They doubted us..

Several loyal readers doubted Whisper's tale that they encountered a very young James Murdoch asleep at a party at the home of the late Lady Mary Fairfax, Fairwater in Sydney's Double Bay.
But it's true and we now show a pic we snapped at the event.
From left to right is billionaire James, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Primrose Dunlop and well known News Ltd photographer Frank Viola.

Young James was just 15 a the time and doing "work experience" on his father's newspaper The Sunday Telegraph and accompanied the other two to Lady Mary's. At the time Primrose was writing a social column for the newspaper.
We told how Primrose met the Qantas Trolley Dolly and Egyptian royal Prince Lorenzo Giustinian at the shindig.
Often known as Prince Montesini, Lorenzo says his title is a very old one from the Ottoman Empire.
Sometime later the pair decided to get married and organised their nuptials to be held in Venice as half of Sydney and Melbourne's high society travelled to the canal city for the wedding.
Alas, Prince Lorenzo got cold feet and decamped the night before they were to be married and ran off with his best man Richard Straub while assorted media searched Europe looking for the errant bridegroom.
Meanwhile Primrose, heiress to a considerable stockbroking fortune in Melbourne nabbed a European noble and is now known as Countess Zofia Krasicki v Siecin.

Fairwater, Uri Geller and Lady Mary Fairfax

 The recent reports that  Fairwater, the former home of the late Lady Mary Fairfax has sold for a whopping $100M brings to mind a chat that Whispers once had at Fairwater with Lady Mary, who died in 2017, and the famous "spoon bender" Uri Geller.

Whispers arrived very early for a gala charity ball to be held in a marquee in the garden at the Fairwater mansion. Arriving minutes later and also early was Geller who was in town at the time.

Connections: Uri with Theresa May

We started to chat as Uri grilled Whispers on who the guests would be for the night- the usual shakers & movers of Sydney society. Soon Lady Mary joined us and during the conversation as Uri asked Mary about the history of Fairwater, she commented that she had left the property to the National Trust with a provision that her staff were entitled to live there for the rest of their lives. It was the second time we had heard this from Lady Mary.
But anyone can change their mind and, obviously she did as Fairwater was sold recently to a tech billionaire making it the most valuable house in Australia.

# As the night progressed Lady Mary sent her loyal butler to retrieve some silver forks and spoons from her collection which Geller proceeded to bend for the 200 guest's delight- and in front of Whispers who was no further than 2 feet from the man. Uri also commented that the guests may find strange things happen with their personal items.

The lady who accompanied Whispers to the function, a writer for the National Enquirer found her late mother's watch, a sentimental item she always carried in her handbag but which had never worked, started ticking. She also found an eye-brow pencil in her make-up bag (branded "ESP") had split down the middle. Spooky !.

A giant (bent) spoon outside Geller's new museum in Israel

The local manager of the French champagne company Veuve Clicquot found his car keys had twisted completely out of shape and he had to catch a taxi home. Likewise a well known hairdresser who accompanied Whispers and our date up the long Fairwater driveway while leaving the party commented that Geller, as he passed him on the way out had tapped his shoulder. Reaching into his pocket to get his car keys- he found them twisted beyond recognition. We report- you decide!.

Uri Geller has moved from the UK to Israel where he now lives. He is opening a museum in Old Jaffa in a splendid building which will house his vast collection of items including his amazing car covered in bent spoons and forks. Is Lady Mary Fairfax's cutlery among them?
# Uri thanks Lady Mary Fairfax in the forewood of his latest book.

Lady Mary bows out

She is probably the last of an era. Lady Mary Fairfax who died on Monday at age 95 was farewelled today at a service at the church of choice in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, St Marks in Darling Point. Lady Mary was the second wife of Sir Warwick Fairfax, the heir to the Fairfax publishing empire which at it's peak published the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne regarded as two of the great broadsheets of the world.

Whispers attended numerous parties at Mary's Darling Point pile Fairwater. Fairwater has been left in trust to the National Trust with the stipulation her loyal staff live there until they too pass on. Indeed we also spent a week at Lady Mary's New York penthouse on top the Pierre Hotel which was once the most expensive apartment in the world and which had it's own full sized ballroom. Mary wasn't there at the time but she arranged for her loyal chauffeur and his wife to host us.

Lady Mary's charity parties were the stuff of legend with guests like Prince Edward and Albert, Prince of Monaco ( Lady Mary was the Honorary Consul for Monaco) hosted in a giant marquee in her garden that backed on to Sydney Harbour.
With great style, Mary would invite selected media (like Moi) and we would be treated as equal guests, usually joining a line-up with her staff to be introduced to the royal guest of the evening. In a way it summed up not just Lady Mary's exquisite manners but the way she treated all people of varying backgrounds equally. Having risen to such great heights and privilege, Lady Fairfax devoted her life to charitable causes for the disadvantaged.

