"I'm so sick of that old queen-he never shuts up about me" says bender

81 and out of the closet

Professional sceptic James Randi has issued a press release telling all  another of the world's worst keep secrets. At 81 Randi has announced he is gay.
 And because no-one picked it up, or at least commented on it before now, therefore, according to Randi this proves that the paranormal doesn't exist in any form. There is an interview with Randi here.

On Randi's website (where you can apply for a special Randi visa card and donate $50 to Randi's 'non-profit' organisation) you can book for something called the Amazing Meeting , a seminar to be held, suitably,  in a casino in Las Vegas in July.

Featured guests include the world's most humourless man Richard Dawkins , author of the world's most unreadable book The God Delusion, and the crude and misogynistic illusionists Penn & Teller amongst a host of others who will get together and discuss all the things they don't believe in. Religiously. And do a lot of magic tricks.
Some forums you may not want to miss:
 Feminist Scepticism – Rebecca Watson hosts an interactive panel discussion with several activists and experts, covering topics such as the lack of women at sceptical events and how feminism is compatible with scepticism.

and one perhaps the former closeted Randi may be at :
Scepticism and Sexuality – Join JREF Challenge Coordinator Alison Smith and a panel of guests on a journey through the myths of sex that will take you through misconceptions about STDs, homosexuality, pregnancy, and even basic anatomy.

If that doesn't grab your fancy try this  
Learn to Juggle! – Do you want to learn to juggle? Join famous juggler Michael Goudeau in a hands-on training session that will leave you juggling like a pro.

 The only person missing in the stellar line-up is Christopher Hitchens. He'll be at the
Sydney Writer's Festival next month where he plans to tell us how he  is going to arrest Pope Benedict XVI.

Randi has kept some strange bedfellows, so to speak, over the years. He's a fellow of the Committee for Sceptical Inquiry, an assorted collection of academics and stage illusionists along with a host of well known names like science fiction master Isaac Asimov, Dawkins (has this man ever laughed in his life?) and Carl Sagan (always suspected of being an Alien). You can even book for lunch with Dawkins and Randi. Or you could stick pins in your eyes.
tSS once visited the late writer Arthur C.Clarke in Sri Lanka when Randi had just departed after staying with Clarke for 2 weeks. Clarke was considered a sceptic in public but in private he said he didn't know what to believe in. Although he did say he was glad to get rid of Randi who had landed on him and kept ogling the house boys whose warm smiles he mistook for invitations.

The local version, The Australian Septics boasts the superb writer Phillip Adams as a member. Adams was head of the Australian Film Corporation for decades and helped get off the ground the careers of thespians like Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. He writes a weekly column for Rupert Murdoch's personal favourite publication the Australian. Adams is also fascinated, in a strange schizophrenic fashion, with ancient Egyptian culture and in particular their beliefs in the afterlife. His house and country farm are packed with precious Egyptian antiquities including a sarcophagus.

charming bender

 But back  to the old and gay Randi . He's spent a lot of time attacking spoon bender Uri Geller over the years. Geller sued Randi once and lost but as part of the evidence introduced by Geller's lawyers were some phone tapes of some young lads discussing with Randi various payments they were demanding in a purported blackmail attempt .The boys claimed they had had sex with Randi. Randi says he was never charged, others say differently but it was in 1968 so who knows ?.

Lady Mary: 'stick it next to the Rodin'

tSS once attended a  dinner at Lady Mary Fairfax's house where Geller was a guest. Lady Mary asked her butler to fetch  the "best family silver" which Geller held aloft and bent within seconds. He announced that people should check their pockets and watches. Some watches had stopped, one guest who brought along a watch that had ceased ticking years ago found it had started again and 2 people found their house keys twisted in strange shapes. If it was a trick we couldn't see it from 3 feet away. Lady Mary had the bent silver with the Fairfax crest, framed and hung next to her Rodin statue.
Later we buttonholed Geller over drinks. As we pointed out who were the richest people in the room at his request, we asked the extremely charming bender about his contact with his critic Randi and he replied-"I'm so sick of that old queen-he never shuts up about me".
Sorry Mr Randi-everyone's known for decades.It isn't  news to us.

A funny little film : the late TV host Don Lane was a believer in Spiritualism and put the famous British medium Doris Stokes on the map-he throws a tantrum and tells James Randi to get off the set of his show.

