we come to Rupert Murdoch's aid but who will help Sacha ?

Rupert Murdoch's top selling Australian tabloid, the Daily Telegraph  has called upon the services of  the Social Shuttle to supply them with a raunchy set of snaps of Sharon Sargeant, fiancee of the world's most famous gumshoe Frank Monte. Sargeant was snapped by our junior paparazzi, partying at Lotus in Kings Cross after last week's Lady Ga Ga concert.

Sargeant says she was celebrating the fantastic concert with a few gal pals over several bottles of Veuve Clicquot and later had a slight wardrobe malfunction as she tried to negotiate the back seat of the limo thoughtfully provide by her future hubby who was in San Francisco on a business trip.

 The same issue also carries the tale of singer George Michael  relaxing on a cruiser in Pittwater for the past few days .He has extended his stay in Sydney for several weeks as a lazy Indian summer takes hold. George has been enjoying himself on the Oxford Street gay strip that has proved gold for the singer who has been exhilarated with the fantastic reception he has received at his Oz concerts. Michael has discovered the treasures of the Golden Mile in the form of several handsome muscled dudes who have taken his fancy.

Tip to the Telegraph: George has now taken an apartment in the luxurious Icon building in Potts Point , the temporary digs much favoured by visiting movie stars while shooting at Fox Studios. And the Social Shuttle has all the details for the luxury holiday George has planned early next month when several chaps and a bunch of friends will be treated to a no expenses spared fortnight in the South Pacific. Give us a bell. Before Hello snaps up the rights.

Midnight shifter Carson Kresley

PS; you may also want to call us about Queer Eye's Carlson Kresley who has been in town for a week, unnoticed and was celebrating a re-match with a his handsome Aussie hunk last night at the Midnight Shift !

                           *********************************************                                       

A curious tale in the Sydney Star Observer, the gay and lesbian publication that says a group has been formed with the specific purpose of suing the makers of Bruno- Sacha Baron Cohen and his co-producers for $80M, the entire Australian takings for the flick.

Sacha Baron Cohen at the Sydney premiere of Bruno

Musician Michael J. Lloyd has formed the LGBT Foundation to take on Cohen as he claims Bruno was "purely offensive and ludicrous. It encourages a discriminatory society", as Lloyd told the Observer.

 The group's website has listed a lawyer from the Nicholas Family Lawyers as a partner in the venture along with well known gay identity Brett Hayhoe although apparently  Hayhoe seems unsure of the plans to to drag Cohen and Bruno's producers into the Supreme Court.

ailing Sonia who took the White House by storm

Sad news today that Lady Sonia McMahon, widow of ex-Prime Minister Sir Billy McMahon is in the private wing of St Vincent's Hospital being treated for cancer. It's the third time Sonia has faced treatment and she has successfully fought of the disease before.
At 77 there is no keeping the much loved society figure down. Only late last year she recovered after a fall down the gangplank of media mogul Paul Ramsay's cruiser at a birthday party on Sydney Harbour and was soon back out on the party and charity circuit. Sonia is a regular at the Melbourne, Sydney and Ascot horse racing meets.

Lady Sonia at the White House with Richard Nixon

It was in 1965 when Lady Sonia and her husband Sir Billy, the then Prime Minister paid a visit to the Richard Nixon White House and the snaps of their ascent /descent of the White House stairs for a state dinner went flashing around the world making front page news as everyone asked who was the stunning 6ft blond in a revealing dress with slits up the side. The Washington Post has described the gown as the most talked about fashion item ever to be seen in Washington. That dress is now stored in the Powerhouse Museum.

Sonia was 20 years younger than Sir William when she married him in 1965 when he was 57. It has long been rumoured that Sir Billy was gay and had been advised by Liberal Party founder and Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies to marry if he wished his career in politics to advance. Lady Sonia and Sir William subsequently had 3 children.

Son Julian McMahon is a former model and the star of the US series Nip Tuck and is currently working in South Africa on the film The Smell Of Apples with Gillian Anderson.

Sonia & son Julian McMahon at Johnny Baker's funeral

Lady Sonia & Priscilla Presley

Julian fell out with Lady Sonia when against her wishes he married Danni Minogue in a short lived marriage in the late 1990's.

