Healthy Fruit

 It's not every day one is confronted by a live breathing platter of fruit. The opening night party for the revamped Cruise Bar at Circular Quay was an eye-opener. Leggy bodies were covered in all manner of goodies like luscious grapes, bananas, peaches and berries of all kind. And you don't always see guests eager to scoff their daily supply of vitamins with healthy fruit but this was a food platter extraordinaire. We didn't wait to see what would be revealed once the food had been consumed. Far too well mannered.
News of live food platters has swept social media and even newspapers in the UK are running the tale with headlines like "Outrage!" and"Guests shocked !". So that's another successful PR coup then.

## When Hollywood star Keannu Reeves was living in Sydney while he filmed the Matrix movies, the Cruise Bar was one of his favourite hangouts. Whispers often spotted him there in the afternoons, quietly sipping a latte and reading a book or just taking in the sensational view of the Sydney Opera House which is directly across the bay.

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Has high profile barrister Charles Waterstreet noticed this image of his Archibald winning portrait?

It's on the corner of Park & Elizabeth Streets in Sydney not a stones throw from his chambers. It's plastered on the outside of a uni-sex convenience.
There's a joke somewhere in there about briefs etc

2015 Archibald Prize winner Announced

Artist Nigel Milsom has won the Archibald with his portrait of colourful barrister-around-town, film producer, novelist, film script writer (Rake) and newspaper columnnist Charles Waterstreet.
Says Milson : ‘"I’ve known Charlie indirectly and directly since birth. I was born in Albury around the corner from the Waterstreet Hotel, owned and managed by his parents. On Friday afternoons, my father used to sell them freshly caught Murray cod to earn extra money for materials he needed to complete a boat he was building at home, which later sank to the bottom of the Murray River during its maiden voyage one freezing afternoon."
Perhaps the claw like hands (left) are a reference to Waterstreet's 1987 production of Howling 111.
 And the famous Packer's Prize : chosen by the workers at the NSW Gallery-has been picked up by Bruno Jean Grasswill ( husband of ABC "Australian Story" producer Helen Grasswill ) with his portrait of actor Michael Caton. (pictured left inset)

Below are just a selection of this year's Archibald entries. The full exhibition can be viewed from Monday at the Art Gallery of NSW.

 below : At the gallery today for the announcement : Sarah Najjar, Charles Waterstreet, Nigel Milsom & partner. 

Photo by Chryssanthe Hronopoulos