The invitation to Justin HemmesIvy said 6pm for the opening of their Voyeur exhibtion of sexy snaps taken around the precint of Hemme's amazing multi-million dollar nightclub venture. One slight hitch-there seemed to be no photographs and few guests but heaps of champagne and nibbles. Perhaps the other invites are still in the post.
At least we spotted marketing executive Sharon Sargent who brightens up any room. Sharon says she's threatening to attend the Polo In The Park this Saturday at Centenniel Park, wearing something sensational. Can't wait.
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The furore erupting over Demi Moore's photoshopped snap on the cover of W Magazine and described as "the"worst Photoshop ever" is another discovery of the excellent blog Photoshop Disasters. Check it out-it's good fun.
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And have a look at the very amusing Angry people in local newspapers, the sympathy blog for hapless local tabloid snappers.The entire Shuttle staff have worked on local newspapers at some stage -we feel their pain.
It's not our usual patch but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
One of our favourite publicists was handling the press conference for wrestler Hulk Hogan and a bunch of his burly colleagues. Five minutes into the presser a ginormous bruiser spotted a giggling Shuttler and demanded to know "what are you laughing at..?". I pointed at Hulk.
All hell broke loose...bodies went flying..Hulk Hogan was thrown off the stage and landed at my feet. His attacker began to pound the Hulk's head right in front of me.
The blows rained down. Blood flowed. Amazingly the attacker was able to
inflict terrible wounds by punching at the Hulk's head whilst missing by
at least 6 inches. Perhaps he has special powers.
The poor Hulk was helped off as an aide shouted "is there a doctor in thehouse ?".
A pair of leather Rudolf Nureyev's shorts will be auctioned tomorrow night at Australia House in the Strand in London to aid the Tait Memorial Trust. Designed and signed by Yves St Laurent and presented to the ballet star in 1961, the funds raised will go to scholarships to be awarded to young Australian dancers studying ballet in the UK.
The Tait Trust was set up by Isla Baring in 1992 to honour her parents Sir Frank and Lady Viola Tait who played an important part in the establishment of theatre and the performing arts in Australia. Dame JoanSutherland, Barry Humphries and the Countess of Harewood are patrons. Actors Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward will be at the Tait-a-Tait night which will be a celebration of Tchaikovsky ballet music with young Aussie dancers performing and a recital by distinguished pianist Leslie Howard.Tickets are £45 and can still be had by emailing info@taitmemorialtrust.org or by phone/fax to 020 7385 2719.
Will they be these shorts ?. In the 1960's Nureyev made his first visit to Australia with Sir Robert Helpmann. Staying at Sydney's Sebel Town House, on his second night he wandered down to the notorious gay beat in nearby Rushcutters Bay park. He chose the wrong night with the "pretty police' out in force-young handsome officers sent out to public conveniences to attract gay men with gay sex highly illegal (although rampant) at the time. The following day, after much diplomatic action late into the night to suppress Rudi's name, a small newspaper article appeared under the headline: "Leather shorted Pervert arrested in Park". A week later Nureyev flew out when charges were quietly dropped, presumably with his leather shorts intact.
Friends said later Nureyev would describe the scene almost imitating an Aussie accent correctly . Apparently he really fancied the young copper who slapped handcuffs on him, and thought it was part of a sex game. As he was hauled away he announced "I am the great Nureyev ! ", to which the plod said "I don't care who thefuck you are mate, you're nicked"
"A grey gadabout" is how he's described but the Social Shuttle's snapper Bill Ranken takes it in his stride.
At 80 Ranken has seen it all and reckons he wouldn't be impressed : "even if Jesus Christ walked through the Harbour Heads-unless there was a smart homecoming party for him."
Watch the Todayshow at ninemsn as they follow Bill on the party circuit and interview him at Graeme Goldberg's DeeBees cafe.
A year ago he was a happy-go-lucky young actor about town but now armed with a Hollywood publicist actor Sam Worthington has returned to Oz and is refusing all photograph opportunities as he rides the Avatar publicity circuit.
