Winners..

So far..Cate Blanchett looking sensational on the 2014 Academy Award's red carpet in Giorgio Armani and Catherine Martin who has picked up the gong for Best Costumes for hubby Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby (pictured holding the brolly at the Sydney premiere)

Hot Stuff

Meet Australia's entrant in the Mr GayWorld 2013 contest -below right- handsome Aaron a 26 year old real estate agent from Brisbane in Queensland.
The contest is judged on 31st July in Antwerp in Belgium and he's up against other good lookers like Allesio (below) from Italy.

Havana Brown poses for Maxim Australia in her first photo shoot for a men's magazine. It's a good excuse to re-visit the Shuttle's exclusive video performance of Havana singing at the Sydney launch of the new Volvo car.

 ....and last but certainly not least-here is one of our favourite singers-around-town and winner of this month's Mr Lovely Legs contest Jeff Duff performing and showing off his amazingly slim pins. Shuttle regulars will remember Jeff appeared in Baz Luhrmann's hugely successful The Great Gatsby partying beside superstar Leo DiCaprio as our pic below shows. The always-in-touch Daily Telegraph (prop : Rupert Murdoch) confused him for Aussie actor Barry Otto.

Another Triumph for Baz Luhrmann

The critics were always going to be waiting with baseball bats for Baz Luhrmann's latest film. Baz has become one of those directors they just love to hate even when his flicks- the last they laid into, Australia -are still a financial hit.
But The Great Gatsby really has confounded them especially in the USA where the viewing public has taken Luhrmann's Gatsby to heart. To date the $180M epic has reaped in $312M at the box office, most of that in the USA. Audiences love it and while much of that can be put down the star power of Leo DiCaprio, now Hollywood's most bankable movie star of all time, it's a credit to Luhrmann that he could actually get DiCaprio, the most chased actor in the world. DiCaprio has made no secret of his loyalty to Luhrmann ever since he acted in Romeo &Juliet which sealed his star status.

But Luhrmann has another, notch to add to his belt. Since he first announced his plans to film F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, which sold poorly during the author's lifetime, sales have been climbing. For the last 5 years now the book has remained in Amazon's top 100 all time best sellers. Take a bow Baz!

Gatsby Rules !

Baz Luhrmann and The Great Gatsby bandwagon rolled into Sydney tonight for the Australian premiere and it was a huge hit with the audience.

The film's stars flocked to the Hoyts Cinema Complex in Moore Park, right next door to Fox Studios and Centennial Park where much of the movie was filmed. All that was missing was Leo DiCaprio who had other filming commitments but there were heaps of movie stars to keep hundreds of fans screaming their heads off and defying the pelting rain.
Forget what the critics say : Gatsby is a visual feast and a joyous romp through The Roaring Twenties. It's the first 3D film that the Shuttle has been able to sit through comfortably. Catherine Martin's sets and designs are sensational, over the top and there really is never a dull moment in this flick.
No-shows but reported elsewhere as attending : Ricky Martin, Seal and Kate Ritchie.

Gatsby fever strikes

The modelling Stenmark twins                                       Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch braved the rain

the brolly brigade at The Great Gastby

Bad News for Baz

Jay McInerney is one of America's most celebrated writers having published many best sellers including the legendary Bright Lights Big City and The Last of The Savages. Bright Lights was made into a movie in 1998 and starred Michael J.Fox. A re-make of the film is underway.

Amy Fay Collins & Jay McInerney in New York

McInerney contributes to prestigious publications like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and does book reviews for The New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. He's the sort of hip writer that defines the new American urbane author- sophisticated, connected, knowledgeable and in demand.

He's just contributed a piece to the UK Guardian titled : "why Gatsby is so great". It's an ode to the great F.Scott Fitzgerald and his brilliant novel The Great Gatsby. McInerney is clearly a Fitzgerald fan and enthuses over the book and the extraordinary eight hour West End play Gatz which is receiving rave reviews. He likes Gatz because it presents the book in it's entirety and he clearly loves the poetry and mastery of Fitzgerald's writings.
It seems then he would be looking forward to the upcoming Baz Luhrmann production The Great Gatsby (in glorious 3D) to be released in early 2013.
Alas, no. As Jay says:

This is just one reason why I avoided the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, with a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. And why I will almost certainly be skipping Baz Luhrmann's film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, much as I would love to see Isla Fisher in the role of Myrtle Wilson, the floozy mistress of Gatsby'

 Read more at The Guardian here  and see Jay McInerney's website here
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Andy Warhol once famously said of New York photographer Patrick McMullan " If you don't know Patrick you should go out more".

McMullan at work

Along with 81 year old Bill Cunningham he is a regular fixtures on the New York social, party and fashion scene. McMullan even has his own TV show and online magazine PMc Magazine. If you have party in New York and Patrick isn't there (or at least one of his snappers) it's a dud!

Sydney publicists could probably learn a few things from a night out with Patrick. There are probably three of the old guard snappers left in Sydney (Melbourne prs are far more civilised) who really know what it's all about, know the new and old faces and aren't bedazzled by the latest X Factor contestant.
The above snap of Jay McInerney is by McMullan who has worked on projects with the writer- here are a few of his latest pics from New York:

Anne Hathaway & Jim Carrey at Stella McCartney's fashion show.

Dita Von Teese

Bill Cuningham

The Great Gatsby-Spot the Bloopers

Jeff Duff

While the News Corp Daily Telegraph is bringing the world exclusive snaps from the set of The Great Gatsby and tales of Leo DiCaprio's weekly new handbag girlfriend, the Shuttle's on-set spy has been supplying us with a few tidbits.
As we exclusively reported a few weeks ago, the singer Jeff Duff has been cast in the movie as a friend of Jay Gatsby (apparently director Baz Luhrmann has been telling friends that Duffo-as he was once known-exemplifies the sort of eccentric character Baz aspires to).

Now we have noticed a glaring gaff spotted in a series of snaps from the set, that were featured in the UK Daily Mail (courtesy of News Corp). The originals can be seen here and we re-produce a couple of screen shots.
 No, it isn't the beat-up about Tobey McGuire looking very smart in 1920's gear topped with a boater and wearing a pair of 2011 Nikes. (our spy says the snaps were taken as Tobey wandered around in between takes and he had slipped of his movie shoes).
It's the series of splendid 1920's automobiles.

Each one of them is a right hand drive vehicle and of course, in the USA cars are left hand drive.

Is this a first for the fans of movie mistakes who scour the flicks and to date, have clocked up as many as 600 similar mistakes in the Harry Potter movies, over 300 in Pirates Of The Caribbean and about 260 in just one Lord of The Rings film?.
It makes the famous scene from 1959 Ben Hur where a trumpeter is spotted wearing a modern watch pale into insignificance.
Perhaps the viewers will never notice. But then again, The Great Gatsby is being filmed in glorious 3D.