Book Of The Month

Amanda Webster & Jacinta Tynan

The Boy Who Loved Apples is Amanda Webster's true and inspiring story of a family's struggle with their son's anorexia.
Amanda realised her eleven-year-old son Riche was not just a little too skinny but dangerously ill.

Malcolm Turnbull and the author

"Do boys get anorexia ?" people would ask. And then," How did he get it?"

That was the question Amanda asked herself, too. As a trained doctor she knew that every disease has a cause. And if her son had an eating disorder, she wondered what the cause could possibly be -was it something she and her husband Kevin had done—or failed to do?
Quick to blame both Kevin and herself, worried about how her two other kids were coping, Amanda also found herself at odds with a medical establishment that barely understood Riche’s illness, far less how to treat it. And as she embarked on the long, agonising process of saving her son’s life she found herself battling not just Riche’s demons but her own.
Brave, honest and ultimately uplifting, The Boy Who Loved Apples is a compelling and beautifully written account of life with an eating disorder, and a gritty, moving testament to a mother’s love.

Malcolm Turnbull MP launched the book on Monday at Ariel Bookshop in Oxford Street Darlinghurst.  It's also available on Amazon kindle.

Listen to Amanda here on Conversations With Richard Fidler

Brangelina, Wills & Kate: No Idea

The fierce rivalry between Australia's top selling tabloid magazines- New Idea and Woman's Day has stepped up a notch with WD blindsiding NI with their scoop on the royal honeymoon snaps that have been on offer around the world for over a year and have now caused so much confected anguish in the UK media. British newspapers in the midst of the Leveson Inquiry had all turned down the pics.

Poor old New Idea (some wags in the industry unkindly refer to it as No Idea) really had no hint of what their rival was about to publish.
Both keep in touch of each other's up-coming stories by monitoring agency photo sales and thereby have a pretty good idea of what each other will publish in the next issue : come Monday morning the similarities between each is almost mirror -like.


 Now the tattle amongst the industry is that the knives are out at Pacific Publications, publishers of New Idea and a full on industry war is about to be declared. Pacific had turned down purchase of the beach wandering royal snaps on the understanding that rivals had done likewise.

Particularly as New Idea was forced to run a fairly tragic tale titled "SECRET WEDDING PHOTOS..you were never meant to see".. a concocted tale with"intimate"snaps of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt that "proved " the couple had been up to hanky panky before their affair became public knowledge.

Alas, the pics have all been published before and are just a set of publicity stills from their 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith and have lain on photo desks around the world for the last 6 years. Better luck next time folks.

The Rolling Stones-50 Years Later

The Rolling Stones at The Marquee club in Wardour Street London today on the anniversary of their first appearance there in 1962. Below-as they appeared 50 years ago . Ronnie Wood joined The Stones in 1975 while Bill Wyman left in 1997. Brian Jones who founded The Stones died in his swimming pool in 1969.

 

 Jade Jagger, Mick & Bianca Jagger's daughter married DJ Adrian Fillary in June in The Cotswolds. By contrast is the wedding snap of her parents when the wed in the South of France in 1971.
And our Aussie connection is : Mick's mum, the late Eva Scutts was born in Sydney.

Something in Common : Dracula & Rupert Murdoch

Russell Crowe may be in the frame to play Count Dracula in the 37th film about the legendary Transylvania but he is also tipped to play Rupert Murdoch in a planned film based on the memoirs of journalist Sir Harold Evans.

Harold Evans

Evans was the editor of the Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981 when Rupert Murdoch purchased Times Newspapers after a secret meeting with then PM Margaret Thacher, a fact just revealed in the Leveson Inquiry. He was appointed editor of The Times by Murdoch after extracting an agreement that Rupert would have no editorial input. That feel apart within a year and  Evans resigned, writing his auto-biography Good Times Bad Times in 1984.
He now lives in New York with his wife Tina Brown the former Vanity Fair editor and their 2 children.

