It's DOT NET !!! now

CARELESS WHISPERS HAS CHANGED IT'S INTERNET ADDRESS FROM WWW.THESOCIALSHUTTLE.COM TO: WWW.THESOCIALSHUTTLE.NET that's: www.thesocialshuttle.net # don't ask..it's a long convulted story not worth repeating at this stage. But we'll be back within days with some of the latest news on Sydney happenings. And a big thank you to the 100s of readers who contacted us..and the many who actually tracked down our new address! ## Especially those 100s of daily visitors from Russia !! We love you !

Tales from The Dreamtime # 2

"I think JFK was murdered"

Thus concludes an article in the Aussie Who Magazine. It's a quote from the colourful ex-mayor of Geelong, former "King of The Paparazzi" and "media personality" Darryn Lyons, he of the hot pink cockatoo hairstyle.
We reckon Darryn's pretty spot on with this observation. A quick perusal of the shocking Zapruder Film shot on the day the US President died clearly shows something dreadful happened.
Apparently Lyons also believes the late Princess Diana may have died because of a conspiracy.

Whispers worked with Diana for three days on her last ever charity appearance : the launch of the Victor Change Institute in Sydney in 1995.

It was quite a shock to read some time later she was apparently having an affair with Dodi Fayed. Whispers had known Dodi in London for years and formed a quartet of party-goes and clubbers that included the actress Britt Ekland.
Most nights of the week we clambered into Britt's tiny black Mini, a gift from her ex-husband Peter Sellers and did the rounds of the West End clubs, like Maunkberrys and  Annabels.

One day out of the blue Whispers was invited to lunch with the then relatively unknown Mohamed Fayed. Mr Fayed had heard of our nightly jaunts and was perturbed about our mode of transport. He doted on Dodi. Fayed loaned Whispers a Mercedes for a year from his collection and requested we drive our little group about in what he said was a much safer vehicle.

When the ill-fated pair died in that Paris tunnel Fleet Street tabloids beat a path to Whispers door wanting the low-down on Dodi's' nightly activities, offering  big bucks for the story. We declined out of respect of Mr. Fayed's feelings even though there was much to tell.

Lyons says Princess Diana appeared on his doorstep one day to request that he photograph her ex Prince Charles and not her. Odd really as Lyons Big Picture photo agency was only created in London in 2002 and was dissolved in 2012. Diana died in 1997.

Darryn says he has photographs of Diana dying in that safe Mercedes taken by a paparazzi who worked for him, stored in safes around the world. We always believed the French police confiscated the paparazzi's film on that dreadful night.

In 2008 at the British inquest into the tragic accident the jury concluded Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed had been unlawfully killed by a combination of the driving of their Mercedes by their chauffeur Henri Paul and the driving of following vehicles - the posse of paparazzi photographers who were dogging their final journey.
We'll just leave that one there.

"Our" ABC scoops the rest

It may be just some light celebrity reporting but the ABC has scooped the well funded private media networks with their exclusive photos and report on the filming of the movie Thor in Brisbane with actor Chris Hemsworth ( the Hemsworth brothers were brought up in Byron Bay about a 90 minute drive from Brissy). The ABC have confirmed their pictures were taken by an ABC staff photographer and that they would never buy in paparazzi pics in a tale like this. They have also done a follow-up today on how the LIVIN top Hemsworth is wearing -with profits going to a suicide prevention charity-are selling like hotcakes.
My source also says Hemsworth was active in informing the ABC of their filming schedule as he wants to promote LIVIN and deliberately chose the national broadcaster as he is a great believer in it.

Dreamtime

Melbourne has  Geoffrey Edeslten and Geelong has it's new clown town mayor 

Darryn ("Yes, I knew the Princess of Wales very well") Lyons (who gives jumping onto a trend ten years after it fizzled out new meaning). He's been featured in a Sydney Morning Herald piece titled The Emperor Of Geelong.
 My sources say the piece was heavily legalled and it would seem so as the article by Susan Chenery has less of the usual bite we can expert from the experience interviewer.
Still it gives us some insight into the label dropping (they should sue) , name dropping fantasy that now governs the lives of Victoria's second largest city. Probably the most pertinent sentence comes from Lyon's own lips in respect of Geelong's current troubles with collapsing businesses : "I am certainly not the saviour and I haven't got the magic wand".
# Is that a tasteful Charles Billich work of art on his wall ? I think we should be told.
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Kylie Minogue did a surprise concert last night at the Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills after she spent all day tweeting that should be there.

Hizzoner The Mayor

And now a word from the Honorable Darryn Lyons, Mayor of Geelong :

Creditors of the defunct Big Pictures photo agency in the UK are advised to form an orderly queue...

Court Victory for Mel B?

X-Factor judge Mel B has won an AVO (Apprehended Violence Order) against paparazzi Jamie Fawcett that says " Fawcett must not "loiter" within 50 metres of Brown, must not approach within five metres of her and must not contact her."

The AVO was by mutual agreement, often the first step in these matters. But is this a victory ?. It's probably more a victory for Fawcett rather than Mel and husband Stephen Belafonte, pushing up the price of snaps of the two just a little higher. read the full story at the Nine Network site.

