Gratuitous Hugh Jackman photo

Breaking news : Titanic (2) Sinks !

Alas, along with his political career hitting rock bottom it looks like billionaire Clive Palmer's ambitious project to recreate the Titanic has also sunk. Palmer's Blue Star Line's twitter page hasn't updated for ages and now this video has appeared on YouTube

Yachting News #2 James Packer's superyacht

Whispers has obtained some exclusive pics of the fabulous Italian built James Packer Superyacht IJE which is on sale for €175,000,000 or $US189M or nearly $AUS256M and not $300M as widely reported.The gorgeous Benetti designed yacht reputedly cost around $AUS200M to build so it looks like Packer may pick up a nice profit after taking possesion of the ship for just one year and crusing the Mediterranean last year with a bunch of good pals. Friends on that trip were not allowed to take snaps of the interiors but we now present an insight into the lavish and tasteful furnishings and cabins. It's really more like a foating luxury boutique hotel. There are 11 guest cabins to accomodate 22 guests and the yacht needs a crew of 28. Currently there are just over 2000 Superyachts around the world for sale and most can be chartered for various sums from $50K a week up to $1M with provisions costing extra and of course, generous tips expected for the crew.

It's DOT NET !!! now

CARELESS WHISPERS HAS CHANGED IT'S INTERNET ADDRESS FROM WWW.THESOCIALSHUTTLE.COM TO: WWW.THESOCIALSHUTTLE.NET that's: www.thesocialshuttle.net # don't ask..it's a long convulted story not worth repeating at this stage. But we'll be back within days with some of the latest news on Sydney happenings. And a big thank you to the 100s of readers who contacted us..and the many who actually tracked down our new address! ## Especially those 100s of daily visitors from Russia !! We love you !

That Fiji Water Drama

Fiji Water model Kelleth Cuthbert- a Star Is Born !

 You have to hand it to 35 year old Aussie Aaron Zerefos the mastermind behind Fiji Water after the $multi-million publicity coup he pulled off at the Golden Globe Awards.
Zerefos is a tireless promoter of his bottles of H20. A Globes' source tells us Aaron spent less than $50K to be involved in the event.

So successful is his product that Zerefos now spends most of his time traveling the world competing in racing car trials driving a series of Porsche sports cars.

Aaron pictured here by Whispers at his 30th birthday party in Sydney's King Cross)

He's even been spotted dating socialites like Lady Victoria Hervey as our snap shows.
We reckon this wasn't a very expensive promotion and it's simplicity will be the envy of publicists worldwide. It certainly beats those tired old "media walls" that confront guests and media at every party or event.
As for model Kelleth Cuthbert who brilliantly persisted for photo-bombing every celebrity on the red carpet- what can we say : A Star Is Born !

A tale from the world of pop

 Legendary rock manager and author Simon Napier Bell (he's half Australian) writes a story about his involvement with a promising Aussie band WA WA NEE and the death this week of the singer of the group, Paul Gray (second left in the photo below).


WA WA NEE - PAUL GRAY
In April 1987 I got a call from Dennis Handlin at CBS in Australia telling me I ought to manage a band he’d signed - “Come to the CBS conference next month and hear them play. They’re bloody marvellous. They’re called Wa Wa Nee.”
Meanwhile he booked me a first-class ticket.
A month later on a Thursday, I was due to leave home for a 9pm flight
when I got a sudden lurch in my stomach. I’d clean forgotten that since I’d last been to Australia they’d introduced visas for UK citizens. And I didn’t have one.
A bit panicked because I had to leave for the airport in half-an-hour, I called the airline and asked if exceptions were ever made. “Absolutely never!” they said. “Not even for the bloody Prime Minister”
Which didn’t sound promising.
With some help from my very well-connected squash coach, I managed to get the home number of the Australian ambassador. By which time there was only a few minutes left to get things sorted out.
I told him who I was, that I’d managed Wham! and had taken them to China. But it turned out he wasn’t a pop fan and didn’t know who Wham! was. “What d’you want exactly?” he asked bluntly. He sounded put out to have been called at home by someone he didn’t know.

