exclusive: Marie's revelation about the Princess Diana momento

Princess Diana & the late Marie Sutton in Sydney

Marie Sutton was the ex-nurse who conceived of a plan in 1995 to bring the late Princess Diana to Sydney to launch a new charity and medical research facility, the Victor Chang Institute. Victor Chang was a world renowned heart surgeon who was gunned down in a Sydney street by two thugs in a failed kidnap and ransom plot.

Much to Sutton's surprise, and the establishment figures behind her plan, Princess Diana phoned Sutton and said she would be happy to launch the institute and it would be her very last charity appearance before retiring to private life.
And the rest is history.

The Shuttle has written extensively about Marie Sutton over the years- she was fairly good pal having met her at various events in Sydney during Diana's visit.
You can read those tales here : 'Princess Diana broke up my marriage' 

and :  'Marie turns down a $1.6M for the "Diana Diaries'.
But there is one piece of information Marie Sutton told Whispers which we have never revealed before and promised not to while Sutton was alive. Marie passed away at age 73 in September from lung disease.
Only half a dozen people have ever been onto the island at Althorp, the family seat, which is where Diana's grave is. On a visit to Althorp Marie was escorted to the island by Diana's brother Earl Charles Spencer in 1997. And there she found a small memento placed on Diana's grave by her two sons.
It was a small silver box inside which was a locket containing a photo of Diana and her two sons William and Harry. It was to be buried with her coffin and had been placed there in a private ceremony by the boys.

Only a handful of people have ever been to the island where Princess Diana is buried. Marie Sutton was one of them.

Quelle Horreur !

An almighty row has broken out after the UK gay & lesbian publication Pink News labelled Prince

George as a "gay icon".
Really?. He looks more to Whispers ( as does Princess Charlotte) as delightfully 1950s in that Windsor way. Surely his Father Prince William and uncle Prince Harry are obvious candidates for gay icons.
Anyhow our aging NSW parliamentarian the Reverend Fred Nile is completely outraged and says :  “The article is an underhanded attempt at promoting a divisive agenda of radical social reform by abusing the symbolism of the Royal Family. No child, especially a potential future Monarch, should be exploited for ideological purposes in this way."

Heaven forbid that Australia's (and the Commonwealth's) Royal Family should ever be exploited for ideological purposes.
What to make of this budding scandal? We have no idea.

Disclosure : Whispers once interviewed the Reverend Fred in his NSW Parliament office. He was most friendly, pouring tea and offering biscuits but as we were about to depart he insisted we join his Parliamentary prayer group with his Christian Democratic Party colleagues. A Bible placed in our hand and a gentle shove in the back made it clear a refusal would not be accepted.

We are most honoured to say that the Reverend Fred Nile prayed to The Lord and requested He (She)  place Whispers into his (her) gentle arms when That Time comes.

The Palace issues a warning..

Marie to tell All about Princess Diana

2017 will be the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales who died in Paris after a car accident with Dodi Fayed, the heir to the owner of Harrods, Mohamed Fayed.

Now the Australian charity worker Marie Sutton who engineered the very last public function attended by Diana in Sydney is to author a book on the tumultuous visit to Australia that marked Diana's retreat from public life. A few months later Diana was dead after a world-wind supposed affair with the tempestuous Dodi in the South of France.

Whispers knew Dodi well and lived in his Park Lane apartment for 3 months. Dodi's cocaine habit was legendary and Whispers, a non drug user, once saved the life of the secretary of a famous movie star in Dodi's apartment while Fayed and the movie star were literally, off their heads on cocaine.
                                                                         
Marie conceived of the project to get Diana to launch the Victor Chang Institute on the strength of being a pal of Dr Hasnat Khan who reputedly Diana was obsessed with. Once Diana agreed to come to Australia Sutton found the reins of the visit were snatched from her by then NSW premier Nevile Wran and a coterie of Eastern Suburb's society figures. But Diana remained loyal to Sutton and ensured Marie was by her side at every event during the visit. And we should know. We were there at the same time, once hiding under a rug in the back of a limo with Diana as she was whisked out of the Double Bay Ritz Carlton, avoiding the world's assembled media. It was on that occasion that Diana leaned out of the window of the car as we passed St Mary's Cathedral and she spotted a wedding party ascending the stairs and shouted "Don't do it !". Did the happy couple realize their heckler was the World's Most Famous Woman? . Marie also has the only known photos of Diana's grave on an island at the family property Althorp with some very touching mementos from her sons Princes William & Harry. Having seen them, Whispers has been sworn to secrecy but perhaps they will appear in Marie's expose.

