NOT GUILTY !

Just to show we here at Whispers are on the ball despite a lazy office assistant ( Mildred the Cat) news just comes in that Cristian King as we just reported below, has been found Not Guilty on the three criminal charges he was facing.

right: Waterstreet & King outside the court today

Said King outside the Moss Vale Court House:

"I'm really happy that freedom of the press won today and that I don't have a criminal record. A huge shout out to the amazing legal team at Christopher Murphy's firm, Murphy's Lawyers. Solicitors Nava Oh and Bryan Wrench with top barrister, Charles Waterstreet were amazing and found the truth from the conflicting evidence given by Bowral real estate firm, Campbell-Jones Property."

Court drama in the Southern Highlands

Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban's SH home Bunya Hill and local resident Miriam Margolyes

The gentle rolling pastures of the beautiful countryside of the Southern Highlands are abuzz as the latest court drama over a local newspaper and a property developer plays out in the local court. The Highlands are a weekend retreat for many well heeled Sydneysiders with their hobby farms and numerous celebrities like Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes and the late British politician Lord McAlpine
Top Sydney barrister, Charles Waterstreet was at Moss Vale Local Court this morning  representing newspaper executive Cristian King .
The prosecution relates to an investigative editorial ran by the local newspaper, LattéLife Wingecarribee, last year entitled 'Yuill Be Right’.
The article revealed that local real estate agent Angus Yuill of Campbell-Jones Property in Bowral had been trading without a property certifcate or licence for nine months, resulting in enforcement action by NSW Fair Trading.

left : barrister Charles Waterstreet and Cristian King

Mr King has been charged with intimidation, offensive behaviour and obstructing a vehicle in a public place. He is pleading not guilty to all charges.

King arrives at Moss Vale court today

Evidence was given by Campbell-Jones Property principal,Angus Campbell-Jones and his receptionist,Ana Calvert on 20 March 2017.
However, the hearing was adjourned to 18 May 2017 due to an allegation by Ms Calvert that Mr King had intimidated her at McDonald's restaurant in Moss Vale following her testimony although Mr King says he was at the courthouse at that time.
Mr Waterstreet, a family friend of the King's, has taken a special interest in this case and said "It is an honour to represent a journalist."

 Below: Highlands' competing newspapers : LatteLife and the Fairfax newspaper Highland News

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

Sydney (drugs & social ) crime update

Just a few weeks after his portrait was chosen winner of the Archibald Portrait Prize high profile barrister Charles Waterstreet (below left) has had to withdraw from the drugs and murder trial involving former policemen Roger Rogerson (below right) and Glen McNamara who are accused of murdering Jamie Gao. The trial will now take place early in 2016. He withdrew apparently after a series of social media posts appeared under his name but whether they were actually by him is still a mystery.

Waterstreet makes regular appearances on the Sydney social circuit, has written several books and in his spare time is a film producer and script writer.
He produced the 1986 film Howling 3 and is the inspiration behind the successful ABC series Rake which has also been picked up by US television. Waterstreet is also a columnist for the Sun Herald newspaper and a Facebook pal of Whispers, known for his often witty posts.
Sadly, he has gone a bit silent over the past fortnight.

Meanwhile former blogger Lisa Stickbridge  has been jailed for 2 and half years after being busted in a drugs sting. Whispers often spotted Stockbridge at Sydney parties and was always slightly puzzled about how her blog supposedly profited. We better than anyone know how difficult is to make any website even pay for itself and view it as a...public service?.
The schadenfreude shown by some social writers over Stockbridge's jailing has been a bit over the top though. Not mentioned of course is just who are the high profile customers who indulge in cocaine and the sort of drugs that were supplied by Stockbridge which she dealt out of a luxury Range Rover. Do we know? If so we aren't saying.

But the strangest report must be from the world's worst best tabloid the Mail Online and their claim that a Coogee model Kirsty Dayment was a "socialite". Shurley Shome Mistake as the UK satirical magazine Private Eye would say. Other newspapers echoed that the claim the model was a "fixture" on the social circuit. Not in the ones we mix in. But maybe her alleged customers are.

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