First Oprah Conquers-Now Ellen & Rosie O'Donnell !

Anyone watching the Oprah Winfrey specials that were filmed in Australia in December last year could be forgiven for thinking that America's top talk show host had fallen head over heels in love with the place. Insiders from the Harpo camp say Oprah's enthusiasm was genuine and that she is itching to return and is already planning regular shows for her new cable TV network based on the country. And some Aussie talent is in line for a summons from the great lady to fly to Chicago to attend talks about joining her network . More on that soon.

Rosie O'Donnell has also caught the bug and announced that she would love to film one her specials in The Great South Land. The talk is of Rosie planning a luxury cruise ship special like the one she did in 2004 on the Norwegian Pearl where a bunch of gay and lesbian families cruised with O'Donnell and a film crew, calling in at different ports.

Rosie is bound to get a hearty reception if she makes it to Oz and certainly not like the one she received when the ship docked at Nassau in the Bahamas to be met by anti-gay protesters. O'Donnell actually stayed on board.

Now a facebook group has started : Bring Ellen Down Under and it has a staggering 29479 members and our mole in the Ellen camp says that Ellen DeGeneres has taken note of the facebook page and may have an announcement soon. Her partner Portia de Rossi was in Sydney in October last year and there is a rumour she was hunkered down in talks for one day with the same Tourism Australia chiefs who brought Oprah out.

Will it be a race to the finish ?. The obvious time for the world's two most famous lesbians is to arrive in Sydney in time for the annual Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras-not this year but in March 2012.

Here's Portia singing 'Happy Birthday' to Ellen last week:

Transgender Airline Takes Off

 Where else but Thailand would an airline have a policy of hiring transgender trolley dollys ?.

Thanyarat Jiraphatpakorn

Known as kathoeys or ladyboys and called the 'third sex', transgender Thais are a common sight all over Thailand and they blend into the culture in every way. When a Thai boy tells his mum and dad he plans to change his sex, the discussion is most likely about whether the family can afford the operation rather than shocked exclamations.

Tiffanys

Now a new Thai airline called PC Air has hired three transgender flight attendants including the winner of the 2007 Miss Tiffany beauty pageant 23 year old Thanyarat Jiraphatpakorn . Tiffanys is a world famous cabaret theatre in the seaside resort of Pattaya near Bangkok and hundreds of tourists flock to the extravagant floor shows to see the beautiful ladyboy chorus lines every night of the week.

Joyce Maynge for Qantas ?

Just last week SBS television screened the popular and classic Thai film Beautiful Boxer, the true story of Parinya Jaroenphon, a young Buddhist monk who became a top Thai boxer while struggling with his sexual identity. Parinya eventually earned enough money in the tough boxing rings of Chonburi while wearing full make-up during bouts to pay for his sex reassignment surgery with the blessing of his parents.

Will the idea catch on ?. As our picture shows, Richard Branson with his world wide Virgin Blue Airlines may be flirting with the idea already and although Thailand has the largest number of transgenders in the world, Australia could give them a run for their money.

Prince Lorenzo

With the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras season hotting up perhaps Qantas could set out on an recruitment drive up Oxford Street.
Priscilla Queen of The Desert has already shown the world what we are made of, or were once made of. It's never quite made clear in the film if all the drag queens have had the 'snip'n'tuck' and Sydney's six foot drag queens delight in keeping it a secret as to whether they have 'gone all the way' down there !.

Qantas has form here for setting trends and hiring trolley dollys of all descriptions and they were the first airline to offer joint family benefits to same sex couples. And  in Aussie egalitarian culture social beginnings of any form have never been a barrier. Now retired but once famous for ditching his prospective bride in Venice for the best man, for years the Egyptian royal Prince Lorenzo Montesini Giustiniani   could be found serving passengers in the first class section at the pointy end of the plane.

Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Gets Coy With Poster !

Just a week after the Shuttle published the cover of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras program guide (left) which is now available from hundreds of outlets around inner Sydney,  a similar poster has begun appearing in the streets.

Today a reader snapped one on Crown Street outside Billy  Kwongs world famous Chinese restaurant where dozens of customers queue each evening.