The December world-wide release of the James Cameron's 3D space epic is certain to catapult Worthington into instant international stardom and make Sam a new movie heart throb. Avatar is predicted to be the blockbuster's blockbuster. Here is an earlier Shuttle snap of Worthington-he hasn't changed much. He's still a nice chap.
No party or fashion event is complete these days without the dreaded PR 'officer'. Apart from a few rare exceptions (and it's worldwide) they're usually rude and full of self importance and have done some useless "media " course at a technical school, tacking on a few initials after their names as they become instant door bitches armed with attitude,a clipboard and 'list'.
We've encountered them everywhere. In Sydney they have a turnover rate of about a year, after which one must explain one's impeccable press credentials all over again to a whole new clueless fool who thinks a scruffy paparazzi is of equal importance as the nation's top columnist. We've stood with astonishment at some doors where the offending dolt has muttered "your name is not on the list" as a troupe of Sydney's most infamous gate-crashers are waved through (and these liggers would be OK if they were personalities-which they ain't). In Melbourne they are marginally more polite.
But now comes a film about the legendary Percy Savage who died at age 81 in 2008. Percy was a Shuttle friend and favourite in London and invented modern fashion PR in the 1950's when he clad Elizabeth Taylor in a Lanvin gown for a red carpet premiere in Paris. The resulting pictures swept the world and the "red carpet' phenomena was born. Percy went on to become the greatest manipulator of 'press opportunities" for a host of celebrities like Jackie Onassis or Yves St Laurent.
Savage in his Chelsea garden
Born just outside Brisbane, Savage travelled first to London in 1947 and then to Paris to escape Britain's post-war gloom. With little formal training he designed for Lanvin, Nina Ricci and Balenciaga amongst other famous fashion houses.And he hung out with Jean Cocteau.
Back in London where he spent the rest of his life he promoted new younger designers like Mary Quant and Zandra Rhodes and made them famous. He specialised in seating arrangements for photo ops at runway shows, seating Liz Taylor with Mick & Bianca Jagger. Savage was a joy, a gentleman, flamboyant, elegant, grand and gracious but never a snob. And Dior named one of the world's most famous fragrances after him : Eau Sauvage!
Savage, A Life In Fashion is showing at the ACMI cinemas at Federation Square in Melbourne with Sydney dates to be announced. Don't miss it.
The UK's Sunday Express tabloid has jumped on a few pages in Harry M.Miller's autobiography Confessions Of a Not So Secret Agent over his claims of a dinner party conversation with HRH Prince Charles.
According to Miller, Charles said in 1977 that the Royal family was past it's use by date and that Australia should be made a republic.Charle's was puzzled : “why Australia bothered with us – we are really yesterday’s news”. Miller also says Prince Charles "bedded" a number of local girls and was annoyed that the NSW Governor and Victoria Cross recipient Sir Roden Cutler (known to his friends as Rodent Cutlet ) interfered with Charles night-time plans by sitting up late for him at the rather magnificent if somewhat stuffy Government House perched high above the Opera House..
It tops a month of a brilliant publicity campaign by Harry, one of the best in the business that has seen the book flying off the shelves. But is it true ?. There's a clue here and it concerns the late Governor. It's pretty common knowledge who Charles was really bedding and she wasn't the wife of a politician as Miller claims.But she was the wife of a VIP linked to Cutler whose career was nipped in the bud by the state Governor who was furious at the time. Nor can we quite see Sir Roden really giving the Royal heir a hard time-he was an avowed monarchist. It was Charlie's choice of partner who it's said he spent the entire visit to Australia with, that annoyed Cutler. Perhaps Harry is being kind with his confessions. The Prince's flame is still married to her husband who has since gone onto have a stellar career in other areas and become a pillar of the establishment. That career didn't however include his ambition-to follow in Sir Roden's footsteps.
And so we bid a sad farewell to one of the most amusing visitors to this land in the last year, Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley.
The Shuttle was delighted to meet the charming peer at a small farewell drinks party recently where he illuminated us on the latest quest for world domination via the very dodgy proposition that the world's climate is rapidly about to turn upon man and seek revenge for our unthinking decimation of Mother Nature's natural recourses.
