A Former Murdoch's Hubby Is Arrested

Dramas in the household of the Earl of Dartmouth according to the the Daily Mail as his lordship is arrested on suspicion of assault following a domestic dispute.

 The Earl is the son of Raine Spencer who was the second wife of Earl Spencer, the father of Diana Princess of Wales.

Fiona  & Matt when she was a Handbury

He was arrested after his wife the Countess of Dartmouth telephoned police after he became 'disoriented' when he woke up with a start. M'lady says that nothing dramatic really happened. The Countess was formerly Fiona Handbury and married to Matt Handbury the son of Rupert Murdoch's late sister Helen Handbury. Matt inherited around $100M along with Murdoch Magazines although he has recently lost a considerable fortune through failed investments.

                                                        

The Handbury's lived in one of Sydney's most magnificent harbour-side mansions, Altona, currently on the market for around $54M. Fiona received Altona as apart of a divorce settlement and sold it for $29M before moving to the UK and joining the British aristocracy. Matt and Fiona hosted sensational parties at Altona where Matt would entertain fronting his own rock'n'roll band.

The Earl is an hereditary peer and a Member of the European Parliament for the UK Independence Party which amongst other polices wants to leave the EU, crack down on crime, defend Britain's borders and a host of other motherhood style things that you can read about here in their manifesto.

Raine                              Barbara                                Mohamed                           Diana                                   Teddy

** The Shuttle was once presented with a delightful Harrods Teddy Bear by Raine Spencer : she was a spruiker for Harrods and it's owner Mohamed Fayed, traveling the world and dispensing cuddly bears to needy journalists. Raine's mother was the charming pink enveloped Romance Novelist Dame Barbara Cartland.

What a complicated world we live in !

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 ?.

Update From The Other Side with Victor Zammit

Victor Zammit

From the man who recently brought us a message from England's Stately Homo Quentin Crisp- Australian lawyer Victor Zammit who spends his time debunking the debunkers like weirdo magician James Randi and God denier Richard Dawkins, comes some new messages from the ether. (you can hear Quentin here)

This time it's the osteopath Stephen Ward who topped himself in the middle of the infamous Profumo scandal in 1963.

Stephen Ward

 Ward introduced a British cabinet minister John Profumo MP from the ruling Conservative Party to a couple of good time gels Christine Keller and Mandy Rice Davies at a house party at Lord Astor's country estate Cliveden. When the scandal broke in the media it was discovered Keller was also knocking off a Russian Naval Attache. Resignations were demanded and Ward was charged with living of immoral earnings but committed suicide during his trial.

These days of course they would all be signed up for a reality programme on BBC Two.

Mandy & Christine

Zammit has uncovered a series of recorded seances where Stephen Ward describes his life on the other side, most recorded four months after his death. Apparently he was having trouble adjusting and wasn't yet hanging out with the "bigwigs'-whoever they are-but does get to wear comfy jumpers and loafers, ride horses, swim and well basically it's life as usual, hunting, fishing and shooting.

Sadly it's all rather disappointing. Ward says he could "tell you things about some people (still on earth) that would make your hair stand on end" but then doesn't. However he does reveal there's no coffee up there and Tutankhamen's discoverer Howard Carter is going to introduce him to the Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaton which is rather nice of him. 

Stephen has also met Oscar Wilde who he says he could never have met if he hadn't, well kicked the bucket like Oscar!. Helpfully, he tells us Oscar has a marvelous wit ( apparently Oscar has also hit it off with George Bernard Shaw).
And the man who brought us the message from Quentin Crisp, medium David Thompson has come in for a bit of flack from a 'Sceptical Believer' Roy Stemmen on his Paranormal Review who sounds a bit peeved Crisp didn't sound much like his stage show. It's all turned into right barney which you can plow through on Stemmen's website..

If that doesn't whet your appetite we have uncovered a series of pod casts with Princess Diana recorded by Andrew Russell-Davis.
 Unfortunately the Shuttle only made it through 2 messages as Diana really does witter on endlessly not saying much apart form how nice Wills and Harry are. Nothing about Dodi and not a word about Charles and Camilla.

