finally Britain's TIMESONLINE catches up to the Shuttle

     Twice in early December we reported on the collapse of the dreaded paparazzi who until the death of Princess Diana were making a decent living. But when that car crash happened, something else strange occured.

     A whole new breed of semi-professionals were unleashed-the majority being obnoxious kids with a new digital camera who thought they were out to make a fortune and adopted an attitude of such arrogance they simply became a complete pain in the butt.

        Even worse, a new breed of so-called "publicists" began to take them seriously and put them at the top of every guest list.

      It peaked for us in Sydney about 6 years ago when a buffoon of a PR 'consultant ' refused tSS and guest, entry to a store promotion he was grandly managing (with the usual suspect guest list that make up the 'd-list') , whilst inside at least 10 shabby "paps"  grinned away almost triumphantly.

      And thus Count Paolo Zegna, (pictured left) Chairman of the legendary Zegna Group in Milan and tSS trudged off for supper at Aria Restaurant at Circular Quay.

        tSS has worked for the elegant Count Zegna for many years when he travels to Australia to present awards for the finest of the world's wool.    We made hurried excuses that it was the wrong function but it was difficult not to notice the boutique we were about to enter, was a franchise of one the world's major Italian designers-a close friend of Zegna's.

The party was a PR disaster. The only person worth photographing had been booted.  No publicity ensured.

 tSS hexs are very strong. Be warned.

We finally threw in the towel when the late actor Heath Ledger was squirted with water pistols by a bunch of gung-ho paps at a film premiere which literally drove him to sell his Sydney beach-side house and flee to the US. "You need us" they yelled. Not any longer.

Giles Hattersley writing in the Times says it all better here..

 an exert :

    

Paparazzi: A flash in the pan

The paparazzi used to earn big bucks from snapping celebrities, but their moment in the limelight is over

Dan Weir, a 20-year-old paparazzo from south London, heads into the West End most days at 6pm. This is the unofficial handover hour, when the daytime snappers stop bothering the Wags on Bond Street so the night shift can start bothering them outside Mahiki.

As ever, the same worries race through Weir’s mind. Is Kate in town? Will Cheryl be out? Will she wear a scandalously teensy ensemble guaranteed to boost his bank balance? “It isn’t glamorous like it sounds, though,” he says. “It’s a job, and it’s getting harder.”

                                                        

He’s right. Stifle your sobs, people, but thanks to dwindling reader interest and a ferociously litigious gaggle of pap-suing harpies (never say the words “Sienna” and “Miller” to a photo hack: they’ll rip your ears off), the pack is in trouble.

After a decade of steady pay for any old snap of celebrity detritus, in the past 18 months the spoils have shrunk. Dramatically.

“It’s got tough,” says Ken Goff, who runs GoffPhotos, a top agency that supplies candid sleb shots and red-carpet fare to the tabs.

“A year ago, you could get a picture in one of our main daily papers — The Sun, Mirror, Star or Mail — and it would be worth £500. Now, with one of those papers, you’re lucky to get £170.” One picture editor tells me that rates can fall as low as £40 for a half-decent shot. That’s if he deigns to publish it at all.

                                           ********************************

                                                  

### Count Zegna has announced that his Wool Awards in Australia -suspended in 2009 over the great muesling of sheep scandal, will resume this year for Zegna's centenary celebration.

the things people say...

    A political moment overcomes tSS as we read today that the Sydney Morning Herald reports: Iraqi rage at Blackwater decision in US court by their Baghdad correspondent Michael Hastings.

A speech by former PM John Howard to Parliament in 2004:

 " I again take the opportunity of reaffirming the correctness of the government’s assessment in predeploying our forces, and I record the bitter opposition of the  Australian Labor Party when that decision was taken. Not only was the military operation completed quickly and successfully but it is also worth recording that all of the doomsday predictions, particularly the many that came from those who sit opposite, were not realised.

     The oilwells were not set on fire; there were not millions of refugees; the dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were not breached to bring on catastrophic flooding; and there was no long, drawn out, bloody, Stalingrad style street-to-street fighting in Baghdad. For all of this we must be immensely grateful, but it is a reminder of the hysteria and the doomsday predictions that often accompany operations of this kind. And, just as many of the predictions about a Western Front style holocaust that were made in 1991 when the land war commenced were proved wrong, so the predictions on this occasion have been proved wrong.