"It's all a plot" he says "and just the new face of the extreme left who have found a new way for world domination".
Monkton put up finance for the popular film feature fantasy The Great Global Warming Swindle. (the Great Rock' N' Roll Swindle withthe Sex Pistols was more fun) and says US PresidentBarack Obama plans to cede US sovereignty to a newly created world government.
Many of these pearls of wisdom were delivered on the most insane TV station in the world-Fox News in the USA via the wacky host Glenn Beck. (Even Fox boss Rupert Murdoch is expressing doubts about Beck's delivery but that is possibly more to do with advertisers fleeing from his show.) Needless to say, the venerable Lord found a willing listener at the home of Australia's radio king Alan Jones who has taken up the cause with gusto.
The Shuttle's probing inquiry to his Lordship never received a full answer-he was pulled away to meet other less troublesome guests. If, as he claims. global warming is part of a communist inspired plot to destroy manufacturing which they hate, how does he explain the USSR's extraordinary surge forward in the early part of the 20th century when Russia went from a feudal society to a mechanized miracle in a few short decades?. It's something we will need to ponder on our own. In the past Lord Monkton has announced that AIDs sufferers should be isolated on an island and that he, as adviser to PM Margaret Thatcher, helped win the Falklands War.
British Aussie joker
Still, as one comedian departs, we welcome the newest Aussie citizen to our shores-Ben Elton.
PS: Today, federal Climate Minister and proud lesbian Penny Wong MP has announced that airports and a few thousand houses in Sydney will be underwater within 50 years as seas rise.
Now you know why Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch purchased the cities most expensive mansion on the tallest hill in the eastern suburbs.
So says film-maker and artist Bruno Grasswill the son of a noted French film director. Bruno was filming everything that moved and didn't, at the launch of top foodie Lyndey Milan's 4th book The Best Collection. Bruno is also married to top ABC TV producer Helen Grasswill, the driving force behind the hugely successful Australian Story (which featured the Shuttle once-we are biased) and Oz sections for the US series Entertainment Tonight.
Both were guests at the swell shindig given by Lyndey's merchant banker boyfriend in his magnificent duplex apartment in the Ikon building in Kings Cross. The Ikon is the home away from home (and the best kept secret until now) of Hollywood royalty and visiting film stars working at the near-by Fox Studios.With the most commanding views of the Sydney skyline from the harbor heads to the Opera House and beyond, it's hard to top these homes.
Lyndey presents food sections on the top morning show hosted by Kerri Anne Kennerley and is food editor on the Packer family pride and joy, the Woman's Weekly (which is published monthy to confuse readers). She is also a hostess with mostess-in every way. Bruno also painted a fab portrait of Lyndey for beau John and when our party gal saw it she immediately requested more cleavage should be added. Those who know the lovely Lyndey know this is par for the course. Delicious nibbles at the party came from Lyndey's recipes and were passed around by the handsome waiters from Mandy Foley-Quin'sStedmans (the French government is trying to lure this top caterer to Paris).
Food legend Margaret Fulton launched the book. At 85 , Scot's
born Margaret has now sold millions of cookbooks and knows a great chef
when she sees one. In between glasses of champers and vintage wines
from Lyndey's own cellar we forced down Bloody Mary shooters with
oysters. And every time we tried to leave another crate of French champagne was wheeled out. Who are we to disappoint ?. No-one can actually re-call what time they left but the Shuttle woke up this morning clutching a bottle of wonderful Taittinger. Get the book now. For Christmas.
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A darling of the new media Madame Arcatifeatures a video on her blog by writer Duncan Fallowell. It's a superb piece titled Andy Warhol in Church :
Check out Fallowell's books on his site. They are really very good. Put him on your reading list.Now.
Nude artist Spencer Tunick is coming to the 2010 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras in March and is calling on all gays and lesbians to be prepared to take off their clothes for one of his mass nude snaps, on the Golden Gay Mile of Oxford Street.