Will Shane Warne Succeed where Gordon Ramsay Failed ?

Sad news today and a further blow for embattled restaurateur Gordon Ramsay as he announces that his Melbourne restaurant- maze Grill at the Metropole Hotel-part of James Packer's ritzy Crown Casino, is put into liquidation.

Despite the gleaming new restaurant receiving excellent reviews and a reported turnover of nearly $14M in the one year it was open, it was loosing money and becoming a drain on Ramsay's declining restaurant empire.

Melbourne's maze Grill

The Crown Casino by the Yarra River is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the biggest in the world. With 3 hotel tower blocks including the Metrople, endless fast food outlets and a string of 5 star restaurants , luxury stores,cinemas, theatres, a ballroom and a convention centre it is one of the most opulent gaming establishments on the planet.

Stars like Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Tiger Woods  have called it home while in Melbourne on extended visits.
Fine dining restaurants at Crown that are going gangbusters include the Japanese Nobu part owned by actor Robert de Niro (who officially launched Nobu in 2007) and  Bistro Guillaume owned by French chef Guillaume Brahimi who also owns Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. In both establishments it often takes weeks to book a table.

Diana at the Commonwealth Day lunch with Samantha Riley

But if Ramsay couldn't make a go of it , will our newly minted Metrosexual Shane Warne do any better?

rough trade?

It's been reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald that Warnie will be attending this year's Melbourne Cup (with Liz Hurley) and will be opening a night club at Crown.
Warnie's new sophisticated image has come some way since the Shuttle sat with him at a Commonwealth Day lunch for Princess Diana in Sydney in 1996.

When we asked if he was a friend of Diana's Shane replied "no, I haven't met her yet" (she was at the next table). Asked if he thought she may be a cricket fan he said "not sure-but I think she likes rough trade !"

Diana: the gift that keeps on giving

Brisbane based writer John Morgan has published the latest in a long line of Princess Diana death books claiming that Diana’s post-mortem samples were switched with those of another woman.

He says that the cover-up could only have been ordered by The Queen.

Morgan says in the UK Daily Express that : "There is a lot of evidence which points to the toxicology testing being carried out on samples that did not come from the body of Princess Diana,... and that the documents were, along with others, withheld from the inquest jury"

"The evidence I have studied indicates that there are two lots of samples. One belongs to Diana, which is held by the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Paget, and the other lot are samples from another body and held by Charing Cross Hospital.

“Diana’s UK post-mortem samples were switched ahead of the toxicology testing.”

“I am asking why?” So are we. It seems that Diana had been drinking on the fateful night and this is a possible reason as according to a Fulham mortuary worker her "stomach smelled strongly of alcohol".

But then Diana's body was supposedly embalmed in France before it was returned to London. And why was a mortuary attendant sniffing around Diana's stomach ?

All these questions and more maybe answered in "Diana Inquest: Part 4: The British Cover-Up "
apparently the fourth volume in the saga.

Needless to say the tome has been warmly received by Mohamed Fayed who calls the book "heroic".

Tupou IV

Fayed has reportedly backed a 90-minute film "Unlawful Killing," by British actor and director Keith Allen which contains a "shocking "photo of a dying Diana which will be shown for the first time. Despite the fact the snap can be viewed on the interent and really isn't  all that shocking.

 Diana conspiracies have become Mohamed Fayed's raison d'être and he has accused Prince Phillip in the past of conspiring to murder Diana and Dodi.

Just 2 weeks ago at the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton ,  royal 'watcher' James Whittaker was reporting live for the Nine network when he announced the arrival of Dodi Fayed at Westminster Abbey.


Fayed

"I mean Mohamed Fayed" he soon corrected himself, and then commented how gracious it was that the royal family had invited the hapless former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi who died with Diana in the Paris smash.

The portly figure in a morning suit and bedecked with medals was in fact, Tupou IV, the King of Tonga.

