Yachting News

According to the Sydney Morning Herald News Corp supremo Lachlan Murdoch has purchased a rather charming 1950s "superyacht" for $30M to possibly boat around Sydney Harbour,as one does. From photos in the prestige Yachting News online magazine the interiors seem a tad austere. No insult Lachlan- we mean that nicely (we know Lachlan puruses Whisper's pages occasionally). Certainly compared to the Superyachts of the world. There are a reputed just under 6000 yachts that fit the category. Perhaps this will just be his Sydney runabout as he has another larger yacht being built.

Whispers has had a short history with Superyatchs. In the early 80s we were a guest for 3 nights on Adnan Kashoggis Nabila when it was docked in Monte Carlo. Working on a European fashion magazine funded by Kashoggi, an extremely charming host, we were summonsed to cover a series of events and although we shared a "double cabin" the yacht was wonderfully luxurious and huge, a bit like a rather large country mansion in decor. Certainly not as glitzy as the Trump Princess which it became when Trump snapped up the ship for a knock down $30M.

There are several superyachts we actually missed out on visiting due to unforseen circumstances and prior committments. An invite to attend a party on the famed Aristotle Onansis yacht Christina O and Rupert Murdoch's NYC based Lady Ghislaine (as it was then called) when he was launching something or other (or was it his wedding to Wendi ?). Murdoch bought the yacht from the infamous Robert Maxwell.

These older yachts like Lachlan's and the Kashoggi yacht really look spectaular and in their day were considered huge. But they are dwarfed by monsters like Aussie billionaire James Packer's $200M IJE which, apparently after just one summer sailing the Medeterranean, is now for sale for $300M. No photos exist of the interior and apparently guests on that trip were forbidden to take any.

Still, it could be worse. Take the $700M Scheherazade said to be owned by Vlad Putin, invader of Ukraine. It's hard to see if it will ever set sail on the Med and may be doomed to cruise the Black Sea for eternity.

## You can charter the Onansis ship below with it's grand piano room and pool for aorund $1M a week for 20 guests!

Reporting the Love Match of the Decade

 
The British media were out in force at the now famous Rugby match at Twickenham between New Zealand and Australia. One lucky snapper secured the first pictures of the love-birds Jerry Hall & Rupert Murdoch as they arrived at the grounds. Whispers is a cynical old thing and finds this most odd. The photo is clearly taken as the loving couple are arriving - not via the VIP entrance as other celebrities did, but along with the general public. The photographer appears to have been the only one to get the shot almost as though he/she had prior knowledge of this. And then likewise the photo of Uncle Rupes planting a kiss on a coy Jerry's cheek. Again just one snapper got the pics. And the source of the coupling :"a family friend". Such friends revealing info like this are usually banished to the outer realms, Not that Whispers is complaining as every time Rupert Murdoch's private life is reported our now famous snap of he and former wife Wendi Deng features throughout China's media (Chinese Hello! seems to love it)
Even odder is the fact not one News Corp outlet (proprietor Rupert Murdoch) has mentioned the tryst or published photos. Yet the pair seem happy to pose and appear in public ! Amongst the dozens of News Corp titles across the world that passed on the mention of the Love Match of The Decade:

Distant Love

Gorgeous Miranda Kerr was out and about this week in New York where she lives. You can see her in this lovely picture spread in the UK Daily Mail.
But alas, no James Packer by her side. Packer is in China and Sri Lanka for a week but will be back in Sydney in the next few days to oversee the continuing construction on his mega new home in Vaucluse and for business meetings about the proposed Barangaroo casino.
What an odd affair they seem to be having -so many thousands of miles separating this love-struck pair and Miranda still seeing her ex Orlando Bloom on a daily basis. Meanwhile James is confiding in his new (well relatively- 10 months) 'personal assistant' who hails from the land of Wendi Deng.
Perhaps James & Miranda are having a modern style of affair- one of the mind. Sounds just like a dream.

Rupert The Movie

Patrick Brammel  & Rupert Murdoch

With the stunning success of two movies featuring the Big Goanna- Kerry Packer, comes a new mini-series Power Games: The Packer-Murdoch Story that features a young Rupert Murdoch going into battle over publishing deals with Sir Frank Packer,  Kerry's father.
 Lachy Hulme (right) stars as Frank Packer (he also played Kerry ) and Rupert Murdoch is played by Patrick Brammel. Some legendary Australian political figures feature in the series as well including Black Jack McEwen along with actresses playing Anna Torv, Rupert's wife No 2 (before Wendi Deng) and Lady Florence Packer, Sir Frank's second wife who died this year in Monte Carlo and Ros Packer, Kerry's widow and mother of James Packer.
                                                                   

