Mother of All Balls

 The Sydney Town Hall was the venue for Saturday night's Mother Of All Balls, the brain child of actor Rachel Ward. The MoAB raises much needed funds for the YWCA's mentor program for kids from broken and troubled homes and it's become a must attend event pulling in big names from the Australian film industry. In the past drop-in guests have included Sam Neill, Cate Blanchett, Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe and Quentin Tarrantino.
In our lovely snaps : Rachel dances with husband, actor Bryan Brown (currently starring in the ABC's Old School on Sunday nights) and one of Sydney's brightest and cleverest publicists Sally Burleigh looks sensational with a very handsome Mathew Collett.

AACTA Awards Announced

 The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) have announced the winners of the 2nd AACTA International Awards in Los Angeles, with actor Russell Crowe leading fellow Australians presenters Jacki Weaver and Scott Hicks.

Silver Linings Playbook won Best Film along with Best Direction for David O. Russell; and Best Lead Actress for Jennifer Lawrence.

Best Lead Actor went to Daniel Day-Lewis for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's historical drama Lincoln. 
Best Screenplay was won by writer and director Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained while the two discretionary AACTA International Awards went to Robert De Niro for his role as an obsessive compulsive football-crazed father in Silver Linings Playbook, and to Jacki Weaver, for her role as De Niro's tolerant and forgiving wife in the film.

(But why no award yet for Samuel L.Jackson  (left) whose acting in Django Unchained is superb and worthy of an Oscar?)

On Wednesday the Social Shuttle will attend the local ACCTA Awards which will be hosted by Russell Crowe at Sydney's Star Casino.

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Nicole Kidman will fly into town on Monday to attend Wednesday's ACCTA Awards. Kidman and Keith Urban holidayed in Sydney and the NSW South Coast where they have a holiday home over the Christmas holidays, returning to the US on the 10th January. You can do these things when you have your own jet !
 
The Shuttle recalls speaking to Kidman's publicist Wendy Day at a luncheon is Sydney many years ago when Nicole was divorcing Tom Cruise.

Day was seriously worried that Nicole's career would slump, such was the power then of Cruise and the tendency for Hollywood bigwigs to line up in support of whoever they perceived as Hollywood royalty.
 Nicole of course has proved them all wrong and is the acknowledged most famous and powerful actress in the world today.

Featured on the cover of the latest Hollywood Reporter Nicole speaks about life with Tom and standing up to the Studios, Scientology and sex. 

The Mother of All Balls

Now in it's 8th year, actress Rachel Ward's Mother of All Balls went of without a hitch on Friday night at Royal Randwick Racecourse in the Oaks Lawn Marquee.



Bryan Brown & Rachel Ward



With A Rock The Kasbah theme it was an exotic extravaganza of Bedouin chic on a warm evening reminiscent (if you shut your eyes) of  Casablanca meets Marrakesh in a seductive swirl of colour and light with Camel racing, dancing, a Moroccan Souk for Fez hats and jewellery and a sumptuous dinner by Luke Mangan, inspired by the fragrant and tantalising spices of Morocco.



Matilda Brown



And most important, one of the Shuttle's favourite sponsors, Nicholas Feuillatte Champagne which is now the largest selling non vintage bubbles on the planet. Sadly the great man himself Nic Feuillatte failed to appear as he is ailing at his Sydney home where he is now permanently based having sold his Tangier palace.

In the past any major movie personality in town has attended Rachel's baby including Hugh Jackman , Russell Crowe and Quentin Tarrantino.

This year we had Kerri-Anne Kennerley and cricket great Shane Watson and girlfriend Lee Furlong ( see our pic from the OHLALA Mag).








Lee Furlong & Shane Watson