The program guide cover is often re-produced in posters and flags that fly along Sydney boulevards during the current Mardi Gras season which lasts until the first week of March and culminates in the colourful parade that snakes up Oxford Street for several hours before finishing in a party at Fox Studios attended by tens of thousands of party-goers.

Perhaps it was our imagination but we pointed out what seems to be a  pornographic image on the programme cover (feast your eyes on the right hand top corner next to the red flames !).

The guide is left in streets all over Sydney stacked in piles for anyone (kids included) to pick up. We pondered on the fact the same may appear fluttering from flag poles all over Sydney and lo and behold, today they began to appear.

But note the subtle difference !. Or is it all in the mind ?
(and has the anti-Mardi Gras Reverend Fred Nile noticed yet ?)

Our Jackie is Up For An Oscar !

It took the Shuttle team some time to realise why one of our favourite thespians, Jackie Weaver wasn't appearing at the local supermarket in Kings Cross where we would always retire to the local coffee shop for a natter after our shopping.

Jackie is in the USA on a promotional tour in which she was swept up after the film Animal Kingdom won a few film festival awards. An email from LA informed us of the fact. With an always present minder, a publicist and a tour of US cities in the manner that only Hollywood knows how to do.

Weaver has been doing an endless round of TV chat shows, magazine and newspaper interviews and is loving every minute of it. Top Hollywood agents are lining up to take her on and everyday brings a pile of film scripts for Jackie to sift through.

Some of the offers, as Jackie says :"have been really bizarre and the more bizarre the more money they offer. The latest is for more money than I have earned in a lifetime of film and theatres and that is for 10 days work !"

Yet Animal Kingdom hasn't done too well at the box office even here in Jackie's home country. All that changes today as  Weaver is nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category, as the Shuttle predicted she would be weeks ago and which we confidently predict she will win, or at least she deserves to for her superb  performance as the matriach of a crime family.

Also nominated, Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech is a worthy rival. The only hic-cup could be-and the Oscars are pure Hollywood politics-is if those who vote are determined The King's Speech sweeps the board, which it may well do.

Geoffrey Rush is also up for Best Supporting Actor  against Christian Bales' superb performance in The Fighter.

For the full list of nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards go to their website here

Parky Declares A Republic is Needed !

One aspect of Sir Michael Parkinson's Australia Day speech last night at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music was the inevitable subject of whether Australia should become a republic after the failed republican campaign led by Malcolm Turnbull in 2000 was defeated in a referendum before the Australian people.

Parky leans to the left of politics- born in working class Yorkshire and the son of a miner- he once told the Shuttle in 1998 over dinner in response to the question of what he thought of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher :

"she was a perfect example of total power corrupting. I'm with the Queen on this-she couldn't stand Maggie !"

Sir Michael reckons that Australia, where he is spending more and more time in retirement , should become a republic but not until after the death of his favourite Royal, HRH Queen Elizabeth 11.

And the reason ?. "Just think" said Parky, "and you should put this jingle to the tune of The Beatles 
"We all Live in A Yellow Submarine":

"your -next -Queen- is- Camilla- Parker- Bowles, -Camilla -Parker -Bowles ".

If you have forgotten the tune-here is the original:

Michael Parkinson Becomes Honorary Australian

Comedian Ben Elton has become a citizen and 70's star Leo Sayer loves the place.

Now Sir Michael Parkinson has been given the rare honour of giving the Australia Day address at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music tonight.

Parky is no stranger to the place, Both he and wife, the TV presenter Mary Parkinson have been visiting Australia for 30 years. They spend most summers in an apartment in Rushcutter's Bay overlooking the harbour. One daughter and her family have lived here for 20 years which gives them the excuse to visit.

But of course, Parkinson's love of Australia has always been well known and since his retirement last year he told the Shuttle in January 2010 that one of the joys of giving up his interview program was the ability to spend more time here and of course, the ability to watch even more cricket, one of his greatest loves.

