Naomi Watts at The NYC Ballet

                               With photographs by Patrick McMullan www.patrickmcmullan.com

When actors Attack! Naomi Watts & Sarah Jessica Parker go for each other's throats

WHILE  her co-star from the film Edgar, Leonardo DiCaprio is winning hearts and minds in Sydney on the set of The Great Gatsby, Aussie actress Naomi Watts has been hitting the social circuit in New York. Last week she attended the world premiere of Paul McCartney's Ocean Kingdom for the New York City Ballet 2012 Fall Gala, McCartney's first original orchestral score for dance.

Stella McCartney, Naomi Watts, Sarah Jessica ParkerJessica Seinfeld

Apart from Edgar ( a surety for Oscar nominations ) due for release in 2012, Watts has two films due around the same time -The Impossible and Movie 43 a comedy with Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and Uma Thurmann.

Critics haven't been too kind to McCartney with his first ballet score. The Huff Post says it's "a ballet not much worth cheering" and of the A-List opening night crowd "Every single person in that theater ... is there for one reason -- not for the ballet, because of Paul ".

Paul McCartney & Nancy Shevell

The New York Time's says “Ocean’s Kingdom,” is in no way an important addition to the corpus of ballet music, but it deserves a better staging than the one it’s been given by New York City Ballet."

The New York Observer says : "Ocean’s Kingdom is a fairy story with no subtext, no resonance—it’s not about anything except its water-logged plot. " Ouch!. 

James McCartney & Lorne Michaels

Still, the after party was great fun from all reports and that's what matters to us here on the Shuttle.

Dylan Lauren, Ralph Lauren, Ricky Lauren, David Lauren

The event was a family affair with Paul's kids  Stella McCartney and James there to cheer on their dad's show as was soon-to-be bride Nancy Shevell.
 Also on hand, a host of Laurens with the newly married David Lauren and his dad Ralph Lauren.

Paul McCartney takes a bow at the opening night of Ocean Kingdom

All photographs by Patrick McMullan (C) www.patrickmcmullan.com

Poppy, Paris, J.K & Anne

Poppy Montgomery

Press Association (c)

As Chancellor of Edinburgh University, Princess Anne was on hand too present Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling with a Benefactors Award.
Rowling donated $15M to the University to establish a new Multiple Sclerosis (MS)unit. Rowing is pretty generous with her donations but considering she has an $1B fortune she can probably afford to be. Her mother died of MS in 1990.  It was on a slow train journey that she conceived of the idea of Potter traveling to a Hogwarts. Which gives a whole new meaning to British rail delays.

Hilton giving the money while she was in Mumbai.PIC/SATYAJIT DESAI

Meanwhile Australian actress Poppy Montgomery is to play Rowling in an unauthorised bio-pic of the writer detailing her rise to fame from an impoverished single mum to the world's richest author.

And Paris Hilton has caused a family squabble when she handed a $100 note to a beggar in Mumbai. The unfortunate lady who handed it to her brother-in-law to exchange for local currency set off a fight that ended with the note being torn into pieces.

Paris just tweeted :

ParisHilton 

How can I reach this woman & send her even more in her currency? Can whoever interviewed her tweet me please? 

1 hour ago

 

See, even party girls have their little problems. 

Heroic Broadcaster Of The Week

Mark Esterhuysen- Junior News anchor/ desk editor at Primedia Broadcasting




Quick biog :Mark worked as a lifeguard at Sun City  before heading to the UK where I worked as an activity instructor for young children.
He then worked as a waiter at a four star restaurant in Rock, Cornwall before also waiting tables in Looe Cornwall. Upon beginning tertiary education at the University of Pretoria, he began work as a news anchor at community radio station Tuks FM 107.2.. as a Pedi and Zulu tutor for the African Languages Department of UP. .. a Spanish-English interpreter for a Mexican tour group during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and until today  a news anchor at Eyewitness News in Johannesburg.

Read his blog here . Let's make him a star!