Sonia also faced legal battles when daughter Debra challenged the will of her late father and demanded a share of his estate. Estranged from her mother for several years, Debra turned to Spiritualism and alternative religious beliefs.
Julian has returned to Sydney to be by his mother's bed-side and was at the funeral of the late society walker Johnny Baker in August 2009 where Lady Sonia and her 3 children appeared united once again.

Dita Von Teese has them by the balls

an understated Joh Bailey at a Cointreau Ball

In the late 1960's Princess Soraya of Iran, in Sydney for a visit asked the Gucci clothier Frank Marcovic "is there any such thing as society in Sydney ?." "Of course there is" replied Frank, reeling off a list of names like the Packers, Fairfaxs, Hordens, Graces, Lloyd-Jone sand so on . Most were media proprietors or department store heirs along with the occasional country property dynasty like the Macarthur Onslows.

"One went to parties where they were at and got into the social pages and that was it" says society maven Diana Fisher, once a BlueBell girl in Paris and married to Humphrey Fisher, the son of the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was all lost on Princess Soraya. They were all in trade after all. It went downhill from that point. Parties became and continue to be 'product launches' . Corporations expect lots of free press when they feed and water the media and the so called "A to D" list that seem to ensure a few inches in the social pages.

Budgets are smaller now but were huge in the mid 90's when PR queen Deeta Colvin ruled the roost with her legendary annual Cointreau Balls that lasted a decade.

To even have been to just one was considered a major coup and a step up the social ladder (tSS went to 6).

The Cointreau Balls were planned in great secrecy with guests never knowing where the event was to be held until they actually arrived at it.

Come the big night, the lucky few hundred clutching their invites in whatever costume had been decreed, would wait at their doorstep for a limousine to arrive-every limo in town was booked-to whisk them off to some mystery location, perhaps an abandoned warehouse decorated to fantasy level by party designer David Grant who still organises all major events for internationale Olympic Committee.

Once it was a circus tent in the wilds of the Cronulla sand hills-a road having been bulldozed for the queue of white limos depositing guests. Another was in an abandoned steel mill outside Newcastle. and yet another in the Naval Museum decorated as the Titanic. We all went down with the ship clutching our champers.

The final in the early 2000's was in a fabulous disused art deco cinema in the suburbs with a Hollywood theme (tSS went as a Betty Ford clinician).

It was all just one giant advert for the undrinkable Cointreau which received millions of dollars in free press and presumably cashed in on the sales that followed, done on a smaller budget than imagined says Colvin. And so successful and egalitarian.

One could find oneself seated next to Lord Portalington, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue or Lady Sonia McMahon. Or once when tSS found ourselves deep in conversation with who we presumed was an eccentric artist named Charles Gosford who actually lived in the town of Gosford just outside Sydney.

We thought it highly amusing he should take the ordinary seaside town's name as a title until informed he was actually the Earl of Gosford from Scotland. These were world class parties-the moniker given to everything in a land uncertain of it's station on the planet, much like a new shipping terminal or the upgraded Pitt Street Mall.

A whole team of the brand's French executives would fly in by private jet for the night. Such a long way to travel but the writing was on the wall when the French champagne stopped for the last 2 parties along with the funding of the extravagant balls when they realised that no-one at the events actually drank Cointreau.

No-one was that mad to risk the worst ever hangover even though the limos stayed to deliver the very last guest home safely.

Now it's all about to return. Well partly.

Dita Von Teese , the femme fatale and queen of the fishnet and corset has been invited to fly to Australia in September in her capacity as global brand ambassador for Cointreau for a one-night-only performance of her burlesque show Be Contreauversial.

The show, created for Cointreau is an update of Von Teese's classic "Martini Go.lass" performance in which she discards her scanties and frolics in an over sized martini glass. All rather tame from days past but probably apt for these times.

## As for Frank Marcovic who hosted Princess Soraya all those years ago. He died of a heart attack in 2006 in his Palm Beach house following a lengthy and sweaty encounter with a rent boy who managed to unshackle himself from the bedpost to summons help, alas too late.