William's grandmother HRH The Queen was crowned in 1953 and one guest was Tupou's grandmother, the enormous girthed Queen Salote of Tonga who held an umbrella aloft shielding her and an aide as they travelled in a coach to Buck House in the pouring rain.

Princess Marina who was watched the passing parade with the writer Noel Coward asked who she was.
"Queen Salote" said Coward.
"And who is that with her ?" said Marina. " her lunch " responded Coward !

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Famous Last Words:
As the shenanigans of the enterprising Ibrahim family-owners of nightclubs and unidentified enterprises, plays out in the media and the courts- now with 2 nights of gun shots being pumped into various Ibrahim abodes by unknown would be assassins, we noted the words of a NSW Detective commenting on the mayhem.

Fadi Ibrahim is currently appearing in the Central Criminal Court, alleged to have conspired to bump off a man who he believed was one of the hooded men who pumped a dozen bullets into he and his girlfriend as they sat in a Lamborghini outside his North side house two years ago.

"This isn't acceptable" said the copper outside the court "and I advise the Ibrahim family to keep a very low profile so they go about their business unnoticed" while in the background, the diminutive Fadi in a snappy Italian suit and mirrored sunglasses clambered into a brand new silver, million dollar Rolls Royce Phantom!

Rats Invade Ritzy Hotel

There is plague of rodents in the uber smart suburb of Double Bay according to 'Mr Double Bay' Graeme Goldberg the owner of the popular restaurant  Dee Bees.



Ritz Carlton Double Bay



Writing in the latest copy of Latte Life where he has a regular column, Goldberg says he and fellow business owners signed a petition asking the Woollahra Council to hire a pest controller. The matter was raised in a council meeting by councillor Andrew Petrie but apparently a Greens councillor nipped it in the bud claiming it was a problem for local business owners.



Diana at The Ritz



Graeme Goldberg



Says Goldberg "Mate you gotta be joking. they're coming out of the drains and last time I checked the Pied Piper of Hamlin didn't own a property in Double Bay. I suggest the council send the experts to the old cinema and the closed down Stanford Hotel"

The Stanford is a sorry sight at present. It closed nearly two years ago and in a previous life it was one of the chicest 5 star hotels in Sydney- The Ritz Carlton.



Bob'n'Blanche Hawke



As the Ritz it enjoyed an illustrious clientele including most visiting celebrities like Tom Jones, Whoopi Goldberg and Bob Dylan. Two US presidents stayed there -George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton and it was a home away from home for the late Princess Diana on her very last visit to Australia. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke lived there for a year when he left office and was married there to wife Blanche and the late singer Michael Hutchence died in a first floor suite on a Saturday morning in 1997.



As the Standford Hotel the inn gradually declined in favour and a new owner plans to turn the site into luxury apartments but is having problems with local council height restrictions. At present the building remains empty and uninhabited like the suburb's former cinema in New South Head Road.

Goldberg and others want action and believe the problem will escalate fast : "The Bay has always had rats but they wear suits and sip Chardonnay. If there is vermin breeding you don't have to be Einstein to know where to start looking"

exclusive : HRH Prince Andrew To Be Appointed Governor of NSW

The fun-loving but  troubled British royal HRH Prince Andrew, the Duke of York is to be appointed Governor of NSW by the new premier Barry O'Farrell, taking up his appointment in November this year when the current incumbent Marie Bashir retires.

The official announcement is expected to be made by HRH The Queen when she visits the country in October for the CHOGM conference. And the O'Farrell family and royal family have been linked by an incident from over 140 years ago (see below).

O'Farrell has always said that Government House, perched high above the Opera House with it's sensational views of Sydney Harbour would be rightfully restored as the Governor's home if he won the election. With his convincing win on Saturday when the Coalition swept into power with 68 seats to Labor's 20, the new premier has a mandate to implement most of his policies.

It's been 15 years since former premier Bob Carr closed the Governor's mansion . Since then it's been available for everything-weddings, parties , barmitzvahs and so on. The Coalition has always claimed it was a scandal and the Monarchist's League has been outraged that NSW Governors would live in their own homes rather than the official residence.

