NY Photographer Honoured

The career of the legendary New York snapper Bill Cunningham , now 81 years old, was celebrated when he was awarded a Medal of Excellence at the Waldorf Astoria hotel at a charity gala that raised over a million dollars for Carnegie Hall's Well Music Institute.

Bill &Anna Wintour

Cunningham is one of the last residents of the few apartments in Carnegie Hall and he has been a fixture on New York streets and at fashion shows and parties for decades.

The movie on his life (trailer below) should be required watching for the coterie of Aussie publicists who often exude a demeanour far grander than their clients and armed with their precious 'communications' degrees, really have no clue what the business is all about.
Sydney must be one of the few major cities of the world where the unkempt aggressive paparazzi are taken seriously by many publicists and public relations 'experts'.

Sarah Jessica Parker

At red carpets openings. movie premiers and such  the press pen will be packed with ghastly paparazzi - the same snappers who prowl the streets and beaches of Sydney, are aggressive, rude and have nil interest in their subject apart from the few dollars that may be made from a picture.

There are probably four genuine photojournalists in Sydney who operate like Cunningham , who have respect for the people they photograph yet are shouldered aside by the bores of the pap world. These snappers tend to like getting to know their subject, often chatting to them and building up a rapport. The paps on the other hand are mostly filling their files with generic snaps of celebrities for future use.
 But who are we at the Shuttle with a combined 100 years of experience to tell these woolly newbies how to work?                              
 Photographs : www.patrickmcmullan.com

Colour & Movement from Camilla

Sydney's Mercedes Fashion Weak Week is upon us again. Never mind that the star designers have done a bunk, there's till a load of aspiring newbies willing to stump up 60 grand to show their wares.

 Here are a  few shots from today's parade with the ever so nice Camilla Franks (right) who whips up these wondrous floaty caftans. Zillionaire Gina Rinehart and Oprah Winfrey buy them by the dozen:

 Caftans for blokes (right)

(left) Cardboard cut-out hats-a must.




(right) Where to carry your boomerang-why didn't I think of that?







(below) Caftans For Kids

the Seal Of Approval from Oprah.

Capt.Clive of The Titanic 11

Just when politics was getting boring with the 'scandals' surrounding Speaker Peter Slipper allegedly sexually harassing a male staffer and Labor's Craig Thompson resigning over endless claims a union credit card was used at the Sydney bordello A Touch Of Class having gone off the boil.

Now, comes news that our favourite mining billionaire the portly Clive Palmer has set up a new shipping company called Blue Star Line and the announcement that he has commissioned a Chinese shipping company to build a replica Titanic for his tourism company and that he will stand at the next Federal election for the seat of Treasurer Wayne Swann.

Palmer worth a reputed $4B was the mastermind of a campaign in 2009 to scupper then PM Kevin Rudd's plans for a mining tax that would raise a billion dollars a year. Along with fellow mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, Palmer held a rally in a Perth park claiming the tax would be the ruin of us all. After his success in watering down the tax he celebrated by buying 55 favored employees each a new Mercedes SUV  for Christmas.

Palmer says the Titanic 11 will be 'unsinkable' and that "you don't have to be too clever to be a politician"!. Quite.

Memorable Freudian Slips at Leveson # 1

Under questioning from Robert Jay QC at the Leveson Inquiry : famed Australian/American media mogul Rupert Murdoch who promised editorial independence to Margaret Thatcher's government during his 1981 successful bid to takeover  the Times Newspapers and thus avoided the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, responds to Jay's inference that he may influence politicians:

 

“If any politician wanted to know what I think, they only had to read the editorials”

Madame Arcati Scoops the World-by 12 months

It was exactly 12 months ago that the famed British blogger Madame Arcati drew our attention to an interview with the wife of the Syrian president,  Asma al-Assad in US Vogue, declaring it in bad taste as demonstrating Syrians were being massacred by security forces. Shortly after the Arcati story, the article disappeared from Vogue's website.:
                                  
 "Vogue keeps up Asma al-Assad interview as Syria burns

While the Syrian government massacres its revolting peasants, I see that US Vogue has still yet to take down its recent ghastly and fawning interview with Asma al-Assad, Syria's 'dynamic first lady' who is on a 'mission to create a beacon of culture and secularism.' She should import the BBC's resident proselytising atheist Prof Brian Cox to help her out."

                                                                                           

Now the fabled Washington Post has just caught up to speed, 12 months after Madame Arcati's scoop.
Read the story as re-produced in the Sydney Morning Herald here and Madame Arcati's original posts here
                                           ****************************************


 Two days ago we asked who was the famous brother of the person in the snap we published.
The answer was Kevin Spacey.

 The pic was of his older brother Randy Fowler who runs the Rod's Limo Hire company in Boise Idaho.
You can see the family resemblence-can't you? :

Fool's Gold Coast

Michael & Donrecka Issakidies

For about 4 years they were a fixture around Sydney at all the right parties, shop openings and soirees. Noticeable for their 'his and hers" matching gold Rolls Royce's.

And then they seemed to vanish. It appears businessman Michael Issakidis and his glamorous blond wife Donrecka had decamped to the glittering Gold Coast in Queensland.

John Burgess

Yesterday Australian Federal Police and investigators from the tax office seized $40million in assetts from Issakides and a business partner during raids, including the Issakides Gold Coast mansion, another in Sydney, 4 Rolls Royce's and 4 other luxury cars along with two motor cruisers.