Princess Diana's Aussie pal may write a book

Diana & Sutton

Chatting to Marie Sutton at the Darling Point morning event to launch the AGCF cancer charity (see above) brought some new revelations about the late Princess Diana's last visit to Australia in 1996 to launch the Victor Chang Institute. The visit  was to be Diana's final charity contribution before retiring to private life. Subsequent events have become history but Mrs Sutton revealed that she is seriously contemplating writing a book on her battle to maintain control over the plan which she conceived after contacting her friend Dr Hasnat Khan who was Diana's secret lover.

'My husband Bill kept incredible detailed diaries about the battle I had' says Marie. "Powerful people were desperate to seize control because of Diana's profile but she remained loyal to me". It is no secret that having conceived of the plan, Sutton found herself under intense pressure from figures like the late Nevile Wran who tried to wrestle control from her.

Whispers was lucky to accompany Sutton & Princess Diana on the tour and can confirm that Diana remained steadfastly loyal to her Aussie pal & was fully aware of the political machinations around her visit. When Diana died (and Whispers also had a connection to the late Dodi Fayed having lived in his Park Lane apartment for 3 months during the early 80s) Marie was rewarded by Diana's brother the Earl of Spencer with a personal tour of Diana's resting place on an island in the middle of the Althorp estate. Visitors cannot access the island and trees have been grown to prevent aerial photography of the grave. Marie took some photographs of Diana's resting place which had some extremely touching personal mementos placed upon the grave by her sons William & Harry. Although we have seen the snaps we are sworn to secrecy to never reveal what the items were. Sutton is still offered a small fortune by European publications for the photos.
A book on Sutton's Diana exploits would make fascinating reading.

It's A Girl !..but not a Princess yet

Not long ago we chided a Sydney columnist for gushing that Royalty, in the form of horse loving Zara Phillips, had attended the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Zara is a commoner as are all children born to those with Royal titles unless HM The Queen confers titles upon them.
Of course Her Maj usually does as a matter of course unless the parents decide otherwise as in Zara's case where her parents HH Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips decided to turn down the offer.
While a colonial writer and even a New York paper (as out pic shows) may be forgiven for making a common mistake, it's unacceptable for British newspapers who have also elevated the Duchess & Duke of Cambridge's newly born daughter to Princess status when, in reality she is a commoner at this stage. Talk about slack fact checking!.
Nothing is guaranteed in the world of Royalty where they ( and their handlers / courtiers) more than anyone judge the mood of the general public.
 Kate and William may just decide to accept no title for the new bub,
Time will tell but I'm sure she's a little princess in their eyes.


*************************
Fairfax Fail : The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have both failed in the fact checking
department. Are we being pedantic?. I think not as this indicates how journalists these days fail to do the most basic fact checking.
Calling the new baby a "princess" is simply wrong until the Monarch confers a title upon her.
In fact she will not even strictly be a 'royal' unless she is given a peerage as well which is why her parents were created the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge which is also why her grandfather Prince Phillip was created the Duke of Edinburgh before he married the Queen so that she would not be marrying a commoner.
Last month with such sloppy fact-checking we had 2 large publishers killing of Australian actress Nell Campbell on the claim she was comedienne Tracey Ullman's mother.
# Even Whispers is less than perfect. We did forget that the recently born and now (created by the Monarch of Great Britain) Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Cambridge was a Lady from the word go. Being the daughter of a Duke & Duchess she is entitled to that title.
Critics again have attacked me for being pedantic which is nonsense. British titles are a powerful legal entity crafted over centuries of law making. The new Royal Princess could one day also be the Queen of Australia. We aren't a Republic yet (if ever) and it's sad that major media outlets in this country can display such ignorance. What other mistakes are they making?
It's remarkable that newspapers that lived and breathed the late princess Diana have ignored the fact that she felt the cruelest blow to her after divorcing the future King, Prince Charles was losing her Royal status.