Although ex-convict architect Francis Greenaway was originally commissioned to design Government House it was eventually built by English architect  Edward Blore and finished in 1890.

 Blore working in the romantic Gothic style, produced a mock castle which matched the crenellations of the existing nearby Greenway stables. The new building immediately became the talk of the town and helped establish the romantic Regency style in residential architecture which became popular in the colony over the next twenty years.

Prince Andrew, a man used to luxury and who has been the butt of numerous scandalous tales in the British media over his association with the New York millionaire Jeffrey Epstein should feel right at home in his new abode. It has style and plenty of space and beautiful gardens for entertaining on a large scale. With maids, butlers and 2 Royal Equerries plus his own staff and several official limousines he will want for nothing.

There are 28 rooms and the large reception area is a richly decorated two-storey hall with a musicians gallery. Government House also reputedly introduced the first modern water closet to Australia. The porte-coche was added in 1873, and the two front rooms extended about 1900. Although there had been earlier proposals (c.1900) to move the vestigial Governor into more modest premises, it was not until 1996 that this finally occurred under the premiership of Carr.

Numerous Royals have stayed there in the past including The Queen and Prince Phillip and Prince Charles and Diana when they were together and Pope Benedict slept there for 2 nights in 2008.



Jane & Sarah

It's been long rumoured amongst royal circles in the UK that Andrew would have to packed off somewhere sensible to re-create his crumbling public image. A spell as Governor of NSW for the normal 4 year appointment would seem the ideal solution.

And he should feel right at home. Sister-in-law Jane Ferguson lives a short drive away in Bondi and ex-wife Fergie is a regular visitor.

There are plenty of nightclubs and attractions for the Andrew's fun loving daughters should they visit and if Andy wants a casual drink there's always the Lord Dudley pub in Woolahra, a favourite of Prince Harry.

Andrew's appointment follows in a tradition of packing off Royals to the colonies for further education and royal duties.



a depiction of the attempted assassination: National Gallery



The

1867 visit of Queen Victoria's son Prince Alfred to Australia was the first by a member of the British Royal family and was tumultuous, to say the least.

It produced an outpouring of national exaltation and then of national shame following an assassination attempt on the Prince.

 On 12 March 1868 an  ancestor of the new premier-Henry James O'Farrell shot the Prince in the back at a public function in Clontarf, Sydney. O'Farrell was immediately arrested, and was convicted and hanged on 21 April that same year.

Will the Shuttle Prove Lucky for Collette Dinnigan & Kate Middleton?

In 1979 the Shuttle's resident psychic adviser Mandy Miami was looking for a new British designer to showcase at the New York nite spot she was managing-the Mudd Club. She chose an up and coming young couple David and Elizabeth Emanuel for her British Invasion Fashion Show that scored the Emanuels a front page story in the prestige Woman's Wear Daily.



The Emanuel wedding dress

 And she predicted an amazing success for the 2 designers and that one shining moment was in store for them very soon- one of their designs  "will be seen throughout the entire world like no other has ever before".

In 1981 Princess Diana wed HRH Prince Charles in a now famous Emanuel wedding dress, watched on live TV by billions of people around the world.



Miranda Kerr in Collette Dinnigan



On Tuesday evening the Shuttle attended the opening of Collette Dinnigan's new Woollahra boutique. The news had just broken of the engagement of Kate Middleton and Prince William. Collette is one of Kate's favourite designers and Kate is a regular at her London store. Today Ms Dinnigan fielded phone calls from media outlets around the world asking for her advice on Kate's wedding dress.

In Vogue UK she is running at odds 16/1 along with Alice Temperley another favourite, that the future Queen will wear one of her designs on her wedding day.

However the chances of Kate choosing a non-British wedding dress designer are pretty slim. The British media would rip her to shreds if she wore a foreign design-even a colonial one. But Collette does a nice line in beautiful Christening gowns for that inevitable Royal baby that will be with us in a year or so !

