the return of The Bag

The Jackson family continues their endless exploitation celebration of Michael Jackson's demise life.

Germaine Jackson flew into town on Monday night for Who Magazine's party for singer Rhianna and announced a tour of the Jackson Family to  honour Michael's life. Who Magazine parties are a nightmare. You aren't allowed to take photos. Just to show there were no hard feelings we took some anyway.40 minutes was enough of this bun fight.

                                                                                                

Paloma Picasso and James Gordon

Time was pressing and Paloma Picasso beckoned at Tiffany for the launch of her new range of jewelery. It's been 12 years since Picasso was in town. Tiffany's party at their new Martin Place store was welcome relief and a low key affair with about 80 good customers and an endless supply of Billecart salmon brut champers.

Paloma lives in Marrakesh these

days and we are jealous. We had something in common. tSS and Paloma had frequented many of the same houses inhabited by expatriates in Marrakesh including the fabled home of the late Yves St Laurent, with it's magical sunken garden. Paloma's range of jewelry is heavily influenced by her Moroccan life with Arabic diagonal motifs.

The last Tiffany's party tSS went to was for Elsa Peretti. She invited us to travel to New Guinea with her 2 days later. We went. It was a big mistake. We'd go to Morocco with Paloma though. She's fun.

More importantly, Tiffany's signaled the end of the world-wide recession with the gift bag !. The gift bag had vanished in the past 2 years as promotional budgets were crimped or a pathetic attempt was passed off-usually a collection of sub standard cosmetics or fake tans and samples. The kind of stuff given out in department stores.

During his years of a partying in New York Andy Warhol refused to leave until he had his gift bag firmly clamped under his arm. He collected them . He had rows and rows of shelves of gift bags. He never opened them and said one day he was going to have a big bag party and sit down and open every one like an excited child at Christmas. He would telephone friends the next day and say "what was in the bag ?" He got excited thinking about all those presents waiting to be opened. He died before that happened. Now they're in the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

And Paloma was no slouch with hers. A beautiful set of silver cuff links-just perfect to wear at Chanel's parade the following night at the Inglis Newmarket stables. Chanel's new range is mainly hessian based which I guess is why they choose the stables.$3000 for a hessian mini-skirt. Why not ?. Guests trotted out their ancient Chanel . We spotted 2 fake Chanel handbags. The cheek of some people !. And there was a gift bag full of Chanel make-up                                                                                 

Chanel people

But the verdict was unanimous amongst those who had been at Tiffany and Chanel-Tiffany was fun but Chanel had better looking waiters.

wait person

Kirk Pengilly & Layne Beachley

INXS's Kirk Pengilly and wife,world surfing champion Layne Beachley were at Tiffany. Layne  had a date the following day-giving surfing lessons to Zac Efron on Bondi Beach.

Zac Efron at Bondi Beach

exclusive..It looks like love

   They've been spotted several times now, arms entwined and with that special look reserved only for each other. John Rendall of Christian the Lion fame and top publicist Glen Marie Frost.

      tSS encountered them at the launch on Thursday night of Tony Graziana's Maserati show rooms in East Sydney, at the opening of a Darlinghust Thai restaurant a month ago and cruising down Macleay Street in Potts Point in Rendall's classic Rolls Royce last week.

Glen Marie sat quietly in a mezzanine corner to watch John's daughter Tallulah sing a fortnight ago at a Newtown cabaret club while downstairs John greeted and schmoozed a well heeled guest line-up like film producer and wine heiress Rebel Penfold Russell, Constance Farquarson, and Angela Belle McSweeney.

    For years Rendall wrote social columns for magazines in Britain, like London Portrait Magazine and the top glossy, Hello. He was friends with the famed gossip writer Nigel Demspter and with then wife & publicist Liz Brewer, co-host on 'Aussie Ladettees to Lady', helped organize shindigs and restaurant launches. In between he and Liz bought and sold London houses after renovating them.

