Doom & Gloom at Fairfax Media

The independent political website crikey brings disturbing news that Fairfax Media are planning to force redundancy on  up to 300 staff.
Fairfax publish two of the oldest and once most respected broadsheets in the world : The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne.

Just a ten days after Fairfax Managing Editor Greg Hywood gave an interview on the ABC's Media Watch defending the future of printed newspapers, he has told staff at Fairfax that if workers including 90 sub-editors do not accept redundancy, it will be "forced upon them".

Fairfax also own the Southern Cross Broadcasting chain of radio stations and made a profit in 2010 of over $282M

Originally owned by the Fairfax family from 1841, the publishing group has had a variety of owners since Warwick Fairfax's failed 1990 bid to completely privatise the company.

Journalists at Fairfax are not happy campers.

One beef is that editing is to be out-sourced to Pagemasters, a firm owned by AAP. Similar has happened throughout Britain where dozens of small independent news gathering agencies that supplied Fleet Street tabloids with local news have gone to the wall and standard s have declined alarmingly.

king of the world

Britain is still comes to grips with the fact the the giant News Corporation which claimed for years that the illegal hacking of mobile phones was an 'isolated incident' . Demands from politicians for a parliamentary enquiry may have temporarily delayed Rupert Murdoch's plans to snaffle up B Sky B giving him extraordinary control over UK broadcasting but he is expected to still get the go ahead.

And News Corp owns 45% of AAP. The world is shrinking.

Read the whole sorry saga here at crikey.com.au.

A Must See

We normally steer clear of talent quests but every now and then someone unique comes along.

It will surprise no-one that 14 year old Jack Vidgen from Manly who blew the judges away last night on Australia's Got Talent and got a standing ovation, is being compared to Justin Beiber.

He's certainly got the cuteness factor-so much so that macho judge and Irish singer Brian McFadden rushed the stage to plant a kiss on Jack's cheek.
You can judge yourself but this lad is going places fast :

Check out some of Jack's earlier performances on his youtube channel and here is Jack's Australia's Got Talent audition :

Age & Beauty

Anthony Minichielo, Terri Biviano, Yasmin Le Bon

Gail & Yasmin

They've been friends for years so supermodel Yasmin Le Bon jumped at the chance to model for her good pal Gail Elliott in her Little Joe range yesterday at the Sydney Fashion Week.
Le Bon, who is married to Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran and Elliott have been friends from years of working in the international fashion world. Yasmin who is 48 doesn't look a day over 30 and with 3 children she's a shining example of a working mum.

Elliott started her label in 2002 in New York and it's a runaway success. Having moved back to Sydney she produces her clothes locally and sells throughout Europe and the USA.

A bunch of pals joined Gail and Yasmin for a celebatory lunch after the parade at the Sake Restaurant in The Rocks

The Kings Cross Harlot's Ball

We didn't make it to the Harlot's Ball but more of that later.

writers Louis Nowra & Mandy Sawyer

The Shuttle did however attend the launch of Mandy Sayer's latest work of fiction : Love In The Year Of Lunacy. It was held at an appropriate venue, the re-vamped Swans Club in Kings Cross in their bar, a haven of leather arm chairs and zebra print cushions.Mandy Sayer was brought up around the Cross and Darlinghurst-her dad was a jazz musician. She's married to writer Louis Nowra and together they make one of Australia's most formidable writing teams.

Nowra is the author of some of our most respected plays  The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney and he's either won a host of awards or been nominated for them including the Miles Franklin. He's also written quite a few screenplays including the Hollywood epic K19 The Widow Maker and 2 of the top Australian films Cosi and Map of The Human Heart.

The Shuttle has only read one of Mandy's books-Velocity published in 2005-but it was hard to put down once started. Velocity was her second no-holds barred memoir and detailed life with her mother and her mum's abusive relationships and attempted suicides tinged with some wonderful and tender moments.

Love In The Year Of Lunacy is set in and around Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo during the 1940s and is described as:  "a moving, tender and compelling story of forbidden love set amid the devastation of war". After snapping up a copy at the launch we're looking forward to a jolly good read.

And the Harlots ?.

Our latest Hollywood discovery Jackie Weaver who is a pal of Sayer was to launch the book but got a sudden call to Los Angeles to sign for her first leading role starring opposite Rhys Ifans.