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Society maven Marie Sutton , the woman who managed to gazump the entire world by getting Princess Diana to attend the Victor Chang dinner in Sydney in 1995 as her last official charity function tells the Shuttle her phone began ringing at 5am this morning and hasn't stopped.

"They're calling from all over the world" she says "radio stations and newspapers in London and America. I even had a TV station in South Africa wanting to send a film crew to interview me".

"There's not much I can tell them" she says. " I've never met Kate and last spoke to William on the telephone 3 years ago".

In the meantime she is busy filling a table for the Black & White Committee charity lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on the 30th November.

The special guest is John Rendall of 'Christian The Lion' fame. He's  just returned from hosting a safari in Kenya and will be giving a talk at the lunch on life in an antique shop on the Kings Road, Chelsea with the lion cub he purchased at Harrods in the 1970s.

And there's a slide show. The pictures were recently exhibited at the prestige Saatchi Gallery in London.

To purchase tickets to the Black & White lunch contact them on (02) 9327 5698 or email susan.diver@rbs.org.au.

Ask to sit on Marie's table and she'll tell you all about Princess Diana !

For those who have forgotten about the Christian saga-here is the youtube video that went viral worldwide. Get the Kleenex out.....

Will the Duchess of York's Oz sister survive the scandal?

Footballer Mark Bosnich & Jane Ferguson

Much muttering amongst PR ranks this week whether the  public relations business of  Sarah, The Duchess of York's Sydney based sister Jane Ferguson will suffer over  the battering of her sister's merry quip that half a million  pounds will do nicely thanks, her tears of joy at the sight of $40,000 in cash and her sensible request for a spare fifty quid for the driver of her loaned Bentley.

Jane has a thriving Australian PR business looking after all manner of prestige clients from Peugeot cars to the famed English fabric designers Osborne & Little. She was also the go-between for the glossy Australian Woman's Day magazine that scored exclusive pics of Sarah's 50th birthday celebrations at the Lanesborough Hotel in London where HRH Prince Andrew obligingly posed for snaps with Sarah and their children. At a fee of $50,000 it was a steal with the pics on-sold world-wide for 6 times as much ( does Sarah just need a better agent ?).

Jane also co-hosted, along with Britain's favourite ex-Royal butler Paul Burrell the TV reality program Australian Princess , said to be inspired by the "fairy tale" romance during the 2000 Sydney Olympics of HRH Prince Frederick of Denmark and Tasmania's Mary Donaldson who was swept of her feet in a Sydney pub as Frederick purchased a round of drinks for the crowd with his platinum Amex card. In a few decades, our Mary will become the Queen of Denmark which is far more exciting than the job she had when we first met her -in a Kings Cross real estate agency flogging expensive over-priced apartments.

One of the guest judges on Australian Princess was  the  daughter-in-law  of an ex- Archbishop of Canterbury, Diana Fisher who started life as a BBC commentator before moving to Oz in 1964 with her husband Sir Humphrey Fisher. Diana  described her experience on Australian Princess as  the low point in a media career which has spanned 60 years that included covering the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. But she said it had to happen sometime.

In the introduction to Australian Princess ( which we are sure included at some stage London PR Liz Brewer and that darling of the aristocracy Lady Colin Campbell), Jane helpfully informed us that she had been "brought up around royalty !". Which is no lie, what with her dad, the late Major Ronnie Ferguson being the head of the stables at Windsor Castle . Whether she actually ever got into the big house is a mystery.

Before you scoff, we should point out that some historians  claim both Princess Diana and The Duchess of York (and Jane Ferguson) are distant, be it ever so remote, descendents of Georgina Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire and may well have far more aristocratic blood in their veins than the present occupants of Buck House who so cruelly threw them both out to the wolves.

We digress. Jane wasn't taking calls from the media last week as the ghastly News of The World sting video was broadcast worldwide . There had already been some sort of mix-up when her gorgeous daughter Ayshea  a cousin to Prince's William and Harry had inadvertently spoken out of turn, innocently to a media person, of her recent visits to the rellies in London and, as it is with that family, was banished for a certain cooling period (which could be decades) before being invited back to a family barbeque  at Windsor Castle.