The work will be called The Base and all body shapes, sexualities and preference are welcome. Will the legendary Dykes On Bikes participate ?. The once topless ladies on Harley's who lead the opening of the parade went all coy about 4 years ago when their topless snaps started appearing world-wide and on various porn websites.
There's a sort of schizophrenic attitude here.
Once a year normally reserved people let their hair down, fling open the wardrobe door and burst out in gleeful abandonment, screeching slogans about gay rights before heading off to the mass party of thousands that usually ends up in a drugged seething mass grope in the underground facilities.Come Monday they retreat back to their day jobs as chartered accountants, school teachers etc. Or in my case with the 6' horrendous drag queen in a vintage YSL ball gown who slapped me on the back half-way up Oxford Street with a maniacal look in his eyes-the bench at Downing Street Courts where he presides as a very sober magistrate,
The Shuttle experienced this mini Sodom & Gomorrah (without participating) at the last G & L Mardi Gras we attended when we accompanied 'movie star" Rupert Everett who was the special guest in 2007. Unless one swallows huge quantities of drugs (and most do) it's the most tiresome night of the year. Hours spent in the VIP room peering down on the seething mass of people circling the cavernous dance floor swaying in time to whatever DJ Boy George says goes. And just to catch a glimpse of the star act like Kylie Minouge lip syncing at 4am. Maybe we are just past it. Getting bitter as we age.
Apparently getting your gear of with a few hundred others is liberating. But is art ?. Whatever turns you on.
Only 2 weeks after his successful exhibition at the National Trust, artist Martin Sharp and the art world is in shock with the brutal murder yesterday of Sharp's curator, the respected art figure Antony Waterlow OAM whose body was found along with his slain daughter, the popular food writer and publicist Chloe Waterlow in her Randwick house. Chloe's young daughter is clinging to life after her throat was slashed and her 2 young sons who escaped unscathed are being cared for by family members as husband Ben Heuston rushes back from London.
Sharp attended a party at the University of NSW Roundhouse onSaturday night with Waterlow . Police have one suspect- a family member who was seen near the home shortly after the murders. *****************************
The awful tragedy that has struck the Waterlow family is having far reaching effects in many areas. Australia's most renowned painter Margaret Olley has spoken affectionately of the gentle Waterlow who she housed when he first arrived from the UK 40 years ago.
Police have only one suspect-a family member who suffers from schizophrenia. Over 15 years ago the state government in a rash move closed the many excellent hospitals that dealt with mental illness on the claim that patients should be housed in the community.
The battles that have ensured since over the valuable land where these hospitals were located-some by the harbour, have been long and bitter. Sadly, the then government minister who oversaw this action has gone on record proclaiming his mistake after both his sons committed suicide while they were suffering from depression.
A devastating tale in the Murdoch tabloid, the Daily Telegraph of the sale of the late Johnny Baker's Edgecliff apartment.
It reports : "Now, with the passing of the legendary society "walker", Baker's
executor has listed his small but fashionably located flat with
expectations of $700,000 plus. Its online listing with Century 21's Tony Moses has brought an outpouring of tales."
Oh really ?. Why would a slew of society maidens-all who live in lavish Eastern Suburb's mansions give a toss about Bake's apartment being flogged ?.
The fact that Century 21 are huge advertisers with News Ltd is entirely co-incidental. Spoting free plugs for the Teles' advertisers is like looking for the endless mentions of Murdoch's cable TV channel Foxtel. Too easy.
For those who can't wait for the autobiography of former top sport's broadcaster Rob Astbury who devotes a few pages to the life of the flamboyant Dr Geoffrey Edelsten-now comes the movie.
And it has some top stars including Seinfeld'sJason Alexander and Fran Drescher from The Nanny.