   In 2007 a youtube film of he and former partner Anthony 'Ace' Bourke greeting their pet lion in Africa in 1972 when ballistic with a few million hits and catapulted the 2 into instant fame. A book deal followed along with film and product endorsement deals which saw the cash rolling in with appearances around the world on dozens of TV chat shows including Oprah Winfrey and The View with Whoopi Goldberg. At present he tours and speaks about African wildlife. Rendall also shared a commune in the 70's in the British countryside with friends like Helen Mirren and landscape gardener Roddy Llewelyn who conducted a love affair there with the late Princess Margaret.
          Glen Marie's business and political credentials are impeccable. One of the best liked PR ladies about town she hosted the corporate sector for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and counts Lady Sonia McMahon and just about every top Liberal Party politico as friends. Lately she has joined an outfit called the Corporate Intelligence Analyst Network whose website says it is "a group that represents more than 150 years of collective experience drawn from a pool of "specially trained intelligence and federal law enforcement personnel".

    Glen-Marie hates being called a socialite which she is, and she hates being in the social pages-where she constantly appears. She says she likes a quiet life away from the glare of publicity and social events.

Ahhh.. Just like John. A match made in heaven.

Ace Bourke, Rendall and Christian the lion in the Kings Road London circa 70's.

Christian on US TV:

Poms discover the Mad Monk

     Writing on the guardian.com.au website Julian Glover has sent a warning to the knockers of would be British PM Tory leader David Cameron that it could be worse-they could end up with a Tony Abbott clone ! Glover has concurred with tSS's view of both Abbott and former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull :

" Australia's opposition Liberal party tried to live in the centre for a few months last year under its former leader Malcolm Turnbull, a rich, cocky Sydney lawyer with plenty of faults but nonetheless the potential to be something like his country's Cameron. A modernizing and intelligent man, he fell in a party coup, which was largely about climate change, last November, and has been replaced by Tony Abbott, whose iron-man physique and much-mocked "budgie smuggler" tight swim wear is only equaled by the firmness of his views. He notoriously described climate change as "absolute crap".

     And he quotes the madcap Barnaby Joyce (left) National Party leader and opposition finance spokesman who already has Chinese's mandarins in a tizzy over anti-import statements :

"He ( Abbott) tore into Rudd in parliament last week over emissions trading; his finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce (a sort of Australian redneck Boris) even held a press conference on emissions trading to announce that home insulation "is the fluffy stuff that sits in the ceiling for rats to urinate on"."

Barnaby gets another mention for his quip outside Parliament last week

"every time you open the fridge and a little light goes on, it is to remind you that Mr Rudd is taxing you and also to stop the butter from getting scared"

Glover warns against Brits that of they don't vote for Cameron in the right numbers and he becomes a PM without power the vacuum could be filled with an extremist : "You might not love Cameron, but you should hope he succeeds. Come to Canberra, and you'll find out why". What fun.

Tony Abbott is a disciple of the very strange BA.Sanatamaria, (left) the late powerful right-wing Catholic activist who was variously anti-communist and anti-capitalist. Abbott also studied to be a priest.

  We only wish former treasurer Peter Costello was still in politics and ran on a ticket with Tony-who could resist the campaign poster :

 Vote 1: Abbott & Costello !

exclusive: a Prince & Count to the rescue

Rural news:

 Long gone are the days when Oz lived off the sheep's back but HRH Prince Charles is coming to the rescue and will attend the 9th Rosehill and Wool Congress in April at the Rosehill Racecourse and Convention Centre in Sydney's west in April.

There will be all manner of exciting social events, including a welcome reception, cocktail party with The Australian Wool Fashion Awards and a dinner harbour cruise on picturesque Sydney Harbour, as well as tours, field trips and visits to the Sydney Royal Easter Show to watch sheep judging and other arena events.

The Congress presents a forum for active discussion and debate on the future and opportunities of the sheep, meat and wool industries.

