'Extremists' We Like

Brian Sherman & daughter Ondine with a friendly Kangaroo
courtesy Voiceless

The billionaire Brian Sherman last week hit back at the Shooters & Fisher's Party MP Robert Borsack who claimed in the NSW Parliament on May 11th that Sherman's Voiceless was an "extremist animal rights group".

On it's website Voiceless says: “Voiceless will bring the institutionalised suffering of animals to the forefront of Australia’s agenda; ensuring that animal protection is the next great social justice movement.” 

 Borsack says that Voiceless was one of many 'extremist' groups attempting to buy credibility at Universities and other teaching bodies. Sherman is a well known philanthropist who donates millions of dollars with no strings attached to education bodies throughout Australia.

He is also a dedicated animal right's activist and a vegan who wears or uses no animal products that have been produced through animal suffering.

The Shooters and Fishers Party with just 2 state MPs also thinks The Greens are an extremist party despite The Greens now holding the balance of power federally with 9 senators, 5 NSW upper house MPs and one in the lower house.

MP Robert Borsack & the elephant he shot in 2008
 www.wildhunts.co.nz

Borsack who proudly tells anyone who will listen of how he slaughtered an elephant while on safari in Zimbabwe in 2008 basically wants everyone to be free to blast away at any living creature while rampaging through state forests in 4 wheel drives.

Brian Sherman started Voiceless with his daughter Ondine in 2004 to raise awareness of the suffering of animals.

It's fair to say the writer AA Gill who is in town at present wouldn't have received an invite to the fundraiser  Sherman hosted last week-Voices of Art 2: An Evening Of Art For Animals. AA Gill infamously shot a baboon last year because he wanted to see how it felt to kill.

And who were amongst the extremists at the Voiceless fundraiser ?. Noted Japanese designer Akira Isogawa, prominent artist Adam Chang, one of the world's most respected neurosurgeons, the brilliant Dr  Charlie Teo (Isogawa and Teo are Voiceless board members) Brian's son Emile Sherman who just picked up an Oscar at the Academy Awards in  Hollywood for his production- The King's Voice  ( he thanked his mother & father from the stage) Emile's mum Gene who runs the superb Sherman Gallery in Paddington and Lord Mayor Clover Moore and Edmund Capon, director of the NSW Art Gallery.

Don't miss tonight's Australian Story Hearts Of Gold: 23rd May 2011, 8pm which features the prodigiously talented Sherman family and their great passion for animals.
You can catch the show later on the ABC's Iview.

When Animals Attack!

The bizarre craze of 'planking' which has seen several people plunge from tall buildings has now spilled over to the animal world as our snap shows. The pic arrived in our in-box from an annonymous source and shows a woman being 'planked' by several fluffy chickens.

She looks suspiciously like one of the Desperate Housewives.

Missing AA Gill

baboon

Gill

The writer AA Gill is in town for the Sydney Writer's Week which concludes today. Infamous for once blasting a baboon to death to 'see how it felt' the grovelling to the scribe around town was embarrassing. The Shuttle missed his interview on Thursday (one of the few events that wasn't sold out) and we lost count of the number of restaurant workers phoning us to impart the news that "AA Gill is here eating "

Even at the launch party at Porteno for the second season of Foxtel's 'Spirited' a waiter collared the Shuttle and solemnly informed us that Gill was downstairs if we wished "to pop down and get a snap  ". We passed.

We did manage to hear him on radio being interviewed by local foodie God and long time Shuttle pal Tony Bilson along with American ex-chef Anthony Bourdain . When Bilson commented that large food corporations were colluding to force manufacturers to list ingredients and that he believed it was a conspiracy to drive small providers out of business Gill launched into a diatribe about the importance of those tiny lists on the side of products. Ten minutes later when Bilson defended vegetarians Gill railed against foodies who included endless claims about the ingredients their nosh was complied of.

Emma Forrest

Later when a female audience member asked a question and Gill interrupted, she scolded him with "oh shut-up Anthony, you're no better than some yapping kid at the back of the bus ". The applause was deafening.

We did make it to the small cocktail party given by the advertising agency BWM for American /English writer Emma Forrest. Emma has just published an autobiography Your Voice In My Head.

Forrest was diagnosed as a manic depressive (bi-polar!) at 14 and began self harming, slashing her legs and arms.