Narrated by Alexander, it's the love story of how Edelsten, 66 and his fiancee, 26 year Las Vegas fitness worker Brynne Gordon met in Hollywood. It's also an action thriller-Geoffrey clambering in and out of limos and expensive autos-shopping at Gucci, Cartier,Ralph Lauren, Hermes- in fact the whole of Rodeo Drive gets a look-in. Geoffrey on his yacht. Geoffrey entering the Beverley Wiltshire Hotel. Geoffrey emerging from the Beverley Wiltshire Hotel. Geoffrey racing down the street in his fleet of cars- a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, a Bentley. a block long Hummer in which he collects his future bride. Geoff in black helicopter..Lear Jet. You get the idea
Alexander asks us : "what do Barbara Streisand, Shia LaBeouf, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sean Penn, Adam Sandler, Michael Douglas and Geoffrey have in common ?" "why there all Jewish of course". Fame by association !. Edelsten's career has included a stint as a nightclub owner, rock manager and the boss of dozens of medical clinics. He once owned a football team, The Swans. He also did a stint inside for attempting to hire the disappeared hit man Christopher Dale Flannery to deal with a troubesome patient. He got struck off. None of this gets featured in the flick. It's a feel good film.
The movie's a prelude to his planned sumptuous wedding to Brynne in a few weeks at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Fran Dresher will officiate at the wedding which some say is financed by a $5M mortgage. We don't know if Geoffrey's film has a release date. Ain't Love grand ?.
His works don't hang in the more sedate galleries but he was a surprise guest at television producer Mike Goldman's 37th birthday at the Sahria Restaurant at Bondi Beach on Saturday night. Goldman has been host an numerous radio shows and did the voice-overs for Big Brother and the terrifying British show filmed in Northern NSW-"I'm A Celebrity Get me Out Of Here".
Looking a bit like a young Rod Stewart, we present portrait artist Pricasso. Pricasso has a unique act-he dips his foreskin in paint and whips up a portrait of a guest in around 20 minutes. He does it nude.With a strategically placed palette. Pricsso's pretty popular at Sexpos and erotic fairs in far flung places like Johannseburg , Sao Paulo and Mexico City. He traces his pedigree back to 1550 and is descended from a long line of noted British surgeons named Patch.
Quite what they would think of their descendant Timothy Patch and his penis paintings is anyone's guess. At least he still continues the family's interest in physiology. Pricasso produces his own paints-we didn't dare ask how, and needs a week or 2 off between appearances because of "wear and tear".
Local cops reckon he is a major figure in organised crime but the ever so charming nightclub entrepreneur John Ibrahim is credited with re-inventing the Kings Cross nightclub scene with an interest in 20 venues. Now help is on hand for the ailing Golden Gay Mile of Sydney's Oxford Street which has fallen on hard times.
One of America's most famous transexuals Amanda Lapore, a young hybrid version of the older Amanda Lear and JoyceWilderstein will open the new club Nevermind tonight. For 15 years Oxford Street has boomed as young hetero-sexual kids flocked to numerous discos and bars, oblivious to sexual labels. Now most straight kids are flooding to the Cross with it's amazing revival in top spots like Hugos, Candy's Apartment, Kit'n'Kaboodle, Lady Lux and the Mandalay Room.
Lepore, model, fashion icon, nightlife hostess and performer has been the advertising face for Mac cosmetics and a variety of fashion labels and had her sex-change operation at 15 courtesy of then boyfriend, a plastic surgeon. She's been under the knife ever since refining various body parts.
But how will she fare in a street blessed with more drag queens and trannies per square mile than any on earth and which makes the legendary Singapore's Boogie Street (now demolished) look like it was a Sunday school picnic?
Sydney cocks in frocks are known for their cutting tongues and often, bruising upper-cuts. Word is out that some of the town's more high profile drag-queens are a somewhat miffed at this ring-in being invited to launch the new nightclub. She could always call upon Ibrahim's bouncers for help if needed. They also guard the gay strip's nightspots. We'll see tonight at the launch party-billed as Saturday Fucking Night-whether there is a stiletto stand-offbetween Amanda and her local contemporaries.
18 months after the controversy swirled around the removal of his photographs of naked adolescents, photographic artist Bill Henson appeared at the Art Gallery of NSW to launch a book by one of his greatest supporters, gallery director Edmund Capon
Capon's I Blame Duchamp is a series of art essays and is the last offering before Capon's imminent retirement after 30 years of building the state gallery into one of the world's great cultural institutions.
