LattéLife's New Power Base

Nicole & Keith               Matt Handbury           Reg Grundy               Miriam Margolyes                 James Fairfax

It's like a roll call of Australia's most powerful citizens : businessmen like billionaire poker machine king Len Ainsworth, properly mogul Theo Onosforou, show biz giants Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Miriam Margolyes and Reg Grundy, publishing family scions James Fairfax and Matt Handbury, horse trainer Gae Waterhouse and artists John Olsen and Tim Storrier.

Bill Ranken                John Olsen                          Theo Onosforuw                         Len Ainsworth                    Tim Storrier

All have two things in common- they live in beautiful homes in the surrounds of NSW's gorgeous Southern Highlands just an hour's drive from Sydney and all will be amongst the readers of LattéLife's new Highland's edition of the popular Eastern suburb's newspaper.
In a few short years LatteLife has grown to a circulation of 50,000 in Sydney with the new edition boosting that to 80,000 to an audience that now contains a concentration of the most powerful Australians in politics, business and the arts.
Two experienced editors have been appointed- Monique Butterworth will oversee the Sydney edition while Bowral local Alex Speed will take on local newspapers. Both will continue the current lively mix of news, interviews with locals , colourful offerings from social snapper Bill Ranken (who fortunately lives in both places- Elizabeth Bay and on a splendid property near Goulborn) motoring tips from Aaron Zerefos and the newsy snippets that have drawn advertisers flocking to the pages, making rivals look decidedly dull by comparison.

New editors: Monique Butterworth and Alex Speed :  below -local scenery

Great Minds Think Alike #3

Following our exclusive story yesterday about Australia's TV media mogul and billionaire Reg Grundy, the UK's Daily Mail has warmed to the theme today with the story of Kylie Minogue's attempts to get her appearances on Neighbours permanently canned.

The Quiet Billionaire

He has brought the world a host of the most successful soap operas ever- Reg Grundy who at 87 is publishing his autobiography.

Grundy is the quiet achiever of Australian TV. As a boxing and sporting commentator he first tasted success when he devised the Wheel Of Fortune game show which he eventually syndicated throughout the world.

Following that came shows like Sons and Daughters, Prisoner, Young Doctors and the mega hit Neighbours which has produced some of the biggest show biz stars to come out of Australia like Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pierce, Natalie Imbruglia, Daniel MacPherson, and Holly Valance.

Grundy reveals that Kylie Minogue had approached him once she became world famous to request that old Neighbour's shows she had appeared in were not re-broadcast. Reg rebuffed her and set her straight as to who owned the copyright of the programs-namely him !.

Grundy talks in his book about how he used to fly to the USA, book into a hotel and tape record TV shows, fly back to Australia and pitch the ideas to local stations. That paid off handsomely with Grundy eventually selling out for nearly one billion dollars to Freemantle Media.

Along the way, he and wife , the former actress Joy Chambers picked up a magnificent estate in Bermuda which came with it's own lagoon. Reg chose the spot so he could fly to New York on a 7am flight, do business for the day and return on the 7pm flight for dinner.

And he indulged his boating passion with the extraordinary super yacht Boadecia. He isn't selfish with Boadecia-you can rent it for about $150,000 a week but that does come with the 27 man crew.
These days he concentrates on his other love, photography and has produced several books on wildlife.

There is another star Grundy also helped launch. His chef on the Boadecia went on to international fame-Gordon Ramsay !

Reg Grundy is available from Boomerang Books.

my helipad's bigger than yours

Doltone House- a splendid harbourside venue located on a renovated wharf with sensational views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House was the venue for the Variety Club's annual bash on Thursday evening.

The Variety Club raises money for needy kids-about 200 grand last night.  The shrinking violet to the left having her ear nibbled is singer Maria Venuti who is very popular in Greece and Dubai. I wonder why.

Sipping cocktails on the balcony in the warm spring breeze a group of us noticed several large boats being manouvered out to make a sizable space.

Word is that's it to make place for the impending visit of Reg Grundy and his superyacht  Bodicea (pictured below). For the uninitiated Reg Grundy made a billion from producing TV shows like Neighbours, Sons & Daughters, Home & Away and a host of quiz shows. He's lived in Bermuda with his wife Joy for years. Bodicea is on the market though-for around $120M. Or make an offer.

Apparently Russian oligarch and owner of the Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich  sent a team to check out the Bodicea but in the end decided he "wasn't into second-hand boats". So he's having a new $180M boat built with 2 helipads-the Bodicea only has one. 

Also at the Variety Club bash was All Saint's star John Howard (left) who is still confused by some US TV networks for the former prime minister of the same name.

That John Howard is in Venezuela amongst other South American countries on a lecture tour. The Shuttle can't see him seeing eye to eye with Hugo Chavez on much. Should be popular though with the entrenched and belieged upper classes.