Cate Blanchett Talks About The Future

Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton are one of the great theatre success stories. Not only has their marriage remained strong but their ability to work together has been a spectacular success for the Sydney Theatre Company.

With two major plays under their belts-A Streetcar Named Desire and Uncle Vanya, both of which wowed audiences in Australia and the USA where hard bitten critics on the Washington Post and the New York Times heaped praise upon the productions, the pair have also attracted major sponsors to the struggling theatre company including fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

They have just announced the 2012 season and there are some surprises in store with some old favourites re-surfacing including Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood opening in May with the mellifluous tones of actor Jack Thompson.

Jacqueline McKenzie

In January Peter Evans presents a bold new production of George Bernard Shaw’s enduring classic of wicked wordplay Pygmalion with Jessica Marais playing Eliza Doolittle.

Two of Australia’s most respected actors, Pamela Rabe and Hugo Weaving ( who acted in Uncle Vanya) play the deliciously deviant Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses while the Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre's Sex With Strangers opens in September with Jacqueline McKenzie.
You can book tickets here.

Cate and Andrew also spoke to Richard Glover on the ABC's Drivetime show about their theatre work and the recent attacks upon Cate when she openly backed a Climate Change tax. Cate also revealed her first acting inspiration was seeing the great Melbourne stage actor Frank Thring (left) on stage and thought that if she could get away with playing Bob Dylan, she thought she could play Thring in a biopic about his life.

 Irreverent/ Irrelevant facts :
# The Shuttle attended the premiere of Don't Look Now and sat behind Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. They chatted all the way through the film until Cate appeared on screen.
# Frank Thring's father Frank W.Thring invented the clapperboard, still used in film making today.
# Frank Thring appeared in numerous Australian movies including Ned Kelly (1970), Skippy (1968) and Mad Max (1985) but was in demand for Hollywood costume epics where he acted in El Cid, The Vikings, Hercules Returns, King Of Kings where plays Herod and Ben Hur where he played Pontius Pilate.

Here is a clip recorded not long before Frank died in 1994 with him at his best :

Finally : Why Cranky Frankie Spat The Dummy

Frank & Barbara

It was 1973 and Frank Sinatra had arrived in Australia for a tour. Within a day all hell had broken loose and Frank suddenly found himself holed up in the presidential suite of the Boulevard Hotel in Kings Cross.

Unions around the country had joined forces and refused to service Sinatra's tour which included stage hands and local musicians.  Airline refuelers refused to service Sinatra's jet and traffic controllers said they would walk off if his jet attempted to leave . Taxi drivers. limousine drivers even the hotel staff including room service refused to attend to Sinatra's needs.

Dennis Hopper as Sinatra

Frank Sinatra was stranded in Australia for the foreseeable future. 

The previous night Sinatra had given a concert and began to discuss the Australian media with the audience. He called female reporters "$2 hookers" and that's when the ban began. The incident was made into a film - The Night We Called It a Day produced by Oscar winner Emile Sherman with the late Dennis Hopper playing Sinatra and Joel Edgerton the young show biz promoter who lured him to the Antipodes.

Bob Hawke

Eventually the trade union boss and later prime minister Bob Hawke brokered a deal after a day's drinking with Sinatra and his manager Mickey Rudin (with the Boulevard's room service attendants relenting to deliver liqueur at Hawke's request). Sinatra agreed to give a charity concert and apologise. He gave the concert but not the apology and when his jet taxied down the Mascot runway the following day traffic controllers ordered "abort abort" but Sinatra ordered his pilot to ignore them and the jet departed for San Francisco.

Sinatra's widow Barbara Sinatra ( played by Melanie Griffith in the film) has finally told her version of the story in her book My Life With Frank Sinatra and  revealed new details although they have been hinted at for years but never before written about.. And it appears Frank may have had good reason to insult journalists.

A female writer for a popular magazine  talked hotel staff into letting her into Sinatra's suite claiming she was Barbara Sinatra. She confronted Sinatra in his bedroom while he was resting and fired off numerous questions while trying to take a photo on a small camera. Sinatra went ballistic and yelled at her to get out of the room.