As an assistant director of the Far Eastern Section at the world's greatest museum of art and design, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Capon was a relative unknown when hired to head the NSW Art Gallery for an interim period. He never left and has exhibited an amazing ability to schmooze politicians suffering from cultural cringe and wealthy benefactors alike, whilst enthusing an often apathetic public. Today, exhibitions draw capacity crowds and the legendary portrait contest, The Archibald creates endless controversy and has become an annual public favourite
Edmund has no plans for when he retires soon except to "travel back to London and tour Europe". "But I'll be back here to live" says Capon.
As for Henson who has exhibited at the GuggenheimMuseum in New York and at the Venice Bienalle, he went into a public hiatus when the chic Ros Oxley Gallery in Paddington was raided by police in May 2008 and 2 huge portraits of naked 13 year old youths were removed. He remains unfazed by the media frenzy that engulfed the nation and brought condemnation from the Prime Minister downwards as public figures lined up on opposing sides during the very public battle with claims of "kiddie porn". He revealed that many of his former youthful models had come forward as adults to lend him support. Ironically, the shock jock driven scandal sent prices of his work sky-high.
Alan Cumming is cumming. “I’m standing naked, masturbating,” Alan
tells me over the phone when I ask where in the world he is, “where are
you?” I tell him I’m standing in our interview booth and,
unfortunately, I’m not masturbating. I clarify the question. “Oh, I see
what you mean. I’m in New York,” says the Scottish-born performer.
Alan is also ‘cumming’ to Australia. Performing his popular show,I Bought A Blue Car Today,
“but a slightly different version.” Alan explains that it will be the
same show he performed during Mardi Gras in February, but “this time
it’s only going to be me and a piano and a cello. Some of the songs
have changed and stuff. It’s always kind of evolving,” says the cheeky
interviewee.
Unfortunately, I can’t take the credit for the pun. Alan uses it
himself, regularly. Most notably, and to good effect, for his fragrance
and body care range – Cumming, a range that includes such sensuous
items as: Cumming All Over, Cumming In A Bar, and Cumming Clean. Which
will all leave you, ‘of course, smelling lightly of Cumming,’ according
to the product website.
You can read more of Alan's interview at the Oz gay & lesbian website Same Same.
It was a day to celebrate. The Melbourne Cup lunch at the uber-chic Ottos at Woolloomooloo Wharf.
Charlotte Dawson, John Ibrahim, Chelsea Mitchell (c)
For John Ibrhaim, the handsome sun-tanned Kings Cross nightclub identity, he had another reason apart from the million dollar horse race-brother Fadi had been finally released on $1M bail surety after spending 6 weeks banged up on an alleged murder plot charge. Sadly for family patriarch John a condition of Fadi's bail was that he isn't to associate with his brothers. Amongst the group of glamorous blonds with Ibrahim was Australia's Next Top Model judgeCharlotte Dawson.
Hosting a group of guests in one corner was retired radio king John Laws with wife 'Princess' Caroline. Society gynecologist Malcolm Coppleson , gossip writer William Petley and Jane Douglas lunched with Laws.
At another table sat Los Angeles based private eye Frank Monte. Monte announced his engagement to marketing manager Sharon Sargent right after Shocking won the Melbourne Cup at 3pm. Monte who has offices in Denver and New York also has a security company providing bodyguards for Hollywood stars and Arab royalty. Perhaps it will bring him a step closer to his long term project-a film based upon his best-seller The Spying Game in which Monte tells of his experiences searching the New Guinea jungle for lost AmericanheirMicheal Rockefeller Jnr who vanished while traveling up the Sepik River , and guardingthe Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
The day ended slightly badly for Teflon John when another Ibrahim brother was arrested for allegedly damaging a TV newsman's camera.
BRW ( Business Review Weekly) Has produced their rich entertainer's list. Topping the pile is band ACDC with a income last year of $105M, displacing last year's top lot, kiddie's band The Wiggles.
