Prime Minister Update

 We like to keep tabs on the Prime Ministers of the world. They're very busy. In the above snap former Oz PM Kevin Rudd interviewed- as he called him..the Comeback Kid of Malaysian politics, 93 year old PM Mahathir Mohamad.

In New York where New Zealand PM Jacinta Arden is wowing the United Nations, former Australian PM Julia Gillard interviewed her for the New York Times.

Ms Gillard gets about- she was in Berlin yesterday meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

 And last but not least, our newly minted Oz PM Scott Morrison partied this week with celebrity hairdresser Joh Bailey at the beautiful Southern Highlands' property of David & Skye Leckie.
And Malcolm Turnbull?. We'll let you know shortly as we are sure to encounter him next week somewhere around the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

Cate Blanchett Leaves Behind Drama at the STC

With Cate Blanchett's contract up at the Sydney Theatre Company her husband Andrew Upton has been re-appointed as Artistic Director but there are rumblings amongst the ranks with claims of nepotism.

Giorgio Armani with Cate at the STC

Upton and Blanchett jointly ran the STC producing critically acclaimed productions that received  plaudits around the world including their A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann and staring Cate as Blanche DuBois being declared the best ever presentation of the play by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The City News is reporting that local playwrights and actors are not happy and do not accept that the board of the STC has fully searched the world for a replacement for Upton.
" Are we seriously meant to believe after searching the globe for someone to replace Cate and Andrew the best possible person happens to be already working at the STC and it happens to be Andrew? " says an anonymous source .

Liv Ullmann,Cate & Joel Edgerton at the Sydney Streetcar premier

One of  the complaints is about Upton's "black box" minimalist productions that feature black walls and street clothes rather than costumes and a preference for overseas' plays instead of local plays.
 STC's General Manager Patrick McIntyre is quoted as saying " the STC Board had always wanted Mr Upton and Ms Blanchett to stay, and only looked for a replacement because “Cate and Andrew … were contemplating moving overseas“When [this] changed, the Board asked Andrew if he would reconsider and stay on … The Board absolutely believes he is the best person for the job.”
 When Blanchett and Upton took over in 2007 the STC was ailing financially and Blanchett was able to attract big time sponsors like Giorgio Armani who flew into town for two opening night performances and the critical acclaim the pair's productions have received have revived the financial fortunes of the Australia's premier theatre company.

'Kerr Goes Kiwi'

The New York Times has a feature on Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom in New Zealand.
Read it here!

Madame Arcati Scoops the World-by 12 months

It was exactly 12 months ago that the famed British blogger Madame Arcati drew our attention to an interview with the wife of the Syrian president,  Asma al-Assad in US Vogue, declaring it in bad taste as demonstrating Syrians were being massacred by security forces. Shortly after the Arcati story, the article disappeared from Vogue's website.:
                                  
 "Vogue keeps up Asma al-Assad interview as Syria burns

While the Syrian government massacres its revolting peasants, I see that US Vogue has still yet to take down its recent ghastly and fawning interview with Asma al-Assad, Syria's 'dynamic first lady' who is on a 'mission to create a beacon of culture and secularism.' She should import the BBC's resident proselytising atheist Prof Brian Cox to help her out."

                                                                                           

Now the fabled Washington Post has just caught up to speed, 12 months after Madame Arcati's scoop.
Read the story as re-produced in the Sydney Morning Herald here and Madame Arcati's original posts here
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 Two days ago we asked who was the famous brother of the person in the snap we published.
The answer was Kevin Spacey.

 The pic was of his older brother Randy Fowler who runs the Rod's Limo Hire company in Boise Idaho.
You can see the family resemblence-can't you? :