She became fascinated and obsessed by sex whilst being repulsed by it and remained virginal until she finally flung herself into a series of destructive relationships. Emma wouldn't confirm or deny that the 'famous actor who broke her heart' was the long rumored Colin Farrell-she simply told us that she 'knows and likes his work'.
Emma now writes movie scripts and lives between New York and Beverley Hills. 
"I couldn't handle the grey skies of London anymore "said Emma when the Shuttle commented on her breezy outlook for someone who had gotten off an 18 hour flight at 11am that morning.

"I love LA, no matter who bad it is the sun always shines. This morning I bounded off the plane when I saw the brilliant sunshine".

She told us of the interview she once did with Brad Pitt who told her obsessively of how he and Angelina Jolie wanted to have a 'surrogate' baby. The following day Pitt phoned and left a voicemail message asking her to phone him urgently. 2 more messages followed over the same number of days. She never called him back. She thought he may ask her to have his baby !

Murdoch : "you're fired!'

Your Voice in My Head  is to be made into a film. I asked Emma who she would like to play her in the film
"Cate Blanchet" she responded." but when I told the producers they said 'oh no'. It doesn't matter that Blanchet has won Oscars. They don't know her in Middle America. They only know 2 actresses- Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts"

Honourable mentions at writer's week : * Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson in discussion with Frank Moorhouse celebrating the return of the comic mode in fiction. Brilliant.
 *Elisabeth Wynhausen and Bruce Guthrie telling Mike Carlton about the shock and the fury of getting fired by Rupert Murdoch. Very funny.

The Rumour Mill #2

# Which TV host had a blazing stand-up row in the street of a posh suburb recently when the representative of a media organisation refused to interview that host in the boutique of their choice because they supply the host with outfits for their TV show. It nearly came to fisticuffs.

The interviewer preferred neutral ground and suggested a local coffee shop only to find themselves on the receiving end of a "don't you know who I am ?" tirade. Perhaps the TV host should remind themselves that fame is fleeting!

# Which Eastern Suburbs society figure with a substantial country holding was only boasting a month ago that they had received free "human fertiliser" to the tune of $80K's worth from the State government anxious to unload the load of s*it!.

Human fertiliser going cheap

When the great "poo scandal" hit the front pages of the tabloid newspapers 2 weeks ago in which it was claimed dozens of people were becoming ill from farm products that used 'human fertiliser' our society pal went strangely silent.

Perhaps readers should avoid  a certain over -priced inner city charcuterie which proudly stocks meat from our friend's estate.

#. Which mainstream telly news host went strangely silent when their female co-host made some very funny jokes about a celebrity's hair piece after they had just appeared in a news item?. They basically called the famous actor a 'goose' for wearing the rug.
She obviously hadn't noticed their co-hosts expertly enhanced follicle adornment. He quickly changed the subject while she chortled on.
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 ## On the subject of celebrity spats the Shuttle couldn't help but notice an item in the latest Latte Life newspaper in it's Bitter Dregs column and a small mysterious piece that says :'Charlotte "I'm a Celebrity" Dawson'. What can it mean ?. Perhaps Sunday Telegraph columnist Ros Reines, a friend of Charlotte's will illuminate us tomorrow.

### On the subject of rugs and enhanced follicles, read Vanity Fair's examination into Donald Trump's hair with it's 360 degree view courtesy of our favourite New York pal photographer Patrick McMullan who has been snapping the Trump for over 20 years.
According to Private Eye magazine, Barack Obama has demanded to know if "Donald Trump's hair is real and if so that he should provide the proof" !

exclusive : Jeanne Joins Gough

As we exclusively reported several months ago, Gough Whitlam the former Labor Prime Minister of Australia who broke the conservative stranglehold on power in 1972 when he was elected after 23 years of Liberal/National Party dominance, has moved into the luxury retirement home Lulworth House in Elizabeth Bay.

Now we hear that the 93 year old -who the famous British interviewer Sir David Frost described to the Social Shuttle earlier this year as: "probably the most intellectual of all world leaders I have interviewed"- has been joined at the home by Jeanne Little , the much loved TV personality who is suffering from a severe form of Alzheimer's.

Lulworth House which is part of St Luke's Hospital is considered to be one of the finest retirement homes in Sydney with it's beautiful leafy gardens and superb views of the harbour.

David Frost : 'most intellectual world leader'

Ironically, Whitlam who gave Australia it's Medicare system of free public health care which is regarded as the best in the Western world is a private patient as is Jeannie who in her heyday would have been the ideological  opposite of Gough.

Wheelchair bound Gough still makes it out almost every day to lunch with old political pals and foes- former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser who defeated Gough in 1975 after Whitlam was dismissed by the Governor General Sir John Kerr, is a visitor and friend.