Lara Bingle Nude & the Duchess of Cambridge

For some odd reason 'Lara Bingle nude' is a search term we encounter here at the Shuttle almost every day that leads excited readers to our pages.

So here are the latest shots of the lady as she poses for the next issue of Cleo Magazine.
The last time we encountered the lovely Lara was at a party in Oxford Street as she arrived and we were leaving. Her strident manager quickly said "no photos , no photos please" as we lifted our smartphone to call for a taxi.
Still it's the thought that counts.












 Here is a snap of the Duchess of Cambridge's expensive pumps after walking the red dirt at Uluru.
An excuse to introduce an article : The Golden Era of ‘Fashion Blogging’ Is Over.

Royal Randwick

There is every chance Prince William and Princess Kate (or Katie as the kids are calling her) will attend the Easter Carnival today at Royal Randwick.
This is the first chance the public will have to see the amazing new $150M pavilion that dwarfs the old Member's Stand.

On show for the young and hip is The Stables, a private member's club that should be a much sought after venue. Membership is rumoured to be $2000 a year but this is one of the nicest clubs we have been in as we discovered at a recent launch party. Lots of expensive paneled walls, billiard rooms and private booths and rooms, a Moet & Chandon Bar and 2 sensational balconies, one looking over the mounting ring and one with a sensational view of the race track. The Stables is the brainchild of bar and restaurant mogul John Duncan - pictured right with wife Angela - (he's the nephew of the actress Carmen Duncan) and ex-partner of Fraser Short. Together they opened some of Sydney's smartest nite spots like Surry Hill's Winery before going their separate ways last year
Looks like a winner to us.

The world's most glamorous bookie Tom Waterhouse left joined other glam guests

Bar heaven- chilled Moet

view of the race course and below the mounting ring

Royal Update

A comment from a UK Time's reader :

New Royal Baby Snaps with The Queen

Our exclusive photographs of Prince George with his parents the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and his great grandmother HM The Queen

It's more mischief from the British photographer Alison Jackson whose amazing pictures can be seen here. And Prince William ? : he is in fact 30 year old Simon Watkinson who is an Adelaide born engineer living and working in the UK but cleaning up as the best royal impersonator in the business.
Below is an Alison Jackson video of Kate & The Queen at the hairdressers.

'Queen of One's Own Realm'

We like to think that would be the occupation that the new Prince of Cambridge's Great Granny would put down

should she be asked to fill in a form like the one pictured here: Prince George's birth certificate.

What is in store for the new heir to the British (and Australian) throne ?. For expert advice we turn to the Astrologer of choice Victor Olliver, Britain's rising star of the stars :
"Born on 22 July 2013 , at 4.24pm (London), Prince George is a ‘watery’ fellow – he will be hypersensitive, compassionate, intuitive if not psychic, possibly artistic, temperamental and abundantly focused on the people.                                                                                     
If you want to know whom he most resembles, tremble not (too much) if I say that he will be a cross between grandparents Charles and the late Diana. Just about a Cancerian (Diana), with one minute to spare, he has Scorpio (Charles) rising: prepare for a deliciously bumpy national ride as baby grows into manhood and courts controversy. Cool on the surface, he’ll try to disguise unusually intense feelings and reactions, the trigger for many battles with authority. But George will be both a valiant and lucky champion for the UK and an internationalist. And immensely popular, globally.
With his Venus on the same spot as regal fixed star Regulus at birth, he’s a Royal superstar of the 21st century." You can read more detail here.

For your own astrological outlook we suggest you check out Victor Olliver's new book at Amazon :
Victor Olliver’s Lifesurfing: Your Horoscope Forecast Guide 2014.
 It's currently No 1 on Amazon and there is a handy Kindle version available for $4.99.

exclusive : Royal Baby is a Girl

Rachel Johnson is the editor of The Lady, the longest continually published women's magazine in the UK and she is an impeccable source .