Sex, drugs and orgies with TV and sporting stars.

Rob Astbury

Rob Astbury barely scratched the surface of an amazing life when he wrote the best seller King and I, detailing his 20 year love affair with Graham Kennedy, Australia's first major TV star who was billed as the King Of Comedy.

Astbury’s second book, an autobiography entitled Twice as Hard, opens with the words: “I’m on my way to have my homosexuality removed. They’re going to take it out like a bad tooth that’s been rotting in my head….’’

Twice as Hard goes beyond the Kennedy era to uncover Astbury’s youthful struggle to stop falling in love with his mates; his rise to the pinnacle of television sports journalism; a drug-fuelled decline into sexual depravity; rebirth and riches in Queensland’s Gold Coast real estate jungle, and finally finding peace of mind and the love of his life in a gay bar in Thailand.

Tracy Grimshaw

Along the way he rips aside the slick veneer of showbiz and TV stardom to reveal the true character of household names including Eddie McGuire, Jana Wendt, Tracy Grimshaw, Derryn Hinch, Don Lane, Bert Newton and Daryl Somers. Astbury knew them all, intimately, and he even found time for a hilarious, but terrifying, encounter with Kerry Packer.

Astbury also spurned the advances of singer Peter Allen, the subject of the successful Broadway musical The Boy From Oz which catapulted Hugh Jackman into superstardom.

He describes television as a despicable industry and his explanation will have stars and TV executives on tenterhooks. And if the lawyers don't maul the manuscript (tSS has read it) many popular and well known sporting stars may be outed.

Frightening-Kerry Packer

At the pinnacle of his media career Astbury was Australia’s highest paid television sports reporter. Although he won many awards there were stories that were simply too hot to touch. However, this book may lift the lid with controversial revelations about football's biggest star sand also sports administrators, many of whom are still today’s mover sand shakers.

Sam Newman

But it wasn’t all wine and roses. A road accident set Astbury on a downward spiral of addiction, initially to medicinal, and then recreational, drugs. Along with the drugs came sex, more of it than most men could handle.

Until one day he found himself answering the front door to the host of Channel Nine's Footy Show Sam Newman while reeling from the after effects of a full scale orgy involving 40 or so whores, mates and showbiz stars, regulars at such events at his Toorak mansion. He didn’t exactly see God in Newman’s face, but he did see something else – the realization that death was the inevitable finale to his excesses.

Peter Allen

Rebirth began with his mother pulling him back from the brink –literally. He was about to jump from the balcony of an exclusive Gold Coast hotel when she intervened.

Astbury stayed on in Queensland, forging himself a second fortune and a swag of real estate awards to go with the ones he won for his ground breaking sports journalism.

Eventually he decided another rebirth was necessary, this one in Thailand, a land full of the people his racist, war hero father had taught him to hold in contempt. But Astburyfor adoration.

At first it was the kid in a lolly shop attraction of the gay bars, and a different lover every night. But then came HIV, and the love of a man known as The Deer.

Astbury's 2006 book King & I was a best seller but it drew mixed reactions mainly from those who wanted Kennedy's image to remain intact even though his homosexuality was well known. Following it's success Astbury considered a political role standing for the Senate as a gay rights campaigner.

In the end he chose to remain living his current life as a successful property developer in Thailand where healso operates a model dairy in the North.

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Following the Shuttle's revelation that a facebook page Eddie Mcguire is ruining the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage, wit hover 10,000 members had started after Eddie McGuire's gay digs at the ice skating stars, nearly 30 top name footballers and coaches are joining in a campaign to begin next month calling for more understanding in sports of gay and lesbian issues.

Eddie 'Everywhere', one of the countries biggest stars issued a press release (ignored by nearly all except the Shuttle)proclaiming his own disappointment in his remarks and promised to do better. The ensuing controversy after the broadcasts eventually made it onto the front page of The Sun newspaper in the UK . Eddie is one of the big names who will front the campaign.

A 15 year old Murdoch and the groom who eloped with his best man in Venice

 Pictured left: James Murdoch, Primrose Dunlop and News Ltd snapper Frank Viola.