It's claimed today in a Sunday tabloid  that  Jane Ferguson had been "disinvited" from a black-tie charity event last week that she had helped organise.
Absolute tosh. Jane had purposely stayed away knowing that the event  would be crawling with reptiles (like us) and had no wish to draw attention away from the very special cause. Sadly, it actually meant the charity was completely ignored. No Jane, no press.

Instead, she and 2009 Masterchef finalist Lucas Parsons were giving cooking lessons to a select few at the luxurious Point Piper home of American born designer Charlie Brown and her husband, the ex-Israeli paratrooper Danny Avidan.    

Will her clientele list suffer? Good grief no.
Each Sunday millions of viewers are devouring  the TV series Underbelly which is based upon the sordid underworld characters of Kings Cross (many still alive and operating) with one of the main stars often featured on these pages, the handsome John Ibrahim, nightclub owner and security consultant-although the police describe him as a "serious crime figure" -almost achieving hero status and who is on every guest list in town.

 At the same time Rupert Murdoch's beloved Daily Telegraph has hired our favourite ex-detective Roger Rogerson who admitted shooting a few people dead (all in the line of duty) and who was run out of the police force for corruption and jailed, as an expert commentator on the series and the interested can blog with him on Monday mornings where Roger will set you straight on who was a bigger crook than who.

Jane Ferguson, always charming, can look forward to a fabulous year with new clients battering down her door when the clamour dies down !

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In the next few days-a full report on the party to launch the autobiography of our favourite dominitrix Madame Lash which is being held at The Kirk, the former Presbyterian Church she purchased many years ago and where all manner of spooky events take place.

Gretel, as she is know to her friends  who was once featured on the TV show Eurotrash, also owns the rather splendid Florida House at Palm Beach where snootier residents have complained to the local council over 'renovations' she has in plan. They have no idea who they are dealing with !

The French are devouring the Social Shuttle

Within days of the Social Shuttle announcing society maven Marie Sutton had turned down a huge offer she had received from a US publisher for her 'Diana Diaries' , comes news of former 83 year old French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing soon to be published novel of a French leader's affair with a Welsh Princess.
To be published next month, Giscard's The Princess and the President recounts the secret and passionate love of two characters clearly modeled closely on both himself and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Sutton's collection of personal letters from the late Princess Diana are now locked in a bank vault, so paranoid is she they may be stolen. But the Shuttle has read the collection of letters in which Diana reveals intimate details of her life and affairs that have never been discovered by the media.

In particular we mentioned how Diana had an affair with a politician-we described him as a US politician in order to muddy the waters as we have promised not to reveal the details. (well sort off-the right offer may change things). Diana had varied tastes-from cads and bounders like James Hewitt to rugger types like Will Carling.

Would an older garlic loving Frenchmen be able to sweep her off her feet ?. We aren't saying anything.
 But how clever of Giscard d'Estaing's publishers to seize the moment.
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Gal Of The Week Prize must go to 25 year old Brynne Gordon who describes herself as a fitness instructor from Las Vegas and who arrived at the Brownlow Medal football awards at James Packer's Melbourne Crown Casino in an outfit so shockingly bad-well she just looks sensational. 

Talk about Footballer's Wives !

Brynne is engaged to 66 year old struck-off doctor and former football club owner Geoffrey Edelsten who ran a string of 24 hour medical centres famed for their grand pink pianos, sickly crushed pink carpet and crystal chandeliers,.He lived in a pink ranch-style mansion, flew a pink helicopter and once crashed his pink Ferrari when hearing on the car radio he was about to be investigated by authorities.

The Shuttle once visited one of these medical centres (you could spot them for miles-pink) driving home late one night with a crushing migraine and decided to seek relief in the garish doctor's room. A man in a pink coat, presumably an MD who appeared to be inebriated said "you won't get any drugs out of me !". When I protested that surely that was the idea of being there he said"go on -buzz off you old junkie".

