First Fiji-Now Kings Cross

SYDNEY GIRL-ABOUT-TOWN SHARON SARGEANT has returned to Sydney after holidaying in Fiji for the past week at the uber Jean-Michel Cousteau Islands Resort, the luxurious hotel that has cabins stretching along it's own palm fringed beach.


 


The Shuttle's local spy disguised as a fallen coconut managed to grab a few shots of the fun loving Shazza on the beach despite the hotel's boast that armed guards roam the grounds to keep prying eyes at bay and celebrities feeling safe to frolic in the sea au naturel, just as Sharon was (we've had to censor the snaps for our family readers).


Our local contact says the only time he spotted Ms Sargeant's escort, the famous private eye Frank Monte was once in the hotel's restaurant deep in conversation over lunch with a large important looking Fijian man who arrived and left with a military escort. What could he be up to?.The mind boggles!.

Kings Cross

But it's Ms Sargeant's activities over the past few days that has spiked the Shuttle's curiosity. Sharon was spotted on Sunday and Monday inspecting a number of vacant business premises in Kings Cross with a local real estate agent in tow. 

Apparently she was dressed far more demurely than usual and carrying a briefcase (albeit..a Louis Vuitton one) of papers, looking very business-like and  jotting down particulars of the properties she was looking at. What on earth is she up to ?. To date, our telephone messages left for Shazza haven't been returned.

Society Surgeon's Wrist Slap

SYDNEY SURGEON Michael Zacharia, a favourite nip and tuck doctor in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs has been fined $15,000 for prescribing steroids, growth hormones and testosterone by the NSW Medical Tribunal.

It's quite a blow for the talented doctor who is a regular on TV shows like Extreme Makeover and is regularly consulted by glossy magazines like Cleo and Woman's Day.
Society ladies ( and quite a few men) swear by Zacharia's ability to lose a few years off the face with minimal surgery that looks like the patient has just been on a long relaxing holiday.

One well know partygoer on the Sydney social circuit who spoke to the Shuttle today (we know she's 59 years old but easily gets away with 40) said : "Michael is the best plastic and cosmetic surgeon in town. He is a very caring and thoughtful doctor who talked me out of some heavy surgery I wanted and eventually did the most minor things. And it took at least ten years of my looks!"

Michael and his wife Stephanie Zacharia burst onto the Sydney scene about 15 years ago after re-locating from Adelaide and were an instant success as a new young glamour couple on the circuit.
For a few years Stephanie published the Australian version of Ocean Drive, the top US celebrity and social magazine from Miami.

Although the two have now parted ways they are still good friends and Michael has been building a steady clientele from the North Shore and in the East.

Michael thinks he is being made a scapegoat and is quoted saying : "I have had this issue placed against me but really there are lots of other doctors who are performing exactly what I was doing - thousands of other doctors both here and over in America"

Oddly, the drugs Zacharia prescribed are easily available on script in the USA and UK but Australia's medical profession is known for it's conservatism and for frowning on drugs that patients may actually like (doctors fought for years to be able to prescribe Prozac and Viagra).
                                              **************************

Fourteen year old Jack Vidgen has been telling his Fcaebook friends about his current trip to the USA . Jack is holidaying in New York for a week before heading to Los Angelas for the G'Day Australia celebrations there later this month :

"New York is INSANE!!! It's incredible.. Went to New Jersey today and checked out 'Carlo's Bake Shop' (from the show Cake Boss) and there was about a half-hour wait to even get into the bakery.. Then caught the Subway back to Times Square (this scary looking guy kept staring at me and I got freaked out lol). I'm off to see 'WICKED' now.. I'm sure it'll be amazing!"

Scary looking guy on the subway?. Why isn't Sony providing a limo for their top selling, angelic looking young star ?

After winning Australia's Got Talent last year Vidgen also appeared in a star studded event in Las Vegas. He's also become a big star in South America and his Youtube videos have now received over 14 million hits.

                        

When Celebrity Support Pays

THE AY FAMILY, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, were detained for 13 months in 2002 as the British government attempted to return them to Germany, where they had first made a claim for asylum.

At the time the youngest, Medya, was just seven when the family were arrested and locked up in 2002, Dilovan was 11, Newroz was 12 and Beriwan was 13.

But the Ay family had some high profile backers who pledged to support them in the community including actor Colin Firth, Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling and Australia's Oscar winning writer Tom Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark which was made into the film Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg,  the Devils Playground the film based on Keneally's life story, and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.

JK Rowling

Keneally, who trained to be a Catholic priest has been a long time supporter of asylum seekers both in Australia and abroad and now after a ten year campaign the four Ay children have settled out of court last week for a compensation claim rumoured to be in the high six figures.

Since their election, the Coalition government of David Cameron has pledged to end the practice of locking up child refugees.