The Singing Budgie Kylie Minogue clocked in at around $47M, Russell Crowe at around $25M, Silverchair at $4.5M and Keith Urban at $20M whilst wife Nicolle Kidman earned $11M.
Ex-Neighbour's soapie star Jesse Spence garnered a whopping $3.5M following his success in the No 1 US TV show House while new entrants to the list included Geoffrey Rush at $1.5M , Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette.
Author Bryce Courtney still dominates as the wealthiest writer at around $1.5M.
Meanwhile everyone's favourite actor Paul Hogan is still battling with the tax department over his fortune after it was revealed today he had been hauled in by them for a grilling.
"Washington's blockbuster fall season continues as actress Cate Blanchett (left) takes on the role of Blanche DuBois this month at the Kennedy Center. The potent mix of A-list celeb and A-list play has the district aflutter. But the bad news is that it’s pretty much sold out. So good luck relying on the kindness of strangers to find a ticket."
Liv Ullmann Cate Blanchett & Joel Edgerton
TheWashington Post :
" Blanchett is certainly the most heartbreaking Blanche I've ever experienced. This is the kind of evening you want to urge people to see, to remind them of theatre's illuminating range, its ability to force you out of your resistant natural scepticism, to assess, reflect and feel,"
ABS CBN NEWS:
"Australian star Cate Blanchett is winning standing ovations and rave reviews from US audiences for her heart-rending performance in the Tennessee Williams classic "A Streetcar Named Desire."
To use that tired old phrase as every newspaper tries to get in first-'the race that stops a nation'-the Melbourne Cup is upon us today.
The recession is still biting as it's reported the famous marquees of the Birdcage at Flemington race course have about halved. Party hopping will be at a minimal as the favourite half-way watering hole, the Moet & Chandon tent has vanished. Instead the only lavish catering on hand appears to be the Emirates Marquee which has a Bollywood theme.
Celebritites are at a minimum although a few have clocked in-ex-Pamela Anderson hubby Tommy Lee is a "celebrity DJ", Liza Minelli making brief appearances, Ronan Keating and Dutch violinist Andre Rieu who seems to have adopted Australia as his second home and horse mad Royal Zara Phillips. No Cup would be complete without an assortment of soapie stars. weather forecasters and Lady Sonia McMahon but absent this year is Queer Eye's Carlson Kressley who has been at the last 3.
The Shuttle has reported the Cup for Hello magazine in the past and once brought out British miliner David Shilling for Myers. He proved to be a big hit.This year's guest is current favourite Phillip Somerville.
Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating has weighed into the controversy swirling around the claim his daughter Katherine allegedly abused a News Ltd photography at a Halloween party to promote a vodka brand last week at the State Theatre at which British singer Paloma Faith was a guest.
The Sunday Telegraph claimed Ms Keating had threatened the snapper after she was ambushed at the event. Those who know Katherine Keating says it's not within her nature. We tend to agree.
The Shuttle had it's own photographer there and as usual, he never takes a snap without asking the subject first. It's a hard and fast rule we stick by and always have. Our cricket mad Canon wielder let Katherine "go through to the keeper" as he puts it, knowing she isn't too fond of the media.
Paul Keating has called for new privacy laws which the Federal government is already considering. Something along the lines like those in France which has the strictest media laws in Europe.
The Sunday Telegraph has form here. They published the ridiculous photographs of a supposedly nude Pauline Hanson just before the Queensland state election this year . The snaps turned out to be from a Russian web dating site. A mutually agreeable settlement was reached out of court when Hanson threatened to sue.
In England the Royal correspondent on one of their newspapers was jailed a few years ago after it was revealed the paper had commissioned a private eye to tap the mobile phone's of Princes Harry & William.
The Murdoch UK newspaper The Sun dubbed Keating the "Lizard of Oz" when he was snapped putting a protective arm around HRH The Queen when she was on an official tour. Another proclaimed "Hands Off Our Queen !" (apparently forgetting she is actually the Queen of Australia as well).