Anna Torv & Lady Flo Packer

The Shuttle turned for some background to regular contributor Bill Ranken  (right) grazier and man-about-town who at 84 has known all these characters over the years. Ranken reports Sir Frank Packer was almost persona non grata in Sydney society with many considering him to be fairly rough around the edges "not that I think he was much interested in Sydney's social scene. I think he thrived on the rough and tumble of business but Kerry was extremely popular and known for his generosity and loyalty towards retired staff : Kerry could be a big softie and he was generous with charities and rarely sought recognition for it. There must be thousands of people who should be grateful Kerry went into bat to retain St Vincent's Hospital when developers were eyeing off the property. I always recall traveling through a county town with Kerry and we came across a car accident where fortunately no-one was hurt. But a local tradie was distraught because his van was destroyed and he had no insurance. Kerry jotted down his details- the chap didn't have a clue who he was- and then a week later the local rag reported how a generous but anonymous benefactor had replaced the tradie's van. Typical of Kerry !". As for Rupert :"pretty boring really, never saw him at parties, Don't think he was that keen on the night life.".
Ranken, who owns one of the state's finest cattle properties also dated Ros Packer before she met Kerry and he described Clyde Packer, Kerry's brother, as a jovial figure : "we regularly toured Sydney's nightspots in Clyde's Rolls Royce convertible with more and more attractive ladies joining the tour as the night wore on. Clyde was once stopped by police who deemed the Roller over-crowed and as a fairly large and rotund man, he astonished the coppers when he emerged from the Rolls in a flowing kaftan. When they noted his name- he was also an MP then, they proceeded to give us a police escort to Kings Cross". They were the days !

The Merry Wives Of Murdoch, the Gardener & the Crooner

Patricia Booker               Anna Torv                 Wendi Deng

Whilst the rest of the media is still reeling after having been caught on the hop by the announcement of the Rupert Murdoch divorce : unlike Social Shuttle readers who read 2 months ago that the marriage was on the rocks and the end was pending, a former Murdoch confidante has come up with an insightful article on Rupert Murdoch and his former wives including Patrica Booker, Anna Mann (nee Torv) and the soon to be Wendi Deng.

Most of the media have turned to Michael Woolf's excellent biography  The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch for details but Rodney E.Lever was Rupert Murdoch's right hand man and a News Ltd executive for many years, a friend of the family and someone intimately involved in Rupert's personal and business affairs. He even accompanied Rupert and Anna on their honeymoon.

His series on Murdoch and his empire on the informative website Independent Australia are well worth reading.

One piece shines out as a previously unknown detail is revealed : In Adelaide when Rupert first set up home with his first wife Patricia, the gardens were tendered by a dusky hued handyman. And who was this gardener?.Step forward our favourite Malaysian import Kandiah Kamalesvaran , the late Queen Mother's favourite singer and now known as Kamahl !. Kamahl has certainly come a long way from the Adelaide Hills. He now lives in a large mansion on Sydney's elite North shore and drives a gleaming Rolls Royce. Last week we encountered Kamahl at an America Australia Association awards dinner attended by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

What a small world we live in.
Here is a clip of Kamahl (hiding in the foliage) singing his 1975 hit The Elephant Song which won the heart of HRH Queen Mother who invited Kamahl to share a few G&Ts at Clarence House.
trivia : He first used the name Kamal but after an MC introduced him as 'Camel' he became Kamahl.

The Social Shuttle Scoops The World!

 We sat this one out as we watched the world's media breathlessly report the Twitter words of Wendi Deng supposedly responding to hubby Rupert Murdoch's odd witterings on the weird site Twitter (admittedly to which we belong) that brings you second by second the thoughts of hundreds of millions of folks in the first sign that the world is plunging into an era of information overload.

The Shuttle had already unmasked the phony Wendi and it really wasn't too difficult. If a staff of two part-timers and one dyslexic cat can do it, why can;t some of the world's most experienced media?.

Yesterday we hinted that the Deng Twitterer was a fake despite newspapers around the world claiming that News Ltd had .confirmed' she was for real. Read more in today's SMH.

Twittering about Rupert Murdoch

We here are counting the days and hours until the penny finally drops on the collective media who are perpetuating the fantasy that now Rupert Murdoch is on Twitter, he has been joined by Wendi Deng.

A minimum amount of research reveals the true twitterer in this case.
Wake up folks!

Rupert & Wendi The Movie : X Rated

 The Plot :

The News of the World hacking hearing was interrupted when a man attacked Rupert Murdoch with a plate full of shaving cream. The attack was foiled when Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng pounced to the defense of her husband. The assailant is a comedian who calls himself Jonnie Marbles. People are curious how he managed to get past security. Meanwhile, hacktivist's LulzSec came out of "retirement" to prank Murdoch. They hacked The Sun's website, posting a fake report of his suicide. But Murdoch is still very much alive. Does Wendi regret her decision to save him?

For more go to : nma.tv/