Business-like, he enquired of the investigating police officers as Frank's body was removed by the coroner :"will I still get paid ?"

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Twiggy Forrest

Friday : To the Ocean Room at the Overseas Terminal with a host of big names-Christine Anu, James Packer, Russell Crowe ,Cate Blanchett and PM Kevin Rudd for the launch of Generation One. the brainchild of Australia's richest man Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.

Twiggy may be worth a cool $15 Billion but he remembers his roots. Forrest went to a mainly indigenous school and maintained life-long friendships with his Aboriginal schoolmates. Sadly the last one died last year aged only in his 50s.

Forrest is encouraging Big Business to hire more indigenous Australians and hopes to get a least 50,000 in employment within a year.

Mama Mia !.. trouble in the land of Berlusconia

Australia's Italian community-estimated at one million strong is up in arms over an article in the Australian Financial Review about Italians and their relationship with Silvio Berlusconi, who started life as a cruise ship crooner, amassed a media fortune and wound up as Prime Minister.

Ruler of Berlusconia

While the wacky Italian PM appears to have as many detractors as fans in his homeland and is the countries longest serving PM in a country where politics are usually quite fiery and governments come and go with amusing regularity, a visiting journalist found a different scenario when she visited to do a piece for the Fin Review.

The article that went largely unnoticed in the Australian Financial Review last November has gone ballistic with local Italians with the diplomatic community being drawn into the fight. 

 Italian born freelancer Silvia Greco visited Italy late last year and produced an article titled ''Via Dolorosa, Italia'' and found only apathy and docility about Berlusconis's affairs with prostitutes. his patronage towards females who come under his wandering eye and his disdain for the judiciary who recently re-buffed him in his efforts to place himself beyond prosecution for corruption.

Silvio wrote "''Undoubtedly Berlusconi used his television channels to bewilder the country, crushing opposing voices and creating a grotesquely vulgar society full of naked girls and arrogant politicians.''. With the article was an illustration of a map of Italy re-named Berlusconia with towns named 'Ponzi' and Necappi''

The Melbourne based La Fiammi, the largest outlet for local Italians has jumped into the fray and declared the article an insult to all Italians and is calling upon the Fin Review to issue an apology.

Locally born Italian politicians like Transport Minister Anthony Albanese are staying mum on this one but former politician and Australian ambassador in Rome Amanda Vanstone has been called into the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has spoken of the excellent state of bilateral relations, expressed 'regret" for the article, and emphasised that the contents of the article in no way reflects the sentiments of the Australian government and people.

That hasn't cooled the passions of La Fiamma and it's sister paper Il Globo who have on-line petitions in English and Italian calling upon the Fin Review to run monthly articles extolling the virtues of Italy and for the newspaper to pay compensation.

Al-friend of the Griffith mafia

Perhaps the Fin Review should take it seriously. Looking back at noted Australian/Italians reveals people not to be messed with including one of the hero's of the failed 1864 Eureka Stockade attempted coup in Victoria Raffaello Carboni, to the town of Griffith where the Sicilian Mafia still seem to have a firm foothold despite the demise of the drug baron Robert Trimbole whilst on the run in Ireland and who was aided by the late colourful  Minister for Immigration Al Grassby.

Maria Venuti shows her secret weapons

Indeed the Melbourne gangland wars of the 1990's where around 30 mobsters were rubbed out-by each other- finds they were of 90% Italian background including the larger than life Mick Gatto who was found 'not guilty' of murder when he claimed self defence after shooting dead Andrew 'Benji' Venamin in 2004. At Mondays' 60th birthday party for British boxer Joe Bugner, Gatto said he was was a regular reader of the Fin Review but he hadn't seen that particular article.

tSS put a call through to a La Fiamma representative who says thousand upon thousands have signed the on-line petitions and says they will not rest until the Fairfax newspaper apologises.

 There is much muttering amongst the clinking of frappacino cups of Melbourne's little Lygon Street and the cafe strip of Kings Cross's Victoria Street where petitions are circulating and being signed at a great rate and where tSS was first alerted to the offending article.

Word is, if all else fails, a secret weapon will be unleashed upon the Fin's office-a visit from buxom singer Maria Venuti.