And clocking in after giving the country a miss last year over the sheep mulesing controversy is Count Paolo Zegna, one of the largest buyers of the best quality wool which is shipped to Italy and turned into suits to be sold throughout the world. The Count was last here in 2008 when his Zegna Wool Awards were held in great secrecy at the Sir Standford Hotel with organizers fearful of a full on protest that was rumored would include visiting pop star and PETA advocate Pink !. Zegna flew in via Melbourne, arrived at the dinner, gave out a dozen plaques to the crusty faced sheep farmers and scampered. Pink and protest placards never materialized.

Fashion designer Liz Davenport, one of only five Australian designers bestowed with the nation’s top fashion honour - the Grand Award from the Fashion Industry of Australia and whose designs are sold in more than 300 boutiques and department stores throughout the world, is researching the wool industry for the Congress.

Currently in China Liz is quoted in The Land Newspaper saying "“You would never find a king, prince, premier, Prime minister, or a president wearing anything but a pure wool suit but this alone can’t keep farmers producing wool.” She also says : "“I asked a Chinese supplier where his wool came from and he said an animal. I asked what animal and he said he didn’t know – this is a problem.”. As for Charles-he says "Wool is a fibre even the most brilliant boffin in the most high-tech laboratory could never create.”

Liz should be pleased to know that Charles will be coming to her rescue. Not even the Congress organizers or her have been told of the Prince's visit yet.

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Meanwhile Russell Crowe's Museum of Interesting Things has finally opened at the Nymboida Coaching Station Inn . The old barn in the small NSW country town now houses a ton of Crowe memorabilia including his Romper Stomper boots, Gladiator costume, wild west outfits from 3.10 to Yuma, a dozen Johnny Cash gold albums and dozen cricket caps from famous batmen over the decades including Don Bradman.

No. we have no idea where Nymbodia is either .
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Wishing you were there:

    At Sugarmill in Kings Cross on Tuesday comedian Gary Eck was upstaged by Robin Williams who was dining with Happy Feet 2 co-star Elijah Wood. Williams gave an impromptu 30 minute hilarious dissertation about his Sydney visit. Anyone who has been to a William's press conference will know just how side-splittingly funny Williams can be.

     tSS began to film part of the routine with our snap happy but a tap on the shoulder from a large gent changed our minds.

    Williams and Wood are recording voices for the cartoon penguin fantasy at George Miller's Kings Cross studios.

and so it comes to pass..

     3 months ago tSS predicted then Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull would either start a new political party or defect to Labor if he lost a leadership battle.

     Today he has announced he will cross the floor on a crucial vote on climate change proposals, defying his leader Tony 'Mad Monk' Abbott. Abbott's climate policies will turn out to be a lame duck mess when examined in full (and when he actually decides what they are). They'll receive as much impact as when he recently announced viginity was a virtue before marriage. Thousands of teens yawned , looked mildly bemused and went on rutting as before.

It has begun.

        The Liberal / National Party Coalition shot themselves in the foot when they booted Turnbull. The  Rhodes scholar, ex-merchant banker, barrister and Kerry Packer adviser has notched up bigger scalps than the current PM Kevin Rudd.

         He took on Margaret Thatcher's government when they tried to ban the memoirs of ex MI5 spy Peter Wright and his SpyCatcher book. Turnbull trounced them in the English courts. Turnbull succeeded in the Maralinga nuclear fallout trial in Britain when he led the cause for compensation for indigenous people whose lands had been bombed relentlessly by British nuclear testing in the 1950's. A few weeks after the testing ended in 1961 some signs were stuck about the sacred Aboriginal lands warning of the potential radium fallout-written in English.

     When a reluctant former PM John Howard added Turnbull to his ministry he consistently ignored Malcolm's advice. With home ownership stretching beyond the grasp of thousands of Aussie families, Turnbull introduced radical proposals for mass housing programs based on age old European and British housing societies that had served those communities so well for decades. They were ignored.

     5 years ago at a political party function tSS told Turnbull his dreams would be dashed by joining the Liberal Party. His natural home was the centre left Labor Party that would leap upon his obvious talents.