       The decisive  victory of the American led coalition reflects enormous credit on the strength and the determination of the leadership of President Bush.

      Again I remind the House of the way in which his role was vilified and traduced by many of those who sit opposite and of the way in which speaker after speaker from the Australian Labor Party impugned his integrity, assaulted his judgment and called into question his ability to lead the United States in this very difficult conflict. History has proved them wrong.

The performance of the President has illustrated how infantile their protests were, and the leadership that he has given on this occasion, I believe, will bring about a permanent change in attitudes in the Middle East."

Yeh, sure.

update ## my favourite green-grocer in Kings Cross was very excited after the fall of Saddam and made a trip back to Iraq in 2005 where he was born. He returned within a week and said he had secured a job in a government ministry and was off again within the month. His family in Australia..or relatives in Iraq have never heard from him again.

If you think the noughties were fun...wait until we bring news of what is in store for us all according to Nostradamus !

********************************************************

Apologies accepted !!

  And it was nice to see the same newspaper yesterday finally picked up our tale of Nicole Kidman attending the Carols by Candlelight delivered by us on 22nd December after she had previously claimed life in Sydney was a living hell because of the media (we politely left her alone on the night) and demolished the utter nonsense printed in an unnamed newspaper ( the Daily Telegraph ) that actor Matt Damon and his family were cutting a swathe throughout small holiday townships on the south coast of NSW during their non-existent cruise aboard the giant liner The World. He was skiing in the US.

                          Check out The World's website-there are still plenty of apartments for sale including the 6 bedroom penthouse where for a lazy few million dollars you can sit and watch the sea for hours on end. What fun

.

"If you don't know Patrick-you should go out more" : Andy Warhol

      What better way to start a new year off than a shameless plug for a pal. The above quote is genuine-tSS was there when the late Andy Warhol said it. Patrick McMullan has been New York's top society snapper for going on 20 years now-in fact he's probably the USA's most sought after photographer for social get-togethers.

     Patrick has regular columns in Warhol's Interview Magazine, Vanity Fair (for which he's a contributing editor) New York Magazine, Ocean Drive,  and a few others. His pics appear in basically every US newspaper and around the world. He's one of the guys on the inside. Even Paris Hilton 2009's 2008's famous party girl says no party is complete without Patrick in attendance. He's also published 7 best selling books of party snaps. tSS can't quite remember where we met Patrick-it was most likely at a very disreputable Greenwich Village bar called the Ninth Circle.

        For the past 2 decades we've made an annual pilgrimage to visit Patrick in his Fifth Avenue apartment near Washington Square where he's lived since he left college. Soon we'll bring you a video of interview with Patrick conducted there. When we first started crashing on Patrick's sofa we usually had to cobble together a few dollars for breakfast the next day, Now McMullan employs around 40 people and 20 photographers around the USA. tSS occasionally helps out. I think he might own the building now.

       tSS once flew Patrick to Sydney for an exhibition of our snaps of various celebrities at a King's Cross gym transformed for the night into a gallery. He was a huge hit with the local media and our own party guests like the late Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue, who signed her snap which was later sold at a charity auction for the Bobby Goldsmith HIV charity bringing around $8000. Kylie loved the pic and asked us where we took it.."somewhere or other" was our reply, not wanting to remind her that it was in a bar when she trying to be incognito and she told tSS to "fuck off" at the time.

       Afterwards we all retired to a restaurant that is now the uber-chic Hugos Lounge (the bar and the only one not owned by 'nightclub identity' John Ibrahim). Joining us were our favourite former First Lady, Lady Sonia McMahon and Min Keating, mother of the then Prime Minister Paul Keating.(left) Everyone got along famously.

      right :   Lady Sonia McMahon with son , Hollywood hearthrob Julian McMahon

 In the morning Patrick received an urgent phone call from Min Keating.  "I left my beautiful rain coat behind" said Min. "Paul (Keating) will be furious " she said. " He bought it for me in Paris when he was on a state visit". Said raincoat was quickly found but as the half a dozen of us who had slept around Patrick's hotel suite arose, McMullan decided we should all pose in Min's leopard print raincoat for a future exhibition. "No-one will believe this" said Patrick...."the Prime Minister's mother waking me at 7am looking for her raincoat-it's like getting a call from the White House". Hopefully the snaps are locked away in a safe.