Read it here first !

As every newspaper goes into overdrive preparing their expected features on the jailed drug pusher Richard Buttrose, the Social Shuttle has been contacted by 2 crime writers to check on our tale that Buttrose's favourite haunt was also a regular drinking spot for some British royals.

Buttrose was sentenced to 12 years today with a maximum of 16. He would have got life if he hadn't been assisting police with enquiries including deciphering his little black book of society customers who queued up for their cocaine supplies. Buttrose would arrange to meet customers at the Lord Dudley pub in Woollahra and then do the deal across the road in the car park of the Paddington bowling club where cops set up a sting in late 2009.

The Lord Dudley was indeed the favourite drinking bar for Prince Harry when he spent a few weeks in town and also Zara and Peter Phillips. They all stay with sports promotor James Erskine, a long time friend of Princess Margaret. Not one publication-apart from tSS has ever twigged to the fact. The Lord Dudley is also the favourite gathering spot of the more sensible paparazzi when not on the chase and where everything is "off the record" so to speak. One legendary night several, including tSS joined Harry in a lengthy drinking session. Next month also sees the second anniversary get-together there to remember the much liked Welsh born snapper Dave Morgan who died in his sleep 2 years ago.

exclusive-the mystery of the lost Francis Bacon treasure

Pattaya

 The Thai seaside resort of Pattaya, a 2 hour drive from Bangkok carries a reputation of unbridled cheap sex that is a magnet for tourists. It's a much maligned city by the foreign  tabloid media .

Rarely mentioned is that Pattaya also hosts a huge expatriate community from Europe and the Pacific rim, and the holiday homes of the rich upper classes of Thailand including the much loved Thai royal family who have their own wing in the grand Royal Cliff  Hotel.

Chonburi, the province that hosts Pattaya is one of the fastest growing areas of Thailand and now boasts some of the most beautiful modern architecture in Asia. There is a rapidly  growing vista of luxury hotels and condominiums eagerly snapped up by foreigners for probably a quarter of the price they would pay in their homeland. The area boasts dozens of fashionable restaurants and nightclubs. Amidst the sleaze and easy sex for sale is a glamorous lifestyle and  nightlife that rivals anywhere the planet. Tourists  can spend a month at a 5 star beach side hotel and play golf every day on some of the nicest courses in the world when it may be unaffordable back home.

Bacon & William Burroughs-photo by John Minihan

Into this fascinating scenario steps John Edwards in 1995, the lover of the famous Irish born painter Francis Bacon who during  his lifetime become a painter noted for paintings that sold for higher prices than any other living artist.   The last recorded sale of a Bacon painting was in 2008, Triptych, produced in 1976,which sold for almost $US83M.

 Born in Dublin in 1909 to an English mother and an Australian father who claimed to be a direct descendant of Sir Francis Bacon, the Elizabethan philosopher, Bacon became renowned for his half human-half grotesque portraits, often of friends. Margaret Thatcher once described him as "that man who paints those dreadful pictures". He was one of the characters that peopled the now vanished Bohemian atmosphere of London's Soho  and the legendary drinking clubs of the 1970's like the famous Colony Club or Muriel's as it was known.  Bacon's paintings are often violent works, with the subject distorted or in the process of moving. His subjects are committing violence, having sex, taking drugs, or suffering the effects of a life of excess. Bacon did not belong to any art movement. He developed his own style.

When Bacon died in Spain in 1992 he left his estate valued at almost $30M to his last lover Edwards. His artistic works were left to a variety of institutions including the Tate. Edwards got the fortune and they got the art. But did they get all the art ?

It's been long rumoured that Edwards, a handsome young East Ender when he met Bacon, may have squirreled away up to 8 Bacon originals which at today's prices could be valued at up to $600M. In the fairly close knit gay community of Pattaya stories abound of visitors attending parties at Edward's magnificent sea-side penthouse and country estate and seeing Bacon art works on the walls. A local British resident known to tSS and who was a  friend of Edwards confirms seeing different Bacon paintings at his penthouse during visits.