      While political pundits and timeservers on daily newspapers delight in a brief re-surgence in the Coalition's poll fortunes they ignore the quickly shifting populace that is Turnbull's constituency that no longer takes in just the well-heeled Eastern Suburbs of Sydney that house the richest in the nation, but also now include working class areas and the gay and lesbian conclaves of the inner city. Turnbull scraped in at the last election when a blue ribbon Liberal seat began turning left. Malcolm has less than 12 months before a general election to do the obvious-switch parties if he wants to retain his Wentworth seat or just leave. The line of succession has already been decreed. Rudd will serve as PM until 2015 after he increases his majority next year, wins a further election and then hands over to the first female Oz PM, Julia Gillard.

       It is then Turnbull will be in a commanding position if he joins Labor now. As it is, he is a dead man walking as is the entire Coalition for at least 10 years.

       Why will they not listen ?

# fact: Turnbull's cousin is the British actress Angela Lansbury

# fact 2. The British Maralinga tests make Australia the most nuclear bombed country on the planet with 21 major devices and many smaller ones exploded. Some areas are still contaminated.

# fact 3 'Maralinga' is an ancient Aboriginal word for "field of thunder".

# check out:  Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians

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Update : Crikey has done a round-up of various political writer's views on Malcolm Turnbull's speech in Parliament on climate change. Most agree his views were presented with more conviction than PM Kevin Rudd's. Has Turnbull singled the first move in a tactic that would see him placed in a powerful position and having a direct influence on whoever governs ?. The Demcrats under Don Chipp dominated in the Upper House for decades when they held the balance of power with just a handful of senators with both main political parties negotiating deals . The Greens under Bob Brown have almost claimed that position but a small break-away Senate party could scupper their plans and Turnbull with just 2 other Senators could become kingmaker.

Malcolm Turnbull has a fortune estimated at $100M. He is only interested in politics for one reason-to affect change. You read it here first.

more tabloid tosh

       Georgina Robinson writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that "Veteran rockers the Who's performance at the most coveted televised gig in the world was panned by some viewers but praised by music critics." under the headline: Rock of ages ... the Who get mixed rap for Super Bowl.

     The fragrant Georgina goes on to quote 5 "at home viewers" who all knock The Who's peformance.  That's 5 out of a US TV audience estimated at 40 million, plus countless tens of millions of worldwide viewers-and the roughly 100,000 stadium audience who gave The Who a standing ovation. Nice one.

"Debunking the myths behind the pontificating potty peer"

       tSS attended a lecture recently at the Sheraton On The Park hotel to hear Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley present his fascinating views on Climate Change-or the lack of thereof according to his Lordship, who insists it's all a lefty plot.

    

Nearly a 1000 crammed into the ballroom (at $20 a head) to listen intently to Monkton. It was as expected, a cross between earnest looking pensioners, a handful of right wing nutbags, a slew of rabid talk show hosts and an unexpected number of notable businessmen.  Noticably absent were any prominent representatives of the farming community. A conservative lot, those toiling the land aren't with his Lordship on this matter.

   The audience weren't all necessarily supporters of the peer but it was hard not to notice the sea of nodding heads that hung on every word as Monkton laid out his theory that it was all a dastardly conspiracy of the left who had fallen by the wayside after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and had found a new cause to latch onto by preaching doom and gloom about the climate.

    "It's all nonsense" said Monkton. "Let me tell you of the real conspiracy that is upon us !".

     Outside an ominous wind howled around the marbled porticals of the Sheraton's grand forecourt. Still encrusted in tiny crevices, as everywhere in this town, are traces of the red dust storm that swept into Sydney in September 2009 as city dwellers arose to find that an orange/red Martian landscape had blanketed the city. The outback, nearly 3000 kilometres away had arrived overnight. We were witnessing the result of 200 years of disastrous European style farming methods.

