo which has since become the established newspaper for the area. Shand sadly passed away in a car accident and there is statue of him outside the local council chambers.

But there are rumblings of discontent about the "newcomers" and the glitzy Hemsworth set and assorted hanger-ons who number in the dozens, from the oldtimers who first moved to Byron Bay over the previous decades. And the addition of anti-vaxxer chef Pete Evans has really got blood vessels pumping. We can't name the locals but it seems most cannot abide the new crowd and the attention it has brought to Byron. Among the complaints are the rapidly rising house prices and the flocks of visitors who pour into the town on weekends.

One local described it as similar to the beautiful California enclave Sausalito which in the 60s & 70s was a playground for those wishing to escape the city ratrace but went along similar lines as Byron with property prices outstripping the ability of the sort of "arty" crowd that made it popular in the first place.

Byron Bay locals are now calling it Bogan Bay and say an event a few weeks ago sums up the new mob. A marquee and tables were set up in a park at the beach claiming Covid was a hoax and wearing masks stupid calling them "face nappies" as an insult. It was the sheer numbers who headed for these tables to lend support that upset the locals. Many early Byron locals were "alternatives" in the 60s thru 80s when they moved there but are not like the QAnon nutters who have been boring the world to death lately.

The original movie super-star to spot Byron's potential was Paul Hogan who snapped up acres in the hinterland and built a magnificent mansion and redeveloped the pub in the main street. Hoges packed up nearly 20 years ago selling up for $Millions and moved to LA. Now Byron, or Bogon is flooded from the recent torrential rains and the beach was recently washed away in another storm which caused terrible damage. One prominent local likened it to God's wrath.

Birthday Boy

It's a very Happy Birthday to former Prime Minister Bob Hawke (pictured here in our exclusive snap on Friday with Labor leader Bill Shorten) who turns 87 today (well yesterday actually). The former union leader won the 1983 general election in a landslide and at one stage was the most popular PM in Aussie history. He was eventually rolled by his (former) loyal deputy Paul Keating.
Whispers often runs into the Silver Bodgie as he is affectionately know, at various social functions and we have featured him on these pages over the years. Always popular with the electorate and he always greets you with a cherry smile and more often than not, a risque joke.
Below: Bob with John Singleton at the opening of Singleton's The Worker's Bar in Balmain (reputedly where the Labor Party was created in 1891) and with wife Blanche d'Alpuget at her book launch Hawke, The Prime Minister, the best selling Australian political biography of all time.

 *******************************************************************************
Photo roundup:
Matty Bennett and partner Rupert Noffs are creating a foodie storm in New York with their successful restaurant The Lucky Bee as celebs pour through the doors- below with gorgeous Victoria's Secret model, Megan Williams

 At the AACTA Awards on Wednesday night at Star City: Claudia Karvan * Mel Gibson * Ky Baldwin * George Miller * Paul Hogan * Cate Blanchett * Hugo Weaving

An Evening with Hoges

Our favourite Aussie icon, and first chairman of Variety - the Children's Charity Australia, Paul Hogan, is back in Australia to do what he does best- entertain. Come and join Hoges as he hits the stage with 'AN EVENING WITH HOGES' hilariously reminiscing through a most extraordinary life. Dean Murphy, Producer says "It's going to be an hilarious night of entertainment! "This December, Hoges will return to his roots and take to the stage on a nationwide comedy tour, highlighting key moments over his impressive career and share some of his much loved, unfiltered observations on life. In true Hoges style, it will be a night of fun and light-hearted jokes, in his classic matter of fact, tell-it-like-it-is style.

With Variety still close to his heart, $14 for every A Reserve tickets sold using the code HOGES will be donated to Variety. So grab your mate's to be a part of the night of laughter, and support a great cause.                                       GET DETAILS and TICKETS HERE

Paul Hogan Sells Malibu Mansion

Hogan's Malibu house (left) and the Byron Bay house at Possum Creek

Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan and wife Linda Koslowski have listed their magnificent Malibu property for sale for $US5.25M. 

 Although Hoge's later films were financial flops, he has made a fortune by parlaying his Dundee profits into a property empire valued at around $400M.

  Hogan and his film production partner John Cornell invested heavily in the NSW uber resort of Byron Bay building a beach side hotel and buying up plots of land in the hinterland.

Linda & Paul ( centre ) with business partners John Cornell and Delvene Delaney

His Possum Creek mansion and acres were reminiscent of the Malibu property. It was eventually sold to Hong Kong banker Duncan Mount who parceled up blocks and sold them on for a tidy fortune. Hoges was inducted into the 'hall of fame' at last month's G'Day USA in LA.