A French interior designer who has showrooms in Pattaya and Paris and has decorated homes for some of the world's top pop stars and Thai royal family members has 2 Bacon paintings bought whilst the artist was alive at more affordable prices. tSS  met the decorator in 2008 in his showroom packed with French antiques and he confirmed initial negotiations with Edwards to purchase one painting reached a point but he withdrew because although he believed the painting to be genuine, he got cold feet about the legal process. He wished to remain anonymous.

Edwards died in Pattaya in 2006 from cancer. He had purchased homes for each of his extended working class family in Britain and lived lavishly in Thailand. He took a number of Thai male lovers but he had one particular favourite lover for the last five years of his life who was devoted to Edwards. It is not known if Edwards ever sold any of the reputed Bacon paintings he still possessed. It's very unlikely he would have  needed the cash. The money Bacon left him was enough to last the 14 years he survived Bacon.

But the rumour persists in Pattaya and several people have set out to uncover the truth.

The tale goes that Edwards, towards the end of his life entrusted 4 Bacon originals to his Thai lover with instructions that he secure them as far away from Pattaya as possible which he did, in the village he came from in Northern Thailand. Those who have set out on the trail of the missing paintings include at least 2 adventurers, a London art dealer backed by a US syndicate who hired a party of local Thai investigators and members of the Russian mafia who have extensive links in every facet of criminal activity in Thailand.

$500M in wallpaper ?

All efforts appear to have drawn a blank. One of the main problems being that no-one, apart from Edwards knew the real name of his Thai lover. That lover vanished after Edwards death. 

Is there, somewhere in the remote regions of Thailand, a  Thai village where in a simple Thai house on stilts perhaps amongst the mangroves, a Thai family- grandparents, father, mother, children  chatting and gossiping the evening away as is their wont over dinner whilst without their knowledge on their walls sits a fortune valued at nearly 500 million dollars ?

little bay with big problems

It's only 3 kilometres from the city centre and a stone's throw from Kings Cross-Elizabeth Bay, a harbour-side suburb where a battle royal is about to break out.

The suburb has some rich and famous residents overseen by the imposing  Elizabeth Bay House, the historic homestead of Governor Lachlan Macquarie whose wife Elizabeth the area was named after. Chef Kylie Kwong lives there as does trucking magnate Lindsay Fox who stumped up $29M for the 1920's Spanish style residence Boomerang, built by the Albert's music family and the locale for the film Mission Impossible 11. At one stage actor Tom Cruise considered buying Boomerang as his Aussie base for he and former wife Nicole Kidman . Just up the road from Boomerang in Billyard Avenue have lived Russel Crowe and Lachlan Murdoch. A few hundred metres in the other direction in Roslyn Gardens is the imposing 4 storey terrace being restored by former Prime Minster Paul Keating-to date a 15 year project.

Rene Rivkin

 Owner of the fashion label Diesel and former James Packer partner , Theo Onosforou has a house there as does the head of the  Broome pearl empire Nick Paspaley while Consolidated Media's chairman, John Alexander lives in a magnificent penthouse. Right on the small park at the end of a marina where the action is taking place is controversial West Australian businessman Warren Anderson who has his elegant terrace for sale for give or take $30M.

Opposite Anderson's house is the Elizabeth Bay marina whose owners, rag trader Michael Dalah and the rich  panel beater Peter Fitzhenry wish to turn from it's present 30 vessel berth into 50. It's a fight that is sure to end  up in the courts as the residents oppose the development. They successfully saw off the last entrepreneur, the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin.

The Danish royals partied at Boomerang

Meanwhile John Alexander who led the fight to prevent the previous development has had to halt the renovations of his large terrace overlooking the harbour after another tenant of his building Julie Schaeffer took out an injunction in the Supreme Court citing lack off council approval. Schaeffer was the previous owner of Boomerang where she hosted the return home party for Princess Mary of Denmark when Mary paid her first visit back to Oz with her husband Frederick-the future King of Denmark.

Boomerang

And right across the road from Boomerang is the multi storey apartment of property entrepreneur Gary Baker and his wife Karin Upton Baker the head of the fashion label Hermes where they have hosted parties for Elle McPherson and Cate Blanchett. The Bakers-noted for their series of black autos-a Bentley Continental,  a Rolls Phantom , a vintage Mercedes sports car and a Mini Cooper all with XXX numberplate's, are facing a Supreme Court fight over their investment in a set of Bondi beach-side apartments once owned by the late singer Peter Allen the former husband of Liza Minnelli. The Bakers are being  sued by a credit company for around $18M and risk losing their home.

