Fairfax Fail # 14

Don't get Whispers wrong, we really are fond of Fairfax Newspapers. Especially having worked for lengthy periods twice for them although the partnership didn't always end amicably. The real problem is despite Fairfax hosting some of the nation's best journalists, those in management are not newspaper people. They are businessmen looking at the bottom financial line and that isn't always a happy marriage.
Say what you will about the Dirty Digger ( Rupert Murdoch) he employs expert experienced newspaper men & women to run his worldwide operations and that's why they succeed (hey and they pay on time !).

So it's always sad when you see an obvious corker in one of Australia's venerable institutions and one we need so badly. As in this report by the local Southern Highlands' Fairfax newspaper where two budding journos got it so badly wrong.

Local newspaper baron Cristian King (pictured right with his Mum Jane)  Australia's youngest newspaper executive and an editor at King Media is involved in a dispute with some local Highland's colorful characters. He's been charged with an offense but most certainly not 'stalking' a fairly serious offense as the local Fairfax newspaper alleges. Cris is in good hands though His brief is from one of NSW's best law firms run by Christopher Murphy. We reckon King will prevail in court. We don't think M'lud will be happy with the Fairfax report.

Disclosure : Whispers has worked for Fairfax, Rupert Murdoch, King Media, Vanity Fair, the Wentworth Courier..oh hell, who haven't we worked for?

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And on the subject of King Media, Cristian and Jane King are about to launch their fourth local newspaper, The Independent Goulburn. This is the way of the future in print publishing - small independent newspapers will thrive. Take it as gospel from an old hack.

TOMORROW: THE TRUTH ABOUT MOVIE STAR MARILYN MONROE

Joan Crawford, the Waldorf Astoria, Times Square and Moi

Poster from Feud and right : Joan Crawford

There is a new movie Feud about to hit our screens staring Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon and it

looks sensational. It tells the tale of the rivalry between two Hollywood legends, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.
It brings to mind Whispers part in making the movie based on Joan Crawford's life, Mommie Dearest into a minor world-wide hit. The film was based on a book by Crawford's adopted daughter Christina Crawford.

It was the late 1970s and Whispers accompanied then Daily Express columnist Timothy Swallow (left) to New York to produce a book about famous women. We ensconced ourselves for a fortnight at the Waldorf Astoria. Our madcap adventures in that two weeks are for another time but one incident has now become a legend. Timothy and I on a free afternoon ventured over to a Times Square cinema to watch Mommie Dearest staring Faye Dunaway. The movie was languishing in the box office doldrums and the Hollywood "elite" had turned their backs on Dunaway claiming her brilliant portrayal of Crawford was some sort of betrayal.
We simply loved the movie and early that evening over drinks in a  bar in the Waldorf we created a tale for Timothy's column in the Express: the William Hickey column. We claimed groups of fans were turning up to watch the film and at the crucial moment when Crawford attacks her children with a wire coat hanger, the fans stood up and waved their own wire coat hangers. Silly stuff to fill a column. Within days the tale was front page news around the world and life imitated art : fans began to do just that. The film became a minor box office hit and a year later back in London a producer tracked us down and took Timothy and I to the uber smart Knightsbride eatery San Lorenzo for lunch to thank us. Former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown later recounted our story in her book 1983 book Life As a Party.
Below is a trailer for Feud and beneath the infamous scene from Mommie Dearest.

A couple of very nice snaps of Academy Award winners Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne on winning #Oscars for #bestactress and #bestactor. From New York's Patrick McMullan.
Photos by David Crotty for Patrick McMullan (c) www.patrickmcmullan.com

Patrick McMullan

Patrick McMullan is New York's, and probably the USA's most celebrated social snapper and we at the Shuttle are proud to call him a  good pal. In fact he visited Sydney to attend an exhibition organised by us a few years ago. He is a contributing editor on Vanity Fair as well as a contributor to numerous US magazines like Ocean Drive, Allure and Andy Warhol's Interview. Here he talks on Morning TV about his new exhibition of fashion personalities that has just opened at the Hearst building in Manhattan. Check out his website at www.patrickmcmullan.com

Final Last Word on the Oscars

How could we not mention our favourite media mogul Rupert Murdoch who tweeted just yesterday his distress that New Yorkers had the temerity to elect a Democrat mayor and that the city was now being run by "leftie incompetents" !.
Fortunately Rupert still made it to the Oscars with a new flame on his arm- Juliet de Baubigny who was named by Vanity Fair as 2013's as 'Silicon Valley's Most Stylish Person'!. One Big Question : Murdoch's News Ltd newspapers ripped into Cate Blanchett when she made some global warming comments last year. Will they still interview her now she has picked up the movie world's top gong ?