Calling in for a brief visit to artist Mary Shackman's exhibition at the Charles Hewitt Gallery was our favourite Egyptian royal, Prince Lorenzo Montesini Giustiniani with the new man in his life, a large handsome fellow Egyptian by the name of Remy.

Prince Lorenzo (right) and Remy

An Alexandrian by birth, Lorenzo heads the Australian Friends of the Alexandrian Library in Egypt. His stylish autobiography MyLife and Other Misdemeanours was released by Penguin in 1999 in which Lorenzo recalled with enormous gusto his early years in Egypt,his arrival in Australia, his military service in Vietnam, and his tumultuous relationship with his late partner Robert Straub along with the events surrounding a certain wedding in Venice.

left at the altar-Pitty Pat

It's 20 years since most of Sydney and Melbourne society travelled en mass to Venice for the nuptials of Lorenzo and Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop, the daughter of establishment figures Sir Ian and Lady Potter. He had the title-she had the cash. A future inheritance estimated then at nearly $200M. Was it love?. Although the 2 had previously met when they both lived in Melbourne it seems love blossomed after a chance meeting at a soiree at Lady Mary Fairfax's home in Darling Point, Fairwater which doubles as the Monaco consulate. Lady Mary has hosted many parties for visiting royalty like Prince Albert of Monaco and the British royals.
Lorenzo was a guest and Pitty Pat was covering the party for the social column she wrote for the Sunday Telegraph. Her newspaper work experience junior for the night was a 15 year old James Murdoch , son of Rupert and now boss of the UK News Ltd corporation. While the 2 lovers eyed each other off, young James promptly fell asleep on a sofa on his first night on the job

The wedding was never to be. Lorenzo got cold feet the night before the ceremony and fled for parts unknown with his lover Robert Straub, his best man. The bride was left waiting at the altar. Montesini and Straub had met when they were army conscripts in the Vietnam War and had been together ever since working as Qantas trolley dolly's. Straub passed away about 14 years ago from cancer.

Mary Shackman & Elizabeth Fox

Prince Lorenzo tells tSS plans are well underway after initial teething problems, with a new Hollywood production company to immortalise the events on film. With a script written by award winning writer Louis Nowra who wrote K-19: The Widowmaker, Map of the Human Heart and the much celebrated Cosi, and director Stephan Elliot of Priscilla Queen of The Desert fame.

Lorenzo now travels between Sydney and Alexandria to check on his pet project the Bibliotheca Alexandrina that stands on the spot reputedly where the once famous Royal Library of Alexandria stood during the Ptolemaic dynasty, built in honour of Alexander the Great.

Also at Mary's exhibition was Elizabeth Fox, once labelled as Australia's Secret Weapon during the bid for the 2000 Olympics when she managed to secure the 3 crucial winning bid votes from South America including that of her home country Columbia. She never told us how it was done.

Teflon John needs to tone down that profile.

Arriving in Sydney in the early 1990's tSS was fortunate to land a job on a local newspaper covering the inner city. The main beat was  Darlinghurst-the Golden Mile of gay Oxford Street , it's surroundings and Kings Cross.

Dawn-ran Oxford Street

 It was an eye-opener. Oxford Street truly was fun city with all manner of night clubs and bars with every taste catered for. It was friendly  and packed every night. Sure it was run by some questionable characters like the late  Roger Claude Teyssedre. who had arrived from France penniless and was a multi millionaire within 5 years. Claude died in mysterious circumstances with his lover  by his bed-Ludwig Gertsch who 18 months later was found strangled and trussed up in a sleeping bag in the Blue Mountains, his murderer still free.

 Or the one time champion lesbian ice skater turned nightclub mogul Dawn O'Donnell. A lovely lady to dine with who could talk for hours on which lesbian porn sold to straight men in huge quantities over an after dinner cigar. Dawn would know-she owned a few shops openly selling illicit hard core adult porn.

Costellos fan?

Kings Cross was something else. Drugs prostitution and live sex shows that made Amserdam look decidedly tame. And there was supposed to be a bar called Costellos beneath the giant Coca Cola sign where 12 year old boys were on tap at the bar.  At a later Royal Commission witnesses swore it was true and one even claimed  improbably that the late American actor Karl Malden had once visited the bar. Wacky stuff.  