 

Directly across from the marina where all the woes are about to descend is tSS contributor Bill Ranken who has a pied-à-terre . He's not buying into the fight-he doesn't like boats.

Fear and loathing in Prince Harry's favourite drinking haunt

Richard Buttrose

With the leaked news that the NSW police have set up the covert Strike Force Harbour to investigate clients of the millionaire drug dealer Richard Buttrose, trembling has been felt afar and phones are running hot throughout Sydney's well heeled eastern suburbs as news that his 'little black book' in the form of a mobile phone containing client's phone numbers is being examined.

Buttrose, the nephew of TV and publishing identity Ita Buttrose was arrested in a sting operation when he sold cocaine to an undercover officer in a bowling club cark park near the Lord Dudley Hotel in ritzy Woollahra in 2009. When his car was pulled over by police shortly after he was found in possession of bags of cocaine. Matters took a turn for the worse when detectives raided a Paddington apartment rented by Buttrose and found another 6 grams of the drug and $1.3M in cash hidden beneath floorboards.

It was common knowledge that Buttrose was "the man" who offered a steady supply of cocaine at all hours.

The Lord Dudley was Richard's local boozer and a favourite of society swells and rich youngsters and a regular drinking spot of Prince Harry and his royal cousins Peter and Zara Phillips who stay at the Vaucluse house of James Erskine, a friend of Princess Anne and a business partner of British theatre mogul Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

Buttrose had been under investigation since 2008 but now detectives are probing his customer's identities that rumours say include film stars, musicians, a leading lawyer and a prominent member of Parliament although as owner of several popular restaurants there could be a perfectly innocent reason for anyone's phone number to be in Buttrose's phone.

Most who heard of Buttrose's activities thought it was just a matter of time before he was busted. He was encroaching on turf usually dominated by Middle Eastern and biker gangs and a newly emerging Russian mafia that has begun to proliferate in QLD's Surfer's Paradise. One tale tells of Buttrose being flown into Surfers by private jet to supply a group of Russian "entrepreneurs" eyeing the place as a potential investment town. Tales are flying thick and fast and it's difficult to tell what is fact and fantasy. We may never know the real tale because as Butttrose has pleaded guilty, there won't be a lengthy trial.

Along with Buttrose, 32 year old Nathan Lea, an heir to the Darrel Lea chocolate empire was also arrested and pleaded guilty to a low level possession charge, receiving a six month suspended sentence.

Buttrose has been singing like a canary in a bid to lessen what could be a long jail sentence. The National Crime Commission has confiscated $2.2M in assets from him. His lawyer Martin Luitingh told the court last Friday that his client's life was in danger both in jail and when he finally emerges and this should be taken into account when he is sentenced. The judge seems to buying none of this and has pointed to the amount of money Buttrose had made from his crimes.

Richard's father was the well liked investment advisor and banker Will Buttrose who appeared regularly on TV and radio giving money advice. He died of cancer in 2005. His aunt Ita was a close friend of Kerry Packer and editor of both the Sunday Telegraph newspaper and Australia's largest selling magazine the Women's Weekly before she retired to concentrate on raising funds for AID's research. An uncle was the public relations manager for the NSW police.

None of the Buttrose family are talking to the media but sister Lizzie, the close friend  of the late billionaire Dick Pratt's mistress Shari-Lea Hitchcock is said to be distraught at her brother's plight as she is particularly close to him. Richard Buttrose pleaded guilty to 2 supply charges and will be sentenced later this month.

Meanwhile, the drug trade continues unabated as the vacuum is filled almost overnight.

this is becoming just too easy...

The Sunday Telegraph today brings us an interview with charming actor Matt Damon. As journalist Jane Cornwell reports in her piece titled: Matt Damon opens up about love, kids and saving the world

In Australia for the 2007 premiere of The Bourne Ultimatum, he did so much promotion that the Matt Damon sightings continued after he left.

