Everything Old is New Again :The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail : It's been described as the very worst and the very best of tabloids. Certainly their online version MailOnline is the most read newspaper website on the planet. The printed version has for decades had the most pleasing layout and graphics of any of the British tabloids and an excellent mixture of news, newsy tales and celebrity, society and show biz gossip.
So it's always a great compliment when the Mail takes a cue from Whispers at thesocialshuttle (as is their wont) to bring the public a tale as they did with this piece on 2nd June 2015  : about former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard with a fab pic of Julia jiving on stage to accompany the late Victorian premier Joan Kirner at the microphone.
The fact our tale with a similar headline appeared on June 29th 2013 is neither here nor there

JUNE 2015                                                                                       JUNE 2013

Hey a good story is always worth recycling and the Mail are experts at it. We reckon the later Peter Allen may have had them in mind when he penned this song:

New Year Resolutions

Just a few we have made for other people :

a.The Daily Mail will hire extra sub-editors after this clanger in their headline about Soraya Kashoggi ( The Shuttle worked for Adnan Kashoggi for a few years)

 b. Columnists who should know better will finally abandoned their fantasy of an affair between James Packer and  Miranda Kerr which reached a fever pitch after the Shuttle's April Fool Joke that brought a dozen enquiries from local and international media when the phony snaps could easily be found via Google. We have said for ages : we know who James is dating and while we are sworn to secrecy she is not famous and leads a very private life.

c. Same columnists will abandon their love affair with the Ibraham family of entrepreneurs whose rise in Kings Cross has mirrored the downfall of the same with drunken yob filled streets and 'one-punch' killings.

Day Five.....

The UK MailOnline's exciting experiment to inject some colour and movement into the storm ridden lives of the English continues with yet another instalment on the great Brynne & Geoffrey Edelsten saga.

Readers again have posted pithy and accurate comments along the lines of "who" ? although one kinder gent called stantheman has praised Geoffrey  and says :"If my wife or partner looks anything like her when I'm 70,then I'm going to go to heaven a happy man.'
A feature on the dating habits of the daughter of cricketing legend Shane Warne has drawn a blank with readers but another on 2 wireless disc jockeys Kyle and Jackie O (she has no last name apparently)- much beloved of writers on tabloids like the Sydney Morning Herald brings the following : "seriously, who is paying you to promote these Z-list Australian nobodies?"Who on earth cares??"never listened to vyle never have never will'

It's just a matter of time before the hapless Brits are treated to tales of over-exposed radio hack Fifi Box falling pregnant again or going on a diet.

Invasion from DownUnder

Readers of the world's most scurrilous terrific newspaper, the MailOnline have been expressing puzzlement of the sudden rash of tales about Aussie (alleged) celebrities that have appeared over the last few days.
Glitzy Melbourne estranged couple Geoffrey & Brynne Edelsten have now featured for two days in a row much to the bewilderment of the intrepid commentators on the popular British rag : "who are these people' : "DM seriously this isn't relevant for the UK! (and that's from a Melbourne reader) :No one overseas knows who the hell she is, and no one here in Oz gives a damn! Where to now DM????: "What's this current obsession with Australian non entities?" are some of the more refined comments.

A tale about Charlotte Dawson leaving Australia's Top Model has drawn positive support from one reader- guysomewhere is obviously a fan of Charlotte's with his comment : "top cougar !"

Who are they ?

What can it all mean?. It's a carefully planned marketing ploy to gauge reader reactions and numbers for the imminent launch of an Australian version of the MailOnline. There are big bikkies involved in advertising with the UK version now raking in millions of pounds in revenue. That knocking sound you here is Fairfax and News Corp shaking in their boots.
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 Meanwhile the hapless Edelstens have begun unloading assetts as their 'fairytale" romance crumbles and Geoffrey faces bankruptcy in the USA.
Just released on the market for a price of around $4.5M is the couple's homage to '90's decor, their Palazzo Versace apartment on the Gold Coast. (pictured below)

The Archbishop Vs Dawkins

Why on earth did Cardinal George Pell's minders-the coterie of priests known as Pell's Angels allow the man to go head to head in debate with the boorish Richard Dawkins, let alone the ABC devote one hour of prime time television on the hugely popular Q&A program for the professional atheist to promote his non-religious religion.