More Woes at Big Picture

The blows just keep coming for the cockatoo haired Darryn Lyons of Big Picture fame - the agency that recently announced it was having 'cash flow' problems.

A freelance photographer says he supplied Big with photographs that were sold but he is owed nearly  £5000  and is threatening to issue a 'winding up' notice unless he is paid. Read more in the UK Press Gazette.

NY Photographer Honoured

The career of the legendary New York snapper Bill Cunningham , now 81 years old, was celebrated when he was awarded a Medal of Excellence at the Waldorf Astoria hotel at a charity gala that raised over a million dollars for Carnegie Hall's Well Music Institute.

Bill &Anna Wintour

Cunningham is one of the last residents of the few apartments in Carnegie Hall and he has been a fixture on New York streets and at fashion shows and parties for decades.

The movie on his life (trailer below) should be required watching for the coterie of Aussie publicists who often exude a demeanour far grander than their clients and armed with their precious 'communications' degrees, really have no clue what the business is all about.
Sydney must be one of the few major cities of the world where the unkempt aggressive paparazzi are taken seriously by many publicists and public relations 'experts'.

Sarah Jessica Parker

At red carpets openings. movie premiers and such  the press pen will be packed with ghastly paparazzi - the same snappers who prowl the streets and beaches of Sydney, are aggressive, rude and have nil interest in their subject apart from the few dollars that may be made from a picture.

There are probably four genuine photojournalists in Sydney who operate like Cunningham , who have respect for the people they photograph yet are shouldered aside by the bores of the pap world. These snappers tend to like getting to know their subject, often chatting to them and building up a rapport. The paps on the other hand are mostly filling their files with generic snaps of celebrities for future use.
 But who are we at the Shuttle with a combined 100 years of experience to tell these woolly newbies how to work?                              
 Photographs : www.patrickmcmullan.com

finally Britain's TIMESONLINE catches up to the Shuttle

     Twice in early December we reported on the collapse of the dreaded paparazzi who until the death of Princess Diana were making a decent living. But when that car crash happened, something else strange occured.

     A whole new breed of semi-professionals were unleashed-the majority being obnoxious kids with a new digital camera who thought they were out to make a fortune and adopted an attitude of such arrogance they simply became a complete pain in the butt.

        Even worse, a new breed of so-called "publicists" began to take them seriously and put them at the top of every guest list.

      It peaked for us in Sydney about 6 years ago when a buffoon of a PR 'consultant ' refused tSS and guest, entry to a store promotion he was grandly managing (with the usual suspect guest list that make up the 'd-list') , whilst inside at least 10 shabby "paps"  grinned away almost triumphantly.

      And thus Count Paolo Zegna, (pictured left) Chairman of the legendary Zegna Group in Milan and tSS trudged off for supper at Aria Restaurant at Circular Quay.

        tSS has worked for the elegant Count Zegna for many years when he travels to Australia to present awards for the finest of the world's wool.    We made hurried excuses that it was the wrong function but it was difficult not to notice the boutique we were about to enter, was a franchise of one the world's major Italian designers-a close friend of Zegna's.

The party was a PR disaster. The only person worth photographing had been booted.  No publicity ensured.

 tSS hexs are very strong. Be warned.

We finally threw in the towel when the late actor Heath Ledger was squirted with water pistols by a bunch of gung-ho paps at a film premiere which literally drove him to sell his Sydney beach-side house and flee to the US. "You need us" they yelled. Not any longer.

Giles Hattersley writing in the Times says it all better here..

 an exert :

    

Paparazzi: A flash in the pan

The paparazzi used to earn big bucks from snapping celebrities, but their moment in the limelight is over

Dan Weir, a 20-year-old paparazzo from south London, heads into the West End most days at 6pm. This is the unofficial handover hour, when the daytime snappers stop bothering the Wags on Bond Street so the night shift can start bothering them outside Mahiki.

As ever, the same worries race through Weir’s mind. Is Kate in town? Will Cheryl be out? Will she wear a scandalously teensy ensemble guaranteed to boost his bank balance? “It isn’t glamorous like it sounds, though,” he says. “It’s a job, and it’s getting harder.”

                                                        

He’s right. Stifle your sobs, people, but thanks to dwindling reader interest and a ferociously litigious gaggle of pap-suing harpies (never say the words “Sienna” and “Miller” to a photo hack: they’ll rip your ears off), the pack is in trouble.

After a decade of steady pay for any old snap of celebrity detritus, in the past 18 months the spoils have shrunk. Dramatically.

“It’s got tough,” says Ken Goff, who runs GoffPhotos, a top agency that supplies candid sleb shots and red-carpet fare to the tabs.

“A year ago, you could get a picture in one of our main daily papers — The Sun, Mirror, Star or Mail — and it would be worth £500. Now, with one of those papers, you’re lucky to get £170.” One picture editor tells me that rates can fall as low as £40 for a half-decent shot. That’s if he deigns to publish it at all.

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### Count Zegna has announced that his Wool Awards in Australia -suspended in 2009 over the great muesling of sheep scandal, will resume this year for Zegna's centenary celebration.