G'day USA

It's that time of the year when the Gum Leaf Mafia gather in Los Angeles for a series of Australian themed events, fashion shows and so on. Last night it was the gala dinner and of course, another opportunity for casino billionaire James Packer to show off his fiancee Mariah Carey, and of course that ring. Here are a couple of short films from the events. And aren't the LA paparazzi just delightful?



And an Only In Australia moment : 2 Weeks ago he was in Washington meeting with US president Barack Obama...just yesterday our newly minted Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull was in Melbourne catching a tram. No police, flashing lights or bodyguards. And no-one noticed.

Paul Hogan Sells Malibu Mansion

Hogan's Malibu house (left) and the Byron Bay house at Possum Creek

Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan and wife Linda Koslowski have listed their magnificent Malibu property for sale for $US5.25M. 

 Although Hoge's later films were financial flops, he has made a fortune by parlaying his Dundee profits into a property empire valued at around $400M.

  Hogan and his film production partner John Cornell invested heavily in the NSW uber resort of Byron Bay building a beach side hotel and buying up plots of land in the hinterland.

Linda & Paul ( centre ) with business partners John Cornell and Delvene Delaney

His Possum Creek mansion and acres were reminiscent of the Malibu property. It was eventually sold to Hong Kong banker Duncan Mount who parceled up blocks and sold them on for a tidy fortune. Hoges was inducted into the 'hall of fame' at last month's G'Day USA in LA.

Meanwhile at the opening of last week's exhibition for fashion identity Vivian Chan Shaw, Hogan's first wife Noelene Hogan attended the party but remained silent on her ex-husband's life. Noelene and Paul divorced in 1981 and she received their Northern Beaches Sydney property which again was similar to the Malibu and Byron properties. Obviously Hoges likes the 'Southern Mansion' style home with a few hundred acres. Hogan keeps in regular touch with his grown-up sons and their families from the first marriage and they visit him and Koslowski's son Chance in the USA. left : Noelene Hogan with Claudia Chan Shaw last week.

Jack Vidgen Grows Up

Jack Vidgen at 16 has survived puberty and still has his voice and amazingly, can still hit those high notes. The then 14 year old whose success on Australia's Got Talent  was sealed with a kiss on the cheek from macho Irishman Brian McFadden is still capitalising on his win and has been working non-stop for the last 2 years,
He still has a little trouble with his hand movements though but he's well on the way to becoming an Oz version of Wayne Newton. Las Vegas beckons.

Here he is at the gala G'Day USA dinner in Los Angeles last week where he sang the Star Spangled Banner for an audience of top Aussies like Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Rose Byrne, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Paul Hogan, models Elle McPherson and Miranda Kerr , Hugh Jackman, our favourite Qantas pilot John Travolta.

Here's Jack singing in our exclusive video from the event :


 

Vale James Miller.
Popular publican and man about town James Miller has been found dead by friends from a suspected overdose at the young age of 38.
Miller owned some of Sydney's most popular inner-city pubs : The Norfolk in Surry Hills and The Santa Barbara in Kings Cross.
Handsome, outgoing and friendly, Miller was named last year in Fairfax Media's Sydney Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People.

Kitsch Week in LA

Those social scribes still holding down a job on a tabloid will be heading for Sydney Airport on Monday for one of the best freebies in town- the annual gala week in Los Angeles known as G'Day USA.
It's a government sponsored promotional week where everything Oz gets shown around LA- local fashion designers, wine tastings, tourism events and err, a discussion on the carbon pricing.

The big do of the week is the LA Black Tie Gala dinner where a few Aussies who have done well in the USA get inducted into some sort of Hall of Fame- this year it's Paul Hogan and Rose Byrne and Qantas pilot John Travolta. Guests include usually every actor in LA that week - Guy Pearce, Naomi Watts, Eric Bana, Toni Collette and it wouldn't be a party without Olivia Newton John. Chef for the night is Curtis Stone.

But wait-there's more : also flying to Los Angeles is the World's Richest Woman and the Aussie version of Christina Onassis, Gina Rinehart and her daughter Ginia Rinehart who is the apple of her mum's eye.

Ryan Johnson  * Gina Rinehart  * Ginia Rinehart

Ginia will wed her long time boyfriend in LA- Ryan Johnson who is the son of the legendary Beach Boys' Bruce Johnson.
On the wedding guest list :  Canadian hamburger king Jack Cowin, John Singleton and Barnaby Joyce MP.  Not invited : Gina's estranged children Hope, Bianca and John.