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     Let's hear from one of our favourite broadcasters and Sydney Morning Herald writer Mike Carlton as he dissects Monkton's claims :

The UN's climate change fraud is cover for a plot to bring about a world government : This world government codswallop began years ago with one Lyndon H. LaRouche, a conspiracy theory lunatic so far to the right he makes George W. Bush look like Hugo Chavez. A convicted criminal, self-styled "economist" and vicious anti-Semite, LaRouche also believes the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh head a Zionist cartel that runs the global drug trade. Monckton shares many of his lurid fantasies, which are staple fare for the knuckle-draggers who infest late-night talkback radio.

A UN ban on using DDT to control malaria has killed up to 40 million people: More LaRouche claptrap filched by the potty peer. They both loathe Rachel Carson's seminal 1962 book Silent Spring, which alerted the world to the dangers of pesticides. Monckton has blamed Jackie Kennedy for these imaginary 40 million deaths, claiming she read the book and pushed President Kennedy to ban DDT. JFK did no such thing.
Here in Australia, another right-wing nutter, John Stone, a former head of the Treasury and Queensland National Party senator, wrote recently: "It is now possible to say quite unequivocally that Carson's book has been responsible for killing more people than Mein Kampf."

Phew. In fact there is no United Nations ban on DDT for malaria control, only for spraying on edible crops. DDT is still widely used in the Third World, although it is being phased out because the mozzies are becoming immune to it.

Polar bear populations are increasing: Yes, but not because the planet is cooling, as Monckton and his barmy bloggers would have you believe. Bans and quotas on hunting have pushed numbers back up. But where the polar ice cap is melting, the bears are in big trouble. In Canada's Western Hudson Bay, for example, the population has dropped 22 per cent since the 1980s, and the animals are smaller and weaker.
                                                                                                                     read more here

Ligging at Neville's house

Lindsay Fox (left) chats while Neville looks for a buyer.

Suburu owner Kerri-Anne

They were out on force at Neville Crichton's gleaming new Ferrari and Maserati sale rooms in Green Square for the launch of a range of the Italian autos.

2 of Sydney's best known gate-crashers (they are called "liggers" in the UK) and a host of well known business, sporting and show-biz personalities. Will Neville notch up a sale or 2 from the night that generously included a fleet of chauffeured Maseratis to ferry guests to and fro-all the better for quaffing French champagne by the bucket ?. Hard to tell. tSS did a straw poll of some of the more well heeled guests and found few takers.

Daytime TV queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley drives a very practical Subaru which she says she loves as does husband John Kennerley, the man who started Britain's Littlewood Pools and sold out for squillions. They have a Lexus for more sedate moments.

What does nightclub king Justin Hemmes
(right) motor around in ?. Anything he wants with he and his father John's amazing collection of vintage and new luxury cars. But not a Maserati or a Ferrari amongst them and he won't be buying one soon.

Nor does the countries top jeweler Nic Cerrone-a Mercedes, and as for trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, he doesn't drive at all but has a man at the wheel of either the Rolls Phantom or Bentley Continental that slip into the Spanish style driveway of his legendary mansion Boomerang. We gave up after 12 inquiries. Not a Ferrari owner in sight. The 2 liggers ?. They share a taxi or an ancient Ford Falcon when it's running.

Still, everyone looks pretty sitting and posing in the gleaming autos.

Nic Cerrone-always happy to pose for the camera.

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Earlier that night the Oxford Street cabaret club Slide showed off some of it's season's upcoming acts that include the crooner Barry Crocker who pens the occasional play review for the Shuttle. Slide is run by French chef Marc Kuzma who doubles up as maitre de and as drag act, Claire De Lune.

Claire de Lune

Crocker's squeeze Katy Manning, the original Dr Who co-star is still in London and working at the BBC.

Slide maitre de Marc Kuzma with Sharon Sargent and Barry Crocker

Barry played the Private Eye comic strip character in the film Barry McKenzie Hold His Own. It's difficult to tell which came first-Barry Crocker or Barry McKenzie. Did Barry inspire Baz ?.

A question for creator Barry Humphries next time we see him.

Murdoch's "pervert" vanishes !