       Heaven forbid they should emerge. At former PM Bob Hawke's 80th birthday bash at the Opera House  a fortnight ago tSS earned a withering smile from Keating as we caught him trying to avoid the media upon arrival.

  Surpassing Patrick's photographic snaps now are his fashion reports for NBC TV. If you want to know the latest about New York's fashion scene go here to watch a few of McMullan's interviews.

    

a little scandal for New Year's Day

        As tSS saw in the new year perched high in the air from a 20th floor apartment which gave a commanding view of the superb fireworks, a little contretemps was occurring at the nation's top radio station 2GB to add to the woes of the diminutive but fiery A Current Affair reporter Ben Fordham who has received his fair share of kicks to the bollocks as he confront's fleeing dodgy builders or financial planners who have purloined the savings of a few hundred pensioners and so on.

    Down at the Woolloomooloo Wharf , retired radio king John Laws and his wife "Princess" Caroline were quietly seeing in the new year from their favourite table at Ottos with a few friends.

      Ben is currently filling in at 2GB for regular host, the ranting Ray Hadley who is on annual hols and for hours Fordham announced an up-coming interview with Lawsie-once the world's highest paid radio star. But then the interview was suddenly cancelled, embarrasing Fordham.

John and The Princess

     Various scenarios are being bandied about. Part owner of 2GB is current king of the airwaves Alan Jones who for about 12 years was Law's stablemate at the rival station 2UE where between them, they captured the nation's listeners.

       The emnity between the 2 radio stars was no secret. Laws referred to Jones as 'The Parrot' in private and had a wonderful time on air when letters between Jones and ABA chairman David Flint -which sounded like love letters, were revealed during the infamous

cash for comments scandal when both stars were accused of making paid advertising sound like normal comment whilst receiving millions of dollars for favourable mentions of various products.

        Laws, who had his fair share of run-ins with various government bodies was once  forced to apologise on air when Queer Eye For The Straight Guy Carson Kressley was a guest at the Melbourne Cup and Lawsie said to his millions of listeners "Who is this pompous little pansy prig?". Laws delighted in upsetting various minority groups and was accused of being 'homophobic' but it was all a pose-half his close friends are gay. Anything to get top ratings.

       Ben Fordham meanwhile is facing claims he allegedly concealed a serious crime when he posed as a hitman-suposedly hired by a former 75 year old Mayor of Waverley who claimed a male hustler was blackmailing him. The secret meeting where an alleged deal was done to top the blackmailer (the poor ex-Mayor neeeds new specs if he didn't recognise Fordham' face which is plastered on bus adverts) was secretly filmed and went to air on A Current Affair and the whole matter has become decidedly messy with all involved appearing in various courts. The matter has been held over to next this year.

      All the other media outlets are pondering about the reason just why Fordham would interview John Laws who has been retired for 2 years.

      Elementary, Mr. Watson. Laws long-time manager just happens to be John Fordham who also happens to be young Ben's dad. Fordham ,who also manages major sporting stars is the one who took Laws to such peaks of stardom he is now able to travel the world in style and live in the sumptous Woolloomooloo Wharf penthouse next door to Russell Crowe , and lunch and dine every day at Ottos, a small walk from home

                              John Fordham lunches with his client, John Laws at Ottos.
and for those who miss the dulcet tones of Laws-or that extraordinary hair-here is Lawsie on Muslims

reality check

      OK it's the silly season but that's no reason to go totally troppo. A tabloid we won't name (Daily Telegraph) is reporting that Hollywood actor Matt Damon is currently holidaying in Huskisson on the NSW South coast having moved on from Bateman's Bay where it's reported he "signed autographs".

     Damon, one of Hollywood's Mr Nice Guys is supposedly on The World, a vast cruise liner that is heading for Sydney and is like a 15 storey apartment block laid upon it's side. tSS  inspected The World the last time it visited Sydney and, well frankly they may be very nice apartments but the whole floating shebang is ghastly.

      It's like being trapped at sea in an apartment block full of neighbours you never wanted to know and are usually types like a Texan husband and wife who own a thousand bowling alleys and are worth a mint but would bore for The World.