Sadly Jeannie no longer recognises her family and friends. Her family have asked people to donate to the Jeanne Little Alzheimer's Research Fund.

More Facebook Legal Woes

An interesting story into today's Sydney Morning Herald brings us news that the popular Herald web writer Ben Grubb has been arrested after he filed a report on the social network Facebook.

The head of Queensland's Fraud Squad Brian Hay has said that the police are "still cutting our teeth in the rapidly evolving online environment."

He has described the receiving of a photo taken from a Facebook profile without the owner's permission is like "receiving a stolen TV set"

While this is sure to be a test case and may not even get to the courts, it's clear that Facebook will be facing legal challenges from all angles. Earlier today we wrote of the unidentified Melbourne celebrity who may be suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg personally for the publishing of defamatory statement about them on a false Facebook profile.

The SMH also carries a story today of a "men only" Facebook club that deals in purloined profile photos of scantily clad females.
To date persons have been charged with criminal defamation on Facebook in Australia, Canada and the USA.

Is it time to consult your stockbroker over those Facebook shares in your portfolio?.

Hugh Grant :Thumbs Up for Social Shuttle & Others

OK the title is an exaggeration.

We feel sure Hugh Grant would love the Social Shuttle even if when he asked your scribe one day what his occupation was and heard the reply (Australian journalist ) he responded "that's a contradiction in terms".

Grant was talking today on the Richard Bacon show on the BBC's
Radio Five Live which was broadcast from the offices of The Independent newspaper in London. He said he was still deciding if he should sue the News Of The World after being shown evidence by British police that he was a victim of phone hacking in the scandal sweeping the British media.

The actor is hopeful to see the end of tabloid newspapers : “We don’t need them  we don’t want them and the sooner they go out of business the better."

On the  tabloid's invasion of privacy he said: "They would go temporarily out of business because they rely almost entirely on stealing people’s privacy, but then I think they would actually be grateful because in six months, a year they would have to go back to being real journalists and they would feel good about themselves.”
 
 Journalist Nick Davies who first wrote of the hacking scandal and who wrote Flat Earth News, a book about media manipulation was also on the programme and said  Grant was "thinking along the right lines”.

Ironically, when Grant was busted in Hollywood with Devine Brown it was the making of his career. Never looked back really. We feel sure thousands of vicars all over the UK will rest easy if the NoTW goes to the wall plus websites like the Shuttle could only find a vastly increased audience (currently around 2000-2400 readers a day ).

# More news on the purported libel case that may be mounted by a Melbourne based celebrity against Facebook and it's founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Shuttle has read some of the legal advice on the case and Zuckerberg's words may come back to haunt him.

In the past week it has been revealed that Facebook hired a big PR firm to spread tales about Google. The escapade has completely backfired on Facebook.

Reading Facebook's introductions it goes to great pains, like many other social media websites, to point out that it cannot be held responsible for the content on Facebook as it is 'stored ' on outside servers which are not controlled by Facebook.

The Rumpole's advice is that the claim is nonsense as it attempts to avoid responsibility for publishing and a journalist, editor or publisher could make the same claim that their product is carried on outside newsstands etc.

But he also points to a speech given by  Zuckerberg in 2010 and where he proclaimed that "the age of privacy is dead". Our learned friend says the statement points to the 'intent' of the net tsar to re-write privacy laws without having the right to !.
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US  giants Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores have censored a book cover featuring Australian androgynous model, 19 year old Andre Pejic who has become the darling of the fashion world.


Read the story in the Mail Online.

Bringing Home The Bacons

Word comes that 2 professional treasure hunters have arrived in the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya intent on investigating the strange case-as exclusively revealed on the Social Shuttle, of the missing Francis Bacon collection of paintings. Apparently they have been making discreet enquiries around town.

The rumor has been the talk of Pattaya since Bacon's lover John Edwards died in 2003

The Shuttle was an occasional drinking pal with Bacon at the legendary Colony Club in London's Soho during the 1980s.  Bacon was a friendly and unpretentious man for an artist whose paintings brought the greatest ever price for a living artist. Although he lived in comfortable circumstances, they were relatively modest compared to the eventual fortune he was to leave his lover John Edwards when he died in 1992:  approximately 30 million dollars.

In his early years Bacon survived by stealing, dodging rent collectors , working as a domestic servant and as a shop assistant.

Born in Ireland with an English mother and an Australian army officer father, Bacon was a descendant of Sir Francis Bacon and it was only in later life he experienced success and indulged in his passions-drinking, lunching and gambling.