Playing Evans will be the thinking woman's heart throb Colin Firth. This will be the second time an Aussie actor has played the Citizen Kane of the Antipodes. In the excellent TV  series Selling Hitler based on the phony Hitler Diaries and broadcast in 1991, Dame Edna Everage's manager Barry Humphries was cast as Murdoch. Rupert agreed to the purchase of the diaries after they were endorsed by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper who later expressed reservations before publication. Despite being informed that the diaries were fakes, Murdoch famously said "publish them anyway, after all we're in show business".

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Ernest Borgnine & Ethel Merman- a Saucy Tale

One of the movies Ernest Borgnine starred in was the US production of Australian Ray Lawler's successful play Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll which was filmed in Sydney in 1959.
Despite being a hit in Australia and the UK and re-named Season Of Passion for the US market, the movie didn't exactly wow the US critics despite it's all star cast of Borgnine, Ann Baxter and Angela Lansbury. One thought The tale of 2 cane cutters who travel to Melbourne for a few months of frivolity was actually a recruiting film for migrants with British actor John Mills' odd Anglo Aussie vocals.

Frank Wilson

The supporting cast and crew were Australian and many friendships were forged between the US & UK stars.
One was actor Frank Wilson who remained friends with Borgnine and visited him in LA in 1967 where Borgnine recounted an anecdote about his short lived marriage to the singing star Ethel Merman, a union that raised eyebrows in Hollywood as most assumed Ethel played for the other team and was known for her sharp tongue and quick wit. Wilson would later repeat it for friends.

Borgnine told Wilson that Merman and he fought like cats and dogs and after 3 weeks detested each other with Ernie beginning to criticize Ethel about her age. She was 58 and he 46 at the time.

Ernest said : "One day she came off the set of a film and said- 'the director said today I looked sensational. He said I had the face of a 20 year old, and the body and legs of a 30 year old' !"
I said : "did he say anything about your old cunt ?"."No" replied Ethel, "he didn't mention you at all".

Spot The Difference #1

A new occasional series where we delve into the exciting world of the arts and ponder whether photography may influence art or vica versa.

Paintings by Polish artist  Marek Hospodarsky who is fascinated by the "banality of life". His work can be found at Saatchi Online, motto : Discover art, get discovered.
















Works by noted Australian photographer Petrina Hicks whose work can be found in the Art Gallery of NSW or The Stills Gallery in Paddington.  See more at Petrina's website.

Dame Edna,Vagina Deniers & Gladioli Interuptus

It was bound to be a night of laughter, memories and tears as Dame Edna Everage took to the stage at the Capitol Theatre to bade farewell at the beginning of her final tour, Eat Pray Laugh !.

The first hour was given over to Sir Les Patterson who despite a severe attack of Montezuma's Revenge insisted on treating audience members to an on-stage BBQ in between Sir Les rushing for relief in a handy stage loo complete with amplified sound effects.

Sir Les introduced his brother Gerard Patterson, a Catholic priest who seemed much taken with Dame Edna's young Asian male pianist despite his correctional ankle bracelet sounding an alarm. According to Les, Gerard is a "card carrying member of the Vagina Deniers Club ".

Maria Venuti

The late Sandy Stone gave a final discourse about his life on Earth before ascending to the heavens in his armchair to the sounds of My Blue Heaven.

Dame Edna's manager Barry Humphries & Lizzie Spender

And then it was time for the grand Dame herself, arriving on an elephant with a decidedly Indian theme. Apparently Dame Edna's manager Barry Humphries has signed Edna to a long Bollywood film contract after mistakenly believing he was signing a Hollywood film contract.

artist John Olsen

Bruce Beresford

This was a night with Dame Edna at her best and those in the 'ashtrays' and upstairs circle were invited to "cling on like fruit bats" with the star promising to glance at them occasionally in direct proportion to their ticket prices. We heard the latest on her children, the dress designer Kenny and her daughter Val Mai with her numerous piercings who is in show biz as well, performing at the women's only Clit Clat Club in Marrickville.