Into the breach stepped Australian folklore historian and musician Warren Fahey who can liven up any setting. As Mandy's book is set in the '40s Fahey sang us a ditty which he swore is from the era. It's full of dirty words but good fun. Listen below:

Love In The Year Of Lunacy is published by Allen & Unwin and is in book stores now.

What Happened To Madame Arcati ?

She was there one day-the next she had simply vanished into cyberspace.
For 5 years the Madame Arcati blog spot has been a thorn in the side of the British publishing world and such a success that the blog drew an envious 6000 readers a day (the Shuttle hovers around 1200-1800).

Madame Arcati cast a cynical eye over the often pompous print world of UK newspapers and magazines and it's fair to say she would have had a healthy club of critics but they were outweighed by a significant fan base around the world that included some of Britain's top writers and journalists.

The man who some say held control over Madame Arcati's career, writer and film critic Victor Olliver  (right) isn't saying much but he has in the past expressed some dissatisfaction with the world of blogging and twice shelved the blog for long periods. But now the whole thing has vanished seemingly along with it's extensive archives.

On his website Olliver says : "The old Madame Arcati site on Blogger is no more. Duncan Fallowell wrote me earlier today asking whether MA had been censored again because he couldn't find it. I had no idea. Blogger/Google sent no warning or explanatory note. So, all of Madame's musings since 2006 now reside in the colon of some beardie's worst imaginings somewhere across the Atlantic."

Sceptic

"Two days ago I set up a new Madame Arcati here - is this not a marvellous display of intuitive timing? How could have I 'known' that the old Madame was about to shoot up the astral colon?" 
                                                                               
The Shuttle team  (bar the office moggie Mildred Pierce) are firm believers in all things esoteric. Soon we will be commissioning a chart based on the stars from Mr Olliver. It will make a good dinner table topic for the next get-together with our favourite ABC Radio broadcaster but confirmed sceptic Phillip Adams.

Madame Arcati can still be read on the excellent British website Anorak.co.uk or in England's oldest and continuous published magazine The Lady.

Visit the Victor Olliver Astrology website here.

Sign Of The Times?

For 25 years Jonathan Chancellor has been the nation's expert on movements in the property business. Whether it was a soap star selling or buying an apartment or a high flyer trading up in the mansion market, Chancellor has his finger on the pulse.

Now the Shuttle hears that he is moving from Fairfax Newspapers to the top political website crikey.com.au having been snapped up by former Fairfax managing editor Eric Beecher who now owns crikey.

Chancellor's extensive list of contacts within the property market rivals none and he has been the author of numerous scoops on who is going where in the homes market. Often it's an indicator of how the economy is travelling.

In a country obsessed by property prices, reading what the rich and powerful pay for where they live is eagerly perused by those in the suburbs. Jonathan is widely published in various Fairfax newspapers that include the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Canberra Times, Australian Financial Review and the West Australian.

Is it a wise move ?. Fairfax were one of the first of the Australian newspaper networks to move into the Internet world pre-2000 and at the time they were much criticised but it stood them well for the future with Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd playing catch-up ever since. Murdoch has admitted as much.

Legend has it that when he was CEO at News Ltd, Lachlan Murdoch sent a memo around to staff saying not to spend too much time accessing the net as it was a 'passing fad'.

Fairfax's huge yearly profits- the 'Rivers Of Gold' as the late media mogul Kerry Packer coined them, come from it's classified advertising in which it has dominated the Australian market for decades.

The current CEO of Fairfax Greg Hywood was on the ABC's Media Watch last week and scoffed at the idea that printed newspapers were a dying industry as the British media writer Roy Greenslade proclaimed them to be in this article :More US newspapers dying by the day.
Greenslade writes for The Guardian in the UK which along with the Daily Mail have been the two British newspapers to reap a windfall with their internet websites.

Jonathan Holmes

Responding to presenter Jonathan Holmes question on whether  "the newspaper model-is it a dead duck?, Hywood said  "of course it’s not. I mean some newspapers may go but many will survive".
Despite his comments staff levels at Fairfax have been cut by 50% over the past ten years.

Crikey was started by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennet staffer Stephen Mayne in 2001 and despite having to mortgage his home once to pay legal fees, Mayne sold the site in 2005 for $1M.