Last December, he allegedly hopped off an ocean liner at Bateman’s Bay, NSW, where he allegedly bought prawns and signed a petition to support, um, vodka dipping sauce.

He sighs good-naturedly.

“That was somebody pretending to be me,” he says of this Tom Ripley-style identity theft.

“It happens. My wife used to work in a bar and the bartender called us once, saying, ‘There’s a guy in here who looks like you and says he is you.’ There was some guy sitting in the VIP section getting free champagne.”

And what was the august publication that Ms Cornwell neglected to inform her readers that reported the "Tom Ripley-style identity theft " ? (as fact without the crucial word "allegedly"..which the Social Shuttle shot down in flames within hours of the report.)

Step forward the Daily Telegraph-sister and week-day publication of the Sunday Telegraph.

Greek love thrives in Asia

Tina Kavalis

 A local fashion designer servicing a small but loyal clientele, Greek born Tina Kavilas is in line for the top costume design award at the Asian Film Awards which will be held in Hong Kong on March 30th.

Tina's costumes for the Japanese drama Goemon have been hailed as unique and stunning.

While showing intermittently at the Sydney and Melbourne fashion weeks, Tina sells at a few select stores abroad including the prestige fashion store Browns in South Molton Street, London.

Lacroix, darling !

The Asian Film Awards have only been going since 2007 and follow the Hong Kong Film Festival and may not garner the same attention as the Oscars will this Sunday evening, but they still attract major international stars including of course, China's biggest export Jackie Chan.

The awards are beamed on TV to tens of millions throughout Asia and China. Countries like Thailand, China, Japan and the Philippines have thriving film production industries and stars who rival those in the west for their celebrity status.

Tina has some stiff competition though. Another contender and winner for the last 2 years -Christian Lacroix !.

                                  *************************

George Miller, recipient  of the Medal of France on Tuesday evening at the Roundhouse launch of the French Film Festival told tSS there is every chance he may revive the postponed production-Wonder Woman with supermodel Megan Gale favourite for the lead role.

the Italian Goddess (c) (contact tSS for the unedited version)!)

 Gale, who can wander down the smart shopping lane ways of Paddington unhindered and ignored, is now reaching Goddess status in Italy where she has become one of the most phenomenal stars of recent years.

 Italy has taken to Gale's statuesque and smouldering dark looks-a product of her Australian father and Hawaiian mother, much in the way they worshiped Claudia Cardinale , Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. Gale maintains an apartment on the chic Via Veneto in Rome and cannot step outside the door without drawing dozens of excited fans in a crush that soon builds into pandemonium. Whilst she hasn't yet appeared in a movie, she is sifting through offers from most of Italy's  top directors.

Hamish & Andy-booted from the BBC

Whilst Megan's star zooms in Italy , her boyfriend Hamish Blake -half of the radio duo Hamish and Andy has returned from an experiment in the UK after the duo's  BBC digital radio program was  pulled after only six episodes  To make matters worse Hamish's handsome dial has been somewhat sullied in an ice-skating accident during which he broke his 2 front teeth.

Murdoch tabloid just a little dated...

They mocked us when we first printed the tale with the headline on Sunday, November 29, 2009,

Exclusive !-famous cottager to attend Mardi Gras
...and so it came to pass just as we predicted and breathlessly reported in Rupert's top Aussie tabloid the Daily Telegraph today.

At the time they said we were bonkers. That's also the same crew who brought us the riveting non-tale of actor Matt Damon holidaying on The World ocean liner in Queensland in November despite the fact that the movie star-as we pointed out-was skiing in Aspen.

Yes, George Michael will appear at this Saturdays official Mardi Gras party (last weekend was a festival party after the actual Mardi Gras parade -the MG committee totally botched their planning).

Michael was dining tonight at Justin Hemme's Lotus restauarant in Potts Point and was happy to promise our names will be on the door ( famous last words of course-that never works out

exclusive: famous PI Frank Monte narrowly escapes death

He isn't saying much to the media but famous private eye Frank Monte may have been the victim of a deliberate attempt to snuff him out on Tuesday afternoon. Monte was walking down a back street in Double Bay when a speeding car slammed into him and knocked him flying into a parked van.