Leo Sayer (Australia Day Council)

Tonight Michael Parkinson in his speech pointed out some of the reasons he loves the place including the lack of snobbery and the directness of Aussies. He used former Prime Minister Paul Keating as an example pointing out the outrage that surged through British tabloids when Keating put a protective arm around HRH The Queen on an official visit and labelled Keating The Lizard of Oz :

 "He was simply reaching out in a friendly gesture as one human being to another. Here we are all human beings."

Parkinson said Australia first came to his attention as a boy in Shropshire when his miner father constantly commented on the quality of Australian cricketers. In his speech he marvelled at how the country had progressed from a penal colony to in his words : "one of the most powerful and progressive nations in the world".

And he brought up the subject of the devastating floods in Queensland and the dreadful bush fires in Victoria last year saying :


"It is a reminder to the world of the resilience and the courage of the Australian people"

# Fans of Parky should check out former East Ender Graeme Goldberg's Dee Bees cafe in Double Bay where Michael and Mary often take breakfast. You may even see Leo Sayer there-he and Goldberg are great mates. According to Graeme, Ben Elton is yet to visit as he lives in Perth with his family.

See our earlier chat with Michael Parkinson at Doyles in Watson's Bay.

A reminder of Michael Parkinson's brilliant show with one of his favourite guests-Dame Edna Everage.

Monday : Tallulah at The Basement

She sang at Dame Shirley Bassey's 70th birthday, the Glastonbury Festival and a Vivienne Westwood fashion show. The British media has described her as 'London's most creative woman'- singer songwriter Tallulah Rendall who will be appearing for one night on Monday evening at the Basement.

This will be Tallulah's second professional appearance in Australia after touring successfully earlier this year but she has been visiting Australia since she was a child.

Her father is the Australian socialite John Rendall of 'Christian the Lion' fame and her mother is one of England's top publicists Liz Brewer who was seen recently as one of the panelists judging young girls in the Ladette to Lady TV series.

Tallulah's first successful CD titled Libellus, inspired by the writings of Iris Murdoch was described by critics as a "slow burner that hooks you in after a few listenings". The Age newspaper said her music is 'alternative, sultry and magical'.

Book early as Tallulah's shows tend to be a sell out bringing crowds of all ages. At the Hermes' beach party last week a team of party-goers said they had booked tickets.

Bookings at The Basement : here
here is Tallulah in an appearance on balconytv.co.uk :

British Tabloid Catches Up to The Shuttle !

Four weeks to the day after the Shuttle told the world that the Golden Globe award winning film The King's Speech was filmed in the premises at 33 Portland Place in Marlebone, London owned by 'Lord' Edward Davenport, the London Evening Standard newspaper in the UK has picked up the tale :

"It is the room where Colin Firth as King George VI learned to overcome his stammer, a scene watched by millions of film fans.

But it can be revealed that the set of Lionel Logue's clinic has been the scene of wild parties organised by the house's owner, Edward Davenport, including being hired out for "sex parties".

Read the Evening Standard report  here

Our friends at the UK Daily Mail have also run a report .here

Saucy Bunting For Mardi Gras ?

From the 19th February the 2011 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival season begins with live musical shows, dance parties, fairs, art shows, a movie festival and international celebrity appearances.

Amongst those who will be here this year-writer Armistead Maupin, comedian Lily Tomlin and gay activist Peter Tatchtell. Last year's special guest George Michael has already slipped into town and taken up residence on the Northern Beaches.

Lasting until March 6th the festival culminates in the spectacular parade up Oxford Street watched at times by crowds of up to 750,000. The after parade party always features a special guest whose identity is still a secret. In the past entertainment at the party has included Kylie Minogue, Cyndi Lauper and Olivia Newton John.

This morning the official Mardi Gras guide arrived in the post and while it isn't at first obvious, the cover tells a raunchy story. Often the cover of the guide is reproduced in posters and flags that run throughout the city for the duration of the festival. Will this year's cover be featured fluttering from hundreds of flagpoles on Sydney's streets?

To view the on-line version of the festival program click here.

Gordana Wears Her Faith to the Hermes Beach Party

 Hermes was throwing a no-shoes beach bash at Nielsen Park and the conditions were perfect as the overbearing and humid weather held off for the day. Party starved Sydney socialites were out in force as dozens arrived in a stream of black limousines.

