For your entertainment..

Whispers knows you are all going crazy with "isolating" yourself. There's only so much television you can watch, so many dodgy recipes whipped up by desperate tabloids to keep you entertained.
Fortunately a video lands upon our desk.
Sydney party personality Sharon Sargent has been featured in our pages many times, usually for naughty but nice adventures. All very innocent of course such as posing in LA'S Rodeo Drive while appearing in her own reality TV show and as above with the English Rugby team at a lunch at Sydney's uber smart Otto's Restaurant at the Wharf in Wolloomooloo.

We still can't understand why one of Britain's top tabloids the Daily Mirror went a bit crazy over this episode. Sharon was merely waving the team goodbye as they headed off on a Sydney Harbor cruise with a bunch of scantily clad lasses who, if anyone had experienced Sydney's summer heat would understand the gels were sensibly dressed for the climate.
 Or undressed in this case. All healthy harmless fun.

Now Sharon has penned a song and put it to film. It's a pleasant little ditty and describes her feelings under "social isolation", the latest craze sweeping the world. In Sharon's' video she is pictured touring a Sydney almost devoid of any traffic or even people! It really sums up what we are going through today. Collectively-ie: no-one else is having a good time so stop feeling sorry for yourself.

we come to Rupert Murdoch's aid but who will help Sacha ?

Rupert Murdoch's top selling Australian tabloid, the Daily Telegraph  has called upon the services of  the Social Shuttle to supply them with a raunchy set of snaps of Sharon Sargeant, fiancee of the world's most famous gumshoe Frank Monte. Sargeant was snapped by our junior paparazzi, partying at Lotus in Kings Cross after last week's Lady Ga Ga concert.

Sargeant says she was celebrating the fantastic concert with a few gal pals over several bottles of Veuve Clicquot and later had a slight wardrobe malfunction as she tried to negotiate the back seat of the limo thoughtfully provide by her future hubby who was in San Francisco on a business trip.

 The same issue also carries the tale of singer George Michael  relaxing on a cruiser in Pittwater for the past few days .He has extended his stay in Sydney for several weeks as a lazy Indian summer takes hold. George has been enjoying himself on the Oxford Street gay strip that has proved gold for the singer who has been exhilarated with the fantastic reception he has received at his Oz concerts. Michael has discovered the treasures of the Golden Mile in the form of several handsome muscled dudes who have taken his fancy.

Tip to the Telegraph: George has now taken an apartment in the luxurious Icon building in Potts Point , the temporary digs much favoured by visiting movie stars while shooting at Fox Studios. And the Social Shuttle has all the details for the luxury holiday George has planned early next month when several chaps and a bunch of friends will be treated to a no expenses spared fortnight in the South Pacific. Give us a bell. Before Hello snaps up the rights.

Midnight shifter Carson Kresley

PS; you may also want to call us about Queer Eye's Carlson Kresley who has been in town for a week, unnoticed and was celebrating a re-match with a his handsome Aussie hunk last night at the Midnight Shift !

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A curious tale in the Sydney Star Observer, the gay and lesbian publication that says a group has been formed with the specific purpose of suing the makers of Bruno- Sacha Baron Cohen and his co-producers for $80M, the entire Australian takings for the flick.

Sacha Baron Cohen at the Sydney premiere of Bruno

Musician Michael J. Lloyd has formed the LGBT Foundation to take on Cohen as he claims Bruno was "purely offensive and ludicrous. It encourages a discriminatory society", as Lloyd told the Observer.

 The group's website has listed a lawyer from the Nicholas Family Lawyers as a partner in the venture along with well known gay identity Brett Hayhoe although apparently  Hayhoe seems unsure of the plans to to drag Cohen and Bruno's producers into the Supreme Court.

Ligging at Neville's house

Lindsay Fox (left) chats while Neville looks for a buyer.

Suburu owner Kerri-Anne

They were out on force at Neville Crichton's gleaming new Ferrari and Maserati sale rooms in Green Square for the launch of a range of the Italian autos.

2 of Sydney's best known gate-crashers (they are called "liggers" in the UK) and a host of well known business, sporting and show-biz personalities. Will Neville notch up a sale or 2 from the night that generously included a fleet of chauffeured Maseratis to ferry guests to and fro-all the better for quaffing French champagne by the bucket ?. Hard to tell. tSS did a straw poll of some of the more well heeled guests and found few takers.

Daytime TV queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley drives a very practical Subaru which she says she loves as does husband John Kennerley, the man who started Britain's Littlewood Pools and sold out for squillions. They have a Lexus for more sedate moments.

What does nightclub king Justin Hemmes
(right) motor around in ?. Anything he wants with he and his father John's amazing collection of vintage and new luxury cars. But not a Maserati or a Ferrari amongst them and he won't be buying one soon.

Nor does the countries top jeweler Nic Cerrone-a Mercedes, and as for trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, he doesn't drive at all but has a man at the wheel of either the Rolls Phantom or Bentley Continental that slip into the Spanish style driveway of his legendary mansion Boomerang. We gave up after 12 inquiries. Not a Ferrari owner in sight. The 2 liggers ?. They share a taxi or an ancient Ford Falcon when it's running.

Still, everyone looks pretty sitting and posing in the gleaming autos.

Nic Cerrone-always happy to pose for the camera.

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Earlier that night the Oxford Street cabaret club Slide showed off some of it's season's upcoming acts that include the crooner Barry Crocker who pens the occasional play review for the Shuttle. Slide is run by French chef Marc Kuzma who doubles up as maitre de and as drag act, Claire De Lune.