At one of Mary's parties we attended spoon bender Uri Geller was the star guest, Mary sent her butler to retrieve some of her silver cutlery which Geller proceeded to bend while dozens of guests found keys in their pocket bent out of shape or watches stopped or started. One guest, the representative of a French champagne company spent the night sleeping in his car when he found his car & house keys twisted out of shape.

Party guests: Albert of Monaco* Prince Edward, Uri Geller * James Murdoch

Pals: Ron & Nancy Reagan, Pope John Paul

When Lady Mary arrived at her New York penthouse just as Whispers was departing, she engaged us in a detailed conversation as to whether she should purchase a new Rolls Royce or a simpler Cadillac in which she was to be driven to Los Angeles (inviting us to accompany her but we had to turn her down as we were traveling on to London). Mary eventually purchased a sparkling new Roller and was duly driven to LA and when she asked her chauffeur to arrange for it to be shipped to Sydney he pointed out it was a left-hand drive:" Perhaps Madam should sell it and buy another one in Sydney". Instead she donated it to a local California charity to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
While in the US Mary would always drop by the White House in Washington to dine with her pals Ronald & Nancy Reagan. As a Catholic convert, they say she had The Pope on speed dial.

At another party at Fairwater Whispers photographed a young lad who had lain down on a sofa and promptly fallen asleep. He turned out to be a 14 year old James Murdoch on work experience for his dad Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph. Mary's family purchased a portrait painting of Lady Mary by Whispers and artist Skid Stuart in 1995. We like to think it may still hang in the drawing room along side her  Rodin statue.
Lady Mary Fairfax, born in Poland is survived by her sons Warwick Fairfax , Garth Symonds from an earlier marriage to businessman Cedric Symonds and children Anna Cleary, Charles Fairfax and 12 grandchildren

Publishing heir James Fairfax dies

 James Fairfax AC (pictures above left with Edmund Capon), the former chairman of publisher John Fairfax Ltd, passed away age 83 on Wednesday at his Southern Highlands home Retford Park in Bowral. 
James was a great philanthropist and art collector and the son of Sir Warwick Fairfax. In our snap above James donated a substantial body of precious art works of old masters worth then, around $35M to the the NSW Art Gallery.

Barry Humphries at the NSW Art Gallery & one of James' donated works

In 2016 Mr Fairfax bequeathed his Retford Park homestead,  worth around $20 million, to the National Trust for the Trust to preserve in perpetuity for the local community. For the past few decades Fairfax lived and traveled with his companion Ray Hansen who died in 2015.

When the young Warwick Fairfax Jnr, James half-brother launched his ill-fated move to take back the family business Fairfax Newspapers in the 1980s James recived an estimated $200M. He was a director on the Fairfax board from 1957 until 1987, and chairman from 1977 to 1987.

Spending half the year at a property in the UK, James retired permanently to Bowral in 2003. One of the highlights of the social calendar in his Sydney days was an annual masked drag ball where guests, mostly well heeled bachelors from Sydney and Melbourne competed and spent a small on extravagant gowns.
James Fairfax is survived by step mother Lady Mary Fairfax who like James has bequeathed the family home Fairwater in Double Bay to the National Trust on the proviso all her staff live there for life. James leaves behind two half sisters, Annalise Thomas and Anna Cleary, his half-brothers, Warwick and Charles Fairfax.
Below : Retford Park

 

What is happening with James Murdoch?

Whispers asks this question because of a sudden spike in a story we penned in 2010.  It's the tale of how we spotted a 15 year old James Murdoch asleep on a sofa at a party at Lady Mary Fairfax's home Fairwater in Double Bay. At the time Murdoch was accompanying the Sunday Telegraph social writer Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop (pictured right) on 'work experience'. Our spy disguised as a Tiffany's compact in Jerry Hall's handbag and which sends us regular reports on hubby Rupert Murdoch's movements has produced no news about the Murdoch clan that may have inspired over 100,000 readers from the UK to click on the tale in the past few days.

Read the full story here:

A 15 year old Murdoch and the groom who eloped with his best man in Venice

 

 A screenshot of our statistics shows how readers can suddenly flock from a certain country depending on the current post. As an example, when we published the claim that former Sydney and now Los Angeles based private investigator Frank Monte was heading to New York to work on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, readers from the USA flocked to Whispers at the rate of around 40,000 a day. But why an older tale about James Murdoch has suddenly gained new traction is a mystery.

 

A Spare $100M ?

$100 million- that's the going price for a house regarded as one of Sydney's finest, certainly the most expensive.
Elaine in Double Bay  has been in the Fairfax publishing family since 1891 and is next door to Fairwater still home to Lady Mary Fairfax and which also doubles up as the Monaco Consulate (Lady Mary is Honorary Consul).

The Shuttle has partied at Elaine many times- it was rented for many years by society figure Elizabeth Fox (pictured on the right). One of it's best features is a full sized ball room that opens out onto expansive lawns that lead to a private beach with views across the harbour to the Sydney Opera House.
 Elaine's current owner John B.Fairfax is selling his home unlike sister-in-law Lady Mary, she has willed Fairwater to the National Trust with the stipulation that her staff live there rent-free for the rest of their lives..

