And now some light news: Ivanka Trump has posted a snap on her Instagram page of her current holiday in Croatia with her traveling companion, Wendi Murdoch who we featured a few days ago partying in New York. Is Wendi the girlfriend of Russia's Vladimir Putin as claimed? .
Hugh Jackman, Deborah Lee Furness and Wendi Murdoch at the Park Avenue Armory
Currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW is the new video installation by renowned German artist
Julian Rosefeldt (pictured below) which features Cate Blanchett . The work presents a series of monologues that Rosefeldt has
created by editing and reassembling a collage of artists’ manifestos, from declarations penned
by the futurists, dadaists and situationists, to the musings of
individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Sol
LeWitt, Yvonne Rainer and Jim Jarmusch.
Blanchett performs these ‘new manifestos’ while inhabiting 13
different personas – among them a school teacher, a newsreader, a
factory worker and a homeless man – to explore the power and urgency of
these historical words in our world today.
It's on until 19th February 2017 and Whispers will be attending a special viewing next Tuesday. Hopefully there will be some guests of the caliber who turned up in New York as the Gum Leaf Mafia invaded the Park Avenue Armory for a special US screening. As you can see from our exclusive photos it was movie star heaven.
It was many moons ago when Whispers introduced to the world, the former Mrs Anna Murdoch, with her new husband William Mann at the Lord Mayor's News Year's Eve party at the Sydney Opera House. Anna & William (pictured centreleft) had flown into town to visit family members as out exclusive photo shows with her brother Hans Torv and his wife Kaiya.
Hans, who runs a radio network centred on the Gold Coast in QLD (sister Anna is a shareholder) is also father of the successful actress Anna Torv (below) star of the cult TV series Fringe. She lives in New York and often holidays with her aunt Anna Mann. How pleasing then to see William & Anna in fine form last week at The New York Center for Children's "The Sunflower Party"in Southampton in Long Island.
As for former hubby Rupert Murdoch, he is currently in Sydney visiting son & heir Lachlan Murdoch and wife Sarah. They were spotted last week at Hamilton Island for the Audi Race Week.
Early next year a New York court is expected to hear what could be America's most expensive divorce case when Rupert & Wendi Murdoch go to battle unless an amicable settlement is reached as it was when Rupert divorced Anna who picked up a reputed $500M.
William & Anna Mann at the New York Center for Children's "The Sunflower Party". photo by Patrick McMullan(c)
Rupert Murdoch's magnificent yacht Rosehearty is up for sale in the USA for a reputed $50M. Launched in 2006 the boat has 2 staterooms and room for 12 guests in 6 cabins and uses a crew of 10. It has some quite beautiful large cabins and it makes a change from the Gin Palaces much loved by Sydney's monied classes. Read more about Rosehearty here.
And continuing our yachting news : the Shuttle's favourite wacky billionaire, Cpt Clive Palmer of the Titanic 2 had some extraordinary claims to make today on morning television as he slapped down cheeky host Karl Stefanovic. Palmer once claimed The Greens were being covertly financed by the CIA but now he has a new theory about Wendi Murdoch.
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 Mailand The Independentamongst 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 latestSocial Shuttleviewing 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.
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 2months ago that the marriage was on the rocks and the end was pending, a formerMurdoch 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 Australiaare 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 singerand 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 news may have caught the Australian, British and US media on the hop but avid Shuttle readers were in on the secret at least 2 months ago when we reported a snippet from our New York operative who had been a guest at an up-town dinner party. A fellow guest, a Fox executive had confided to a stunned table that all was not well with the marriage of our favourite ex-pat media mogul Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi. Apparently the liberally watered executive said that Rupert and Wendi had been living separate lives for so long now that he expected the marriage to end soon and thus, as the world discovered yesterday it came to pass.
Despite that the pair were in Australia last December for the red carpet opening night of Les Miserables and all looked well but Rupert has been back to Sydney twice since( just last week) on his own. At that time we spoke of the troubles that have bedevilled the entire Murdoch clan as revealed by former News Corp executive and insider Rodney E.Lever.
Kai Torv, William & Anna Mann, Hans Torv.