Monte with client Donald Trump

Monte's distraught fiancee, marketing executive Sharon Sergeant says she looked on in horror as she saw a car with darkened windows swerve towards the high profile investigator and narrow clip him. A few inches closer and he risked being impaled on a plank of wood sticking out from the parked van. The van's driver rushed to the back of his vehicle believing the car had hit his truck .

Does Monte have enemies who would like to see him done in ?. Maybe. There are plenty of high profile businessmen and thugs who are behind bars because of Monte's investigations. And any number of irate husbands who have been tracked by his team of PIs when they wander from the marital home. Monte once held the world record for aiding in divorce cases in the days when hard evidence was needed to secure a divorce. .

Having only recently returned to Sydney, Monte was the USA's most sought after gumshoe competing only with the celebrity PI Anthony Pelicano. Pelicano is currently in jail for a number of offences involving his work with the late Michael Jackson.

These days Monte specialises in uncovering intellectual property theft and internet fraud. Although in semi-retirement and living in the luxurious Icon building in Kings Cross-a favourite with visiting movie stars while they film at Fox Studios because of it's high security, Monte still oversees a team of investigators around the country and maintains offices in Los Angeles and New York where he concentrates on security work. He has looked after royalty, Arab sheiks and film stars and was once a bodyguard  for the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis when he was married to Jackie Kennedy.

Born in Italy and brought up in the Italian expatriate community of Cairo, Monte moved to Oz where he worked as a policeman on the beat before setting up shop as a private eye. He first came to prominence when he was hired by the New York governor Nelson Rockefeller to look for his missing son Michael who had vanished in the wilds of New Guinea. Although the young Rockefeller's body was never found, Monte discovered the missing heir's skull in the village of a tribe of headhunters and duly delivered it to the father. Recent gossip is that DNA testing has finally confirmed it to be genuine. The Rockefeller clan have closed ranks and  refuse to discuss any aspect of Michael's life and death.. At the time, Nelson Rockefeller had tried to keep the news of his son's disappearance from the media because his son was gay and Nelson was planning to run for the presidency.

In the USA Monte was a regular fixture on shows like Larry King Live and Howard Stern and the subject of hundreds of magazine profiles

All Monte will say about the accident  is that he's haken and stirred, feeling very bruised and taking it easy for a few days. Police are investigating the hit and run and taking it seriously. The small street behind the uber smart Cosmopolitan Cafe in Double Bay isn't the sort of lane a car would drive down so fast. Sargent says she wandered over to look in the window of one of the small boutiques along the lane and caught the action out of the corner of eye. She was convinced her future hubby had been badly injured.

for sale

Monte won't say if he's received any threats-a hazard of the work he does, but he's recently been spotted in a more humble Mercedes where he once drove a Rolls Royce Corniche, which by co-incidence tSS has discovered is up for sale on the net with details of it's previous high profile owner.

Perhaps he should move into a new line of work and concentrate on the side business he had in New York, producing stage shows and the world's first live internet program.

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# Help needed now. Snug as we are in relatively earthquake free Australia, the tragedy in Chile and Haiti has been brought home as a staff member originally from Chile receives news of tragedy that has struck her home village with the recent earthquake.

If you can spare some change, click on the link at right to send some money to aid the relief efforts in Chile and Haiti and the charity SOS Children's Village which does excellent work in both countries.

Or go to V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works.

Pig / penguin man wins great award

George Miller

A small group gathered at the East Sydney Tech and the Roundhouse to celebrate film director George Miller who was awarded France's most prestigious artistic award, the Order of Arts and Letters, known as the Order of France.

Miller was presented his award, a very nice ribbon and medal by French ambassador to Australia Michel Filhol at the opening of the French Film Festival in Sydney.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Miller

The director of iconic films such as Mad Max and Happy Feet will join an elite group of artists outside France to receive the award, including Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg.

The Order of France was established over 50 years ago to recognise people who have made significant contributions to the arts.

Another recent recipient of the award, French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who made the superb flicks Amelie and Delicatessen, was there to witness the event and meet Miller for the first time. His latest film Micmacs opens the festival.