Francis Bacon self portrait

He was also fond of 'rough trade'. Several affairs with young men ended acrimoniously. One whom he  discovered breaking into his apartment one day become his live-in lover. Eventually he was to settle down with Edwards whom he doted on.

Bacon would sell a painting  and lavish money on Edward's East End family and bought them a huge house where he occasionally stayed for weeks on end . He treated Edward's to a Rolls Royce with the number plate BOY 1.

When Edwards inherited Bacon's fortune he moved to Thailand and purchased a magnificent seaside penthouse and a country mansion . In 2003 Edwards died in Bangkok.

According to Bacon's original will all his works of art where to be given to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and it's said, most where.  But visitors to Edwards Pattaya apartment said that they observed at least half a dozen Bacon works on the walls. When Edwards died one London newspaper speculated the paintings were copies which seemed a bizarre claim when Bacon gave Edwards anything he asked for.  One tale was that Bacon had actually given the 6 paintings to Edwards but told him not to declare them for tax reasons.

Edwards took on a series of young Thai men as lovers although he had an English lover as well. As Edwards became ill from AIDS it's said that he gave his last Thai lover who he had known for a little over 2 years, the 6 Francis Bacon works to store at the young man's family home  near the Chaing Mai area. When Edwards died the young man was away visiting his family and never returned.

Several people who tried to track down the Thai man have been unsuccessful and the tale of the missing Bacon paintings has become a local legend. It's believed that somewhere in the north of Thailand the 6 paintings may be displayed on the walls of a simple farm house without the occupants realizing the true value of them.

A local interior decorator who also has showrooms in London and owns 2 Bacon paintings is said to be the only one who had met Edward's Thai lover and attempted to trace him but then got cold feet because of the implications over the provenance of the paintings.

In 2008 the Russian oligarch Roman Abrovanich paid nearly $83M for Bacon's 1974 work Triptych.
The previous record for one of his works was $53M. This year Bacon's portrait of his friend and artist Lucien Freud sold for $35M.

Lucien Freud

That puts the estimate of the value of the 6 missing Bacon's (if they exist) at a possible $330M !.

Miranda Kerr-looking fabulous

New mum Miranda Kerr and hubby Orlando Bloom attended the "Alexander McQueen : Savage Beauty" Costume Institute Gala at the New York's Metropolitian Museum last Monday as our exclusive pic from PatrickMcmullan.com shows.
See much more at Patrick McMullan's on-line magazine PMc.

All photographs by Chance Yeh for Patrick McMullan Company (c) 2011

Diana: the gift that keeps on giving

Brisbane based writer John Morgan has published the latest in a long line of Princess Diana death books claiming that Diana’s post-mortem samples were switched with those of another woman.

He says that the cover-up could only have been ordered by The Queen.

Morgan says in the UK Daily Express that : "There is a lot of evidence which points to the toxicology testing being carried out on samples that did not come from the body of Princess Diana,... and that the documents were, along with others, withheld from the inquest jury"

"The evidence I have studied indicates that there are two lots of samples. One belongs to Diana, which is held by the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Paget, and the other lot are samples from another body and held by Charing Cross Hospital.

“Diana’s UK post-mortem samples were switched ahead of the toxicology testing.”

“I am asking why?” So are we. It seems that Diana had been drinking on the fateful night and this is a possible reason as according to a Fulham mortuary worker her "stomach smelled strongly of alcohol".

But then Diana's body was supposedly embalmed in France before it was returned to London. And why was a mortuary attendant sniffing around Diana's stomach ?

All these questions and more maybe answered in "Diana Inquest: Part 4: The British Cover-Up "
apparently the fourth volume in the saga.

Needless to say the tome has been warmly received by Mohamed Fayed who calls the book "heroic".

Tupou IV

Fayed has reportedly backed a 90-minute film "Unlawful Killing," by British actor and director Keith Allen which contains a "shocking "photo of a dying Diana which will be shown for the first time. Despite the fact the snap can be viewed on the interent and really isn't  all that shocking.

 Diana conspiracies have become Mohamed Fayed's raison d'être and he has accused Prince Phillip in the past of conspiring to murder Diana and Dodi.

Just 2 weeks ago at the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton ,  royal 'watcher' James Whittaker was reporting live for the Nine network when he announced the arrival of Dodi Fayed at Westminster Abbey.


Fayed

"I mean Mohamed Fayed" he soon corrected himself, and then commented how gracious it was that the royal family had invited the hapless former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi who died with Diana in the Paris smash.