 If Matt's aboard that boat I'll eat Madame Arcarti's hat. These shipboard apartments are mostly owned by people who occasionally rent them out-well just like a real apartment block but why would you want to spend weeks at sea when someone like Damon can hire his own Lear Jet if he wants to holiday in Oz with the kids-particularly as there would be very few other children aboard.

     There are some pleasant owners of these floating flats like Bill and Imelda Roche who sold the Nutrimetics empire for a squillion but they have even started spending less and less time aboard. The highly successful astrologer Athena Starwoman also purchased one when she found instant success in the USA but succumbed to cancer before she could even cross the threshold of her sea bound home.

    Frankly I'd prefer a trip on the Poseidon as at least you would get to go down with Shelley Winters.

And besides, tSS's World spy disguised as the PR agent says there is no-one named 'Damon ' listed onboard.

       This tale reeks for all The World like the story that engulfed the same newspaper when it discovered Sex in The City star Sarah Jessica Parker sipping a beer at the Rushcutter's Bay yachting club a few years ago and ran the pic for 3 days swearing blind it was her despite tSS saying 'you've got it all wrong folks". On the 4th day they admitted their mistake  (no apology of course) but the British lass who had a passing resemblence to Parker lapped up every moment of her new found fame.

     Of  course tSS may be completely wrong about this one but when have we ever been before  ?

                 **************************************

    The same tabloid has run a list of parties for New Year's Eve where one might spot Sydney's "A-List". That would be some feat finding this mysterious crowd who have been missing in action for decades and I doubt even David Attenborough could discover this rare and relatively unknown species.

   Still, they reckon there is an "exclusive" private party at the Top of the Town's $8.25 million penthouse "It's super private, ultra-glam and the guest list includes Charlotte Dawson and John Ibrahim." . Whatever.

troubles in the Imperial Court of Priscilla

     It was the venue where they filmed the Academy Award winning film Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert.

 Forget Crocodile Dundee, the mega hit films that showed real Aussie men carry big knives-Priscilla, shot at the Imperial Hotel in Newtown showed that plenty of real blokes carry big handbags as well.

     The hotel has been something of a gay icon for donkey's years but since it closed it's doors in 2007 for a make-over, it's been embroiled in a court battle over patron numbers.

        Owner Shadd Danesi  reckons he needs at least a reasonable 700 patrons a night to cover the enormous costs of building a proper showcase for the drag stars who strut the boards and entertain a clientele that isn't strictly out for a quick pick-up for the night but seek glam premises and a bit of classy entertainment. And it doesn't come much classier than Sydney's coterie of 6 foot something cocks in frocks who know how to entertain with biting wit.

      But mean locals and the City Council are trying to put the kybosh on that with just 300, and the owner has spent half a million dollars in legal fees alone fighting debilitating court cases .

     It's reminiscent of the battles that happened in chic Paddington-once the home of artists, alternatives, gays and lesbians and just about anyone who felt they didn't fit in elsewhere.

      Plus the amazing Windsor Castle Hotel that was packed every night with every sexual gender and persuasion and some that haven't even been invented yet. The place rocked like no other and the huge immigrant population of Italian and Greek neighbours and the Aussie working class locals didn't give a hoot. They just loved the colour and movement.

     Now you couldn't swing a sequined handbag without knocking out a stockbroker, corporate raider or banker who scowls at anyone in pre-2008 2009 BMW while the sad old Windsor gets a solicitor's warning letter if a patron speaks above a whisper.

   This Nimbyism has been the scourge of Sydney with it's myriad of inner city pockets of wonderful suburbs-many built by convicts for the working classes ,whilst their betters lived in the outer suburbs.

       But now the situations are reversed with the 'artistic' 'types being increasingly moved further and further out whilst corporate types nab the trendiest burbs and then moan about the very aspects that made the area so interesting in the first place.

     A pub like the Imperial, an art deco splendour and one of the few left of the era should be encouraged to ply it's trade to as many folk as possible and if local residents don't like it, they shouldn't have purchased there in the first place. Or they should understand real economics- every dollar the Imperial spends on upgrading and attracting patrons probably adds another 2 to the value of their property.