One Man & His Blog

Oh the joys of  blogging, even if the rewards may not seem apparent at first.
Advertising wise thesocialshuttle has picked up a handful of (badly) paid adverts- enough to settle maybe 2 telephone bills.
 Photography wise we have sold hundreds of photographs sourced from the Shuttle since 2010.  Our pics have appeared around the world in major newspapers and on similar websites as the Shuttle.
Surprisingly, few snaps get stolen from the website. Only 2 have in the last 3 years, both by a major Australian publisher.

Whilst websites pay a minimal amount to publish a snap for a month- when it's a particularly popular one like Aussie hunk Chris Hemsworth (right) it can be very rewarding: it has sold over 60 times. For some reason our snap of Rupert Murdoch (left) and the soon to be ex-Wendi Murdoch is extremely popular in China. 4 publications have used it including the Chinese Hello! in the past month and one Taiwanese newspaper.

Even better British newspapers that still pay big bikkies, routinely scour the Shuttle for tales and photographs. The Daily Mail for instance has 3 full time web assistants whose sole job is to search the net for suitable stories.
 Recent publications in the UK the Shuttle has sold material to (sourced from here) include  The Sun, the Sunday Mirror, The Daily Mail and The Independent amongst others. In the USA The Daily News & Vanity Fair have run Shuttle pics recently.
We may not have a billion dollar entity behind us providing unparalleled support. We may just operate from a second floor apartment sitting at a humble desk albeit with a pleasing view over Prince Alfred Park and within a cooee of the nearby mighty News Ltd empire but we reckon it's the way of the future. One day, we will all be bloggers !
Time to report on the latest Social Shuttle viewing figures : since mid 2010 daily readers of the Shuttle have never fallen below 1000. they usual hover between 1400 /1800 and on a peak day have reached 2600.
Google's own stats reveal an interesting picture and they cannot be fiddled with or fudged - they record every visit, the location of the viewer and the system they use-Apple, Ipad , IPhone and so on.
Total Social Shuttle page views this month: 48297
That's similar to a large suburban newspaper. As for readers they can be spread around the world as the last 2 weeks show:
Australia  15164
United States 3514
Germany  1582
Russia 1336
China 1234
United Kingdom 1151
Indonesia 430
Saudi Arabia 225
France 203
Ukraine 73
Not bad for what some critics may call an unknown website.

Yoko, Jagger, Vanity Fair & A Fashion Fail

People are gearing up for the under-whelming Mercedes Benz Fashion Week that will be upon us next week.
Following the announcement that Qantas and the Emirates have joined forces, British Airways flew in model Georgia May Jagger on a promotional flight and she hit the runway at Mascot Airport to showcase the new British Airways 777 300ER jet.

Only 1st Class for Jagger

Georgia May demonstrates the
new Economy Class seats on BA

Jagger will be on the runway next week modelling for what has become a sort of Groundhog Day of Aussie fashion designers with the usual suspects showing off their wares. The brains behind Sydney's Fashion Week must feel international publicity isn't required this year having rejected, or ignored, a request from a Vanity Fair correspondent to cover the event. He's off to Melbourne and Hamilton Island instead, still puzzled why giving him a square foot of space at a few fashion parades was beyond the capabilities of the powers that be.
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Meanwhile as a parting gift our Vanity Fair scribe has supplied us with some snaps of our favourite wacky Japanese artist Yoko Ono lighting up the Empire State Building in New York yesterday.


Yoko is ambassador for World Autism Awareness Day and over 3000 buildings are participating in an Light It Up Blue campaign to raise awareness about autism.

Royalty On The Best Dressed List

Vanity Fair magazine has released it's 2012 International Best Dressed list which features a refreshing list of royals and fashion designers with just a handful of the usual movie stars (mostly men).

Michelle Harper

Duchess of Cambridge

Princess Mary

Carlos Souza

Tasmanian born HRH Princess Mary of Denmark is the only Aussie born to feature along with a smattering of European royals including Prince Harry and Princess Kate. See the full list here.

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

Carey Mulligan : Best Dressed

She's just taken up residence in Sydney for the next few months-beautiful British actress Carey Mulligan who is to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann's $120M 3D re-make of The Great Gatsby.

Now she's been named in Vanity Fair's International Best-Dressed List 2011 alongside HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco, Justin Timberlake , Carla Bruni-Sakozy, Lady GaGa, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, Colin Firth, Stavros Niarchos and the Shuttle's favourite The King of Bhutan.
Photographs : Vanity Fair (C)

                                                                    

First Ita Buttrose, now Rudy Giuliani

The rumours still roam about town that publishing identity Ita Buttrose may stand in the coming council elections for Lord Mayor, a role she has every chance of winning given her popularity and celebrity status. Despite being contacted by at least two media organisations Ms Buttrose's office has not returned calls with a denial. Perhaps she should take some advice from a former New York  mayor on her bid.

In a little reported conference ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani  told delegates at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane that he was still contemplating whether he would stand for the Republican party in the 2012 presidential primaries.

Giuliani said " “President Obama is an incumbent president, whether you agree or disagree with his policies, incumbent presidents have a very good chance of being re-elected.”