      Perhaps it's the influence of Rupert Murdoch's son-in-law Mathew Freud, a UK "communications" expert who abhors some of his dad-in-law's enterprises like the wacky Fox News in the USA. Has he become a moral arbiter for the giant worldwide News Corp conglomerate and if so, how far is his reach ?
      This morning in the first edition of Rupert's much loved Daily Telegraph, and in the early morning editions of each of the tabloids throughout Australia, editors with hearts of gold declared the launch of a "Save The Perve " campaign.

     An unfortunate chap had been spotted viewing some saucy snaps of the gorgeous Miranda Kerr, the current squeeze of movie star Orlando Bloom, on a late night TV news broadcast as one of his co-workers fronted the camera explaining the latest financial news.

     We caught a glimpse of the hapless man's face as he turned to stare at the camera . A fleeting look of horror descended. He was busted.

    The video went viral throughout the world. 

     The wheels were soon in motion as an eager editor launched his selfless campaign dreamed up by a enterprising journalist, to save the poor man's business career.

    .

       As tSS sipped an early morning cuppa we pondered how long this latest lunacy would last. But phones were already in meltdown as bleary eyed lawyers from the respected firm, Messers Sue Grabbit and Runn were summonsed from their slumbers.

    Couriers were soon on their way with angry letters of demand. The editor of GQ Magazine from where Miranda's pics had emanted was fuming. Kerr's modelling agent was livid. Even the embarrassed "porn" viewer saw a brief ray of sunlight in his misery as he faced suspension, as the magic word "libel" was mentioned far and wide.

    It was all over by mid-day. The Tele's heartfelt pleas to save the man's career were dashed, along with that of the hapless hack who dreamed up the idea and who probably hoped to earn a place at the feet of the great Murdoch. The piece vanished from the net. Early editions were pulped.

  

   And how was this  all too brief campaign to Save The Perve  illustrated ? Why with a saucy snap of Miranda of course !

Another gratuitous snap of Miranda.


update : the man has kept his job.

ps : ninemsn still carries a "perve" story-there could still be some big cash in this  !

Murdoch's manipulated snap

Phones have been running hot since tSS attended Graeme Goldberg's Dee Bee's party in Double Bay on Tuesday night.

Media outlets are desperate to lay their hands on a photograph of cricketing great Glenn McGrath and his new girlfriend, Italian Sara Leonardi who were sitting quietly chatting at the restaurant.

The Daily Telegraph has run a front page snap today that is photoshopped to place the 2 closer together (right). The original is on the left.

Woman's Day is already spruiking a story for the next issue on their website but showing a much more honest version of the pair as they were seated on opposite sides of the table (below).
Where does that leave Murdoch son-in-law Mathew Freud who made the recent bizarre claim in the New York Times that he and several Murdoch family members were "appalled" by Rupert's Fox News in the USA ?.

Freud, a spin doctor for products like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Birdseye Peas and Nike says this on his Freud Communication's website :

"We get frustrated by our industry’s reputation. Ever been over-promised & underwhelmed? Thought so. We have a unique solution to the problem. TELL CLIENTS THE TRUTH. Is honesty always easy? No, but we believe that in the long-term you’ll respect us for it. We’ll get to make one kind of promise, the kind that doesn’t get broken…We believe that honesty earns trust."

Perhaps Mathew can have a quiet word with his wife's father and remind him of the Australian Journalists Association Code of Ethics and in particular this one:
9. Present pictures and sound which are true and accurate. Any manipulation likely to mislead should be disclosed.
Clearly a case for the PhotoshopDisasters blogspot.

Cafe wars vamp up in Bubble Bay

        Graeme Goldberg, the 6'6" Eastender, and host of DeeBees fires the first shot tonight with a customer loyalty party as a re-vamped Cosmopolitan opens directly opposite in the Eastern Suburbs society haunt of Double Bay.

       The Cosmospolitan has been undergoing major renovations since the Sir Standford Hotel shut down last year and is now open for business and drawing many of the older customers who favoured it's expansive outdoor seating area to while away the hours gazing at the passing parade.

