exclusive : Police Called In After Paparazzo Death



Peter Carrette



Michael Caton

Following our story about the sudden death of well known paparazzo Peter Carrette, the Shuttle hears that police have now been called in to investigate.

Carrette, one of Australia's most experienced and well liked snappers was found slumped over his computer work station on Monday morning. It is believed he died on Sunday evening.

Jack Thompson

Carrette's body was removed on Monday afternoon with a number of paparazzi forming a guard of honour as his coffin was carried from his beachfront flat in Bondi Beach. Later that evening several of those photographers noticed flickering lights coming from the window of that flat and what appeared to be a figure moving about the rooms.

Police were called and attended but no-one was found in the apartment. Carrette had tens of thousands of dollars worth of expensive camera equipment and police are now investigating to see if anything is missing.

On Friday a memorial service is being held for Carrette at the Bondi Pavilion. Two of his best pals, actors Jack Thompson and Michael Caton are expected to give eulogies.

Marianne Faithful's Nemesis Photographer Dies

One of Australia's most popular photographers Peter Carrette has died of a heart attack.

 Regarded as the gentleman of the paparazzi, London born Carrette first came to prominence when he photographed Marianne Faithful in a drug coma in her hospital bed in 1969.

Faithful had travelled to Australia with Mick Jagger who was to star in a film about Ned Kelly. She had over-dosed after it was claimed she had discovered Jagger in bed with another woman.

Carrette borrowed a white doctor's coat and stethoscope and sneaked into Faithful's room, took the photo that was flashed around the world as one of the first examples of intrusive photography. Earlier this year when Faithful was in town for an arts festival, she told the Shuttle she'd still like to give the snapper a "quick boot in the backside". However she conceded she had forgiven him.

After studying photography in London, Carrette travelled to Sydney and snared a job as Sir Frank Packer's copy boy when the media mogul owned the Daily Mirror newspaper.

Once established, he worked for various publications photographing news stories. He gatecrashed the US invasion of Grenada by hiring a smuggler's boat while the world's media waited for official transport in Barbados, worked in New York for 6 years and  photographed  for Vogue in Paris for 2.

More recently he and another photographer squirted the actor Heath Ledger with water pistols at a Sydney film premiere-again in an action where the film of a startled Ledger was flashed around the world. Briefly banned by film companies from red carpet premieres, Carrette later made peace with Ledger shortly before he died in New York.

Carrette also supported an orphanage in Cambodia by donating the fees received from his exclusive candid photos of celebrities often taken around the beach at Bondi.

 For the past few years Carrette had been running his own studio and photo distribution service from a Bondi flat where he had lived for the past 20 years. The flat is owned by his good friend , the actor Jack Thompson.

Carrette was concentrating on studio portraits and had just completed a series of studio shots of Danni Minogue when he died suddenly on Sunday evening from heart failure while working at his computer.

Kate's lawyers after Aussie paparazzo....

        The report that Kate Middleton has instructed the Queen's lawyer's to pursue 2 photo agencies over the sale of snaps of Prince William's girlfriend adds more woes to Sydney based agency Ikon and it's likeable boss, the roguish snapper Peter Carrette. (right in white sunglasses)
   The report -on Murdoch's News Ltd website says the pics were offered to British newspapers, presumably The Sun and other News Ltd outlets but were graciously rejected but published in Germany (forgetting to mention the slight fact that the German publication is part Murdoch owned ).
   Carrette, who lives in a Bondi apartment owned by friend and actor Jack Thompson and originally from London, has lived most of his life patrolling Bondi Beach and snapping topless stars .
    He came a cropper in 2006 when he organised himself and 2 aides to squirt actor Heath Ledger with water pistols at a film premiere.

      "You need us " was their claim and Carrette fronted several TV interviews broadcast world-wide proclaiming his right to do just about anything to get a saleable snap.
    That stunt backfired badly when the giant film corporation Village Roadshow banned him from all future events. 2 days later Carrette was filmed walking up the steps of the late Ledger's recently purchased Bronte Beach seaside house and leaving a bunch of flowers at the door with a note.
       As he departed a male opened the door-ripped up the note and hurled the bouquet after Carrette. Within 2 months Ledger announced he was flogging his much loved house and moving to New York to escape probing cameras. He died there in 2008.
     But another blast from the past is about to arrive Downunder and is seeking an apology.

Mick Jagger's ex-girlfriend Marrianne Faithful will be in Sydney in a fortnight and has said she is still smarting from a snap taken as far back as 1967 when she and Mick arrived here for Jagger's film role as the bushranger Ned Kelly. Faithful ended up in hospital on day two after a suspected drug overdose.
      A photographer sneaked into the hospital in a doctor's coat with stethoscope and snapped Faithful as she lay in bed looking like death. The pic went around the world in a flash.

     tSS spoke to Faithful via telephone a week ago about her up-coming appearance at the Sydney Opera House where she will be joined on-stage by the Federal Environment Minister and fromer Midnight Oil's singer Peter Garrett and actor Tim Robbins in a show conceived by actor Johnny Depp.
      Asked about the infamous snap, Marrianne said she  had "sort of forgiven the photographer but  I might just give him a kick in the balls if I run into him "
       Step forward Peter Carrette . According to the News Ltd piece Middleton's lawyers have asked for financial compensation. Carrette claims he receives $50,000 a picture-even claiming that was what he received for the Faithful hospital snap in '67 (which in today's money would be about half a million). Plenty enough  for a lead-lined jock-strap to protect those bollocks.