You can read Vanity Fair's report on Giuliani here and note that they have elevated (or demoted) Australia to being America’s most electorally significant state and claim : "But as they say: as Australia goes, so goes the nation "

Vanity Fair's Best Dressed

Naomi Watts : Vanity Fair

THREE Australian women feature in the on-line poll for Vanity Fair magazine's  2011 International Best-Dressed List.


Naomi Watts and Cate Blanchett join the Tasmanian born Princess Mary of Denmark and are competing with the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Lady Ga Ga, Tina Fey and Viscountess Linley. 

Princess Mary & Prince Frederick

Cate Blanchett : Vanity Fair

You can vote for the Best Dressed man, couple or fashion
professional at the Vanity Fair website.


Princess Mary was voted one of the best dressed in 2010 as was Lady Ga Ga as featured here in a subtle silver outfit:

The Vanity Fair Academy Award's Party



Selena Gomez & Justin Beiber



It's the most sought after invite at the Academy Awards ceremony. The Vanity Fair Oscar's party hosted by editor Graydon Carter.

Most of those attending the awards either rush off first to the Governor's Ball and then, if invited to the Vanity Fair bash or Elton John's Aid's benefit. The big plus at the Vanity Fair do is that they invite all the older Hollywood legends so it becomes a mix of ageing and newer starlets, sporting stars, new and old music identities and the real Hollywood power brokers like Summer Redstone  and director Oliver Stone.



Joan Collins in that dress that sent her to hospital





Sandra Bullock



Rupert & Wendi Murdoch

Tom Ford



Chris Hemsworth




New York's top society snapper (and the most famous in the USA) Patrick McMullan as an associate editor at Vanity Fair has exclusive access to the party.

 Here are some of his snaps. There is much more at David Patrick Columbia's New York Social Diary

all photographs copyright : Patrick McMullan Inc.


Serena Williams



Mick Jagger







"If you don't know Patrick-you should go out more" : Andy Warhol

      What better way to start a new year off than a shameless plug for a pal. The above quote is genuine-tSS was there when the late Andy Warhol said it. Patrick McMullan has been New York's top society snapper for going on 20 years now-in fact he's probably the USA's most sought after photographer for social get-togethers.

     Patrick has regular columns in Warhol's Interview Magazine, Vanity Fair (for which he's a contributing editor) New York Magazine, Ocean Drive,  and a few others. His pics appear in basically every US newspaper and around the world. He's one of the guys on the inside. Even Paris Hilton 2009's 2008's famous party girl says no party is complete without Patrick in attendance. He's also published 7 best selling books of party snaps. tSS can't quite remember where we met Patrick-it was most likely at a very disreputable Greenwich Village bar called the Ninth Circle.

        For the past 2 decades we've made an annual pilgrimage to visit Patrick in his Fifth Avenue apartment near Washington Square where he's lived since he left college. Soon we'll bring you a video of interview with Patrick conducted there. When we first started crashing on Patrick's sofa we usually had to cobble together a few dollars for breakfast the next day, Now McMullan employs around 40 people and 20 photographers around the USA. tSS occasionally helps out. I think he might own the building now.

       tSS once flew Patrick to Sydney for an exhibition of our snaps of various celebrities at a King's Cross gym transformed for the night into a gallery. He was a huge hit with the local media and our own party guests like the late Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue, who signed her snap which was later sold at a charity auction for the Bobby Goldsmith HIV charity bringing around $8000. Kylie loved the pic and asked us where we took it.."somewhere or other" was our reply, not wanting to remind her that it was in a bar when she trying to be incognito and she told tSS to "fuck off" at the time.

       Afterwards we all retired to a restaurant that is now the uber-chic Hugos Lounge (the bar and the only one not owned by 'nightclub identity' John Ibrahim). Joining us were our favourite former First Lady, Lady Sonia McMahon and Min Keating, mother of the then Prime Minister Paul Keating.(left) Everyone got along famously.

      right :   Lady Sonia McMahon with son , Hollywood hearthrob Julian McMahon

 In the morning Patrick received an urgent phone call from Min Keating.  "I left my beautiful rain coat behind" said Min. "Paul (Keating) will be furious " she said. " He bought it for me in Paris when he was on a state visit". Said raincoat was quickly found but as the half a dozen of us who had slept around Patrick's hotel suite arose, McMullan decided we should all pose in Min's leopard print raincoat for a future exhibition. "No-one will believe this" said Patrick...."the Prime Minister's mother waking me at 7am looking for her raincoat-it's like getting a call from the White House". Hopefully the snaps are locked away in a safe.

       Heaven forbid they should emerge. At former PM Bob Hawke's 80th birthday bash at the Opera House  a fortnight ago tSS earned a withering smile from Keating as we caught him trying to avoid the media upon arrival.

  Surpassing Patrick's photographic snaps now are his fashion reports for NBC TV. If you want to know the latest about New York's fashion scene go here to watch a few of McMullan's interviews.