Making a Killing

As New York City goes into lock-down, Whispers' pal America's top social photographer Patrick McMullan has sensibly gone into seclusion in his house in Long Island.
NYC's famous night life has gone into meltdown- it's non existent at present so McMullan isn't missing much (he often attends up to 5 parties in one night).
Never fear. As a chronicler of America's and importantly the scene in his home city Patrick knows everybody and has photographed them for posterity. As the great artist Andy Warhol  once said "if you don't know Patrick you need to go out more".
As a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and with regular columns in a number of society magazines like Ocean Drive along with numerous TV appearances and his own NBC TV show under his belt there isn't anyone with a flicker of fame that hasn't been captured by his camera lens.
                                         So it's no surprise to see that every since the scandal broke about the late Jeffrey Epstein and his pal Ghislaine Maxwell, McMullan's snaps of the late billionaire have been published hundreds of times around the world and keep getting re-published with every new mention.
Such as today in the UK's Daily Mail and no doubt dozens of European and American publications.
It definitely pays the bills while society has gone into a government mandated shut-down.

Aussie restaurant tops in Manhattan

Noffs with Julia Gillard & Matty Bennett

Former Sydneysiders Rupert Noffs and his partner Matty Bennett are cleaning up in New York with the success of their restaurant The Lucky Bee . The pair have received rave reviews in US publications for their trendy Soho eatery which is attracting the likes of locals and celebrities from Martha Stewart, fashion designer Valentino, LL Cool J to former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.
Noffs is the grandson of Wayside Chapel founder the Rev Tedd Noffs and moved to New York  four years ago to promote his unique brand of Gideon Shoes, Bennett was the sous chef at Sydney's Longrain restaurant. The pair married late last year in a  civil ceremony.

Apart from New York A-listers it's  the food media the pair have won over including positive reviews in the Manhattan's lifestyle bible The Village Voice with the influential New York Eater website naming The Lucky Bee as the best new comer on the block :
"The Lucky Bee is the new farm-to-table Southeast Asian cafe from restaurateur Rupert Noffs and former Fat Radish sous chef Matty Bennett. The menu includes coconut-braised short ribs, grilled whole shrimp, salt & pepper wings, and green curry with vegetables. The dining room has a kooky vibe, with 60s-style lamps, hanging ferns, and pink & black stripes all over the place."

The Lucky Bee which also sells NYC-produced honey from rooftop hives is located at 252 Broome Street in lower Manhattan. Whispers many moons ago lived for 2 years in a Broome Street loft almost opposite where The Lucky Bee is now located. At the time the area was only warehouses, deserted at night, and even lofts were illegal dwellings. They now sell for many millions of dollars. How times change.

Martha Stewart is a fan of The Lucky Bee

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Whisper's best wishes go out to two of our favourite locals Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her husband John Kennerley after John's recent tragic accident when he broke his neck after a balcony fall.

We've encountered the pair numerous times over the years and a more loving couple is hard to find. The pair are devoted to each other and this must be particularly trying time for Kerri-Anne.

 The last time we saw them at a party John told us about his favourite hobby - he has constructed a fantastic miniature train system that snakes throughout the pair's living room. John constructs everything himself including building a miniature model the magnificent Shrewbury train station in Shropshire

Rupert & Matty Take Manhattan

There's more than one Aussie Rupert wielding power in New York. Whilst Rupert Murdoch oversees a global media empire from his NYC base, fashion entrepreneur Rupert Noffs is carving out his own successful career with his unique Gideon Shoes that are fast becoming the favourite footwear of young celebrities and popping up for sale in more and more US fashion stores.

Rupert Noffs (left) and Matty Bennett

Just last September we reported on the wedding of Noffs, grandson of Sydney's Wayside Chapel founder Rev Ted Noffs, when  Rupert married his long time partner Matty Bennett.
Now Bennett, known affectionately as Matty Bee is opening a restaurant with Noffs on Broome Street (where Whispers lived for 2 years in a loft) on the fashionable Lower East Side.