Never fear. Social Shuttle operatives are everywhere and we shall bring you news of any new splits or pairings involving a current or former Murdoch, just as we did in December 1999 when we presented the first photograph to the world of the former Anna Murdoch with her new husband William Mann along with Anna's brother, Gold Coast radio boss Hans Torv and his wife Kai. Hans is the father of actress Anna Torv, star of the hit cult TV series Fringe. The foursome were celebrating the New Year at the Sydney Opera House.
When Rupert & Anna divorced in 1999 Anna is reported to have received over $1B in assets, the largest ever divorce settlement.
Eighty Australian musicians will gather tonight at the Enmore Theatre for a sensational night of Rock'n'Roll.
It's to aid Doc Neeson of The Angels who has been diagnosed with brain cancer. Doc will perform on stage and joining him : David Hasslehoff who flew into town on Saturday and Environment Minister Peter Garrett MP.
Doc Neeson
********************** One rumour that has been gaining traction amongst New York circles is that the marriage between media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Murdoch is going through a rocky patch. Our spy disguised as a New York society snapper says he was told that one very .
senior Fox executive had told fellow guests at a recent up market and up-town dinner party that he felt the marriage may be nearing an end as the pair were almost living separate lives
Rupert, Dame Elisabeth, Sir Keith & Helen Handbury
Rupert Murdoch- today speaking with great affection in Melbourne at a memorial service for his mother, the much loved Dame Elisabeth Murdoch who passed away at the grand age of 103 on the 5th of December. :
Rupert & wife Wendi
"Parenthood came late to my father (Sir Keith Murdoch) so he lavished affection upon his children and mum took the role of being the disciplinarian. I always remember her spanking me when I did something naughty like pulling my sister Helen's pigtails !"
The UK's Daily Mail has published a feature on the many fabulous gin palaces that have invaded the Thames & London for the Olympics. It's deja vu time and just like a re-run of the Sydney 2000 Olympics when basically the same boats arrived in Sydney and lined up at the wharf in Blackwattle Bay, the only place large enough to host a billion dollars worth of luxury boating.
Hopefully those flogging luxury goods in London will not make the same mistake as several did at Blackwattle and set up stores nearby. A 3 star restaurant opened hoping to cater to yacht owners and several luxury goods purveyors like the South Australian Pearl jeweler who flew in a million dollars worth of gems and built a small boutique from the ground up for the 2 weeks of games. All went broke after the fortnight. Most of the boat owners flew in and stayed at hotels while the only people onboard their boats were staff.
Illona at Canary Wharf
the Murdochs at the Lowy dinner
Frank Lowy
One luxury ship in London is Frank Lowy's Ilona that is moored at Canary Wharf, not far from his good friend Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.HQ. Lowy owns the giant Westfield Shopping Centres. Rupert & Wendi Murdoch flew to Sydney from New York in 2008 to attend a dinner in honour of Lowy at the Royal Randwick Racecourse as the Shuttle's exclusive pic shows.
Lowy fled Czechoslavakia to France in 1946 but was arrested by British troops and incarcerated at a detention camp in Cyprus, eventually making it to Israel and joining the Haganah. He arrived in Australia in 1953 and partnered with Hungarian immigrant John Saunders to create Westfield, now the largest shopping centre owners in the world. The Shuttle attended a breakfast at the Regent Hotel in Sydney for Henry Kissinger (see pic below with Ros Packer) in 1998. When Kissinger left the stage he was mobbed by the many politicians there but brushed them aside, making his way to Lowy's table where the 2 remained in deep conversation.
Gospel singer Olive Knight at home in the Kimberleys
Hugh Jackman's one man show 'Hugh Jackman, Back On Broadway" opened last Thursday in New York with a glittering opening night guest list including Donna Karan, Mandy Patinkin, Wendi Deng Murdoch and Hamish Bowles.
Olive Knight, an Aboriginal gospel singer from the Wangkatjungka community has swapped the dusty plains of the
Kimberley for the bright lights of Broadway after being invited to
perform in Hugh's one-man show.
Olive has taught Jackman to
sing the chorus of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a traditional
Aboriginal language and the segment with the cast (including Hugh) and Olive speaking in Walmarjari received a standing ovation.
Stephen Mayne, the young journalist who started the highly successful political website crikey.com.au (mortgaging his house at times to pay bills ) and then sold it for a cool million dollars has been tackling Rupert Murdoch at the annual News Corp AGM in New York.