 
  Double Bay-or Double Pay (or Bubble Bay) as kids refer to it because of it's expensive boutiques that come and go with great regularity, had hit hard times in recent years that seemed to co-incide with the collapse of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, once the favoured bolt hole of visiting celebrities like Bob Dylan, Princess Diana, Presidents Clinton and Bush and the stage for the final exit of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

         But retailers are reporting a mini-boom with the great US financial calamity as more and more people delay holidays abroad.  Expect GG to roll out the usual suspects-Leo Sayer, Max Markson and boxers Jeff Fenech and Joe Bugner.

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      Meanwhile on Wednesday the New Zealand born businessman and yachtsman Neville Crichton will host a glittering shindig to launch the new Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano at his Waterloo showrooms.

      There has been a parting of the ways between Chrichton and Tony Graziano, the amiable former boss of Ferrari and Maserati in Australia. Both are staying mum on the reasons but it was Graziano who used his connections to secure a deal to transport stars like Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve on their Sydney visits gaining valuable column inches in the media.

      

 It even paid off handsomely when Graziano stepped into the breach to get the most successful Miss Universe winner Jennifer Hawkins to her hometown of Newcastle during her triumphant homecoming tour after Rolls Royce / Bentley sniffed at the prospect proclaiming "we don't have that many customers up there", a reference to the steel city's working class origins. Hawkins repaid Graziano by purchasing the Maserati Tony chauffeured her in.

    

Guests arriving at a function to launch a new harbour cruiser last week were startled to see a glaring Neville Crichton as Tony Graziano 'gate-crashed' the launch and parked a Maserati at the entrance complete with a couple of glamour girls. Graziano is now flogging used autos and specialising in luxury Italian cars.

Festival wash out

Oh dear. The punters are most displeased. On a summer's night as rain poured down a much anticipated event seems to have gone down like a lead balloon.

The Sydney Festival has posted the following on it's website about the Rogue's Gallery concert on the Opera House forecourt.

"Sydney Festival is disappointed that Rogue's Gallery did not live up to expectations for some audience members.

Rogue's Gallery is our third collaboration with acclaimed producer Hal Willner, following the immensely popular Came So Far For Beauty (2005) and Lou Reed's Berlin (2007).

Rogue's Gallery came to Sydney Festival with a track record of previous shows at London's Barbican Centre, Newcastle's The Sage Gateshead and Dublin's Analog Festival, where it was warmly received by both public and media. Willner conceived the Sydney version on the same principles. His method is to bring together an eclectic range of artists for a short but intensive rehearsal period resulting in an event characterised by performances of spontaneity, risk and surprise."

Rogue's Gallery is a sea shanty with sailors,convicts, travellers and all the hardships, horrors, lusts and romance that went along with life at sea.It was conceived by actor Johnny Depp and amongst others it starred Marianne Faithfull (Quintessential rock survivor!),Tim Robbins (Hollywood superstar and musician!),Todd Rundgren (producer and legendary purveyor of deft pop gems!) and our very own Peter Garrett (former front man for Midnight Oil and current Federal Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts ).

Amongst the comments on the Festival's website :

"There was only one good thing about Rogues' Gallery for me; Kate St John playing an oboe in the first number. The rest of the show was really disappointing."

"Marianne Faithful had some presence, despite being out of time out of tune and forgetting the words, but the rest of what I saw made me cynical about old rockers"

"I felt sorry for some of the performers who did bring professionalism and inspiration to this second-rate event. In addition to poorly rehearsed and indifferent performances,"

"This was a very very disappointing event. It felt like being at the rehearsal for a rather bad high school concert."

"Ms Faithfull seemed to be under the weather (no pun intended) and had to hum when she couldn't find the words to read and Mr Robbins appeared to be chewing gum."

" It was a complete rip-off. When you pay $145 you expect professionalism and a class act."

Here's Todd Rundgren in top form: