Marie to tell All about Princess Diana

2017 will be the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales who died in Paris after a car accident with Dodi Fayed, the heir to the owner of Harrods, Mohamed Fayed.

Now the Australian charity worker Marie Sutton who engineered the very last public function attended by Diana in Sydney is to author a book on the tumultuous visit to Australia that marked Diana's retreat from public life. A few months later Diana was dead after a world-wind supposed affair with the tempestuous Dodi in the South of France.

Whispers knew Dodi well and lived in his Park Lane apartment for 3 months. Dodi's cocaine habit was legendary and Whispers, a non drug user, once saved the life of the secretary of a famous movie star in Dodi's apartment while Fayed and the movie star were literally, off their heads on cocaine.
                                                                         
Marie conceived of the project to get Diana to launch the Victor Chang Institute on the strength of being a pal of Dr Hasnat Khan who reputedly Diana was obsessed with. Once Diana agreed to come to Australia Sutton found the reins of the visit were snatched from her by then NSW premier Nevile Wran and a coterie of Eastern Suburb's society figures. But Diana remained loyal to Sutton and ensured Marie was by her side at every event during the visit. And we should know. We were there at the same time, once hiding under a rug in the back of a limo with Diana as she was whisked out of the Double Bay Ritz Carlton, avoiding the world's assembled media. It was on that occasion that Diana leaned out of the window of the car as we passed St Mary's Cathedral and she spotted a wedding party ascending the stairs and shouted "Don't do it !". Did the happy couple realize their heckler was the World's Most Famous Woman? . Marie also has the only known photos of Diana's grave on an island at the family property Althorp with some very touching mementos from her sons Princes William & Harry. Having seen them, Whispers has been sworn to secrecy but perhaps they will appear in Marie's expose.

Plots & Fine Dining

 THE ANNOUNCEMENT today that Canadian born hamburger salesman Jack Cowin has been granted a seat on the board of Fairfax Media signals another shot across the bow of the recalcitrant Fairfax board from the World's Richest Woman ( and soon to be the world's richest person according to Chase Manhattan Bank) Gina Rinehart.

A relative pauper with just a $620M fortune compared to Gina's $29Billion, the former insurance salesman turned Burger King and Hungry Jacks entrepreneur is being described as an 'independent' board member and has agreed to maintain Fairfax's editorial independence. He also sits on the board of the Ten Network in which Rinehart holds a swag of shares along with Lachlan Murdoch.

Just last week Cowin celebrated his 69th birthday in the South of France on board his super yacht Slipstream (left). Fellow guests included Gina Rinehart and John Singleton. Whatever plans were hatched sailing the Med, they seem to have paid off. Gina had demanded 3 board seats after buying nearly 20% of Fairfax shares. She's scored one -for now.

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SADLY there is just two more days left before the pop-up restaurant Masterchef closes but the experiment has been such a huge success, another is on the way.

St Marys

Masterchef is a joint venture of the Ten Network which screens the popular Masterchef series, and the media production company Shine. Located on the forecourt and in the shadow of the elegant St Mary's Cathedral and opposite Hyde Park it's a million dollar location but it's the size of the restaurant that amazes. Housed in an enormous marquee, it's 2 floors of culinary delights with a large but comfortable bar upstairs for pre-dinner drinks.

Chefs include Masterchef stars Julie Goodwin and Marion Grasby with some of Sydney's most experienced food stars assisting, like Justin North and Kylie Kwong, who is rated in the top five Chinese chefs in the world.

The Shuttle dined there last Wednesday and the food - well sadly as this current venue will vanish on Sunday there isn't much point describing it - apart to say it was sensational. Never fear, we hear another pop-up is in the works for the coming Summer and in an equally fabulous Sydney location.