Paloma Faith (above)
It's a continuing battle that has seen the Murdoch press in attack mode before and after the election of Labor's KevinRudd in late 2007. Each attempt seems to backfire badly including the hopelessly botched fake email scam recently that involved a senior public servant and an alleged favour to a car\dealer on Rudd's behalf. Federal police are now investigating the email but News Ltd tabloids were badly burned by the experience.
They are taking the line that as the party Katherine Keating was at, was a product promotion it should be a free for all. Perhaps. But the high morale ground being taken by Murdoch newspaper bosses rings hollow and the usual "freedom of expression" etc excuses are trotted out as new younger journalists produce pieces that often reflect personal opinion.
Fact checking is becoming largely redundant as newspapers feel the bite of the "new media".News Ltd publications are as guilty of most in their relentless promotion of parties where their journalists get favours or gifts. The animosity felt amongst photographers who also attend but don't receive the same gifts is common knowledge.
Basically there are no rules or conventions despite the infamous "cash for comments" scandal a few years ago where all publications pompously quoted their regulations about protecting their worker's integrity where they must declare gifts received when publishing an article. It was all forgotten within months.
It looks like Keating has struck the first blow in a war that may see the tabloids regret their intrusive behaviour.
It's a fast growing trend amongst young people marrying in the current financial climate. Guests are asked to give money instead of presents-preferably hard cold cash.
The Shuttle attended one such wedding 6 weeks ago and noticed one member from either side of the wedding parties sat at a desk taking contributions. It was announced during speeches that the money would pay for the honeymoon- a trip abroad.
Last week we saw the new groom out and about and inquired how the holiday had gone. "Oh we decided not tobother" he said "the wife got a boob job instead ".
One of the nation's true eccentrics, artist Martin Sharp has been given his first retrospective exhibition by the National Trust at the Sydney Museum. Sharp designed record album sleeves for 1960's greats like Cream and Jimi Hendrix and was the illustrator for the infamous Oz Magazine which landed many of it's originators including Sharp in jail twice-in Australia and England. In both the highly publicized cases the defendants were finally released upon appeal and in the course of the trials helped relax strict censorship laws in both countries.
The English trial defending barrister was a young Geoffrey Robertson QC-now a pillar of the British establishment whilst in Sydney another bright young barrister Neville Wran QC helped free the accused.
Wran, now in his 80s and a darling of the left went onto to become NSW premier for many years and launched Sharp's show with a speech about the trial , describing the jailing magistrate as a 'mongrel' to much applause. No Sharp exhibition would be complete without works based on the showman Tiny Tim whom Sharp helped launch into stardom.
As the founder of Warner Music Australia, Peter Ikin was loved and respected by artists like Elton John, Billy Joeland Rod Stewart. But when the popular music and record company identity died suddenly a year ago in a Paris hotel, friends were not only distressed but mystified upon hearing he had wed a former boyfriend, Frenchman Alexandre Despallieres in a civil ceremony just weeks before.
A greater shock was to come-Ikin had left his multi-million dollar fortune to Despallieres but not before emailing friends and a relative, nephew Father Gary Perritt that he was becoming increasingly wary of his new partner.According toPerritt, Despalliere had told Ikin he was now a dot com millionaire and was dying slowly from a mystery illness and convinced Ikin they should make each other beneficiaries of their respective wills. As Ikin's executor, Despalliere had Peter's body cremated shortly after an autopsy had been conducted in Paris. The gossip amongst friends is that Ikin's death was preceded by a fall down some stairs. Despallieres returned immediately to London after the cremation and ensconced himself in Peter's luxury Chelsea house.
Now Despallieres is facing London's High Court this Monday accused of fraud by Rod Stewart's former manager Billy Gaff who claims he was duped in a business deal. Questions are still being asked over the sketchy details of Ikin's sudden death andDespallieres puzzling actions, as reported in today's SMH 'PS' column by Andrew Hornery. Despallieres purchased 3Porsche cars immediately following the cremation. One for himself and one each for the 2 men who had witnessed Ikin's will.
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