Meanwhile at the opening of last week's exhibition for fashion identity Vivian Chan Shaw, Hogan's first wife Noelene Hogan attended the party but remained silent on her ex-husband's life. Noelene and Paul divorced in 1981 and she received their Northern Beaches Sydney property which again was similar to the Malibu and Byron properties. Obviously Hoges likes the 'Southern Mansion' style home with a few hundred acres. Hogan keeps in regular touch with his grown-up sons and their families from the first marriage and they visit him and Koslowski's son Chance in the USA. left : Noelene Hogan with Claudia Chan Shaw last week.

Kitsch Week in LA

Those social scribes still holding down a job on a tabloid will be heading for Sydney Airport on Monday for one of the best freebies in town- the annual gala week in Los Angeles known as G'Day USA.
It's a government sponsored promotional week where everything Oz gets shown around LA- local fashion designers, wine tastings, tourism events and err, a discussion on the carbon pricing.

The big do of the week is the LA Black Tie Gala dinner where a few Aussies who have done well in the USA get inducted into some sort of Hall of Fame- this year it's Paul Hogan and Rose Byrne and Qantas pilot John Travolta. Guests include usually every actor in LA that week - Guy Pearce, Naomi Watts, Eric Bana, Toni Collette and it wouldn't be a party without Olivia Newton John. Chef for the night is Curtis Stone.

But wait-there's more : also flying to Los Angeles is the World's Richest Woman and the Aussie version of Christina Onassis, Gina Rinehart and her daughter Ginia Rinehart who is the apple of her mum's eye.

Ryan Johnson  * Gina Rinehart  * Ginia Rinehart

Ginia will wed her long time boyfriend in LA- Ryan Johnson who is the son of the legendary Beach Boys' Bruce Johnson.
On the wedding guest list :  Canadian hamburger king Jack Cowin, John Singleton and Barnaby Joyce MP.  Not invited : Gina's estranged children Hope, Bianca and John.

Back In The Big Smoke

Duncan & Sally

They are some of the Shuttle's fave people :
British born banker Duncan Mount and his glamorous wife ex-model  Sally. They hosted sensational parties at their Elizabeth Bay Spanish style, harbourside mansion Boomerang.

Once they let out Boomerang to Tom Cruise so he could film Mission Impossible 2 there. During the day we would see Duncan tooling about town in his black Rolls convertible, dropping the kids off at school or perhaps the video hire shop in Kings Cross.

Cedar Springs

Then they upped stakes and departed for Byron Bay and principally Paul Hogan's hinterland mansion Cedar Springs at Possum Creek which they bought off Hoges for $8.1M (after selling Boomerang for a whopping $29M). Hoges had built the 27 room mansion in 1990 for his marriage to Linda Kozkowski.

Boomerang

Paul & Linda

Duncan who made a fortune selling bicycles to the masses in Hong Kong parceled up Hoges extensive acres and sold them off for $2M a plot.
 Last week he unloaded Possum Creek for a reputed $6.5M. The last we saw of the Mounts they were back in Sydney living in a rented Bellevue Hill penthouse and contemplating the future. Hopefully they'll hit the scene again soon.  We need them !.
                                                    

Australian Of The Year....

He follows in the footsteps of Sir Robert Helpmann (right) and Paul Hogan to become the third actor to be declared Australian of The Year ten minutes ago at Parliament House In Canberra.

Our favourite Oscar winner-Geoffrey Rush receives a well deserved honour.
Below is part of the speech we recorded a few months ago when Geoffrey helped launch a book about the Belvoir Street Theatre where Rush along with his good friend director Neil Armfield got their start in the theatre.

Partying in Hollywood

Guy Pearce & Kate Mestitz (UPI)

Abbie Cornish

HOLLYWOOD'S GUM LEAF Mafia were out in force at the annual G'Day USA Ball in Hollywood. 

Miranda Kerr, Guy Pearce, Paul Hogan, Jackie Weaver, Abbie Cornish , Olivia Newton John and Rachel Taylor joined Priscilla Presley, John Travolta and Kate Winslet last night at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom

The menu was prepared by popular Australian chef Guy Grossi in collaboration with Wolfgang Puck. A selection of premium Aussie wines served and awards given to notable Australians who have made significant contributions to the entertainment industry including Air Supply and Guy Pearce-who is up for a Golden Globe at tomorrow's awards.
And the entertainment
 ..young Jack Vidgen of course. G'Day USA is an annual program designed to showcase Australian business capabilities in the USA - Australia's largest trading and investment partner.