And so I did only to find the now wild haired medico banging on my car window outside the centre minutes later. Terrified I wound it down slightly and he said "you didn't sign your f***ing medicare certificate-you think I talk to idiots like you for free"

 10 minutes later I realised my migraine had miraculously disappeared in the drama of it all !

Marie turns down a $1.6M for the "Diana Diaries"

In 1996 Marie Sutton (left), an ex-nurse turned charity fundraiser conceived of an idea to raise funds for the Victor Chang Institute based at Sydney's inner city St Vincent's Hospital where Marie had once nursed patients.

Victor Chang was the brilliant Chinese born heart surgeon considered a world pioneer and had once saved the life of Kerry Packer, the late Australian media mogul. Highly respected around the world, Chang was brutally gunned down in a kidnap scheme gone wrong one sunny day in the leafy suburb of Mosman.

Princess Diana in Sydney with Olympic swimmer Sam Riley

One morning in 1991 as Chang set off for work his car was forced over to the curb by 2 men who attempted to kidnap the surgeon. They shot him dead instead.

In his honor The Victor Chang Institute was set up and Marie Sutton became a committee member trying to hash around ideas for a major fundraiser to get the charity off the ground.

As a friend of surgeon Hasnat Khan, long rumoured to be a lover of Diana, The Princess of Wales, Sutton contacted Khan who had also worked at St Vincents and requested that he ask the Princess if she would consider being the guest at the inaugural Victor Chang Institute dinner. Not only did Diana reply in a personal note to Marie, she confirmed that it would be the ideal charity event to announce her retirement from public life.

Marie had pulled off the almost impossible coup-the most famous woman in the world was coming to Sydney as the guest at the personal invitation from the former nurse from the country town of Mooree.

What followed was a year of negotiations as the complicated process of ensuring correct protocols were followed, government departments consulted , guest lists compiled -basically a bureaucratic nightmare ensured that was necessary in order to pave the way for a visit from Princess Diana and the expected 100's of members of the worldwide media that flocked wherever Diana went.

As negotiations wore on, Marie found herself beginning to be side-lined. People realised that this was the event of the decade and as Diana's last official event, everyone wanted a piece of the action. Politicians, society figures. British establishment figures, diplomats, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces and so on. Letters and faxes flew back and forth but throughout the year long negotiations Diana stood her ground and lent her support behind Marie Sutton.

It was Marie's idea and Diana-never having met her, remained loyal and built up a friendly relationship via letters, emails and regular phone calls.

For the Princess it was a normal run of the mill year. For Sutton it was whirlwind and she began to compile the correspondence in a book that became known as the Diana Files.

And so on October 31, 1996 Diana, The Princess of Wales, was the Guest-of-Honour at a Gala Fundraising Dinner for the Chang Institute at Sydney's Entertainment Centre. As she arrived looking sensational in a stunning blue silk gown a 1000 media representatives shouted questions and thousands of flashbulbs blinded everyone. The Shuttle was a guest at the dinner and then the following day at a lunch where Diana greeted children who were suffering from Aids.

Later that night, Diana under the cloak of darkness visited a hospice unannounced and spent over 4 hours chatting to patients.

Sutton became Diana's companion and confidante and relished the Princess's quirky sense of humour.

One insider says : "once as Diana driving through the city one day they passed St Mary's Cathedral as a bride ascended the stairs. Diana rolled down the window in her car and yelled out "don't do it !" to the startled wedding party "

10 months later Diana was dead in the infamous Paris car crash along with Dodi Fayed.

In 1998 as a guest of Diana's brother Viscount Althorp, Marie Sutton was invited to visit the island that was to become Diana's last resting place.Unusually she was allowed to take photographs of Diana's grave and the surroundings. Sutton's snaps show the beautiful black swans that glide around the small island like elegant guards for the Princess .

The beginnings of landscaped gardens are shown along with a monument in the shape of a tall plinth topped by an urn, both designed by Edward Bulmer and carved by Dick Reid, which was to stand among the greenery at the north end but had not yet been erected.

