Thorpedo Captured: London Olympics

Gold medalist Ian Thorpe has teamed up with Croatian born artist Charles Billich to produce a portrait for Thorpe's charity Fountain For Youth which raises funds for Indigenous kids. The painting, above will be auctioned.

Charles and his wife Christa threw a party at their Rock's studio and gallery to launch the painting. How do they manage to get these amazing premises?. The three tired gallery is one of the cities most desirable properties and was once the old Sailor's Home but now houses Billich works, some of which we present here.
 Below is his interpretation of The Last Supper ( a copy was presented to Cardinal Pell) which can be yours for $12,500. Not sure who the lady is in the picture in front-Mary Magdalene?.

And the London Olympics ?. Despite Thorpe just failing to qualify lucky Londoners will be treated to Charles' special Olympics print below which is for sale for a few thousand pounds and is being snapped up by British corporations and will be coming to a bank or insurance company wall near you soon.

Billich Gallery

blondes rule-Charlie Brown*Christa Billich*Shari Lee Hitchcock

That Oprah Winfrey Guest List in Full

Russell & Oprah sailing today on Sydney Harbour

She seems to have swept the nation of their feet-Oprah Winfrey's tour Down Under is generating the sort of excitement last seen when Princess Diana made her last public appearance in 1996.

As the Social Shuttle exclusively reported, young Bindi Irwin is to be a guest on one of the two Oprah shows to be filmed tomorrow at the Sydney Opera House in front of an invited audience of 7500. The lucky guest's names were drawn out of hat of over 340,000 who applied for the tickets.

Bindi Irwin

Today Oprah sailed on Sydney Harbour with Russell Crowe and wife Danielle. Russell will be a guest on Oprah's show along with Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Hugh Jackman , Portia de Rossi and Olivia Newton John. Jon Bon Jovi will perform while John Foreman and his orchestra will play the finale of the 2 shows which are to be screened in the USA in early 2011.

On Thursday Oprah will be a guest at the re-opening party for the $660M re-vamped Star City Casino where Jon Bon Jovi will perform again. He'll be joined on stage by Bob Geldorf.

And Friday-she's off on a private holiday up north with her personal staff . Then we have to hope that amongst the 8% of Americans who have passports, some watch Oprah and will buy the expensive travelogue they see !

                                      ****************************

Shari-Lee & pal Lizzie Buttrose

Appearing in the NSW Supreme Court today-Shari Lee Hitchcock who is demanding a bigger share of the estate of the late billionaire Dick Pratt. 

Dick Pratt

Shari Lee, whose 12 year old daughter Paula was fathered by Pratt is suing his widow Jeanne Pratt and the Pratt estate for a greater share.  Paula was left a magnificent beach side house in Watson's Bay and a farm on the NSW south coast. There are also 4 properties in dispute that appear to be held by  a maze of Pratt corporations: a multi million dollar Quay Apartmen,t  2 country properties and a paper mill in Tumut. 

Despite daughter Paula also receiving $20M in cash both she and her mother claim they weren't left enough to live on  by the late cardboard king. Dick Pratt died of cancer in 2009 leaving an estate valued at nearly $6B.