Mayne offered Rupert a few books to read on his up coming trip to Australia (and thus avoiding American comedian Jon Stewart's Washington Rally To Restore Sanity on Oct 30th who Rupes says he has never heard of).
Man Bites Murdoch by sacked Melbourne News Corp editor Bruce Guthrie and Bruce Dover's (News Corp former senior Hong Kong executive) Murdoch's Adventure In China that describes how News Corp lost billions of dollars in China. Murdoch says it's all fantasy but when Mayne requested any News Corp executive present to raise their hand if they had read the books, apparently none had. Mayne also asked if Murdoch may consider retiring when he turns 80 next year but Rupert was having none of it : "only when my health gives out". ( his mum Dame Elisabeth Murdoch is 101).
Tackling Rupert on the great hacking scandal the great man replied : "There was an an incident more than 5 years ago. The person who bought a bugged phone conversation was immediately fired and in fact he subsequently went to jail".
And to Mayne's helpful suggestion that he may read the New York Time's claim that there was a "collective amnesia " in News Corp about the whole affair he replied :"I'm sorry. Journalists who have been fired, who are unhappy, or work for other organisations - I don't take them as an authority, and least of all I don't take The New York Times as authority.
Mayne also got a comment on son-in-law Mathew Freud's ( "Britain'smost powerfulPR business chief") recent condemnation of Fox News.
"He could not have been more wrong." says Rupert.
Finally Mayne congratulated Rupert for firing News Corp political hack Glen Milne (known in the trade as "the poisoned dwarf") who famously attacked Mayne and pushed him off the stage at the Walkely Awards in 2006.
"I didn't know anything about it " says Rupes.
It sounds like Murdoch is in top form again and has recovered from his recent British Parliamentary Committee appearance when at times he looked rather confused and had trouble hearing the questions that left many wondering whether an ear trumpet should have been provided for the media mogul.
# There is no truth to the claim by one wag that Wendi Murdoch was waiting just behind a curtain ready to spring to action to defend her man but we're reliably informed that all attendees at the meeting were frisked for cream pies before being allowed to enter the auditorium.
You can read Mayne's full account here and below we bring you the fabulous Glen Milne attack on Stephen at The Walkelys when Glen -apparently having digested to much flu medication-went on the rampage.
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?
A film script on the life of Rupert Murdoch is being hawked around Hollywood.
This news comes courtesy of Franklin Leonard's annual Black List. Leonard is regarded as 'Hollywood's most important soothsayer" according to the LA Times with his list each year of unmade film projects.
He compiles the list by talking to LA's most influential agents and studio bosses and any script that gets 5 mentions is included with the added bonus it generates so much industry chat that the inclusion is regarded as a lifeline for ailing screenplays.
'Murdoch' was commissioned by the UK's Channel 4 and written by respected TV script writer JesseArmstrong but 4 decided against making it. It's now being handled by a top agency Creative Artist's Agency who are looking for a producer and backer.
The script blurb reads : "As his family gathers for his birthday party, Rupert Murdoch tries to
convince his elder children to alter the family trust so that his two
youngest children by his newest wife will have voting rights in the
company."
Ouch ! A little close to home.
When Rupert divorced his second wife Anna Murdoch Mann , the mother of children Lachlan, James and Elisabeth, Anna went in tough with heavy New York lawyers and secured a very profitable trust which she controls that holds huge swathes of News Corp shares in her children's names although she was forced off the News board in the process.
And she had rather unkind words to say about Rupert in a 2001 interview where she described him as "hard, ruthless and determined".
No-one quite knows what size of inheritance Wendi Murdoch's 2 daughters Chloe and Grace may be in for. With News Corp headquartered in Delaware with it's secretive corporate laws, the outside world doesn't really know quite what the media empire or Murdoch is worth although it will be in the billions of dollars.
Long before Wendi appeared on the scene Murdoch also made a famous faux pas in 1997 when he referred to "my 3 children " while talking about succession in a press conference that drew the ire of his daughter Prudence Murdoch MacLeod, his first child from marriage to Patricia Booker. Never shy, Prudence got a public apology out of her father.
So it's all there-plenty of meat for Murdoch the film !
Rupert ?
Who would play the roles in this gripping drama where the clan get-together to discuss high finance?.