And the police. Well they ran the show as journalist Michael Duffy points out in his piece on 2 books to be released by 2 honest cops that got run out of town for their efforts. tSS recalls one quite scary lunch at the Bourbon and Beefsteak hosted by 4 Kings Cross detectives which we thought was some sort of community and neighbourhood watch get-together. It turned out to be a boozy afternoon where one couldn't actually leave and the tales we heard about who did what  to whom and who ran who and was on the take and which politician was in whose pocket just wasn't what one wished to know. Well certainly not from the cops. Fortunately they got so drunk one was able to slip out carefully ripping our name tag into tiny pieces. 

Sir Joh-premier of the corrupt Sunshine Coast

The excellent reporter Chris Master of the ABC who exposed Queensland's police corruption in the 1980's amongst govermment figures and police under the premier Sir Joh Belke Petersen, has been giving out a warning to 'Teflon 'John Ibraham, the current Kings Cross bigwig . Masters says John's profile will be boosted so much by the Underbellly TV series his life will be in danger. Masters knows what he is talking about. When his film on the Sunshine State corruption was broadcast the state's Police Commissioner Sir Terry Lewis  immediately fled back to his native UK only to be discovered by Scotland Yard detectives a year later living in luxury in  Richmond . He did 8 years in jthe Boggo Road jail after being extradited back to Oz.

Sunday sees the 2 hour premiere of

Underbelly 3, TheGolden Mile that continues the tale of the extraordinary corruption of police and the rule of gangsters during the 1980/1990's before a Royal Commission finally put paid to a scene that would have made Al Capone envious. The then king of Kings Cross, the 5'4" Abe Saffron known as Mr Sin was only finally put behind bars for tax evasion, just like Capone,despite having a finger in every piece of action.

friendly Teflon John

 The series also brings up to date the new breed of local entrepreneurs who now rule Kings Cross, namely our ever friendly luncheon pal John Ibrahim whose career we have watched flourish ever since he and his younger brother Fadi cornered us in his first nightclub, The Tunnel in a back laneway and demanded we promote him in the local rag. Why not?. They seemed nice enough lads and despite police saying Telflon John is now a major 'leading crime figure' he is certainly charming..The Tunnel was eventualy shut down when the Chinese triad murdered 2 men outside it's entrance, hacking them to pieces.

According to Masters the new ruling mafia in town are the bikie gangs who are so organised they have left authorities scratching their heads in bewilderment. And they don't take prisoners. Masters warns that this is new breed of crim who holds no respect for rank and privilege, as enjoyed by Ibrahim at present, and will ruthlessly remove him. They are called bikie gangs but they drive Mercedes and BMWs and wear designer suits. It's said Ibrahim has an interest in about 8 Kings Cross nightclubs and nearly all bouncers in every club including Oxford Street's gay strip are controlled by his firm. The bikies have their own security firm who would like a share of the action.


 

One honest copper forced out by the bent ones was Deborah Locke who has written a superb book Watching The Detectives in which she describes attempting to report serious misconduct at the Parramatta Police Headquarters only to be taken to lunch by a head honcho with Louis Bayeh-the then drug baron of the Cross and currently doing a few years in prison .It's a superb and racy read and you can order it at Deborah's website.
 

Another great read is Dirty Work by an honest ex-cop Glen McNamara who fled to California after attempting to report bent cops only to find there was a contract on his life. He was tracked down in an LA motel with a chilling phone call from hitmen saying that they knew where he was, whereupon his pregnant wife miscarried. It's an amazing record of a sorry era in Sydney.

 Underbelly-The Golden Mile starts next Sunday 10th April at 8.30pm on the Channel Nine network

Sir Elton John's manager dons Miss Marple garb over mystery death

Friends and family of the late record company executive Peter Ikin who died in November 2008 aged 62, are still asking questions about the manner of his death. Ikin, a much loved music industry figure who was the boss of Warner's Music Australia passed away after a fall down some stairs in his Paris hotel and after marrying his French lover Alexandre Despallieres in a civil ceremony the previous month at the Chelsea Town Hall in London. Ikin had retired in 2000 after a stint as VP at the London HQ of Warner's Music.