Pell, a fierce right winger who was pipped at the post by his pal Joseph Ratzinger to become Pope, is certainly knowledgeable on Catholic dogma and theology and can explain himself when necessary, even if he has some wacky views on women and gays.

But Dawkins has honed debating to a fine point and pulls every trick in the book. Pell just wasn't up to speed and Dawkins cleverly sweeps aside questions he cannot or will not answer, a tactic he uses often and which becomes apparent on repeated views of his act.

One way is to dismissively say "that's just a silly question" when thrown a curly one as he did on Monday night when asked  "what is the point of civilisation ?".
Dawkins brushed off the question with no answer and ignored the fact that man has been asking himself just that since time immemorial.
Pell was just still confused from the hash he had just made of his remarks on Jewish civilisation.

Now the Daily Mail in the UK has completely mis-quoted Pell in this article.

Pell was clearly talking about the past when comparing the sophistication of Jewish life of 2000 years ago with their neighbours, the Egyptians and Persians.
The Mail's headline screams :  

"Australia's most senior Catholic Archbishop sparks outrage after saying Jews are 'intellectually and morally inferior'".

Pell said no such thing. He was plainly talking, in a muddled sense about the past and not today. The tabloid changed one word "were" to "are" giving his sentence a completely different meaning.
And when host Tony Jones asked Pell if he included Jesus in the claim, the Mail says Pell did. He did not. As one person in the comments section says: the article is total bunk. As was Monday's Q&;A.

Sharon Sargeant Vs The Middletons

Britney Spears attacks paparazzi

Lord Justice Leveson

At the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking in the UK, the picture editor of The Daily Mail-the newspaper that receives more web hits than any other publication on the planet-Paul Silva gave evidence that Pippa Middleton the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, typically has eight or nine photographers camped outside her door and estimated that they produce between "300 to 400 pictures" of her daily. Silva says these photographs arrive on his desk and most are literally, snaps of Pippa either entering or exiting her front door and are of no value.

It's an example of the nature of today's so-called 'papparazi that has seen thousands of young kids armed with an inexpensive digital camera swell the ranks of the 'media' section of show-biz events.

For old-timers (like the Shuttle) they're a pain in the neck. Most of them are arrogant and seem to have no connection to the celebrities they snap. They show little interest in the subject matter. It's like big game hunting with a lens and as long as a 'kill' is made that's all that matters.

Frank Monte

Pippa Middleton

The Shuttle dates back to the days when they were just three photographers at any event in London. Richard Young was one and he was a welcome addition to any show biz shin dig or high society party. Likewise New York's Patrick McMullan. Both are still going strong and the difference is they are welcome at any event because not only do they have a personality, they know how to play the game.

In Los Angeles the paparazzi are even worse. Agencies are hiring illegal immigrants at around 6 a time to stake out a movie star's home. They have strict instructions. Two will have cameras, two will be 'spotters' and they other two 'agitators'. Their role is to annoy, cajole, flirt or otherwise to get a reaction from the star. A smile is as good as a scowl from their prey.

And so it leads us to Sydney party girl Sharon Sargeant who as we reported last week, was  photographed at an exclusive Fijian resort while her partner, private investigator Frank Monte held secret discussions with Fijian government officials. The snaps came from an unlikely source-a well known American show business star who had spotted Ms Sargeant bathing topless at the beach.

What the Shuttle wasn't expecting was the roasting we got when we finally got in touch with the girl known as Shazza who made her displeasure known in a 5 minute tirade down the phone.  Surely she would be happy to know an American star- and we do mean a top movie star who was quite taken with Sargeant's charms-thought enough of her to pass on the pics?. Sadly we cannot reveal his name despite Ms Sargeant's threat to take legal action.