In 2003 Keneally who lives on Sydney's Northern beaches said : "In a liberal democracy you can only maintain a policy of locking children up behind barbed wire by spreading lies and demonising the dispossessed of the earth. In the future, these children will tell their stories. There's bound to be literature that comes out of it, and people will gasp and say, 'How did that policy ever get through?'

Annnie Get Your Gun-Maria Gets Engaged!

SHE'S THE LARGER than life red carpet regular but buxom Maria Venuti shocked even the jaded press tonight when she announced that she was engaged as she arrived at the premiere of the musical Annie.

Maria introduced the tall dark stranger accompanying her as her 'fiance' and who are we to doubt her?.
The gentleman's name is Glen Ware and Glen looked slightly taken aback at the news as out favourite Italian song bird gushed and grabbed her man to her side.  Good luck Glenn !

Annie is back for another season at the Lyric Theatre in the newly re-vamped Star Casino.

As I and a guest were escorted through the vast auditorium of the casino itself which looks like it's about 5 acres in size and packed to the gills with craps and roulette tables and thousands of poker machines as far as the eye can see, we now know where everyone has gone. There must have been a few thousand gamblers entranced by the spinning wheels and flashing lights.

Wiggle Anthony Field and kids

Annie stars Anthony Warlow as Daddy Warbucks and Nancye Hayes as the villain Miss Hannigan plus Todd McKenney-the Dancing With Star's judge everyone loves to hate plus several little Annies. And with the return of the famed TV show Young Talent Time where such discoveries as Kylie Minogue and sister Danni got their start, another YTT star was on hand-Debra Byrne as she escorted her granddaughter who plays one of the 'Annies'.

John Foreman flashes the paparazzi

And what a treat-in the Sydney production we have our favourite shock jock Alan Jones playing FDR. That will take some acting from Alan as everyone knows he and FDR's politics would have to be diametrically opposed.

Annie is on until March 25th and it then tours the nation.Book tickets here.
Right-Debra Byrne and Lucille who plays Annie.

Below is and one of the numbers from the show courtesy of theTheatreShowTV.

Saucy Pics of Deborah Hutton

Womens Weekly has a nude photographic of TV personality Deborah Hutton on it's cover. Deb is looking pretty hot for someone who has just turned 50 (despite the claims the snap may have been airbrushed).

Hutton hasn't stop working since the 1980s when she was the cover girl for the Grace Bros emporiums (now Myer). At that time the speculation was that she was girlfriend of promoter Harry M.Miller. The two were often seen arm in  arm at social events.

But it was all a cover. Harry was Deb's manager for many years and steered her career from success to success. Deborah has never married and now shares an apartment with a gal pal Danni Roche. She's also become a property investor and has snapped up two flats that are being built in the old Harold Park site at Glebe.

Harry & Siimone

Sadly Harry M's health has been failing over the past two years since a stroke downed him and he spends more and more time in a Potts Point nursing home where other residents include former PM Gough Whitlam and TV star Jeannie Little.
Miller was the agent for the stars and once dated singer Shirley Bassey. His clients have included Lindey Chamberlain and Gae Waterhouse and in the 60s he brought some of the world's top acts to Australia including the Rolling Stones and Louis Armstrong.

In his 2009 autobiography he revealed how Prince Charles had confided over dinner that he always believed Australia would and should become a republic one day. Two or three times a week Harry lunches with long time partner Siimone Logue at her Potts Point restaurant. Sadly the two rarely make it to red carpet openings these days,

The Social Shuttle Scoops The World!

 We sat this one out as we watched the world's media breathlessly report the Twitter words of Wendi Deng supposedly responding to hubby Rupert Murdoch's odd witterings on the weird site Twitter (admittedly to which we belong) that brings you second by second the thoughts of hundreds of millions of folks in the first sign that the world is plunging into an era of information overload.

The Shuttle had already unmasked the phony Wendi and it really wasn't too difficult. If a staff of two part-timers and one dyslexic cat can do it, why can;t some of the world's most experienced media?.

Yesterday we hinted that the Deng Twitterer was a fake despite newspapers around the world claiming that News Ltd had .confirmed' she was for real. Read more in today's SMH.

Twittering about Rupert Murdoch

We here are counting the days and hours until the penny finally drops on the collective media who are perpetuating the fantasy that now Rupert Murdoch is on Twitter, he has been joined by Wendi Deng.

A minimum amount of research reveals the true twitterer in this case.
Wake up folks!

Tabloid Tales :"Kate's Pregnant!"

Daily Telegraph

Australia's top selling tabloid The Daily Telegraph (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) brings us the tale of how dozens of magazines world-wide have reported the false claim that Prince William's bride Kate is pregnant.

A 'staff writer' tells us how "a tally of incorrect US gossip mag covers shows their editors have made fake hay while the sun remained behind clouds this year" when reporting the non-existent pregnancies of Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and more.