As the journalist later told friends he said "I didn't order a fucking hooker and if I had it wouldn't be a dog like you now get the fuck out of here ". The hackette said "you may as well answer a few questions now I'm here" at which Sinatra yelled "you're nothing but a godadammned cheap hooker" and flung some notes from his pocket at her. The journalist, now realising retreat was the only option grabbed one note as a souvenir-an Australian $2 note-briefly wondered if he would autograph it but thinking better of it, stuffed it in her pocket and fled.

That night she witnessed the storm she created when Frankie went on stage and referred to her (and others) as "$2 hookers!"

Here is some rare footage of the media chasing Frank :


Here's Old Blue Eyes with The Lady Is A Tramp :

Love Is Dead With Accused Back Behind Bars

Despaillieres with Elton John & Peter Ikin

A report in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald confirms that Alexandre Despallieres, suspected of being involved in the sudden death of popular Australian Warner Music executive Peter Ikin has been re-arrested and is back behind bars.

As the Shuttle exclusively reported Despallieres was released on bail in March this year after spending ten months in jail while Ikin's death is being investigated. Ikin, a friend of Rod Stewart and Elton John died in a Paris hotel in 2008 not long after marrying Despallieres in a civil ceremony.

The 42 year old Frenchman had Ikin's body cremated and obtained probate on Ikin's estate in a London court and set out on a spending spree purchasing  luxury sports cars for he and his co-accused Jeremy Billen.

A relative of Ikin's  challenged the validity of that will and a settlement was reached out of court with Despallieres relinquishing his claim on Ikin's $20M estate.

Enter Elton John's ex-manager John Reid a long time friend of Ikin's who commissioned an investigation in France which resulted in the arrest of Despallieres and Billen.

According the SMH article Despallieres who once had a hit record L'amour a Mort (Love Is Dead) in France had failed to meet the strict conditions of his bail and temporarily went missing, finally being arrested by French police who traced him via his mobile phone.
During his 6 months release he had launched himself into Paris nightlife and has been posting videos onto his YouTube account . He also has a photographic website that has snaps of him in happier days with Ikin, John Reid, Elton John and others.

For now, Despallieres is back again in Fresnes Prison, a gloomy establishment outside Paris ( once run by the Gestapo) while a magistrate considers the evidence against him.

Did The Terminator Murder Lord Lucan?

JUST when you thought it was safe to venture onto the streets of Britain clutching your mobile phone and listening to your hack-free voicemail messages comes news that the News Of The World has re-surfaced as newsoftheworldonline.eu an Internet newspaper that looks like continuing in the finest tradition of the late great Sunday tabloid put to rest by James Murdoch.

And it has some extraordinary news stories worthy of that great organ that specialised in errant vicars dabbling with choir boys and so on.

For instance the lead story claims the former Governator of California and famous movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been the monster who bashed an innocent nanny to death on the staircase of a Belgravia townhouse, mistaking her for Lady Lucan, and then in order to cover up his crime, murdered the infamous Lord Lucan, gathered up his body and dumped it in the grave he had earlier prepared for the body of the good Lady.

Diane Passage

And there the Lord has lain since-not as previous theories have claimed, hiding out in Goa, Bali, South Africa or Zimbabwe. Murdered by the Terminator who it's claimed, worked as a gambling debt collector in London in 1970s.

Publisher of the NOTW online is the colourful  Gionvanni di Steffano (a solicitor for Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi) and the editor is Michael Biggs, son of the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs. 
 In fact the entire editorial staff of notwonline could be called 'colourful' including the food writer Hudi Hoggi, astrologer Mystic Margaret and the dashing young Royal writer Ian Strachan ( so close to the Royal Family that he has just been a guest of Her Majesty for the last few years).

There is a Society column written by Birgit Cunningham who manages a quite dizzying round of cocktail parties and a Security & Diplomatic contributor-our favourite former Monte Carlo spy master Robert Eringer  (see the Shuttle ).

