Prime Ministers, Book Launches and Slapped Faces

Last Monday Sue Pieters-Hawke launched her book Hazel: My Mother's Story at the SH Erwin Gallery and it was a fairly quiet affair.

Hazel & Bob in happier days

There was none of the fanfare that accompanied the launch of the book her step-mother Blanche d'Alpuget authored -Hawke, The Prime Minister about Sue's dad, former Prime Minster Bob Hawke who is still regarded as the most popular leader Australia has ever had.

The current PM Julia Gillard did the honours for Blanche's tome in front of a number of notable guests like actors Geoffrey Rush and Rhys Muldoon and former Midnight Oil front man Peter Garrett who is now the Minister for Education.

Last June it was alleged that Blanche and Sue had encountered each other in the Qantas's exclusive Chairman's Lounge at Brisbane Airport and each had slapped the other's face before being separated by authorities. Both denied the claim but witnesses say the incident was fairly heated although it's claimed the two have since made up.

Blanche, Julia & Bob

Despite this neither Bob Hawke nor Blanche attended Sue's book launch which Pieters-Hawke has written in retaliation to d'Alpuget's impliction that Hazel only stayed married to Hawke while he was PM so she could stay in The Lodge at Canberra and enjoy her role as first lady. 

Sue Pieters-Hawke's book covers Hazel's life from a schoolgirl in Perth, her life with Bob -''the love of her life'' - her career in welfare, life at The Lodge and her sad decline into Alzheimer's disease in 2001.
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Meanwhile the man who deposed Bob Hawke in a party room coup, former PM  Paul Keating launched his own book After Words on Sunday.
Keating, who was dubbed The Lizard of Oz by the British media in 1992 who accused him of manhandling HM The Queen has likened Australia to "a child clasping at the Queen's coat-tails, waving an embarrassing little flag' in a Daily Telegraph report.

                                        
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Not to be left out, former PM Kevin Rudd, himself deposed 2 years ago by Julia Gillard has been entertaining a crowd at a function following a meeting of Foreign Ministers at the CHOGM conference in Perth. The audience demanded Rudd break into song but he informed them "I sing like a cow".
(What does a cow sound like when it sings?)

Who is Rhys Muldoon ?

Rhys Muldoon & Peter Garrett at the Hawke book launch

Who is Rhys Muldoon ?.

The quick answer is a very successful actor. A former host of a kid's TV show Muldoon has acted in numerous critically acclaimed roles including the Oscar nominated The Saviour in 2006 and Bitter and Twisted, the hit of the 2008 Tribecca Film Festival.

But perhaps one role could have revealed a political side to Muldoon. In the Melbourne and Sydney productions of the David Hare play Stuff Happens he played the lead role of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On Tuesday night as our exclusive picture shows, Muldoon was at the Blanche d'Alpuget's book launch of her new title Hawke The Prime Minister. He stood and chatted with Environment Minister and former Midnight Oils front man Peter Garrett MP.

Now it appears he is also a close personal friend of former PM Kevin Rudd, recently ousted by Julia Gillard who launched d'Alpuget's book. And if we believe an article in tomorrow's Australian newspaper Muldoon is so close to Rudd he may have been advising him on certain matters during his tenure as PM. He and Rudd also penned a children's book together-Great Australia Day Kerfuffle.

What does all this mean ?. Well we have no idea but it does add to the amazing publicity campaign-planned or unplanned that is certain to push Hawke The Prime Minister into the number one book spot.

As media reports continue unabated with Labor tribes lining up on either side to support former PM Paul Keating or Bob Hawke the relationship between the 2 former political allies seems busted beyond repair. Or is it ?.

Keating say he hasn't previously considered writing his own book about his term as PM from '91 to'96 and as the World's Greatest Living Treasurer ( an honour accorded by a host of financial publication editors around the world) from 1983 to 1990.

If he puts pen to paper now his book is also bound to be a bestseller. Perhaps Hawke will return the favour.