 Writing in the UK Daily Mail she informs us that Kate Middleton's baby is a girl. Her information comes from The Lady's astrologer Victor Olliver who is very very good at these things. He predicted  a definite win for Barack Obama when other astrologers were hedging their bets. 

Topless Kate Middleton Pics & an Aussie Connection

William & Kate in Malaysia

While the brouhaha over the topless photographs of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge gets more dramatic by the day, an Australian connection is emerging.

A fortnight ago Bauer Media, Europe's largest privately owned publishing firm purchased Australia's largest magazine empire ACP for around $500M. Bauer Media also own the Closer brand of magazines. The topless photographs have been published in the French edition of Closer and the editor is unrepentant with reports now emerging that there are further pics to be published next  week.

Bauer have issued a statement deploring the use of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton and have complained to the magazine but the French edition is published under license by an Italian publisher Mondadori.

Bauer CEO Paul Keenan says he has asked Closer to remove the pics : "We deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures and have asked that Closer France takes these pictures down immediately from its website and desist from publishing any further pictures"'. Bauer are said to be reviewing the Closer license with Mondadori.
                                                                                                                           
Where does this leave the Australian Woman's Day, the biggest selling weekly magazine and new Baeur acquisition ?. WD is in fierce competition with New Idea (owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes' Pacific Magazines) and barely a week goes by without the 2 glossies running a feature on Prince William and Kate. A month ago we can imagine a bidding war would have erupted between the 2 mags for the topless photos. New Idea was the first to breach an agreement, not to mention that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Shuttle has worked on a number of occasions with the British royals including the late Princess Diana on her last visit to Australia. We once attended a dinner for HRH Prince Edward at Lady Mary Fairfax's pile Fairwater. Twenty guests had paid $10,000 each for the privilege of dining with Edward (the money went to charity) with the promise of a snap with the royal. The Shuttle obliged but not before an arrangement was made with Edward's minders- 2 charming but lethal looking gentleman from Scotland Yard's Royal Protection Squad. The Shuttle was to be searched before we left the function to ensure we had not taken any covert pics of Edward, perhaps rubbing his bald spot and so on. We were happy to oblige.
But where were Kate Middleton's minders while she was holidaying in France and for that matter, Prince Harry's when he was in Las Vegas ?.

Tabloid Tales :"Kate's Pregnant!"

Daily Telegraph

Australia's top selling tabloid The Daily Telegraph (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) brings us the tale of how dozens of magazines world-wide have reported the false claim that Prince William's bride Kate is pregnant.

A 'staff writer' tells us how "a tally of incorrect US gossip mag covers shows their editors have made fake hay while the sun remained behind clouds this year" when reporting the non-existent pregnancies of Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and more.

These mad claims were brought undone when that US TV network of repute Fox News ( proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) compiled the list of glossy magazines which made the phoney claim.

Our staff writer even has a dig at the Oz glossy New Idea (referred to as No Idea by industry wags) which also fell for the Kate Middleton 'pregnancy' claim.

Alas, our News Corp scribe missed one small fact in his/her mention of the New Idea. Just who was the source for their claim?.

Step forward a 'royal photographer' who is interviewed for the cover piece that screams :
YES. KATE'S PREGNANT!...Exclusive interview with official royal photographer

New Idea

The snapper in question and "royal insider" is Arthur Edwards who gushed to New Idea :" Kate looked great but I just got a feeling she wasn't quite herself".

And just who does our 'royal insider' take his royal photographs for ? (from the press pen along with every other photographer)...why the popular top selling UK tabloid The Sun (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch)

A Bumpy Year & A Bieber Baby

The 2012 predictions are flowing in and the usual catastrophes await us-floods, typhoons etc as well as our old favourite Nostradamus predicting the beginning of WW3.

The New York Post's Cindy Adams says Justin Bieber will become a dad for real and Prince William and Kate become parents (that organ of repute Woman's Day says likewise but that 'medical intervention' will be needed)
The famous Edgar Cacye had lots to say about 2012 including that the entire West Coast of the USA will disappear (presumably in an earthquake) and that New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be destroyed as will Japan! Another tsunami ?. How accurate was Cacye ? Some of his predictions for 2012 have been uncanny having happened this year including turmoil in Lybia,. Egypt and Syria.