Natalie Imbruglia & Nickey Joye

Tucked into a roped off section of the beach at the David Grant designed party set : 6 giant Hermes bracelets, a barbecue and several bars serving champagne and cocktails.

Noticeably absent were Sydney's social media who for some unknown reason gave the do a  miss.

Gordana & Mary

Perhaps It was something to do with Hermes boss Karin Upton Baker's on-going dramas. Financially embattled husband Gary Baker looking stressfully slim, arrived  in a humble Toyota albeit with his signature  XXX number plates. The Rolls and Bentley went months ago. And how she did it is a mystery but Karin would have made Houdini proud when she seemingly materialised in the middle of the party crowd thus avoiding the paparazzi.

Lara Bingle & pal

Guests were still arriving at 7.30pm while some who had come earlier were already leaving including designer Trent Nathan who declared 'that's enough' after 30 minutes, Gracie Otto who sped of in a Mercedes on an urgent errand and film producer Margaret Fink who said the sand was playing havoc with her calves.

Gordana Willesee was happy to show off the new tattoo snaking up her arm. A Mother Mary perfectly executed for the committed Catholic who along with husband Mike Willesee had a private meeting with Pope Benedict XV1 during his Aussie visit in 2008.

Erica Heynatz & Andrew Kingston

 Natalie Imbruglia slipped in with a pal.. She'd been spotted earlier that day zipping around town with Justin Hemmes in his 1960's Porsche.

Lara Bingle , Rebel Penfold Russell, Di Hamill, James Gordon, Jonathon Ward, Mandy Quinn, Greg Daniels Gary & Susie Rothwell and restaurateurs Michael & Judy McMahon and almost anyone connected to the fashion industry were amongst the 250 guests.

And we loved  Miss Teen Age International & water skiing champ cum boxer Lauryn Eagle's  'pimp-mobile'- a huge Chevy bearing silver letters on the boot saying MORE MONEY. She roared up to the entrance with South African born boxing champ LoveMore N'dou.

Eventually fleets of luxury buses arrived to transport guests to a mystery destination as guest Pam Murray observed they were part of her husband's 2000 strong fleet.

And the fashion hit of summer (apart from the Hermes accessories worn by most ) featured by at least 8 guests: Camilla Frank's caftans.

Collette Dinigan & Bradley Cocks

James Gordon

Lauryn Eagle & LoveMore N'dou

Julie Schaeffer & friend

Mark Cavanagh, Penny McCarthy, Rebel Russell, Warren Fahey

Guilleume Sadourny & Terry Schwamberg

Family Get-Together at Theatre Awards

Shaw & Garcia at the Sydney Theatre Awards

Watching and cheering on the Sydney Theatre Awards on Monday evening at the Paddington RSL was the journalist,  voice-over man and super salesman Tim Shaw best known for his "but there's more !" catch phrase in the Demtel TV advertisements. Tim is currently a broadcaster on Radio 2UE where he presents 'Legal Matters with Tim Shaw', an informative show that delves into listener's legal rights.

Lesser known is the fact that he is also a cousin of Adam Garcia, the handsome actor currently wowing audiences in Tap Dogs and the affection between the two was evident as they warmly embraced each other upon arrival at the awards.
But has Tim ever presented Adam with a set of those famous steak knives?

"not yet " says Shaw, "maybe at the next family barbecue".

Yeah Yeah !-Shane's Hair May Go Viral

He may be listed  in the cricket bible, Wisden's Cricket Almanack as one of the five greatest cricketers of the century but one British TV guest had some unkind words about Shane Warne on a YouTube clip about to go to viral heaven.

Sadly Warne's own chat show bit the dust just weeks ago before he was really given a chance to shine despite having the sort of high profile guests any presenter would die to interview. Fortunately Shane still has his lucrative Advanced Hair Studios contract to fall back.

However Australian born publisher Carmen Callil of Virago Press isn't too impressed with Aussie cricketers or their hair and uttered the almost forbidden word on the hugely popular British BBC program Newsnight demonstrating a distinct lack of solidarity from the publisher of female writers including the famous Margaret Atwood.  
Pink News is outraged :