Despallieres produced a new will reputedly signed by Ikin in August of that year and witnessed by Despallieres' assistant Jeremy Billien and another friend Vincent Bray, leaving Ikin's $20million fortune to his new husband. After getting probate granted in England, Despallieres' had Ikin's body cremated and set about spending over $2 million from Ikin's Channel Island's bank account, purchasing 3 Porches-one for himself and one each for  Billien and Bray.

actor Simon Burke, John Reid and Peter Ikin

London's High Court overturned that will after a previous one was produced by Ikin's lawyer, signed in 2002 which left his estate to charities, his godchildren and only living relative, a Catholic priest in Sydney. An out of court settlement was reached in which Despallieres is said to have received a million dollars.  Despallieres also agreed to move out of  Ikin's Chelsea apartment.

It's claimed that Despallieres has said in the past he was suffering from brain cancer and is HIV, hence Ikin's rush to marry him and make a new will.

Ikin was well liked and friendly with many pop stars like Elton John and Rod Stewart. John Mellancamp said of Ikin ; "he was always kind, and jovial and a pleasure to be with. I have thought and spoke of Peter often. He was my introduction to the music business"

Now former rock manager John Reid, a friend of Ikin's and who guided the careers of Elton John, Freddie Mercury and Queen and the dancer Michael Flatley wants some answers. Reid has hired a French lawyer who has petitioned the French coroner for a toxicology report into Ikin's sudden death. French police have opened a file and are investigating after it was found there were deadly levels of paracetamol in Ikin's blood when he died.

Billy Gaff wants fraud charges

And another tough-minded Scot Billy Gaff, the ex-manager of Rod Stewart is pursuing Despallieres for $500,000 he said he lent the Frenchmen whilst he was waiting for probate to be granted on Ikin's will . Gaff said he "came under Despallieres' spell when he said he was a French pop star". Gaff wants fraud charges laid against Despallieres.
He may have to get in the queue. At a recent memorial service for Ikin in Sydney  there was much muttering from Ikin's distraught friends in the music business about issuing  legal claims against Despallieres. It seems Reid has fired the first shot.

exclusive : Lady Sonia McMahon dies

Sir William & Lady Sonia McMahon in that dress with president Richard Nixon at the White House

Julian McMahon & sister Debbie

much loved-Lady Sonia and son Julian McMahon

St Vincent's Hospital has issued a statement that Lady Sonia McMahon has died in a Sydney hospital.

Lady Sonia, the wife of former prime minister Sir William McMahon and mother of actor Julian McMahon, died late on Friday evening with her family by her side.
Lady Sonia, 77, had been battling cancer for over a year. Details of her funeral had not been released yet by her family, the hospital statement said.

It was just a year ago that Lady Sonia, one of Australia's most loved social figures attended the funeral of her great friend Johnny Baker along with her children including the Hollywood star Julian, who were by her bedside when she passed away late last night.

On the 24th of March tSS wrote about Lady Sonia's amazing entree onto the world stage when she appeared at a state dinner at the Richard Nixon White House.
Newspaper front pages around the world ran photos of Sonia's split gown with straps that revealed her tall shapely legs as she ascended the White House steps. The dress, now in a museum of contemporary art has been described by the Washington Post as the most talked about fashion garment to be ever seen in Washington.

Will our Max decide Britain's next election ?

Max with Carson Kresley

For a month now the tabloid media has been waging an all out assault on our favourite celebrity spruiker Max Markson who likes to think of himself as Australia's answer to Britain's Max Clifford. Originally from Bournemouth via a saucepan stall in a Shepherds Bush market, Max is Australia's top celebrity agent.
 

Max's crime was to disrupt the holy of holies-a cricket match. When model Lara Bingle, best known for the failed Oz tourism campaign 'So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?' discovered that a previous boyfriend footballer Brendan Fevola had distributed some topless snaps of her taken on his mobile phone, she did the only sensible thing. She hired Max to negotiate a deal reputedly worth $200,000 with a woman's magazine to tell her side of the story.

Lara does a Bingle

 Bingle's then fiancee  Michael Clarke, vice captain of the Australian cricket team was about to embark on a tour of New Zealand. As the team strode out for the first day, missing was Clarke. He had flown back to Sydney to see Lara. The howling of sport's writers, egged on by their tabloid comrades was deafening. Leading the moralising charge was Sydney Morning Herald cricket writer Peter Roebuck who delightfully informed us that 'to do a bingle' was new cricketing slang for fumbling the ball.

