Following our story on the decline of the "paparazzi"-or the bunch of hooligans who have partly made the whole media business a complete nightmare, an email arrives to castigate tSS from someone who scarily, certainly knows tSS only too well.
It's difficult to re-call the timeline of the events but
tSS aways carried a pocket
Box Brownie in London and took the odd snap that occasionally appeared in such revered outlets like the legendary
William Hickey column in the UK's
Daily Express or the World's Greatest Living Englishman
Nigel Dempster's column in the
Daily Mail .
tSS has been accused of many things including only recently by a former London scribe of note, of being a "peripheral character' on the London scene-whatever that scene was . We've always regarded this lifetime as sort of peripheral . We have been here before and most likely will visit again. You know-reincarnation and all that.
Indeed at the recent event in Sydney at which the Dalai Lhama spoke and tSS had the opportunity to ask a question-which was "will I return in another life and what will I be ?"-the answer from his Holiness was "yes ..as you !"..Brrrrr.
Nigel Dempster was regarded as the man who invented the modern gossip column which was hugely successful until his latter years. Sadly he died relatively young at 65.
He once hauled
tSS over the coals on a Sunday afternoon at the
Mail office when we delivered a snap which he ran the next day.
He accused tSS of being a "dreadful Australian who probably calls a dress "a frock"-and did you fuck this woman to get the snap ?". (a movie star who shall remain nameless..and yes we sort of did-but we didn't- if you can work that out ) A right dressing down if somewhat bizarre. Or perhaps a "get frocked"
It was most peculiar, especially at the time we didn't know Dempster's own dad was an Aussie-just like the sensational Mick Jagger who has an Aussie mum .
tSS 's origins are far more murkier and mysterious although a few colonials do feature. It was always Dempster's favoured insult as we appeared in his office.."oh here comes that tiresome Aussie"
But being accused of calling a dress a "frock". There really was no answer to that . What could one say ? . Dempster spat it out like it was the worst insult he could have hurled.
But we digress. After our attack upon the paparazzi which the The Times saw fit to take up- a real blast from the past arrives that rips into tSS over a snap we took eons ago with a story so innocuous-which was duly reported by a Fleet Street rag, that 2 of HRH Prince Andrew's ex-girlfriends had arrived at the same small soiree in a house just of the Kings Road in Chelsea.
Koo Stark (left) was in one corner (not looking like that of course) and
Katie Rabbet appeared at the door
. Ms Rabbet popped her head in, and presumably on spotting Stark, immediately left.
For God's sake £40 was a lot of dosh in those days-it paid the week's rent and a good night out at El Sombrero in Ken High Street. One had to sell the story and the picture and we doubt we sold our soul at the same time.
Fast forward to New York 2 years later and
tSS is at a party or some sort of gathering and receives a withering glance from
Baroness Francesca Von Thyseen (right)-for it was she who held the party that Andrew's ex-girlfriends had attended.
"How dare you" she said ,"reveal to the press what happens at a party you have been invited to !".
Well yes quite-one might agree if it hadn't been her own publicist who had invited tSS in the first place, presumably-as we imagined-that publicity was what she sought for her then husband, a struggling a rock musician. (who seems to have been wiped from wikpedia's entry on the Thyseen family)
As usual tSS did the only thing a gentleman can do-mumbled something incomprehensible and reached for another drink..
Later, recounting the tale to
La Dolce Musto writer
Michael Musto (
right) who now rules the world from a column in New York's
Village Voice he exclaimed.."
my God !..she should talk..the Thyseen name is persona non grata in New York !" . We have no idea why.
Amazing-after all these years you can still be tracked down !
And sub-editor Mildred Pierce -who opens all emails-is not a happy pussy.
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what you have always wanted to see :
Homer Simpson does McBeth !
Sydney can look forward to a fantastic appearance of MacHomer at the Wharf Theatre from January 5-23, before touring to Brisbane, Wollongong and Bathurst.
Rick Miller’s side-splitting and inspired one-man Macbeth transplants Shakespeare into Springfield, home of television’s favorite dysfunctional family, The Simpsons. With Homer in the lead and Marge as Lady MacHomer, Miller recreates the voices of more than 50 characters from the iconic TV series. It is very
very funny.
check out this brief video :
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.