Lady Mary's NY Pad For Sale

Lady Mary Fairfax's former New York penthouse- the most prized in that city , is up for sale again for $125M US.

The 16 room palace at the top of the Pierre Hotel has sensational 360 degree views of the city and Central park. Lady Mary purchased the pad in 1986 and made a foray into New York society, eventually selling up for $21.5M in 1999, a record then for NY. In typical Fairfax style she departed New York for California in a brand new Rolls Royce purchased for the journey after doctors forbade her from flying for a fortnight after an eye operation.

After telling her trusted chauffeur they would ship the car back to Sydney , when he informed her it was a left hand drive rather than right hand, she said "oh well, we'll find some deserving charity in LA to donate It to and they can auction it".





Mary still lives in her home Fairwater  (left ) in Double Bay which is also the Monaco Consulate-Lady Fairfax is the Honorary Consul . She has donated Fairwater to the heritage Trust but all her employees must be allowed to live there for the rest for their lives.

Topless Kate Middleton Pics & an Aussie Connection

William & Kate in Malaysia

While the brouhaha over the topless photographs of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge gets more dramatic by the day, an Australian connection is emerging.

A fortnight ago Bauer Media, Europe's largest privately owned publishing firm purchased Australia's largest magazine empire ACP for around $500M. Bauer Media also own the Closer brand of magazines. The topless photographs have been published in the French edition of Closer and the editor is unrepentant with reports now emerging that there are further pics to be published next  week.

Bauer have issued a statement deploring the use of the topless photographs of Kate Middleton and have complained to the magazine but the French edition is published under license by an Italian publisher Mondadori.

Bauer CEO Paul Keenan says he has asked Closer to remove the pics : "We deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures and have asked that Closer France takes these pictures down immediately from its website and desist from publishing any further pictures"'. Bauer are said to be reviewing the Closer license with Mondadori.
                                                                                                                           
Where does this leave the Australian Woman's Day, the biggest selling weekly magazine and new Baeur acquisition ?. WD is in fierce competition with New Idea (owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes' Pacific Magazines) and barely a week goes by without the 2 glossies running a feature on Prince William and Kate. A month ago we can imagine a bidding war would have erupted between the 2 mags for the topless photos. New Idea was the first to breach an agreement, not to mention that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan in 2008.

The Shuttle has worked on a number of occasions with the British royals including the late Princess Diana on her last visit to Australia. We once attended a dinner for HRH Prince Edward at Lady Mary Fairfax's pile Fairwater. Twenty guests had paid $10,000 each for the privilege of dining with Edward (the money went to charity) with the promise of a snap with the royal. The Shuttle obliged but not before an arrangement was made with Edward's minders- 2 charming but lethal looking gentleman from Scotland Yard's Royal Protection Squad. The Shuttle was to be searched before we left the function to ensure we had not taken any covert pics of Edward, perhaps rubbing his bald spot and so on. We were happy to oblige.
But where were Kate Middleton's minders while she was holidaying in France and for that matter, Prince Harry's when he was in Las Vegas ?.

Gina Spends Up

When you are the richest woman in the world and in line to be the richest person on the planet, what's a few million dollars here and there.

 Gina Rinehart is buying up property abroad and has purchased 2 luxury apartments for nearly $44M in Singapore's new Seven Palms Sentosa Cove project. That's off-the-plan as they haven't actually been built yet and Gina's taking a bit of risk here with the Asian property market swings of highs and lows putting Dubai's property plunge to shame.

Lady Mary Fairfax

The last Aussie to splash out on property abroad was newspaper heiress Lady Mary Fairfax who bought the 3 storey penthouse in the ritzy Pierre Hotel in New York in 1988 for $12M . That pad came with it's own ballroom, 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms and featured spectacular views over Central Park. Lady Mary had plenty of cash to splash about at the time having picked up at least $250M in the failed takeover bid of Fairfax Newspapers by her son Warwick Fairfax which ended in tears although the extended Fairfax clan became immensely rich in the process.

The Pierre Hotel

The Pierre Ballroom

Fairwater

 This month that clan will gather at Lady Mary's Sydney harbour side mansion Fairwater in Double Bay to celebrate her 90th birthday. Fairwater doubles-up as the Monaco Consulate as Lady Mary is the Honorary Consul. When Mary passes the house has been left in trust to the nation although it's stipulated in her will that her retainers, servants, chauffeurs and gardeners can live there rent free for the rest of their lives

As for that Pierre Hotel penthouse, Lady Mary sold it for $21.5M in 1999, a record for a New York apartment.
That record was soon eclipsed by another Aussie newspaper baron Rupert Murdoch who paid $44M for a flat in the Rockefeller Centre but he was soon topped by David Geffen paying $45M for socialite Denise Rich's sumptuous pad on 5th Avenue (the Shuttle partied there for Milton Berle's 80th birthday). All this expensive real estate is put in the shade though by a penthouse that has just gone on the market for a whopping $95M in the mid-town Manhattan City Spire building