     However owner Shadd Danesi , ever optimistic has launched a quest to find an artist to re-create a giant red stilletto-something like this-which he wants to place above the entrance. God forbid, that should really have locals fuming and council officers crying foul.

   tSS once worked with Priscilla writer and director Stephan Elliot (left) making wedding and music videos. After the success of Priscilla, Elliot had Hollywood at his feet  (tSS is still working on that one)  but was mortified by the shady characters he met there and fled to London.          

     Whilst his fortunes floundered for a while his recent film 'Easy Virtue' opened to critical aclaim everywhere and he has 2 more flicks in development.

      And there are still plans to one day film the mad saga (with a script by writer Louis Nowra ) of the cancelled wedding of Prince Lorenzo Montesini, the ex-Qantas trolly dolly who travelled to Venice to marry  heiress Primrose 'Pitty Pat' Dunlop with half of Sydney and Melbourne society in tow. In a fit of nerves, Lorenzo  ran off with the best man Robert Straub the night before the wedding.

                                               Pitty Pat & Prince Lorenzo in happier days

     **************************************************************************

TigerGate fashion statement :

     tSS came across marketing executive Sharon Sargeant , the current sqeeze of celebrity gumshoe Frank Monte lunching with a gal pal at Potts Point eatery Lotus in this fetching t-shirt. Sharon says she met the great philandering golfer in an LA hotel bar 3 years ago with mutual friends. They all chatted for about half and hour over a drink and then everyone went their seperate ways.

     But ever since Tiger's tale has gone ballistic she's been plagued by celebrity agents wanting to know if she would like to "sell her story". "But there's nought to tell  " protests Sharon..and sick of the pestering she decided to put it in print.

Mildred Pierce-you are not alone

      How pleasing it is to find that the Social Shuttle's research assistant and sub-editor, Mildred Pierce, a dyslexic moggie rescued from the Cat Protection League one year ago is on-par with the Daily Mail , the great British tabloid. The Mail, slightly right-wing, is one of the best presented tabloids amongst a sorry lot but it does give good show biz.

    Today they have run a story on that great Australian icon Paul Hogan and wife Linda (who both left Oz 20 years ago) who are currently holidaying in Byron Bay..yes that's Byron Bay not Bryon Bay as the Mail on Line reports.

    We know the wonderful resort well as tSS worked for a short period on the local rag, the Byron Echo- started over 20 years ago by a dear tSS friend Nicholas Shand, heir to a British publishing fortune who went all bush and started a commune in that magical spot, when he purchased a few hundred acres in the Byron hinterland and decided the only thing the area lacked was a newspaper for the 'alternatives' or 'ferals' , like Shand, as  they were referred to by puzzled locals.

      The ferals were the band of city folk who had flocked to the beautiful old fashioned fishing town where houses now command multi-million dollar prices. Sadly Nicholas died in a car accident but his newspaper went on to become the area's dominant new's source.

     Hoges is pictured walking on Belongil Beach (we once flew there to cover a nude protest and made a small fortune selling the pics in Japan) and on the balcony of the town's best hotel. the Beach Hotel which was once owned by Hoges and his business partner John Cornell. Hogan and Cornell have made a fortune out of Byron Bay real estate, possibly more than they both did from their successful Crocodile Dundee film ventures.

    When the Croc films first went ballistic world-wide at the box office in the late 1980's, Hogan built a mansion at Possum Creek, just outside Byron, on a 132 hectare lot which he finally sold to Hong Kong British based banker Duncan Mount and his ex-model wife Sally in 2006. Possum Creek is back on the market for $8M as the Mounts are anxious to move back to Sydney.

 The Daily Mail reckons Hoges looks a bit old at 70-you can judge their pics here, while we present our latest Hogan snap from 2008.

As an aside, tSS once covered a concert for the Byron Echo when former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten hit town (with a larger paunch than that sported by Hoges in the Mail pics). In mid-song, as tSS snapped away with a camera, Rotten-or John Lydon , his real name, leapt off stage and proceeded to throttle tSS at which point we pointed out -"hey it's me-your old drinking pal from Soho !". John relaxed his grip and said "great to see you again-play along please-the crowd loves it !"
    The resultant confected struggle between us was later described by Shand as "like a weird gay couple doing the Pride of Erin-badly", but at least the audience was convinced Anything for art's sake.

