Aussie media have joined the Billich Roadshow and headed off to California where colourful Sydney couple
Charles & Christa Billich, owners of the
Billich Gallery in The Rocks intend to take LA by storm. The town of make believe and the fabulous Billichs were always destined to collide.
The pair will launch themselves at their "
good friend"
Hugh Heffner's
Playboy Mansion. Christa is no slouch in the publicity department and could teach Hef a few tricks. Occasionally a journalist, still wet behind the ears, trots out the Billich line like this chap in the Fairfax
business publication BRW. The writer repeats the claim the Billichs have made for years :
"His portrait of Pope John Paul II is hung at the Vatican."
Hung at the Vatican ?. Perhaps lying against a wall in dusty basement somewhere along with the thousands of other trinkets, bauble and gifts that flow into the Vatican, the White House ,Buckingham Palace and so on.
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| Billich fans (?) : Ian Thorpe and the late King of Tonga |
It's one of the neatest publicity doddles in the book. Gifts are never sent back (postage !) and the sender often receives a polite, form '
thank you' letter.
Try it yourself and send
Prince William and
Kate Middleton a gift for their new baby to Kensington Palace.
Critics have been unkind to Charles calling his works anything but art. In 1995 the
Sydney Morning Herald's
art expert John McDonald labelled Billich’s painting as “a slippery form of graphic design backed with a high-powered marketing strategy".
The BRW scoffs at their stable mate's words but McDonald's most salient point was that amateur collectors may be buying Billich works in the belief they were an investment that would increase in value.
Charles & Christa are immensely likable. The
Shuttle attended one Billich extravaganza in Surfers Paradise in 2002 (another natural home for the couple). While Christa and 2 girls posed nude on the ballroom stage at the luxury
Sheraton Mirage resort, Charles sat at an easel wearing a beret & smock and painted the trio. Dozens of punters formed a queue to buy their 'investments' including White Shoe aficionado and property developer
Keith Williams.
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| Charles vs Norman |
Two years ago at the
Lawson Menzies Auction house in
Annandale
where they sell second hand furniture (their prize art auctions are held in the city) a Billich print came up for auction. There are 2 Australian artists whose works bring groans from the regular bidders:
Norman Lindsay and
Charles Billich. The Billich print fetched $1.
Some 1999 words still ring in the ears of the
Shuttle. At a Sydney reception for the
International Olympic Committee, President
Juan Antonio Samaranch the crowd parted and a Charles Billich painting was revealed by a local minor IOC official who beamed proudly . Standing nearby was the high flying solicitor and Sydney Olympic's chief
Rod McGeoch (husband of the respected publicist
Deeta Colvin). A look of horror spread across his face as he exclaimed to the official :
"Oh no ! you are not going to give him that are you ?" . He shook his head in disbelief.
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| Hef waiting to greet Charles & Christa ! |
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| Victor Lownes |
The Billich action takes place at the
PlayBoy Mansion home of Hugh Heffner. Hef hosts a lot of parties. Anyone can hire the Playboy Mansion for a party or event, a product launch, Barmitzvah or wedding and every now and then Hef may wander through a room to make the punters feel they are getting their money's worth.
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| James Hunt : Mark Hamill |
The
Shuttle has been to many Playboy parties in LA, New York and London. The US parties give tackiness a new meaning. The London parties at the old Park Lane
Playboy Club were a tad better but the weekend parties thrown by
Victor Lownes (the UK Playboy boss) at his
Stocks Mansion in Herfordshire were sensational.
At one memorable party that lasted 3 days with a permanent Champagne and Dining Marquee, the
Shuttle shared a hot tub with 3 Bunnies, racing car driver
James Hunt (subject of the film
Rush starring
Chris Hemsworth ) and
Star Wars actor
Mark Hamill . Guests were bussed to and fro from London by helicopter and with each arrival a movie star or celebrity would alight-
Joan Collins, Tony Curtis, or
Rod Stewart. Below : The Master at work :
PR supremo Deeta Colvin (pictured on the right) hosted a get-together this week as many of Sydney's top publicists joined Colvin who once reigned over Australia's glam social scene of the 1990s. Colvin was the mastermind behind the legendary Cointreau Balls of which Whispers attended many. They were some of the best bun fights this scribe has seen around the world. Hundreds of guests would be collected in limousines to be transported to a secret location for dinner and dancing wearing the prescribed costume theme for that year. Locations were varied from dis-used warehouses to a circus marquee in the wilds of the Wanda Beach sand hills, transformed into a fun palace for the night with top chefs catering and of course, those limos on hand to take one home which of course meant, over-indulgence was the order of the night
The several language speaking Deeta is married to heavyweight lawyer Rod McGeoh one of the clever masterminds behind securing the 2000 Olympics for Sydney. When the successful bid was announced the then Olympics boss and Spanish aristocrat Juan Antonio Samaranch visited Sydney to look over the preparations as they proceeded.
Whispers recalls being at one small reception for Samaranch at which stage, the artist Charles Billich enters the scene. Spying a Billich print in the corner of the room McGeoh inquired why it was there and was told it was to be a gift to Samaranch. Shaking his head McGeoh responded "are you seriously giving him that"?.