Issakidis had recently been in the media after he sued the TV game show host 'Baby' John Burgess and his wife Jan for $40,000 in rent owed on a 71st floor beach front Gold Coast apartment rented to Burgess. Now Mr Issakidis has been charged with conspiring to deal in proceeds of crime worth $63 million and defrauding the Australian Tax Office of tens of millions of dollars. If convicted the penalty can be up to 25 years in jail.

Scooping the British Tabloids: Clive James' Lover

A remarkable revelation on the tabloid TV show A Current Affair. Leanne Edlesten, former wife of famed medico Dr Geoffrey Edelsten had an eight year affair with writer Clive James.

She called him Mr Wolf because of the first time he 'ravished' her when they had sex and he called her Ms Hood, short for Little Red Riding Hood. Apparently they met in a Circular Quay restaurant and Leanne then joined Clive in his hotel room. She returned the following day and told him she was getting divorced. Clive jumped on her immediately.


Each time Clive returned to Sydney they would continue the affair.. Before and after sex they ate Cherry Ripes because James loves them so much. Clive James is 73 and lives in a basement flat in Cambridge after his wife threw him out when she discovered raunchy photos of Leanne on his computer.
 Edelesten says she has spoken up as she is sure the tale is about to be published in the British tabloids.

Geoffrey & new wife Brynne Edelsten

The Twitterati has gone crazy over the tale. One twit said "why is that lady bothering a senior citizen ?" referring to vision on ACA of Leanne confronting Clive at a Cambridge bus stop.

 Watch A Current Affair here.

Family Feud #1

He's like a fabulous cross between Liberace, Barry Manilow and Krusty The Clown. And he has a very famous brother who he doesn't always see eye to eye with. Can you guess who his more famous sibling is ?
He features in the video below (not the famous brother) :

Answer tomorrow.

Bachelors Galore!

Vogue Williams

Hayden Quinn

And so to the fabled Marquee nightclub that opened less than a month ago with "it" girl Paris Hilton and other assorted slebs like Will-I-Am.
 A chance to see what all the hullabaloo was about. Not much so it seems and for our UK readers, put it this way, the decor challenged nightclub would never be a threat to Peter Stringfellow. Perhaps 1980s design is all the rage again.

 



Cleo Magazine was hosting it's famous Bachelor of The Year event which means plenty of beefcake and lots of pretty gals at a party organised by top publicist Roxy Jacenko.



  right : Sandor Earl
 left: Lisa Wilkinson


The winner ?. Surfing chef Hayden Quinn, a very likable chap whose star continues to rise after his MKR appearances. And why not-so saleable. A surfer and a top chef. A winning combination.

One small hitch, the nightclub's escalator didn't work and was still out of action when the Shuttle left so a kindly bouncer escorted us through a rain swept walkway into a darkened theatre and pointed to an exit. Perhaps this was the legendary VIP entrance.

left : our fave DJ Ruby Rose

                                                                                                above : Celeb Apprentice Lauryn Eagle

 

Kendall Schuler & Avril Alexander                                        Adam Williams and Simone Holtznag

Token Daily One Direction Pic #2

Operation Hardcore Pawn

Les Gold

It's nearly 20 years since the joint ABC / BBC innovative production Sylvannia Waters burst onto our tele sets and the era of reality television was upon us. Week after week viewers were transfixed by the middle class Donaher family as cameras followed their every move. Surely no-one could have predicted what was to follow-from Big Brother, Survivor, Wife Swap, Changing Rooms to X-Factor-the public was hooked on cheap to make, but high rating entertainment.

Now the Shuttle hears of the latest cult hits that are screened on the new channel 7mate on Thursday evenings-Hardcore Pawn about a barn sized hock shop in a run down area of  Detroit and Operation Repo which follows the adventures of a group of Puerto Rican / Mexican auto repossession agents who ply their trade around Los Angeles.

repo gal Sonia Pizarro

Even odder, word comes that a group of well heeled Eastern Suburbs ladies are hosting weekly parties on Thursday evenings in a Point Piper mansion to watch the shows on a giant flat screen telly with waiters, catering and French champagne as up to 30 ladies thrill to the exploits of a world they know little about.

Apparently the tattooed Matt Burch (left) is a favourite along with the Pawnbroker Les Gold  and his endlessly feuding children Ashley & Seth, who deal every day with a bizarre range of clients hocking everything from a lap dancing pole, a live horse or a yellow taxi.

Last night's Repo was a gem with the no-nonsense and amply built repo agent Sonia Pizarro encountering a dominatrix and her slave who was behind in his Toyota payments. As Madam handcuffed the chap to a staircase she ordered him to hand over the car keys to Sonia who was then invited in for a bit of nookie and perhaps a light lashing. She declined.

Andy Warhol, eat your heart our or perhaps as Dame Edna Everage once said :"laugh at other's troubles and it helps to bear your own"
None of this has escaped the attention of the Double Bay society mag Latte Life which has an interview with Les Gold in it's current issue .here.

For those who were too young to enjoy the exploits of Noeline Donaher in her waterfront house at Sylvannia Waters-here is a musical interlude from the lady with her version of No Regrets:

Token Daily One Direction Pic