      As the Daily Mail says, age catches up on one.

Monday rant : defame me...please

          Britain's Justice Minister Jack Straw, it appears, has given into repeated calls from various groups calling for reform of Britain's libel laws, and specifically so-called tourism libel  Straw says a panel will  "consider whether the law of libel, including the law relating to libel tourism, in England and Wales needs reform, and if so to make recommendations as to solutions".

      Omninously, he says this study will be conducted by " academics, lawyers and newspaper editors". So that's OK then. Or is it ?

         No 'man in the street" or errant vicar discovered to have had a bit on the side with his life splashed on the pages of The Sun on this panel ?.

         What about the casual sex partner of singer George Michael who was pounced upon by the tabloids after he emerged from the bushes on Hampstead Heath, described variously as "sleazy" "fat" "pudgy" "cheaply dressed" etc etc.( a possible description of many a newspaper editor tSS has encountered). His pictures and accompanying sordid descriptions even ended up in Aussie glossies and Spanish celeb mags while Michael went on to explain himself on Michael Parkinson's chat show to raptuous applause.

        Even worse, the schizoid world of the gay publishing printed the following :

"Meanwhile his (George Michael's) new buddy K***** crept from the undergrowth looking sheepish and rushed to his Ford Transit van. As he opened the door a grubby, stained mattress was clearly visible in the back.

We later tracked him to his home 60 miles away—a squalid flat in Brighton, East Sussex.
Looking gross and dishevelled, K***** answered the door naked — pulling on grimy shorts as he invited us in."
   The site GAYTWTOGETHER describes itself as "interesting articles, great pictures and cool stuff for and about gay relationships. Whether you’re "living together" or "dating", "not quite sure yet" or "in a long term relationship", it's all about romance, love and being GAYTWOGETHER".
Well yeh, sure. No casual sex or even solidarity for these prudes.

          Surely this bloke, who for all the idiotic descriptions looks like just about every other person in the street, minus a few gold records and the latest Mercedes, deserves a place on this panel of distinguished experts. The list of mere mortals who could advise this panel could go on forever-the thousands who are routinely defamed and libeled in the media on a daily basis just because they can be and because they have no recourse.

       The gorgeous Carla Bruni-Sarkozy writing in The Guardian in defence of her husband the French President Nicolas Sarkozy  (who hardly needed such defence) makes a valid point in quoting the great French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais:

"Slander, sir? You scarcely know the half of it: I have seen the most honest of men almost brought to their knees by it ... Who the devil will resist it?"

Unfortunately you have to be married to a French president to get yourself a page in the Guardian when your feelings have been hurt.

         Whilst Straw's announcement is receiving plaudits from the very worthy The Libel Reform Campaign which includes such notables as The World's Greatest Magazine, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, writer Monica Ali, former Poet Laurete Sir Andrew Motion (?) and a variety of Guardian and Independent type editors and journalists, why is no ordinary victim of libel ( like Michael's Hampstead Heath friend) included in their campaign ?.

      The Libel Reform website carries worthy tales of major investigations being stalled by threats of libel but what about that other body of people, you know the majority : the common man/woman who are routinely slaughtered in print in daily tabloids and have no recourse except perhaps a letter to the "self regulated"  Press Complaints Commission ?. ( forget the Australian version-it consists of 3 people and a pet budgie)

 The Australian businessman Joseph Gutnick won the very first internet libel case when he sued the Dow Jones and Company (Dow). (it's well documented here ironically by the Murdoch University). Gutnick claimed that the Dow article could be read worldwide via the web and his main complaint was that it included a photograph of him with a tax evader and gave the impression that he (wrongly) aided that man in his schemes. Gutnick won handsomely and set a precedent which we are now seeing used to such great effect in the UK. But Gutnick is mega-rich.

       

      NSW  has just reformed it's libel laws to bring them in-line with the rest of the country which are still a dog's breakfast-but importantly again, only accessible for the rich. It's capped the top payout at $250,000 but the litigant must first go through one court to prove their case, and then a second with a jury to decide damages, which as the late and very rich stockbroker Rene Rivkin (pictured left) found when he sued a newsaper for alleging he had 'gay liasons' with shady characters. He won, but was awarded $1 in damages.