And finally there it is-a small mound of earth where the most famous woman in the world lies. Only one person outside the immediate family has ever been to that island. It is Marie Sutton and only 6 people have ever been shown the photos of the island Sutton took that day.

Earlier this year the infamous British blogger Madame Arcati revealed the story of Sutton's Diana Diaries. They read like a thriller as the letters start of as a friendly exchange between Diana, Sutton and Kensington Palace secretaries and Royal aides. And then various politicians enter the frame as they try to wrestle the project from Marie. Everyone wanted to claim the kudos for Diana's visit. But Diana stands firm and repeatedly re-assures Marie she will not abandon her as the originator of the project and sends letters to various officials stating that Sutton will be her official escort during her visit.

At times Diana discusses the most personal of family details with Sutton in letters. The problems she is having with the courtiers of the Royal Family, her former husband and touching and amusing tales of her sons antics.

There are intimate stories of her various lovers and even details of some the world had never known about. The identity of these alone would shock many.

As a document it would surely be a best seller as the story unfolds with dozens of private letters from Diana discussing the most private moments of her life.

In some ways Diana was very much like Jackie Kennedy and felt she would have to marry someone rich enough to shield her from the world but didn't think she would ever find the right person as she would only re-marry first for love . She was rumoured to have a deep affection for one man-an American politician who she had a brief affair with but he was married although soon to divorce.

The Madame Arcati blog conintiues : "Diana swas wary whether the British public would even accept her marrying an American. She often said that she would have to devote the rest of her life to ensuring she didn't embarrass her children, aware of Prince William's future role". At times Diana was treating freinds like a therapist, as though she needed to pour her heart out to someone. She seemed to be the happiest when talking about her children but could easily become quite depressed about the future. But then she would brighten up and begin to talk of how she could help so many others less fortunate than herself-that seemed to be the only role she could see as her future."

Diana was also denied a Royal title :"not because I'm grand" she would laugh." let's face it, my background is fairly grand" Diana would giggle. But it was the protection that came with a Royal title that she was now denied that hurt her. "I feel like they have abandoned me and don't give a damn what happens.
But Diana also always expressed how impressed she was with the ruling monarch Queen Elizabeth saying she was not just a rock for Great Britain but a kind and warm women which didn't always come across that way to the public.
 She described Her Majesty as a mother with a sharp intellect and an amazing down-to-earth realization about her role not just for the public at large but for her own family and how the Queen had to negotiate the trials and tribulations of daily family life which in the end, demonstrated not just her humanity but how the Royals really were like just any other family.

" I only ever received great kindness form her" said Diana.

In one note Diana says to a freind "I found myself in this role but the Palace courtiers did not prepare me for it. It would have been the same for any girl who had married Charles except if he had married the one who never left him alone" referring to Camilla."

Within days of the Madame Arcati story Sutton was fielding offers from publishers around the world. The final was just weeks ago-a staggering $1.6M advance from an American publisher. One British newspaper offered hundreds of thousands of pounds just for the grave site photos.

Sutton is adamant. "These diaries will never see the light of day while Princess Diana's sons are alive.'" she says. "They are an important historical document and Diana talks intimately of her past, present and her future hopes-dashed on the 31st August 2007. . Sutton says she has them now locked in a bank for safe-keeping.

# Marie Sutton is now the national ambassador for St John Ambulance.

## The Shuttle has been contacted by several readers to inform us that many pictures that are reputed to be the late Diana's grave appear on the internet. The photographs that can easily by googled do indeed show the plinth and urn as described above. These however are at the beginning of a small path that leads to the very centre of the island where Diana lies in a small grave completely shielded by the deliberately designed garden to shroud the actual grave from the visitors who flock to the estate and from the media. No photographs of the actual grave have ever been printed or are likely to be.

The island has the most secure electric security system that is monitored by guards. The garden is designed in such a way that trees overhang the actual spot to form an umbrella of foliage to completely shield the grave from overhead photographs taken from a helicopter.