Others like the fragrant Miranda Devine weighed in wanting to know, just who was Bingle and what did this "airhead "do all day as Miranda pondered on the size of Bingle's IQ.

But Markson was deemed the villain of the drama.
Max was denying the tabloids their God given right to a saucy tale. And he was encouraging them to beat up the story to boost sales of magazine carrying Lara's story.

Beware of a reptile scorned.

Now Max has become the story as a newspaper yesterday revealed supposed emails to Max from a 'disgruntled' employee questioning the legality of  Max's ability to avoid speeding fines. Markson's business registered Mercedes has clocked up over $30,000 in fines but avoided being de-registered via a complicated loophole whereby a company can declare it doesn't know the identity of a driver when the offence occurred.

They're out to get Max and today tSS hears news that a writer from the UK  Independent newspaper is flying in to do a piece on Markson. 

 

As Britain's Labour Party and PM Gordon Brown vie to be re-elected they have brought in ex-PM Tony Blair to boost morale.

 Expect a major story to appear about Markson's involvement in Cherie Blair's ill-fated Oz book tour in 2007.
A charity that expected to receive substantial funds from the tour cried foul when the pot was discovered to be empty. tSS was ejected from one function after approaching  Mrs Blair and asking her if she might consider donating profits from her book to an Iraqi children's fund.

Eddie's straight talk on gay comments

 earlier we brought you the news of the facebook page :  
Eddie Mcguire is ruining the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage
which now has 10742 member castigating football club manager and TVstar Eddie McGuire over his perceived homophobic comments during the men's ice skating competitions. The tale was featured in some UK tabloids.

The latest member Jane says "ah yes.... let's see if he can wiggle out of this."

Has Eddie done it ?.he has issued a press release:

 PRESS RELEASE: Gay rights activist Gary Burns met today with Winter Olympics host Eddie McGuire at Sydney's Hilton Hotel to look at ways of remedying the complaint against him and his co-host, Mick Molloy.

 Gary Burns said: "Eddie McGuire now understands his on-air banter with Mick Molloy during the Winter Olympics Games could impact on vulnerable gay teenagers.

"This was not Eddie's intention. Eddie does not have one homophobic bone in his body.

"As president of the Collingwood Football Club he has, and continues to promote, tolerance for all minority Australians, including homosexual Australians.

"I found his candour one of openness. Eddie McGuire is a man of integrity."

Mr Burns has written to the president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and withdrawn his complaint against the pair.

AND so ends the official proceedings from what was a bit of light-hearted banter about the outrageous ice-skating costumes at the Olympics that led to me being branded a homophobe.

As shattering as that allegation was for me, it wasn't about me or, for that matter, Gary Burns.

What it is about is the horrific statistic that in a country that suffers from one of the highest rates of youth suicide in the world, the incidence of suicide among gay teenagers is six times that of the straight world.

Burns is seen in the gay community as either a hero or a troublemaker.

Yes, he's a maverick and has taken big names like Sam Newman and John Laws to the anti-discrimination tribunal over the years, but he also is fighting for a big cause.

Many may not like his tactics and I, as did Mick, certainly bristled at the allegations made against me. But when you sit down and think of what the end-game result is of his stance, it isn't hard to work out there are bigger issues at play than headlines and embarrassment.

For me, the charge of being homophobic hurt deeply.

For all the carry-on that goes with my profile and public positions, one thing that I will fight for is any person's right to exist without vilification whatever their race, religion, socioeconomic standing or sexual orientation. I am also pretty big on free speech and having a sense of humour.

So when two worlds collide it is an awkward position in which one finds oneself, especially as the media likes to embellish and embarrass these days rather than reason and investigate.

Burns and I corresponded for weeks, worked out what we were both about and then found we were in vigorous agreement. He agreed the Olympics comments did not deserve the ferocity of the attack on Mick and myself, but, in being magnanimous, Burns quite rightly reminded me of the pain and suffering so many young people continue to endure for something as basic as their sexual orientation.

Yep, in 2010, young men and women, for the crime of being themselves, are still thrown out of home and bashed.

The biggest regret I had through the whole incident was that bigots would use our comedy schtick as a front for more venomous attacks.

There is always the chance that we are being far too sensitive and in fact all but one of the gay people I canvassed to assess the segment believed there was nothing in it.