The portly figure in a morning suit and bedecked with medals was in fact, Tupou IV, the King of Tonga.

William's grandmother HRH The Queen was crowned in 1953 and one guest was Tupou's grandmother, the enormous girthed Queen Salote of Tonga who held an umbrella aloft shielding her and an aide as they travelled in a coach to Buck House in the pouring rain.

Princess Marina who was watched the passing parade with the writer Noel Coward asked who she was.
"Queen Salote" said Coward.
"And who is that with her ?" said Marina. " her lunch " responded Coward !

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Famous Last Words:
As the shenanigans of the enterprising Ibrahim family-owners of nightclubs and unidentified enterprises, plays out in the media and the courts- now with 2 nights of gun shots being pumped into various Ibrahim abodes by unknown would be assassins, we noted the words of a NSW Detective commenting on the mayhem.

Fadi Ibrahim is currently appearing in the Central Criminal Court, alleged to have conspired to bump off a man who he believed was one of the hooded men who pumped a dozen bullets into he and his girlfriend as they sat in a Lamborghini outside his North side house two years ago.

"This isn't acceptable" said the copper outside the court "and I advise the Ibrahim family to keep a very low profile so they go about their business unnoticed" while in the background, the diminutive Fadi in a snappy Italian suit and mirrored sunglasses clambered into a brand new silver, million dollar Rolls Royce Phantom!

Chef Goes Bananas !

Courtney Act & Danni Minogue at Aria

Is it all a stunt ?. It's certainly a wonderful promotion for Masterchef now in it's 4th season and driving us all witless as we sit munching on our baked beans and watch amateurs produce sensational dishes.

Chef Matt Moran who is now a fixture on the show has thrown a tizzy and it could become a youtube hit (with our help)

Moran owns Aria, one of Australia's smartest restaurants over-looking the Sydney Opera House. His food is simply to die for and the Shuttle will go to the opening off a pantry door if it's at Aria just to sample the hors d'ouvres.

The last shindig a few weeks ago was a promotion for Danni Minogue's TV show and the previous party late last year was a super secret bash for the Queen of TV Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey who was staying at the nearby Hotel Interontinetal also rented an apartment above Aria in the infamous 'Toaster' Building. She used the apartment to dine on several nights with Matt preparing some of his world famous dishes.

Here's Matt doing a Gordon Ramsey:



Update : as we correctly guessed..a stunt !. All for a good cause by http://www.ozharvest.org/ to highlight food wastage.

The giveaway- despite Matt's superb acting skills, when the camera pans around the crew as Moran storms off. It's something we see in every fake 'reality' TV show ala The Office.

Madame Arcati Returns From The Ether

It truly was a case of  "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated ". The popular British blog Madame Arcati disappeared one day only to reappear a week later.

Just as the website's alter ego Victor Olliver announced the launch of his new astrology consultancy  website, his much feared Arcati site vanished into thin air. In it's place was an announcement from Google saying there was no such entity called Madame Arcati.

But a collective sigh of relief from the reptiles of London's tabloids was just a tad  premature. An earlier victory that saw an Adult Content page to be clicked 'yes' or 'no' as a pre-requisite to enter the site had already backfired as readers flocked to see what lay beyond.

And not only did the website suddenly reappear seemingly from an alternative universe, it seems the mighty Conde Nast publishing empire has bowed to Madame's demand to remove an interview with the wife of Syria's president and the countries 'first lady' Asma al-Assad, that was featured on the US Vogue website.

Asma al Assad

In the piece that has now vanished Vogue hackette Joan Juliet Buck enthused : 'Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East,' It is 'a place without bombings, unrest, or kidnappings.'

Perhaps Joan hadn't visited  Damascus where reports arrive daily of anti-government demonstrators being slaughtered by plain clothes government thugs.

In place of the Vogue article is an "OOPS the PAGE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR CANNOT BE FOUND !.

Which is basically what Google said about Madame Arcati just last week!.

"safest country in the Middle East"

MA is obviously not  a woman not to be trifled with ! Read Madame Arcati here .

And as the The International Committee of the Red Cross calls for better humanitarian access to Syria, check out The Sun newspaper's  'Sexy Brit bringing Syria in from the cold' which describes Ms Assad as "not the average Arab dictator's wife" !

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On a brighter note the Sydney Morning Herald's 'PS' column announces that Little Miss Eden Wood may be on her way to Australia. If you haven't yet been exposed to this shining talent, here is the little madam singing Cutie Patootie. Yikes !