As the media baron Rupert Murdoch step forward Barry Humphries who played Rupert in the 1983 film Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries. Humphries has aged nicely with the same crumpled look as Rupert.
Matt Damon is a cinch for the role of the American accented Lachlan Murdoch and surely Sarah Murdoch with thespian ambitions could play herself. New actor Leighton Meester could do a good Elisabeth Murdoch. Hayden Christensen with specs could play James Murdoch.
That leaves roles for the two who are bound to play a leading part in the carve-up of Murdoch's billions-Wendi Murdoch and Mathew Freud. Answers on a postcard please.
# you can download Leonard's Black List here and see other scripts 'Murdoch' is competing with. The Shuttle's favourite : Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter. The future president's mother is killed by a vampire and Abe spends the rest of his life hunting down the killers !
It's been reported by the Sydney Morning Herald's 'PS' columnist Andrew Hornery that Rupert and Wendy Murdoch may have split. The story apparently appeared first on the net blog crikey.com.au.
the Social Shuttle (c)
Although denials have been issued by News Ltd representatives, Hornery has quoted Murdoch biographer Michael Woolf of Vanity Fair : ''It's the oldest trick in the book,'' .[the Murdochs] never deny anything because they know it will just inflame it regardless of whether it is true or not.''
Woolf's The Man Who Owns The News , published in 2008 wasn't the best-seller expected. Whilst initially getting Murdoch's co-operation and interviews with the Dirty Digger, the relationship between Woolf and Murdoch floundered and the writer has kept up a running dialogue since via his VF column on Murdoch's attempts to grapple with the 'new media', plunging circulations of his world-wide newspaper empire and the endless speculation on who will run the massive News Corp empire upon Rupert's demise. He also revealed how a top News Corp executive regularly referred to the 3 contenders, Murdoch's children James, Lachlan and Elisabeth as "the cretins".
tSS reckons this isn't a credible tale. But hey-let's send it viral anyway !
**************************************************************
Putting in a lively performance today in the 2 federal by-elections of is our newest political force TheAustralian Sex Party which is running on policies like: * To create total equal rights in all areas of the law for gay, lesbian and transsexuals. * Overturn racist laws that ban Aboriginal people from possessing erotic and sexual media in the Northern Territory. * The listing of Viagra, Cialis and other drugs used to treat sexual dysfunction, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme * Ensure the sexual rights and freedoms of the disabled and elderly.
Let the good times roll...here is their Bob Dylan inspired advert:
If you haven't discovered the writer Duncan Fallowell then you are missing something important. His book about his travels in New Zealand, Going As Far As I Can is a must read if you are about to hit the snow-fields or anywhere in that amazingly beautiful country. NZ is every bit as sensational as seen in the Lord ofthe Rings trilogy which only showed a fraction of some of the glorious countryside. Much like Britain or Ireland but without the motorways.
Fallowell's book hit a few raw nerves in NZ itself but was generally viewed as one of the best travel books about any country...and anyway, we all know most Nu Zelunders are barking mad and talk funny but there must be a reason HRH The Queen owns extensive properties there.
Fallowell's wikopedia entry reports "Graham Greene did not like his first novel but thought it belonged to the 21st century. William Burroughs relished his books " . That's a bit like a recommendation from the Gods.
Now Britain's most infuriating blogger Madame Arcatibrings news of Fallowell's new venture, a ghost book named The Visitor. She has a creepy video on her site, set in a rambling old house to introduce the novel and drum up interest.
One commenter on Aracti's site asks where it was filmed. The house looks similar to Sherston, the home of the late Lady Edith Foxwell which the Shuttle spent many a weekend at.
The strange figure who arises from the sofa at the end -believed to be Duncan Fallowell, reminds us of the greeting we always got from Lady Edith's butler-similarly relaxed and always delighted when guests arrived. Being in that he always phoned ahead to request they bring the odd dozen bottles of mixed spirits ( Edith's credit having been cut off at the local village vinter).
You will have to visit the Madame Arcati blog to see Fallowell's spooky video but here's another of his we like-talking about drugs at Oxford.
ps: Duncan Fallowell also wrote a biography of April Ashley, the former Liverpudlian sailor who became one of the world's most famous sex-changes . One of the Shuttle staff often visited April in her house in Hay-on-Wye and once accompanied her to the Berkley Square Ball in the days it was still smart-only to be featured the next day in a photo in the Daily Mail and a piece by the late diarist Nigel Dempster as "April Ashley's new Toyboy".