 To be called The Lucky Bee, food will be South East Asian inspired "from farm to table" and will join the small number of popular cafes and eateries run by Aussie ex-pats such as The Fashionable Cow and former model & photographer Lincoln Pilcher's Kingswood.
# When Whispers lived in Broome Street we were advised by the local plod to avoid walking home late at night. How times change.  Below : the location for The Lucky Bee

Patrick McMullan

Patrick McMullan is New York's, and probably the USA's most celebrated social snapper and we at the Shuttle are proud to call him a  good pal. In fact he visited Sydney to attend an exhibition organised by us a few years ago. He is a contributing editor on Vanity Fair as well as a contributor to numerous US magazines like Ocean Drive, Allure and Andy Warhol's Interview. Here he talks on Morning TV about his new exhibition of fashion personalities that has just opened at the Hearst building in Manhattan. Check out his website at www.patrickmcmullan.com

exclusive : Great Gatsby Gaff #1

Above is a screen capture from the trailer (below) that has just been released for Baz Luhrmann's $130M
Great Gasby 3D epic that is having the finishing touches put on it at Fox Studios. It's a scene from New York's Time Square set in the 1920s.

Luhrmann imported half a dozen fabulous automobiles from the USA and rounded up dozens of similar era cars from around Australia. With the magic of cinema the right-hand drive vehicles magically become left-hand drives. Sydney's Centennial Park doubled up as The Hamptons and Long Island and several mansions including Strickland House in Vaucluse capably passed for grand US estates. The old Balmain power station looks perfect as industrial New York and only the trained eye-judging from the great clip below-could spot the parts of Sydney that stand in for 1920's Manahttan. While the film's stars Leo Di Caprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey McGuire have long departed Sydney, around 200 technicians are beavering away at Fox on the production.

The Shuttle's sub-editor, a dyslexic moggie named Mildred Pierce with a fierce catnip addiction prone to making more mistakes than she corrects, however draws our attention to a major boo-boo that will hopefully disappear from the final production due to be released in early 2013.

The Ziegfeld Follies ran on Broadway from around 1907 to 1931 as well as making it to the big screen in several lavish productions. Yes, that's the Ziegfeld -not Zeigfeld!

Monte Won't Be A Guest

An invite to the Public Storage Blues Party in Manhattan lands on our desk and after perusing the guest list we note another Sydney-sider has been invited to the same event.

Frank Monte & Anthony Hayden Guest in New York

 It's the noted private eye and sometime LA & New York resident Frank Monte. The invitation is to a fund raiser for the British, New York based writer Anthony Hayden Guest

Readers may re-call that Hayden Guest was the inspiration for Peter Fallow, the hard-drinking hack in The Bonfire of the Vanities by author Tom Wolfe. Others claimed that the late writer Christopher Hitchens was Fallow but Hitchens said Hayden Guest fit the bill far better then he.

 It appears Hayden Guest has a dilemma : his personal art collection valued at $650,000 has gone astray from a storage firm. Anthony had forgotten to pay a bill of $1350 and the firm sold the collection for a paltry $650.

Now Hayden Guest is suing Public Storage and friends have rallied around to raise money to hire a top notch New York brief.

Jamie Lee Curtis & Christopher Guest

Hayden Guest says he keeps in touch with Monte on a regular basis :"I'm very fond of Frank and we exchange Christmas cards every year. We shared digs for a few months on the Upper West Side "

Monte says he won't be able to make the party in New York but will send a donation : "Anthony is a great pal and we went to dozens of parties in New York together. He can't stay home and is quite exhausting at times. He also looked after me once when I was very ill so I owe him a favour".

Guest wrote a book  The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night about his New York exploits. He contributes to a number of US publications like Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

His older brother (Baron) Christopher Guest is a Hollywood script writer and is married to the movie star Jamie Lee Curtis and both will be at the Public Storage Blues Party next month.