Kate Winslet

Rachel Taylor

No Longer Keeping Up With The Kardashians

As Kim Kardahsian and sister Chloe Hardashian do their round of media appointments today, requesting that their...errr.. 'privacy'..be respected over Kim's marriage split up (Mum Kris Jenner is doing likewise in the USA and scoffing at rumours Kim's ring is worth $2M.."only half that") one must wonder who has organised this PR tour as the calamities keep piling up.

It's either a total stuff-up or Hollywood PR at it's best. As you can see by viewing footage here.

Last night the sisters went to the Icebergs restaurant at Bondi Beach, again a wonderful spot but not the best place to avoid the media as their minder's infer as they keep angrily hissing at the assembled paparazzi : one who actually said, clipboard in hand,"how did you find us here..leave us alone?"

Icebergs

This was the spot brilliant advertising guru John Singleton chose to launch his Bondi Blonde Beer in 2006 (like Australia really needs another beer!) with then 'it' girl Paris Hilton in tow. He later sold the beer brand for a huge profit 4 years later.

The Shuttle went to the party and made it through the mayhem on a Saturday afternoon. Unwisely we chose to leave just as Paris Hilton left and got caught up in complete chaos, being shoved against Hilton's waiting limousine that had all doors open waiting for Singleton and Paris to make a quick exit..

Hundreds of tourists had blocked the roadway and restaurant entrance and as 2 heavy minders gradually made their way to the limo with Hilton, they first had to remove an almost stereotype Japanese tourist, cameras strung around his neck who was now sitting in the back of the limousine, casually inspecting shopping bags from Paris's Paddington shopping spree that morning !

                                                  ***********************

Meanwhile John Singleton, whose exploits have built him a $100M fortune by correctly gauging the Australian psyche-if we didn't know Paul Hogan's larrikan personality was the real deal you could be forgiven for thinking he was a Singleton invention-has escaped censure by the local Woollahra council having re-painted his newly purchased Bellevue Hotel in Paddington without council permission.

Bellevue Hotel

Facing a $3000 fine the council have agreed to waive the fine if Singleton re-paints the pub in  'acceptable"colours within the month.
A similar event happened in London in 2005 when he arrrived at his daughter's Notting Hill house unannounced, and not finding her home, had her front door re-painted red as a surprise. The local council ordered the door be re-painted it's original colour.

The pub re-paint is part of Singleton's promotion of the Gut Foundation, just one charitable cause the generous Singleton donates to which are a diverse lot- from paying legal bills of incarcerated asylum seekers, Rev Bill Crews Exodus Foundation  and almost too many to name..
Sadly, John who has been married 5 times has just split from his girlfriend Yvette Hartmann.

Bigger Than Elton John's Christies Sale

After finally departing the Byron Bay mansion, Cedar Springs (left) in Possum Creek, built by actor Paul Hogan, British born banker Duncan Mount (right) and his horse mad wife Sally are auctioning off their fabulous collection of antiques at Shapiro's Auction gallery in Queen Street Woollahra on October 26th.

Hogan built the house for his 1990 wedding to actress and Crocodile Dundee co-star Linda Kozlowski, However he rarely visited the property and it was on the market for 10 years before the Mounts moved into the 25 room palace.

The Mounts have taken up temporary residence in a $3.5M penthouse in Bellevue Hill, built by would be property developer Gary Baker who has fallen on hard-times with the collapse of his property empire. Baker and his wife Karin Upton Baker, boss of Hermes were neighbours of the Mounts in Sydney.

Last year the Mounts began to sub-divide Possum Creek with it's hundreds of rolling acres of prime land and forests that back onto the uber resort of Byron. Each of the plots sold for $2M as the couple prepared to enter the Sydney social scene again.

The furniture collection was housed in Byron Bay and the couple's equestrian centre on the northern beaches at Ingleside which they sold for $7.3M earlier this year. The remainder of the Possum Creek property with Cedar Springs is priced at $7.9M.

Emigrating from Hong Kong in 1996, Duncan and Sally paid $15M for the Spanish style mansion Boomerang in Elizabeth Bay, selling six years later for $20.5M . The glamorous pair were a regular sight around the Eastern Suburbs as they ferried their kids to school in a Bentley Continental convertible.