Fred & Zsa Zsa

The USA Entertainment Editor is the very glamorous Diane Passage whose former career was as a stripper at the infamous Scores strip joint in New York.
Regular Shuttle readers may recall Scores is where Labor Foreign Minster spokesman and committed Christian Kevin Rudd MP dallied one night with Col Allan editor of the Murdoch tabloid New York Post, a scandal that surfaced co-incidentally just before his election as Prime Minster in 2007. Some say the publicity is what got him over the line.

But the piéce de résistance must  be the contributing US Show Business Editor, our favorite European noble Prince Frederic von Anhalt who in his spare time doubles as the husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Sadly Prinz Fred has only filed one show-biz report to newsoftheworldonline but his own life is far more exciting. Readers may recall he was found a few years ago naked and handcuffed to the steering wheel of his own Rolls Royce after a dispute with some ladies who stole his wallet. Others may recall that Freddie claimed to be the father of the baby of the late Anna Nicole Smith even though many say the former masseur "bats for the other team"

While poor Zsa Zsa at 94 years old languishes  in hospital minus a leg, the Prince's website brings us the news that David Hasslehoff's ex-wife Pamela Bach has offered her uterus for Freddy and Zsa Zsa's use  in order an heir may be produced.

Ronnie Biggs

There's even a choice quote from Ms Bach's representatives on Prince Freddy : "we refuse to acknowledge the ramblings of this delusional man who has done nothing more than plant a fictional tale in a desperate attempt for attention ". 

There is a nice symmetry to the stories carried by newsoftheworldonline including the claim former British government minister John Stonehouse (who was arrested in Australia after he faked his own death-initially on suspicion of being Lord Lucan) was the mastermind of the Great Train Robbery in which the online newspaper editor's father Ronnie was a participant.
Rebekah Brooks -eat you heart out !

They're Young And Rich

Blue Hotel

BRW magazine threw a bash last night to introduce the 2011 Young Rich (those under 40 years old).

The well padded Nathan Tinkler 35 comes in tops at $1.13B mainly built from coal deposits. Tinkler is moving into the must haves for the young rich- a stable of horses with his $300M Patinack Farm.

BRW editor Kate Mills introduces the Young Rich 100

Sporting stars packing away the dollars in the bank : tennis ace Leyton Hewitt with $35M, soccer's Harry Kewell with $55M, Formula One driver Mark Webber with $37M while Pat Rafter struggles by on just $26M.

Annie & Mike Cannon Brookes

Sass & Bide's Heidi Middleton and Sarah Jane-Clarke who are showing their fashions this week in London at the Royal Opera House are hoping to add to their wealth of $26M while cosmetics queen Natalie Bloom's empire has built her a fortune estimated at $36M.

Also in London, good looking hedge fund wunderkid Greg Coffey is rated as the third richest Aussie in Britain with his whopping $743M fortune while Steven Kalmin of Glencoe International, now Zurich based has $458M.

Dot com whiz kids and software kings are well represented but the top two must be Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquar with their $360M. And they say they aren't in it for the money!.

Lydia & Eugeni Tsvetnenko- Sydney needs you!

But how do we entice our very own budding Russian born oligarch Eugeni Tsvetnenko and his $115M to move from Perth to Sydney?. Eugeni who has made his money from a host of enterprises that include mobile phone texting services and an artificial grass distribution service says he loves nightlife and would party on even if he was broke. We insist he grabs his glamorous socialite wife Lydia, clambers on board that luxurious Lear jet of theirs and immediately move to the East Coast. Sydney needs you. Urgently.

Alika & David Brown-$38M

Young, rich. Sass & Bide

The party was held at one of the best locations, the sensational Blue Hotel in Woolloomooloo that has it's very own rich list of inhabitants including radio king John Laws and movie star Russell Crowe who occupy the twin duplex penthouses at the end of the pier. But they of course, are over 40 and considered oldies.