The BBC's Diplomatic Correspondent James Robbins says Assad's regime in Syria will fall in '12. Meanwhile Henry Deedes in the RightMinds blog in the MailOnline says Barack Obama will win again in 2012 (even I could have predicted that) but Jeremy Clarkson will be embroiled in another scandal when he calls Obama the Mad Mullah.

The howtosurvive.net website has bad news for us here in Australia. We're facing a 7000 ft tidal wave! Time to sell that harbor side property and move to Ulhuru.

The Psychic Twins Terri &Linda Jamison who it's claimed warned about the 9/11 attacks two years before they happened have a pretty good track record. They reckon 2012 will be a 'calm' year in the video below. No tsunamis. No 7000ft tidal wave. Phew.
They reckon however that Britney Spears will be working on a new album. Amazing !

As for the Shuttle-we predict tons more champagne parties in 2012, lots more gossip and scandal involving celebrities, politicians and business figures plus love affairs that begin and end. And when have we ever been wrong? . Happy New Year!

New York, New York-If I can can make it there...

   Daniel Garofali, Matty Bee, Joan Rivers, Rupert Noffs

Twitter & Face book-it's like having a neighbour permanently gossiping over the back fence. No-one escapes your gaze.
The Shuttle has been keeping up with former Sydneysider Rupert Noffs who it appears, has settled nicely into an apartment in Manhattan to the extent of mastering  that all important staple-chicken soup!. Helping out is ace New York publicist Kelly Cutrone whose contacts are next to none in the USA.

Glee star Kevin McHale in his Gideon Shoes NYTimes

According to our new York spy Rupert's also been doing the rounds: fashion week, top night spots, Halloween parties, meeting Beyonce and Joan Rivers, fighting with Lindsay Lohan over a taxi -as one does- but more importantly, promoting Gideon Shoes, the business set up by he and his brother Matt Noffs.

For those not yet in the know, Rupert and Matt are the grandsons of Sydney saint the late Rev Ted Noffs who started the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross in 1964.

Matt and Rupert have parlayed that charity spirit into Gideon Shoes, the fantastic and stylish shoes that are made ethically in Australia. That means no slave labour in the Third World (or here!).

Respected US writer Naomi Klein tried to tell the world decades ago that ethical manufacturing was the way to go. Local shareholder activist and journalist Stephen Mayne has been saying likewise.

Rupert and Matt started Gideon Shoes in order to fund The Street University, the kid's retreat in Western Sydney set up by Matt and wife Naomi. 11.000 kids a year are benefiting from the Street University and in 2009 they were given the seal of approval with a visit from then PM Kevin Rudd and HRH Prince William.

Now they are tackling the USA and it really is just a matter of time before the penny drops with US fashion editors-their shoes are there to stay. Already the New York Times has featured them with Glee star Kevin McHale wearing a pair. It's surely just a matter of time before Anna Wintour is spotted striding up Fifth Avenue in her Gideons.

## If top New York publicist Kelly Cutrone is on your case, it's pretty well taken for granted that success is imminent. Here is a clip from Dr Phil shown last month on Australian TV where Kelly reads the riot act to a couple of guests.

Sub Edit Howlers #2

In our continuing quest to urge respected organisations like Fairfax Newspapers to re-think their plan to lay off 200 journalists, photographers and sub editors, we bring some of the latest howlers that have slipped past editors and been published.

Yesterday morning the news filtered through that American student Amanda Knox had won her appeal in an Italian court over the murder of a flatmate. Tears of joy flowed from Knox's family and friends in the court. One of the UK's most popular tabloids The Daily Mail decided on a different result and flashed the following on their website for a few hours :

And just who will Fairfax be turning to for their new sub-editing services ?. Pagemasters, a division of News Ltd, publishers of The Daily Telegraph in Sydney.

Perhaps no-one has noticed the following captions on a series of photographs on the Tele's website in a feature on "Worst Wardrobe Malfunctions" :