Gatsby Rules !

Baz Luhrmann and The Great Gatsby bandwagon rolled into Sydney tonight for the Australian premiere and it was a huge hit with the audience.

The film's stars flocked to the Hoyts Cinema Complex in Moore Park, right next door to Fox Studios and Centennial Park where much of the movie was filmed. All that was missing was Leo DiCaprio who had other filming commitments but there were heaps of movie stars to keep hundreds of fans screaming their heads off and defying the pelting rain.
Forget what the critics say : Gatsby is a visual feast and a joyous romp through The Roaring Twenties. It's the first 3D film that the Shuttle has been able to sit through comfortably. Catherine Martin's sets and designs are sensational, over the top and there really is never a dull moment in this flick.
No-shows but reported elsewhere as attending : Ricky Martin, Seal and Kate Ritchie.

Gatsby fever strikes

The modelling Stenmark twins                                       Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch braved the rain

the brolly brigade at The Great Gastby

Tearjerker Moment # 1

Who didn't love Harrison Craig's performance on The Voice last night ?. Watch the video..it says it all.

Celeb Sightings in Sydney

Olivia, hubby John Esterling, Delta Goodren at the Downs Syndrome fundraiser

An unusually busy Sydney wet weekend with a charity ball, the finale of the Sydney Film Festival at the State Theatre and new superstar Chris Hemsworth taking a day off to surf at Maroubra Beach before the launch of his film Snow White and The Huntsman this Tuesday at Westfield in Bondi Junction.

Our favourite Academy Award types were at the State Theatre including Oscar winner Emile Sherman (producer of The King's Speech), nominee Jackie Weaver and Hugo Weaving. 

Emile Sherman

Hugo Weaving

Still celebrating his 25 years on TV, celeb interviewer Richard Wilkins hosted the 25 Year Anniversary Fundraiser for Downs Syndrome at Fox Studios and that brought out Hollywood types like Nicole Kidman and Olivia Newton John plus the judges from The Voice-Seal, Delta Goodren, Keith Urban and Joel Madden (they sang for their supper). 
Meanwhile Lady GaGa jetted in from Melbourne and did a walk about outside the Park Hyatt Hotel greeting a few hundred excited Little Monsters and posed for snaps with them.

major Hollywood eye candy at Maroubra Beach yesterday

And that's just the weekend!

Growing Old Outrageously with Prince

At the launch party for the 2012 Sydney Writer's Festival at the Hickson Road Wharf 2 on Wednesday evening the Shuttle's eyes were immediately drawn to the above tee-shirt.

And the wearer lived up to expectations. She's Elisabeth Davies and it's the title of book she's penned with her school day's pal Hilary Lindstead (pictured above)

Jennifer Byrne & the Chaser's Julian Morrow

Davies and Lindstead went to school together in England before parting company for 35 years and then meeting up again and discovering a shared love of travel. The eccentric pair embarked on a trial journey to Morocco. That tentative beginning has turned into a series of wonderfully unusual holidays, and Hil and Lis have been circumnavigating the globe ever since.
Among many other destinations, they have taken in Marrakech, Fez and the Atlas Mountains; Patagonia and the Galapagos Islands; Istanbul and Cappadocia. They've been on safari in Namibia, Botswana and the Serengeti, attended music festivals in Naples and Prague and made a pilgrimage to the western isles of Mull and Iona. Along the way they have encouraged, enraged and entertained each other, while living through countless adventures.

  In the preceeding decades Elisabeth went to Cambridge, studied economics and became a civil servant and journalist. Meanwhile Hilary had re-located to Australia where she has been a theatrical agent for names like Baz Luhrmann, Neil Armfield and Gillian Armstrong. These two are great fun and the book should be a good read-the Shuttle has just orderd a copy. After recounting their history the two minxs' were soon off working the party with writers like Professor Ross Steele, Roddy Doyle, Frank Moorhouse and Tom Keneally. Listen to the ABC Radio interview with Hil & Lis here.

## On Tuesday evening Prince wowed audience's at the Allphones Arena albeit with a toned down show  (he's found God or something) but the real action was at the after party at Ivy in the city where Prince jammed with Seal and Public Enemey's Flava Flav as the Shuttle's exclusive snaps show.

Pity the ballroom was packed to capacity but it was still better than the Allphones Arena and for a rock'n'roll party, fairly civilised.