However-just to show there are no hard feelings, we decided to publish two more from the set !

UK Newspaper's Saucy Pic

It's one of the Shuttle's favourite newspapers in all the world-The Daily Mail in the UK and it's on-line version Mail Online. It's mixes gossipy tidbits about celebrities with saucy tales on the Royal Family, the usual Fleet Street 'outrages' in line with it's right wing policies condemning welfare 'scroungers' (usually pointing out they may well be Polish) heady beat-ups about the lack of Laura Norder (law and order) with dozens of colourful photographs delivered in an easy to read snappy formula with great graphics.

And that's probably why the Mail Online gets around 30 million readers a month.

A current feature brings us a series of fascinating colour photographs in an article titled : 
Bygone times: Incredible colour photos from the early 20th century which capture a world on the brink of permanent change.

It's a series of fascinating snaps taken by Frenchmen Albert Kahn in 1909, over a century ago. What is different about these pictures is that they are in colour and give us a much more accessible feel of the era as demonstrated in the pictures below.


We particularly like the snap of the West African villagers who as the caption explains had probably "never seen a camera before". Indeed, and as our blow-up shows, the camera had an extraordinary effect upon the villagers!

West African Villagers

West African Villagers spot camera for first time

Mildred Pierce-you are not alone

      How pleasing it is to find that the Social Shuttle's research assistant and sub-editor, Mildred Pierce, a dyslexic moggie rescued from the Cat Protection League one year ago is on-par with the Daily Mail , the great British tabloid. The Mail, slightly right-wing, is one of the best presented tabloids amongst a sorry lot but it does give good show biz.

    Today they have run a story on that great Australian icon Paul Hogan and wife Linda (who both left Oz 20 years ago) who are currently holidaying in Byron Bay..yes that's Byron Bay not Bryon Bay as the Mail on Line reports.

    We know the wonderful resort well as tSS worked for a short period on the local rag, the Byron Echo- started over 20 years ago by a dear tSS friend Nicholas Shand, heir to a British publishing fortune who went all bush and started a commune in that magical spot, when he purchased a few hundred acres in the Byron hinterland and decided the only thing the area lacked was a newspaper for the 'alternatives' or 'ferals' , like Shand, as  they were referred to by puzzled locals.

      The ferals were the band of city folk who had flocked to the beautiful old fashioned fishing town where houses now command multi-million dollar prices. Sadly Nicholas died in a car accident but his newspaper went on to become the area's dominant new's source.

     Hoges is pictured walking on Belongil Beach (we once flew there to cover a nude protest and made a small fortune selling the pics in Japan) and on the balcony of the town's best hotel. the Beach Hotel which was once owned by Hoges and his business partner John Cornell. Hogan and Cornell have made a fortune out of Byron Bay real estate, possibly more than they both did from their successful Crocodile Dundee film ventures.

    When the Croc films first went ballistic world-wide at the box office in the late 1980's, Hogan built a mansion at Possum Creek, just outside Byron, on a 132 hectare lot which he finally sold to Hong Kong British based banker Duncan Mount and his ex-model wife Sally in 2006. Possum Creek is back on the market for $8M as the Mounts are anxious to move back to Sydney.

 The Daily Mail reckons Hoges looks a bit old at 70-you can judge their pics here, while we present our latest Hogan snap from 2008.

As an aside, tSS once covered a concert for the Byron Echo when former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten hit town (with a larger paunch than that sported by Hoges in the Mail pics). In mid-song, as tSS snapped away with a camera, Rotten-or John Lydon , his real name, leapt off stage and proceeded to throttle tSS at which point we pointed out -"hey it's me-your old drinking pal from Soho !". John relaxed his grip and said "great to see you again-play along please-the crowd loves it !"
    The resultant confected struggle between us was later described by Shand as "like a weird gay couple doing the Pride of Erin-badly", but at least the audience was convinced Anything for art's sake.

      As the Daily Mail says, age catches up on one.