I said I’d been invited at very short notice to go to Sydney to sign an Australian pop group who, if I signed them for management, would undoubtedly become a substantial earner of foreign currency for Australia. But I needed a visa.
“No way,” he said. “You’ll have to go to the visa office tomorrow morning. It will take at least 48 hours, and we’re closed over the weekend. So that means Monday.”
I could tell he wanted to hang up but before he could I politely repeated the whole story again.. “They’re called Wa Wa Nee,” I said. And by a piece of good fortune he repeated the name out loud.
Immediately, from the other end of the phone came a cacophony of screams .
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“My two daughters.”
Two hours later I was on the plane with a handwritten visa. Thirty-six hours later I’d become the manager of Wa Wa Nee. They were a four-piece band who wrote their own songs. The singer was Paul Gray, blond and starry, and the musicians who played with him were Steve, Chris, and Mark.
I must say it went rather well. With unusual speed, I extracted a substantial budget from CBS and flew the group to London where we made a video of their latest single, Sugar Free. I then persuaded Epic in New York to give them the full monty promotion-wise.
In September Sugar Free went into the Billboard Hot 100 and by the time we arrived in New York to do promotion it had climbed to 35. I had discussions with the Epic marketing department re its onward progress. They planned to put it into the Top Twenty the following week, the Top Ten the week after, and if things still looked good the week after that, they’d go for a Number One.
In New York the group played a gig that went exceptionally well and we moved on to LA. After an equally good show at the Whiskey, I had to tell Paul he’d be having dinner with the wives of a couple of CBS executives. “They’ve rather taken a fancy to you,” I explained.
He didn’t like the idea at all. “I’m not a piece of meat,” he said. “I’m an artist.”
“It’s only a dinner. Be nice for a couple of hours, then you can go home to Australia knowing your record will be in the Top Ten.”
“N-O!”
It’s what everyone wants to say but in the end doesn't. But Paul did. And he refused to go to dinner.
By the following week Wa Wa Nee’s record had disappeared from the Billboard chart and the group’s career in America was over. You couldn’t really fault Paul. He was principled and stuck with what he believed in. His life was about music, not PR. He was a charming fellow, wrote amazingly good music, and sung brilliantly.
For me - for the rest of the band - for Paul too - it was just one more rock experience. Sometimes that’s how things work out.
Last week Paul died and everyone is very sad. Me too. For the musicians who were in Wa Wa Nee, he was for a while the focal point of their lives. He was funny, witty, and delightfully self-deprecatory. When Steve, the guitarist, learned he had cancer a couple of months back, Paul said, “Don’t worry. It’s nothing. Just a little setback. I’ll soon be over it.”
But unfortunately he wasn’t.
 The funeral is on Thursday. RIP Paul. You’re much missed.

Baz marches

Among those marching the other day during the March For Our Lives event was the Oscar winning Australian movie director Baz Luhrmann as seen here in Whisper's exclusive snap. Luhrmann moved permanently to the USA 3 years ago when he sold his inner Sydney Darlinghurst mansion Iona for $16M in order to base himself in New York. He is currently working on the TV series The Get Down.
As he joined 1000s in the New York march and demonstration Baz said : "These young people are not asking for much… It’s time for those in power to grow up." 

Arise Sir Frank

Completely nu-noticed by the Mainstream Media possibly because No Kardashian was harmed during the making of this news, it didn't involve the late Princess Diana and Meghan Markle has nothing to do with it, but one of Australia's richest men has been knighted by Her Majesty, Queen of Australia,

Plain old Frank Lowy worth a reputed $8Billion who lives in Sydney's Bellevue Hill now becomes Sir Frank Lowy. Lowy is the mastermind of the giant Westfield Shopping plazas that now dot the landscape in Australia, the US and the UK. He was quietly knighted a month ago. One of Britain's largest Westfield is in the shadow of the dreadful Grenfeel building in West London. The Brits have taken to them like ducks to water.
And it was not for the services of confusing shoppers world-wide as to where they parked their car in a Westfield car-park, rather for his services to industry which have been considerable certainly in his adopted Australia where he arrived as a penniless refugee after WW2. You could read more of Sir Frank's fascinating history here.

Happy New Year !

Donald Trump, Miss Universe & Whispers

When Australia's Jennifer Hawkins won the Miss Universe title in 2004 she was considered the most successful winner of all time in the contest.
When Hawkins returned to Australia she embarked on a two week tour of Australia organized by top model agent Grant Dwyer who discovered Hawkins and numerous other beautiful models who are household names today.

Whispers accompanied Jennifer on the Aussie tour along with half of a dozen of Donald Trump's Miss Universe workers. The tour was a promotional sensation. The Trump crew were astounded at the continued front page and television publicity including the above sensational snap taken by Whispers in Sydney at a fashion show as her skirt slipped off while she left the stage.
The picture swept around the world

But behind the scenes chat with the Trump workers was illuminating . They simply abhorred the man, hated working for him, rarely got paid on time and classed him right back then as a shocking misogynist and a ruthless bully. America, you have been warned

The Yartz Party

 The Federal Election is almost upon us and while arguably the most artistically inclined
prime minister Malcolm Turnbull will be fighting for his political life a new party has been launched and is hoping to pick up one million votes.
The Arts Party "exists to encourage a more creative, cultural, educated and prosperous life for every Australian.". The first candidate will be Lou Pollard who will be standing for the North Sydney seat.
And the party is now crowd-funding to raise money for the coming election. You can read more or join the party at their official website here.
And there are some real heavy weight show biz names already spruiking for the campaign including Bryan Brown, Geraldine Turner and Lex Marinos. The only thing missing is a word from Australia's Cultural Attache to the Court of St James Sir Les Patterson.