Claire de Lune

Crocker's squeeze Katy Manning, the original Dr Who co-star is still in London and working at the BBC.

Slide maitre de Marc Kuzma with Sharon Sargent and Barry Crocker

Barry played the Private Eye comic strip character in the film Barry McKenzie Hold His Own. It's difficult to tell which came first-Barry Crocker or Barry McKenzie. Did Barry inspire Baz ?.

A question for creator Barry Humphries next time we see him.

troubles in the Imperial Court of Priscilla

     It was the venue where they filmed the Academy Award winning film Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert.

 Forget Crocodile Dundee, the mega hit films that showed real Aussie men carry big knives-Priscilla, shot at the Imperial Hotel in Newtown showed that plenty of real blokes carry big handbags as well.

     The hotel has been something of a gay icon for donkey's years but since it closed it's doors in 2007 for a make-over, it's been embroiled in a court battle over patron numbers.

        Owner Shadd Danesi  reckons he needs at least a reasonable 700 patrons a night to cover the enormous costs of building a proper showcase for the drag stars who strut the boards and entertain a clientele that isn't strictly out for a quick pick-up for the night but seek glam premises and a bit of classy entertainment. And it doesn't come much classier than Sydney's coterie of 6 foot something cocks in frocks who know how to entertain with biting wit.

      But mean locals and the City Council are trying to put the kybosh on that with just 300, and the owner has spent half a million dollars in legal fees alone fighting debilitating court cases .

     It's reminiscent of the battles that happened in chic Paddington-once the home of artists, alternatives, gays and lesbians and just about anyone who felt they didn't fit in elsewhere.

      Plus the amazing Windsor Castle Hotel that was packed every night with every sexual gender and persuasion and some that haven't even been invented yet. The place rocked like no other and the huge immigrant population of Italian and Greek neighbours and the Aussie working class locals didn't give a hoot. They just loved the colour and movement.

     Now you couldn't swing a sequined handbag without knocking out a stockbroker, corporate raider or banker who scowls at anyone in pre-2008 2009 BMW while the sad old Windsor gets a solicitor's warning letter if a patron speaks above a whisper.

   This Nimbyism has been the scourge of Sydney with it's myriad of inner city pockets of wonderful suburbs-many built by convicts for the working classes ,whilst their betters lived in the outer suburbs.

       But now the situations are reversed with the 'artistic' 'types being increasingly moved further and further out whilst corporate types nab the trendiest burbs and then moan about the very aspects that made the area so interesting in the first place.

     A pub like the Imperial, an art deco splendour and one of the few left of the era should be encouraged to ply it's trade to as many folk as possible and if local residents don't like it, they shouldn't have purchased there in the first place. Or they should understand real economics- every dollar the Imperial spends on upgrading and attracting patrons probably adds another 2 to the value of their property.

     However owner Shadd Danesi , ever optimistic has launched a quest to find an artist to re-create a giant red stilletto-something like this-which he wants to place above the entrance. God forbid, that should really have locals fuming and council officers crying foul.

   tSS once worked with Priscilla writer and director Stephan Elliot (left) making wedding and music videos. After the success of Priscilla, Elliot had Hollywood at his feet  (tSS is still working on that one)  but was mortified by the shady characters he met there and fled to London.          

     Whilst his fortunes floundered for a while his recent film 'Easy Virtue' opened to critical aclaim everywhere and he has 2 more flicks in development.

      And there are still plans to one day film the mad saga (with a script by writer Louis Nowra ) of the cancelled wedding of Prince Lorenzo Montesini, the ex-Qantas trolly dolly who travelled to Venice to marry  heiress Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop with half of Sydney and Melbourne society in tow. In a fit of nerves, Lorenzo  ran off with the best man Robert Straub the night before the wedding.

                                               Pitty Pat & Prince Lorenzo in happier days

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TigerGate fashion statement :

     tSS came across marketing executive Sharon Sargeant , the current sqeeze of celebrity gumshoe Frank Monte lunching with a gal pal at Potts Point eatery Lotus in this fetching t-shirt. Sharon says she met the great philandering golfer in an LA hotel bar 3 years ago with mutual friends. They all chatted for about half and hour over a drink and then everyone went their seperate ways.

     But ever since Tiger's tale has gone ballistic she's been plagued by celebrity agents wanting to know if she would like to "sell her story". "But there's nought to tell  " protests Sharon..and sick of the pestering she decided to put it in print.

a strange exhibition..

The invitation to Justin Hemmes Ivy said 6pm for the opening of their Voyeur exhibtion of sexy snaps taken around the precint of Hemme's amazing multi-million dollar nightclub venture. One slight hitch-there seemed to be no photographs and few guests but heaps of champagne and nibbles. Perhaps the other invites are still in the post.

         At least we spotted marketing executive Sharon Sargent who brightens up any room. Sharon says she's threatening to attend the Polo In The Park this Saturday at Centenniel Park, wearing something sensational. Can't wait.

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The furore erupting over Demi Moore's photoshopped snap on the cover of W Magazine and described as "the"worst Photoshop ever" is another discovery of the excellent blog Photoshop Disasters. Check it out-it's good fun.

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And have a look at the very amusing Angry people in local newspapers, the sympathy blog for hapless local tabloid snappers.The entire Shuttle staff have worked on local newspapers at some stage -we feel their pain.