It's sign of the times that Chancellor would move from the relative security of Fairfax to the much smaller publishing world of crikey.
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Read Jonathon Holmes full interview with Greg Hywood at Media Watch ABC TV.
Stephen Mayne now publishes the internet shareholder's activist website The Mayne Report.
Perhaps perfectly illustratimg the tensions within the publishing world of today : watch the legendary attack upon Mayne at the newspaper gongs- The Walkley Awards as political writer Glenn Milne-revved up on flu medication scuffles with Mayne :

Wedding Fallout : Julia Gillard Insulted

Hannity

Is it the beginning of a new News Corp attack upon another Labor Prime Minister ?. After they took down Kevin Rudd 2 years ago with their sustained broadcasts at everything that came out of his mouth, the ghastly Fox News channel and Sean Hannity in the USA have insulted Julia Gillard's choice of headwear to the Royal wedding (below). They reckon it looked like a Venus Flytrap !





On the plus side, fashion commentator Melissa Hoyer who can cast a critical eye when necessary gave the PM the thumbs up with her Carla Zampatti outfit, while she was reporting from The Mall for the Seven network.

Who made the PM's flytrap ?. Hoyer speculated that is was either Paddington based Neil Grigg or Woollahra milliner Jane Lambert.

Earth to Dame Edna & British Royal Watcher James Whitaker

..and the entire Channel Nine Network reporting from The Mall in London including Lisa Wilkinson, Karl Stefanovic and 'Royal watcher' James Whitaker :
this is Mohammed Fayed who was not invited to The Wedding :

 and this is George Tupou V who is the King of Tonga :

who was invited to The Wedding as a Head of State of a Commonwealth member country.

We know they are both dark and amply built but there is a difference.

Reality Bites For Glam Pair

They're a couple who live a glamorous life-attending the right parties and swanning about with plenty of baubles and toys.

Oliver Curtis & Roxy Jacenko

Roxy Jacenko is one of Sydney's top publicists and her boyfriend 25 year old Oliver Curtis, son of one of the countries top corporate high fliers is a young man about town-good looking and seemingly rolling in money.

She drives an Aston Martin, he the latest Range Rover.

They just bought a $6.6M house in chic Woollahra and Roxy has been sporting a $200,000 engagement ring.

She wore it the Cleo Bachelor Of The Year bash she organised at Ivy last week and at the Hermes beach party at Nielsen Park in February.

Roxy runs the top PR firm- Sweaty Betty and she and her equally gorgeous sister Ruby Jacenko have been likened as an Antipodean answer to  Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky.



Ruby Jacenko

The Shuttle mentioned in it's report on the Hermes' party that although the pair looked jovial, Oliver may soon face some sort of enquiry in respect of his pal John Hartman, son of society obstetrician Dr Keith Hartman, who was jailed for 4 and half years last December for insider trading.
Now the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the enquiry may soon be under way. It's claimed that Hartmann who confessed to making nearly $2M profit from his illegal enterprise may have passed on financial information to Curtis so he could benefit.

 Hartmann is in protective custody and it's reported has agreed to give evidence against Curtis.
Read more at the SMH.

                    




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Prince William Clone Making a Royal Mint

Simon Watkinson

Even as a child in an Adelaide primary school 29 year old Simon Watkinson received comments about his resemblance to the heir of the British throne, HRH Prince William.

Simon says his grandmother looked like William's granny as well.

A civil engineer who has been working in London for 4 years, Simon has struck pay dirt working for an agency as a William look-a-like and is the most successful royal clone in the UK at present. He is commanding fees of up to $4000 a day and is in high demand by corporate sponsors. People hire him and a 'Kate Middleton' just to walk around at parties which is nice work if you can get  a grand a pop.

One of the most gifted artists who specialises in royal look-a-like photo and video shoots, artist Alison Jackson has used Simon several times in books and films. Three Australian TV networks have interviewed him outside Buckingham Palace and he regularly gets swamped by tourists who, if they can't have the real thing, they'll have Simon as the next best thing. The British mobile phone company T-Mobile used him and a bunch of others in a spoof wedding video that has gone viral.

It's an odd thing the look-a-like business.  Jason Thompson (above)from Sydney is making a mint in the USA as HRH The Queen, hosting corporate events. He greets guests on the red carpet upon arrival or arrives with a big entrance singing a song and then wanders the crowd intermingling with guests and chatting. Jason says the number of times female guests courtesy is alarming. (he also does Dame Edna Everage and Steve Irwin).

Jeanette Charles in Naked Gun

Probably the most famous royal impersonator is Jeanette Charles who at 84 has had a lifetime of employment acting as the head of the royal family. Jeanette appeared in numerous films from the National Lampoon series to Austin Powers and the Naked Gun series as The Queen.