         What Straw has done-just as former Labor premier of NSW Bob Carr (the best premier the Tories never had) did, is cave into a cabal of newspaper editors who continually claim "freedom of the press ", aided by  the normally sane UK's Press Gazette  (emails to the Press Gazette and The Libel Reform Campaign as to why, in their campaigns, they don't also call for libel laws to be made accessible to the great unwashed masses, go unanswered.)

        Ever since a Manchester newspaper editor discover in the 1890's that 'sex sells', along with sensationalism and bugger the affects upon any hapless soul subject to their treatment, any libel reforms will bring no joy for those like the bunch of schoolkids whose school photo was plastered across a News Ltd tabloid front page when it was discovered their school had rated the lowest in academic scoring in the state, which earned them the headline " OUR DUMBEST KIDS ?.

       Unless Straw's panel include reforms that allow access to legal aid for defamed plebs, they will amount to nought.

# Disclosure : tSS did once sue the wondrous News of The World many years ago over a case of  mistaken identity and was handsomely rewarded with enough filthy lucre to purchase a gleaming new Mini and take a holiday (with friend) in Portugal.

### And mistakes in the Social Shuttle will always be corrected with a grovelling apology but blamed on our sub-editor Mildred Pierce. (well that's what everyone else does !)
                                           
                                                         our once treasured gift from Rupert Murdoch

## Fact : Jack Straw's increased police powers and so-called "terrorism prevention"measures earned the praise of Margaret Thatcher and he has vetoed publication of government documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Straw also voted to invade Iraq....you know, the country that had never invaded Britain. (Lancet Iraqi death estimates :500 people per day, or 2.5% of Iraq's population )

the continuing fall of Paris Hilton

  Which is more tragic ?

       British TV host and ex-tabloid editor Piers Morgan or the so-called 'party' girl Paris Hilton ?. Britain's Daily Mail today carries pics and a story of a mock wedding between the 2 in Las Vegas complete with a (yawn) Elvis impersonator.

       Apparently the stunt is to promote Pier's new ITV show Piers Morgan On...whatever. The decline of Las vegas appears to be the first in the series. Sadly Piers is about 2 years out of date. Vegas started plummeting about 2 years ago around the same time Paris Hilton partied there with Sydney "nightclub identity" (or organised crime figure according to police) John Ibrahim (pictured right (c))

       Morgan's tale in the Mail about the decline of Vegas isn't bad reading but the ABC TV's 4 Corners did it better and earlier with their "Will The Son Also Rise" story on James Packer and his $2Billion loss in Vegas which can be viewed here. It's a far better insight into the decline of the Nevada gambling city than Pier's tale, although to his credit, perhaps his TV version may be more fun.

        As for Paris, she's let it be known that she is available for a gig in Sydney for New Year's Eve but hasn't found a taker yet. That's probably after her behaviour in 2008 when she was paid a reputed
 $200K to front a party at Kings Cross bar The Piano Room (co-incidently another Ibrahim venture) when she swept through the bar at mid-night into a small hidden VIP closure never to be seen again. Guests who had paid a small fortune to see the party girl cried foul.

   

 Hilton agreed to attend the regular New Year's Day charity party in 2007 held at the chic Icebergs restaurant overlooking Bondi Beach-as long as no media were allowed to attend. Just to show there were no hard feelings tSS went anyway and snapped her snogging with Stavros Niarchos who had slipped in unnoticed by all.

                                                    the on/off Paris & Stavros (c)

    And on the theme of New Year's Eve, the once 'party to be at' , the Lord Mayor's Opera House get-together that once hosted celebs like Kylie Minogue or Sarah Michelle Geller to push the start button for the spectacular fireworks display has become a pay only event with the privilege to listen to music presented by Lindsay Lohan's ex, Samantha Ronson for around a $1000 entry fee. No thanks. One press conference with the snarly Ronson is one too many in a lifetime.

tSS will be reporting NYE from a 30th floor apartment in an East Sydney building, which hosts so many parties special tickets are printed with limited numbers supplied to each resident. Bolinger and a small comedy set by Austen Tayshus (right) will be a bonus.

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Distant cousins # 3 ?

former Prime Minister Bob Hawke

Minister for The Yartz Sir Les Patterson