The Mounts threw some memorable parties at Boomerang including one for Jennifer Lopez.
The house was also featured in the film Mission Impossible 2 and Tom Cruise offered to buy the house from the Mounts as his Sydney base for he and then wife Nicole Kidman.

Duncan mentioned over drinks to the Shuttle one night that he was slightly miffed that Cruise's film crew clambered through Boomerang for 2 weeks and although Tom promised him an invite to the movie's premiere-the invitation never arrived.

Auctioneer Andrew Shapiro says : ''This is the biggest collection that has ever come on the market, and it is all museum-quality,'' ''It's even bigger than the Elton John collection which sold at Christies in 2003.''

Amongst the 250 lots there are designs by modern artists like Andre Dubreuil, Mark Brazier-Jones and Scott Cunningham with works cast in bronze, finished in ornamental glass plus paintings and a range of traditional antiques, mainly French, Italian and English from the 18th and 19th centuries. The collection is estimated to sell for about $500,000.

You can view and drool over the pieces at the Shapiro's on-line catalogue here.

Meanwhile the woes of the Mount's close former neighbours, Gary and Karin Upton Baker continue as around the same time as the Mount Collection sale, their beautiful Elizabeth Bay duplex which is directly opposite Boomerang goes up for auction.

The scene for parties for the likes of Giorgio Armani and
Elle McPherson, the property has a 3 car garage with a turn table-now empty. The Upton Baker's Bentley and Rolls Royce Phantom having been sold to satisfy creditors.


Boomerang which featured in Mission Impossible 2

Paul Hogan stranded in Australia

5 days after he attended the funeral of his 101 yer old mother, actor Paul Hogan has been refused permission to leave the country and return to his wife Linda and 12 year old son Chance  in Los Angeles.

John Cornell, Linda Kozlowski, Paul Hogan and Delvene Delaney at a Sydney charity party in 2006 (c)

The Australian Taxation Office has served notice on Hogan to remain  in Australia while it continues investigations into his tax affairs. Earlier this year the actor lost a court battle to keep tax documents secret.

Two media organisations, News Ltd and Fairfax Media had fought a 6 year legal battle to obtain the documents.

 In 2002 Hogan and wife Linda Kozlowski purchased a $3.5M house on Sydney Harbour before selling up in 2006 and moving back to LA..During that time the ATO has  claimed that Hogan had declared himself stateless for a number of years whilst travelling between Australia and the USA

Although later films received poor reviews, Hogan and his partner in the Crocodile Dundee films, John Cornell made millions of dollars from the 3 successful movies after financing the series themselves. Investing heavily in real estate in Northern NSW, the pair have made a further fortune.  Cornell has just recovered from a bout of cancer and is recuperating in the resort of Byron Bay where he and wife Delvene Delaney live.

Bad News for Crocofile Dundee's Paul Hogan

John Cornell, Linda Kozlowski, Paul Hogan & Delvene Delaney (c tSS)

He is estimated to have made a $150M fortune from the Crocodile Dundee films which he wrote and starred in but Paul Hogan is facing a serious battle with the Australian Taxation Office after it was revealed that a complicated series of financial transactions between 2002 and 2005 saw millions of dollars being channeled to Hogan from a number of tax havens.

During that period Hogan and wife Linda Kozlowski moved back to Australia and purchased a sumptuous harbourside mansion in Sydney's before selling up to move back to Los Angeles in early 2006. But the Australian Crime Commission is claiming that Hogan declared himself 'stateless' during the 3 year hiatus and as neither a resident of Australia or the USA paid no tax in either country while at the same time moving millions to various bank accounts from a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The Commission claims that the company was a sham and owned by Hogan and his partner in his films, John 'Strop' Cornell.

When Hoges and Strop made the first film in 1986 it was financed by them and produced on a small budget but went on to become a huge box office hit raking in more than $500M worldwide. They both invested heavily in the northern NSW resort of Byron Bay and made tens of millions out of successful ventures there.

Hogan has been fighting in the High Court for 6 years to keep accountancy documents secret after 2 newspaper publishers-Rupert Murdoch's Nationwide News and the Fairfax Media took him to court . Today he lost that fight and was ordered to pay both companies costs which are estimated to be in the region of $15M.

In 2008, Hogan, who lives in the US and has said he paid Australia more tax than he could have, told the Tax Office to ''come and get me, you miserable bastards''. And now it looks like they will with the added weight of the Crime Commission. Hogan had claimed the documents were 'privileged'. The court decided otherwise which now means they can be used by the Crime Commission who have claimed that the actor has avoided paying tax for years.