Lady Georgia Campbell rules in the Jungle but why was she at this London demo?

 She's taking no prisoners during her stint in the jungle in northern NSW and her adopted son Dima has flown into town to support her stating "don't mess with mum" in this MailOnline article. Lady Georgia Campbell looks like she may emerge as the winner in the popular British reality program I'm a Celebrity-Get me Out of Here.
Dima is one of two boys Lady Campbell adopted from Russia as infants, to raise in genteel surroundings in Kennington in South London.
Now a reader has sent us this exclusive snap (above) of Lady Georgia at a rally in London recently, apparently outside the Royal Courts of Justice and where attendees were wearing t-shirts saying "Forced Adoption". Not only that the demonstrators where handing out leaflets promoting a recent bizarre scandal in the ritzy suburb of Hampstead where numerous residents, teachers and members of a church were alleged to belong to a Satanic Cult that shipped in babies from all over the world to use in rituals during which the children would be murdered and eaten! A High Cort judgement lambasted the promoters as fantasists and claimed the whole thing was an elaborate & cruel hoax. 
Was Lady Campbell attending the demo? She seems to be in deep conversation with a demonstrator. Or perhaps she was merely passing by and stopped to see what all the hullabaloo was about. Most odd.

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:

And so it came to pass

Princes Harry & William were there as was our own princess Kylie Minogue. And this couple finally fronted the cameras : Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall.  Read all about it in the MailOnline.

Dead Men Talking

There are still tickets left to see the brilliant Waren Fahey and Max Cullen in Dead Men Talking at the Teachers Federation Theatre in Reservoir St. Surry Hills.
A fantastic insight into Australian folklore presented through the songs and poetry of Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson when they meet up in heaven and have a drink together. The final show is on Sunday and tickets cost from $25 to $35. Max has come out of retirement in Gunning to do this show and Fahey is a music historian. Critics are raving about the show!
Book tickets here.

Bieber Vs Jedward

It's teenybopper heaven : not only is Justin Bieber in Sydney but the wacky Irish twin duo Jedward are here for a concert on Sunday at the Enmore Theatre. Justin spent last night visiting the raunchy Kings Cross strip joint Bada Bing. No such shenanigans from the clean living John and Edward who haven't even been romantically linked with a girl yet. Here are some snaps of Justin from his visit to Byron Bay on Wednesday. Tickets are still available for Jedward at $80 here.

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!

Triumphant Baz

Despite the nay saying critics, Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby looks like being a stellar Box Office success : the only success that really matters.

Yesterday US cinemas had raked in over over $90M in takings in the USA alone and that's before it opens in the UK, throughout Europe and ahead of Australia's gala premier this Wednesday evening when 1000 guests will front up for a sensational premier and after-party.

Luhrmann continues to defy movie snobs with his lavish productions : from his Oscar winning Romeo & Juliet to Moulin Rouge and the critic panned Australia, each production has reaped huge financial rewards and now the influential Huffington Post has given the flick the seal of approval with this article:
 Why the Critics are Wrong About Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby'
And get set for a year of Gatsby 1920's fashions as illustrated in the latest The Lady Magazine, the first off the rank. 

Jack ( The Ripper) Died In Australia

Forget the Queen's respected surgeon, or the member of the Royal Family. Finally the true identity of the infamous Jack The Ripper has been exposed (120 years after he sliced up 5 prostitutes in the East End of London)

Jack was a Londoner known as Walter Thomas Porriott who was well known to police as Andrew John Gibson. He lived in London at the time of the murders and then sailed for Sydney just as the murders stopped and The Ripper vanished from the news. Apparently he lived in Brisbane and died in 1952 after a long career as an impostor and fraudster.

It really stands to reason. Not only were convicts sent to the colonies for a range of petty crimes but upper class families often sent their wayward sons to the other side of the world to escape scandal. And where better? At the turn of the last century Australia was a favoured place to escape to and create a new identity. It still is.
As the Ripper was never caught, it could be said that being confined to living out one's life in Brisbane was a suitable punishment.
Read the full story here at the Telegraph.co.uk

STOP PRESS : Now former solicitor John Morris claims Welsh-born Lizzie Williams (left) was the Ripper and says she killed her victims because she could not have children, ripping out the wombs of three in an "unhinged state".
 Read more here.
 
Tommorrow : Is Rupert Murdoch related to the The Ripper?