These mad claims were brought undone when that US TV network of repute Fox News ( proprietor : Rupert Murdoch) compiled the list of glossy magazines which made the phoney claim.

Our staff writer even has a dig at the Oz glossy New Idea (referred to as No Idea by industry wags) which also fell for the Kate Middleton 'pregnancy' claim.

Alas, our News Corp scribe missed one small fact in his/her mention of the New Idea. Just who was the source for their claim?.

Step forward a 'royal photographer' who is interviewed for the cover piece that screams :
YES. KATE'S PREGNANT!...Exclusive interview with official royal photographer

New Idea

The snapper in question and "royal insider" is Arthur Edwards who gushed to New Idea :" Kate looked great but I just got a feeling she wasn't quite herself".

And just who does our 'royal insider' take his royal photographs for ? (from the press pen along with every other photographer)...why the popular top selling UK tabloid The Sun (proprietor : Rupert Murdoch)

UK Newspaper's Saucy Pic

It's one of the Shuttle's favourite newspapers in all the world-The Daily Mail in the UK and it's on-line version Mail Online. It's mixes gossipy tidbits about celebrities with saucy tales on the Royal Family, the usual Fleet Street 'outrages' in line with it's right wing policies condemning welfare 'scroungers' (usually pointing out they may well be Polish) heady beat-ups about the lack of Laura Norder (law and order) with dozens of colourful photographs delivered in an easy to read snappy formula with great graphics.

And that's probably why the Mail Online gets around 30 million readers a month.

A current feature brings us a series of fascinating colour photographs in an article titled : 
Bygone times: Incredible colour photos from the early 20th century which capture a world on the brink of permanent change.

It's a series of fascinating snaps taken by Frenchmen Albert Kahn in 1909, over a century ago. What is different about these pictures is that they are in colour and give us a much more accessible feel of the era as demonstrated in the pictures below.


We particularly like the snap of the West African villagers who as the caption explains had probably "never seen a camera before". Indeed, and as our blow-up shows, the camera had an extraordinary effect upon the villagers!

West African Villagers

West African Villagers spot camera for first time

Clive James on Queen's Honours List

Sydney born Clive James, author, poet and broadcaster has received a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) medal for services to Literature and the Media in the Queen's New Years Honours List.

Other show biz recipients include comedian Ronnie Corbet and actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Read the full list here.

A Bumpy Year & A Bieber Baby

The 2012 predictions are flowing in and the usual catastrophes await us-floods, typhoons etc as well as our old favourite Nostradamus predicting the beginning of WW3.

The New York Post's Cindy Adams says Justin Bieber will become a dad for real and Prince William and Kate become parents (that organ of repute Woman's Day says likewise but that 'medical intervention' will be needed)
The famous Edgar Cacye had lots to say about 2012 including that the entire West Coast of the USA will disappear (presumably in an earthquake) and that New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be destroyed as will Japan! Another tsunami ?. How accurate was Cacye ? Some of his predictions for 2012 have been uncanny having happened this year including turmoil in Lybia,. Egypt and Syria.

The BBC's Diplomatic Correspondent James Robbins says Assad's regime in Syria will fall in '12. Meanwhile Henry Deedes in the RightMinds blog in the MailOnline says Barack Obama will win again in 2012 (even I could have predicted that) but Jeremy Clarkson will be embroiled in another scandal when he calls Obama the Mad Mullah.

The howtosurvive.net website has bad news for us here in Australia. We're facing a 7000 ft tidal wave! Time to sell that harbor side property and move to Ulhuru.

The Psychic Twins Terri &Linda Jamison who it's claimed warned about the 9/11 attacks two years before they happened have a pretty good track record. They reckon 2012 will be a 'calm' year in the video below. No tsunamis. No 7000ft tidal wave. Phew.
They reckon however that Britney Spears will be working on a new album. Amazing !

As for the Shuttle-we predict tons more champagne parties in 2012, lots more gossip and scandal involving celebrities, politicians and business figures plus love affairs that begin and end. And when have we ever been wrong? . Happy New Year!

Paramedic Mick Wilson Family Appeal

 Ever had to call the Paramedics ?. And been soo thankful when they arrive?. We at The Shuttle have as have most of our family members.
Astonishingly Paramedics cannot get life insurance because of their dangerous work.

Mick Wilson, 41, died when a helicopter winch line he was attached to was cut during the rescue of two canyoners at Carrington Falls, southwest of Wollongong, on Christmas Day.
The Wilson family has launched an appeal to assist his surviving wife Kellie and their three children.
Supporters can donate at any Commonwealth Bank branch.
Mick Wilson Family Appeal
BSB 062-177Account 10247793

Give as little or as much as you can to support Mick's family and show your gratitude for the work he did for all of us. We have !