This doesn't look good for Hoges. His friend Glen Wheatley, the rock band manager received a sentence of 30 months in 2007 for a similar series of financial moves involving $800,000. And even worse- it looks likely the US Inland Revenue will become involved.

Mildred Pierce-you are not alone

      How pleasing it is to find that the Social Shuttle's research assistant and sub-editor, Mildred Pierce, a dyslexic moggie rescued from the Cat Protection League one year ago is on-par with the Daily Mail , the great British tabloid. The Mail, slightly right-wing, is one of the best presented tabloids amongst a sorry lot but it does give good show biz.

    Today they have run a story on that great Australian icon Paul Hogan and wife Linda (who both left Oz 20 years ago) who are currently holidaying in Byron Bay..yes that's Byron Bay not Bryon Bay as the Mail on Line reports.

    We know the wonderful resort well as tSS worked for a short period on the local rag, the Byron Echo- started over 20 years ago by a dear tSS friend Nicholas Shand, heir to a British publishing fortune who went all bush and started a commune in that magical spot, when he purchased a few hundred acres in the Byron hinterland and decided the only thing the area lacked was a newspaper for the 'alternatives' or 'ferals' , like Shand, as  they were referred to by puzzled locals.

      The ferals were the band of city folk who had flocked to the beautiful old fashioned fishing town where houses now command multi-million dollar prices. Sadly Nicholas died in a car accident but his newspaper went on to become the area's dominant new's source.

     Hoges is pictured walking on Belongil Beach (we once flew there to cover a nude protest and made a small fortune selling the pics in Japan) and on the balcony of the town's best hotel. the Beach Hotel which was once owned by Hoges and his business partner John Cornell. Hogan and Cornell have made a fortune out of Byron Bay real estate, possibly more than they both did from their successful Crocodile Dundee film ventures.

    When the Croc films first went ballistic world-wide at the box office in the late 1980's, Hogan built a mansion at Possum Creek, just outside Byron, on a 132 hectare lot which he finally sold to Hong Kong British based banker Duncan Mount and his ex-model wife Sally in 2006. Possum Creek is back on the market for $8M as the Mounts are anxious to move back to Sydney.

 The Daily Mail reckons Hoges looks a bit old at 70-you can judge their pics here, while we present our latest Hogan snap from 2008.

As an aside, tSS once covered a concert for the Byron Echo when former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten hit town (with a larger paunch than that sported by Hoges in the Mail pics). In mid-song, as tSS snapped away with a camera, Rotten-or John Lydon , his real name, leapt off stage and proceeded to throttle tSS at which point we pointed out -"hey it's me-your old drinking pal from Soho !". John relaxed his grip and said "great to see you again-play along please-the crowd loves it !"
    The resultant confected struggle between us was later described by Shand as "like a weird gay couple doing the Pride of Erin-badly", but at least the audience was convinced Anything for art's sake.

      As the Daily Mail says, age catches up on one.

Hoges land back on the market

Just 4 years after eccentric British banker Duncan Mount and wife, ex-model Sally purchased the Possum Creek property built by Paul Hogan and wife Linda just outside the resort of Byron Bay on the NSW coast, Mount is selling off parcels of the gorgeous landscaped grounds with  their rolling hills to finance a move back to the Sydney social scene.

                                                           Duncan Mount

                                                      Possum Creek                               

Mount made mega millions in China with his Hong Kong Bicycle Co before moving to Sydney and buying the 1920's Spanish styled harbour-side mansion, Boomerang-built by the wealthy Alberts music publishing family. Duncan spent a small fortune re-furbishing Boomerang which was used in the film  Mission Impossible 2 and threw lavish parties before selling up 5 years ago to build an equestrian centre on the Northern Beaches for horse mad Sally.

Hogan himself made a tidy profit on the Point Piper house he purchased a few years ago and sold last year  after spending little time there, preferring to hang out in his Hollywood Hills abode while he fights his endless battles with the Australian Taxation Office. Boomerang was bought by trucking magnate Lindsay Fox in 2005 for $21M from cleaning company boss John Schaeffer who purchased it for then wife Julie who fell in love with it after attending one of the Mount's amazing parties. 

Julie  continued the Mount's tradition, hosting her first soiree for Denmark's Crown Princess Mary and Prince Frederick on their first visit to Australia following their toy-town style wedding.

                                                                                                                          Boomerang