But when young people's lives are at stake you need to be very sensitive and careful when in a public position.

As always, it's not the majority of the people who are fair-minded you have to worry about - it's the minority of idiots causing trouble.

So, given there was no call from Burns for compensation, or even an apology, have I dodged a bullet and will it make any difference to how I ply my trade?

Quite the contrary, it has given me a sharp reminder of the difficulties many face in everyday life and how, in my little world where everyone is gay friendly and open-minded, it is not necessarily the norm.

I will continue to react in live situations the way I have throughout my career, but just as we once thought it was fine to call indigenous footballers by racist names - "they don't mind" - it also isn't OK to take liberties with the feelings of gay people as a collective.

Yes, my gay friends send me up for being a hetero and we joke among ourselves, but we are all in on the gag. Not that long ago, the number of Aboriginal footballers in the VFL/AFL could be counted on two hands in almost 100 years of the game.

Now, some 11 per cent of players are indigenous.

Treating them as equals, but also putting in safeguards against discrimination - either deliberate or otherwise - has made for a safe haven for our players and we all are better for the experience.

So far we have had one gay footballer in the NRL, Ian Roberts, and none in the AFL.

We all know we are kidding ourselves to think that is really the case.

If helping to lead the charge against vilification of gay people leads to an environment in which gay boys feel safe to play AFL football, and the natural flow-on from that, then the embarrassment and genuine hurt that both Mick and I have felt will have served a purpose.

That Burns and I found ourselves singing from the same hymn book in our attitudes again shows most people are closer in thinking than they ever give each other credit for.

And that the power of conversation and collaborative thought is still the best way to sort out issues rather than combative legal processes that make lawyers rich and turn potential friends into enemies.

another tabloid discovers the Shuttle

The Sun Herald, Australia's second largest Sunday newspaper has paid tribute to Social Shuttle contributor Bill Ranken on his 80th birthday. Ranken has been a regular on the London , New York and Sydney social rounds for over 50 years, taking up photography for the last 20. 

Living in a pied-a-terre in Elizabeth Bay during the week, Bill spends  his weekends on his family property Lockesley in the Southern Highlands, regarded as the possibly the best in NSW. Prince Charles is a regular visitor there. Neighbours include Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. With it's magnificent sweeping valleys and Georgian house it's also often used as a film location, the latest being a horse whisperer epic staring actor Jack Thompson.

Ranken learnt how to work the land during a stint as a jackaroo in the outback in the 1950's riding with Aboriginal stockmen who he says are amongst the best horsemen he has ever encountered. A tractor accident  in his late 20's in which he lost an eye brought on a life change and although he regularly commutes between the city and his 2 country properties, for years he was spotted squiring well heeled ladies about town like Ros Packer in Sydney, Princess Margaret in London and Princess Lee Radziwill in the Hamptons.

On April 2nd-Bill's birthday, we launch his regular photo pages-15 Minutes.

Rupert..have a word with your picture editors

Ronnie Wood reportedly received a black eye and a fat lip after a boozy scuffle

While tSS has to rely on an illiterate office cat-Mildred Pierce, for our sub-editing which admittedly produces some shockers, we still haven't made some of the corkers that we spot  in the News Corp tabloids.

A tale for today's  Sunday Telegraph and no doubt picked up from one of it's publications from the UK stable, about Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones. This is what comes from dispensing with boozey old hacks and replacing them with bright young 25 year olds on 2 year contracts. They just don't have the experience.

The tale is headlined :

ROLLING Stones star Ronnie Wood received a black eye and a fat lip after a boozy scuffle with his latest girlfriend. 
( it can be read here)

Brazilian polo teacher Ana Aranujo, 30, lost her temper with the wayward aging rocker when she discovered he hit the bottle behind her back, reports The Sun. 
She thumped him after first ripping up two paintings he made at his mansion in Surrey, south-east England.

Illustrating the story is the above pic of  Keith Richards.

Such unforgiveable sacrilege, mistaking one Rolling Stone for another. This is Ronnie:

Both have crumpled but distinctive faces.


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from Der Speigel:  Did Prostitution Really Exist in the Temples of Antiquity?

from: WFUM's Beware of The Blog : Destination Subconscious: Cary Grant and LSD

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 !

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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.