She did dozens of TV and newspaper advertisements and was once hired by a Paris based businessman who paid her a small fortune to accompany him in a limousine throughout Europe to get tongues wagging that he was able to get up close and personal with a British royal. The story goes that it worked and he scored  numerous lucrative government contracts in France, Italy and Russia.

Simon Watkinson should be making a very nice living for the next decade or so, even if he does have more hair than the real thing !

Hold my hose: William and Michael Middleton clean the car by Alison Jackson

Breaking news : The Chasers comedy team who scored world-wide fame when they gate-crashed APEC in Sydney as Osama Bin Laden have been banned from covering the royal wedding for ABC TV on orders from Clarence House : Below is the film of the Chasers at APEC:

Terrible People

Former Foreign Minister under the Howard government, Alexander Downer  still believes David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were "terrible people' and says 'the government always regarded Mr Habib as the more dangerous of the two" according to today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Alexander Downer

This follows the release of new Wikileaks cables about the inmates of Guantanamo Bay. Both Habib and Hicks spent years confined there without trial. The latest cables proclaim the two men were "dangerous terrorists and that Habib had 'trained the 9/11 hijackers" and had confessed in Egypt that he had "planned to hi-jack a Qantas jet"

When Egyptian students helped overthrew the dictator Mubarak in Egypt secret police files revealed that Habib had been rendered to Egypt  by the USA-despite official denials- where he was tortured for 5 months and questioned whilst an Australian government official was in the room.

Alexander Downer had always emphatically denied Habib's claim that he was sent to Egypt. Habib was eventually flown back to Australia (not by Qantas but in a government leased Lear jet) after being released without charge.

The Julia Gillard government has just made a secret settlement with Habib rumoured to be around the 2 million dollar mark to nip in the bud embarrssing claims about that torture. The exact details still may emerge because Habib is now suing the Egyptian government.

"No, I won't be changing my mind about them. They were both terrible people - absolutely shocking." continues Downer in the SMH.

Hicks was said to "have links to senior Al-Qaeda leaders" (he met Osama Bin Laden once) and he too was flown back by private jet when released on a dodged up charge. He has said of Alexander Downer  :" he is hardly in a position to call me shocking "

Aloysia & David Hicks with Governor Marie Bashir at Boomerang

The Shuttle met David Hicks seven weeks ago at a party at Boomerang, the Spanish style harborside mansion of trucking magnate Lindsay Fox. He seemed a likeable and friendly chap, if somewhat wary of the press but the NSW Governor, Her Excellency Marie Bashir chatted amicably to Hicks and his wife Aloysia and didn't seem at all 'shocked' by him.

Fact : from 1999 tthe Australian Wheat Board paid bribes of nearly $300M to Saddam Hussein in the 'wheat for oil scandal'. During a Royal Commission evidence was heard that the money was used to buy weapons that were used against the allies invading Iraq to depose Saddam.

The minister responsible for the AWB-Alexander Downer claimed that he had never read the hundreds of emails informing him of the bribes. Although the Commission recommended charges against 12 people, no-one ever faced a court.

Aussies Named In Time's 'Most Influential'

Time Magazine calls them the most influential people in the world : artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry. "Their ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution."

Amongst Nobel prize winners like Aung San Suu Kyi and world leaders Barack Obama,Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, celebrities such as Colin Firth, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Ford and Justin Beiber and a terrorist- Anwar al-Awlaki are two Australians Julian Assange and the emerging star, 22 year old Mia Wasikowska.

Mia, who was born in Canberra got her start in the medical soap All Saints in 2005 and hit the big time when she co-starred with Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's 3D production of Alice In Wonderland.



Glenn Close & Mia Wasikowska
Photo :Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images



Actress Glenn Close says of Wasikowska : "Mia, 21, is a sun, not a satellite. She generates her own energy. She's seductive because she's not compelled to reveal everything. Her shyness has made her an acute observer. At the same time, she loves a good joke, loves to laugh and can suddenly have the boisterous physicality of a teenager."

Julian Assange, listed as a 'muckraker' comes in for some harsh treatment from Germaine Greer :

"Egregious to the last, he is convinced that his prosecution for rape in the Swedish courts was engineered by vengeful U.S. intelligence, unable to grasp the plain fact that his callous treatment made two women angry enough to seek redress."

Read more on The 2011 TIME 100
Here's a trailer for the new production of Jane Eyre in which Mia stars :