Various hapless audience members were grilled as to their bedroom decor and few were spared Edna's pithy comments. The finale was as expected, with every audience member, stomachs aching from laughter provided with their own gladioli and a standing ovation to wish the Dame farewell.
And a final appearance from Barry Humphries with thanks to the audience and a hope that they would all attend the next farewell tour.

As for Dame Edna's future plans-she's been telling a UK newspaper that a biographical film of her life is in the planning :"little Carey Mulligan will be playing me, Helen Mirren will play my grandmother and that dear little Judy Dench will be my bridesmaid Madge".
It's just the beginning of Dame Edna's world tour and at 78 years of age could be her last. Run don't walk and get tickets now wherever you are. They're going like hotcakes and it's a seriously funny night of laughs.

The King is Dead, Long Live The King !

It's a scandal of Royal proportions : the gloomy pageant down the River Thames of the lavish gold embossed royal barge with a couple of elderly ring-in pensioners of dubious background whilst Australia was represented by just a few surf lifesaving boats battling along in the rain (and perhaps Rolf Harris). Perhaps God spoke by striking down the one decorated with medals with illness.
The rightful monarch: His Majesty Michael 1 by the Grace of God of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Defender of The Faith etc etc and so on watched the procession on TV in country Jerilderie

Michael Abney-Hastings

Sadly, King Michael has passed away at the very non-royal age of just 69 in Wagga Wagga NSW, his chosen seat in exile.
Michael Abney-Hastings, the 14th Earl of Loudon died peacefully on Saturday morning.

In the 2004 documentary Britain's Real Monarch the historian Dr Michael Jones proved that the current lot are ring-ins. Her Maj's claim to the throne is predicated on her ancestry to Edward IV 1461-1483.  But Edward was illegitimate as the film showed in detail.
Edward's father Richard Duke of York was off fighting the French near Paris while his mother Lady Cecily Neville was having it off with a local tradesman. While it was normal for royals to give birth to bastards they were usually fobbed off with a title and some land. Not the throne as Edward scored.
Abney-Hastings was born in 1942 in Sussex and emigrated to Australia where he first worked as a fork-lift driver and farmer. He spent his last few years serving on the Jerilderie Council and was popular around town. Although a life long Republican, he was always greeted at the family Christmas dinner table with God Save The King.

Perry Drops In

      Katy Perry dropped into Sydney for 24 hours to attend the launch of her film "Part Of Me".

"The Talented M. Despallières"

Alexandre Despallières

Bloomberg Businessweek has an update on the man being investigated in the death of the popular Australian music identity, former Sydneysider Peter Ikin.

Frenchman Alexandre Despallières and Ikin wed (left) in a civil wedding in 2008 after re-igniting a love affair from a decade previously. In a month, Ikin was dead after a fall down a flight of stairs in a Paris hotel. His body was quickly cremated and his ashes scattered in a ceremony in a French cemetery in front of Ikin's music industry friends Elton John and John Reid and the actor Simon Burke.

 Rock manager John Reid became suspicious about the circumstances surrounding Ikin's death, especially after Despallières was found guilty of forging Ikin's will leaving all his assets to himself. Despallières was arrested and has just been released from a Paris jail while investigations continue.

Simon Burke,John Reid & Ikin

The journalist Brad Stone at Bloomberg who wrote up the latest news on Despallières had previous dealings with the man and the story is a must read. He has interviewed Alexandre Despallières at length and relates a fascinating tale.....click here.



Here is the latest Youtube video featuring Alexandre Despallières in Los Angeles:

Hitched and Un-hitched

Married in Sicily yesterday: Luke Ricketson and Kate Waterhouse

Separated yesterday : Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise

exclusive : Lady GaGa performs new song

Here is the wondrous Lady GaGa who has put the fun and monster back into pop music, singing her new song Princess Die in Melbourne ten hours ago: