Macquarie Street fire

A building has burst into flames in Sydney's legal and medical specialist district Macquarie Street almost opposite Parliament House.as our exclusive snaps show.
It's not as bad as first thought- the flames are actually consuming plastic sheeting stretching up the side of the building currently being renovated.
The scaffolding was also in flames. The irony is that the work being carried out was to remove flammable cladding that has caused so much grief in London's deadly Grenfell Tower fire.
Fortunately there were no casualties with today's blaze.
pictures: Douglas S. Thompson‏ @tsdhe 

Mel's bad rap

And still the media keep asking questions of Mel Gibson about his meltdown years ago when he was in the grip of the grape in LA. It's as though no hack or hackette has ever had a drink and said unwise things.

Mel is a nice guy and his relationship with the media has always been a good one despite their attempts to whip up controversy.
Whispers first met Mel over dinner many moons ago in London at the Portobello Hotel in Notting Hill Gate. He was with a good friend, film producer Richard Brennan and the pair were promoting a film that had been a huge success in Europe but went largely unnoticed in the UK. It was called Mad Max.
As far as we can see, Mel hasn't changed over the years - well apart from becoming mega successful and growing an amazing beard-and is as pleasant as he was right back when he was an unknown Aussie actor.

Last night Gibson attended the world premiere at the State Theatre of his new film Hacksaw Ridge with partner Teresa Palmer who announced she is pregnant. And Mel's new flick has the Oscar crowd very excited.
Spotted in the audience (left), top legal eagle Chris Murphy with Mel's brother Chris Gibson on the right. Doesn't really look like Mel does he?