For some strange reason, Ashley's auto-biography recently had to be pulped over a misunderstanding with her publisher and Shuttle associate John Blake-described by the magazine Private Eye as the "distinguished London publisher". You can get other Blake book titles from his website which features exciting titles like "Katie and Peter - Too Much In Love by Emily Herbert (yes, a tome about that mystery couple),, Jade - Fighting to the End by..err Jade Goody (I guess before the end came), and our favourite Global Warming and Other Bollocks
For more of Duncan Fallowell's great books, go to his website.
pps: thank you for the many emails pointing out the shocking spelling and grammar errors that appear on the SocialShuttle but we must point out that both Shuttlers suffer from slight dyslexia, are often hungover or just plain drunk when hitting the keyboard. Errors are eventually corrected when our charming assistant Sally arrives in the early afternoon. But feel free to mock the afflicted-we can take it !
Currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW is the new video installation by renowned German artist
Julian Rosefeldt (pictured below) which features Cate Blanchett .
The work presents a series of monologues that Rosefeldt has
created by editing and reassembling a collage of artists’ manifestos, from declarations penned
by the futurists, dadaists and situationists, to the musings of
individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Sol
LeWitt, Yvonne Rainer and Jim Jarmusch. 
How pleasing then to see William & Anna in fine form last week at The New York Center for Children's "The Sunflower Party" in Southampton in Long Island. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
The news may have caught the Australian, British and US media on the hop but avid Shuttle readers were in on the secret at least 2 months ago when we reported a snippet from our New York operative who had been a guest at an up-town dinner party. A fellow guest, a Fox executive had confided to a stunned table that all was not well with the marriage of our favourite ex-pat media mogul Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi. Apparently the liberally watered executive said that Rupert and Wendi had been living separate lives for so long now that he expected the marriage to end soon and thus, as the world discovered yesterday it came to pass.
The UK's Daily Mail has published a feature on the many fabulous gin palaces that have invaded the Thames & London for the Olympics. It's deja vu time and just like a re-run of the Sydney 2000 Olympics when basically the same boats arrived in Sydney and lined up at the wharf in Blackwattle Bay, the only place large enough to host a billion dollars worth of luxury boating.
Hugh Jackman's one man show 'Hugh Jackman, Back On Broadway" opened last Thursday in New York with a glittering opening night guest list including Donna Karan, Mandy Patinkin, Wendi Deng Murdoch and Hamish Bowles.
Stephen Mayne, the young journalist who started the highly successful political website crikey.com.au (mortgaging his house at times to pay bills ) and then sold it for a cool million dollars has been tackling Rupert Murdoch at the annual News Corp AGM in New York.
Mayne also asked if Murdoch may consider retiring when he turns 80 next year but Rupert was having none of it : "only when my health gives out". ( his mum Dame Elisabeth Murdoch is 101).
This news comes courtesy of Franklin Leonard's annual Black List. Leonard is regarded as 'Hollywood's most important soothsayer" according to the LA Times with his list each year of unmade film projects. 
Long before Wendi appeared on the scene Murdoch also made a famous faux pas in 1997 when he referred to "my 3 children " while talking about succession in a press conference that drew the ire of his daughter Prudence Murdoch MacLeod, his first child from marriage to Patricia Booker. Never shy, Prudence got a public apology out of her father.
As the media baron Rupert Murdoch step forward Barry Humphries who played Rupert in the 1983 film Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries. Humphries has aged nicely with the same crumpled look as Rupert.
Woolf's The Man Who Owns The News , published in 2008 wasn't the best-seller expected. Whilst initially getting Murdoch's co-operation and interviews with the Dirty Digger, the relationship between Woolf and Murdoch floundered and the writer has kept up a running dialogue since via his VF column on Murdoch's attempts to grapple with the 'new media', plunging circulations of his world-wide newspaper empire and the endless speculation on who will run the massive News Corp empire upon Rupert's demise. He also revealed how a top News Corp executive regularly referred to the 3 contenders, Murdoch's children James, Lachlan and Elisabeth as "the cretins".