Harry Kewell : $55M

Nathan Tinkler : $1.13B

Jack Goes Gold

POCKET Rocket Jack Vidgen has just wowed 15 million viewers on America's Got Talent and as a result will be appearing in the Las Vegas shows for the US TV series later this year.

And his first CD  has just gone gold selling over 35000 copies. Last night he sang up a storm on X Factor as you can see in this power packed performance in the video below.

Sub-Edit Howlers #1-Comedy Legend Outed

Perhaps they were being kind and waiting until the death of his beloved wife Delores Hope who passed away yesterday at the grand age of 102.

The UK Daily Mail-as our picture shows- reveals possibly the USA's best kept show-biz secret : legendary comedian Bob Hope who died in 2003 (aged 100) was a cross-dresser.

  Why have their been no rumours ? The snap looks like it was taken for a fan magazine or perhaps the Ladies Home Journal.  Certainly London born Hope appears happy to pose for the readers in sensible shoes, matching skirt and top with a jaunty scarf casually draped around the shoulders.

So much more fashionable than Bob Hope's great friend J.Edgar Hoover (they were both fans of right wing politics) a cross dresser who was forever embarrassing his live-in lover Clyde Tolson.

They would holiday in Florida at Mafia owned hotels and J.Edgar loved nothing more than sitting pool-side wearing cheap make-up, a ridiculous blond Jean Harlow style wig and a gaudy sun frock while flirting with black waiters.
F.B.I motto : A G-Man always gets his man!

Here is a small film on J.Edgar. We're looking forward to seeing Leonardo DiCaprio playing the G-Man in Edgar.

J.Edgar in a pill-box hat

                                               *************************************
On the subject of Leonardo DiCaprio- our spy disguised as an aspidistra on the set of The Great Gatsby currently being filmed at Fox Studios says there has been great hilarity amongst the cast with reports that  Leo, rake thin and 5'10", has a  bodyguard who stands at 6'4" and is "built like a brick sh*t house" who has been described as DiCaprio's "decoy" double to fool the paparazzi.
                                                                                                        
And no more so than Leo himself who was both mortified and amused that the bruiser would be mistaken for him.

And who was the offending paparazzo that sent an annoyed DiCaprio and co-star Tobey McGuire plus family back to shore only minutes into what was to be a relaxing Sunday afternoon harbour cruise when Leo spotted a boat following and a long lens poking his way ?

Step forward Jamie Fawcett (right)-scourge of Nicole Kidman and assorted slebs.

2 Tickets to Vivienne Westword for £999999.00

Two tickets to Vivenne Westwood's  Gold Label catwalk in Paris (Spring/Summer 2012 collection) at 6:30pm on 30th September 2011... the exact venue to be announced just before the show.
That's the ebay item on sale right now to aid Wikileak's founder Julian Assange,

The starting bid is £850 or you can buy them for £8500 but the seller values them at just under a million pounds!. Sadly, no bids yet and just a little over 3 days to go.

Also for sale :  Julian's prison coffee, signed and fingerprinted (smuggled out by him)- 9 bids and currently £255, signed photos of Assange, books, a signed John Pilger poster and a gold "60 Minutes Challenge Coin" donated by US 60 Minutes reporter Howard Rosenberg.

Most of the items were donated to Julian at his recent 40th birthday. Start bidding here. 

update : Guy Pearce Wins-A Murdoch Gives Award

Anna Torv

Both Guy Pearce and Kate Winslet have won Emmys for their roles in the re-make of the 40's classic Mildred Pierce.

Anna Torv (who The Daily Beast reckons was 'snubbed' of an Emmy nomination along with her co-star Aussie actor John Noble ) from the hit TV series Fringe presented Guy with his award.

Anna is the daughter of Queensland radio network owner Hans Torv and the niece of Anna Murdoch Mann the former wife of Rupert Murdoch and mother of his children James. Lachlan and  Elisabeth.

Anna, named after her aunt is particularly close to her and regularly visits her in New York.



Kate Winslet at the 2011 Emmys