The Daily Mail strikes again...

You have to love the British Daily Mail newspaper and their infected outrage.
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Today they have run a story about the hapless Jon Venables:

"Jon Venables' used mobile phone to take 1,200 pics up women's skirts "

On the same page they have run a tale about singer Alesha Dixon :

"Where's your dress gone, Alesha ?"

illustrating the story is a pic of Alesha...up-skirt!

Hello and Farewell !

Sad news with the announcement that Hello magazine founder Eduardo Sánchez Junco has passed away at age 67.

Eduardo

Eduardo, a charming and friendly Spaniard began the glorious mag in 1988 after inheriting his father's publishing business and was adored by the Hello staff who turned the glossy magazine-that never wrote a harsh word about anyone- into the celebrity bible. Celebrities queue to have their weddings, home life or houses featured in Hello.

The Social Shuttle knows. Apart being a regular contributor we had 2 fortnightly pages in Hello for 2 years as the image of Australia rose on the international arena after the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the amazing success of actors like Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe and TV shows like Neighbours, Anything from Oz was deemed just classy enough to feature in the glossy pages. And doors of influence flew open. 

Working with tSS was the London based expatriate social scribe John Rendell who found recent fame in the Christian The Lion saga.

Nicky Haslam

John Rendell & Glen Marie Frost

Rendell was eventually replaced on Hello by British writer and interior designer Nicky Haslam who appeared at events clad in black leather and featuring heavy eye-liner. Ten years earlier Haslam would have turfed himself out of one of his own smart cocktail parties.

Hello pays in British pounds which once meant it parlayed into two and half times plus in Aussie dollars. Not so much now. Nice work if you can get it.

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There is hope though. 

The owner of Hello's rival OK!, Richard 'Dirty' Desmond ( as he was dubbed by the British satirical magazine Private Eye) has just purchased the British TV station Channel Five and plans to go all celebrity, according to his PR Max Clifford. OK! is a Hello rip-off but it has done extremely well especially in Australia.

Desmond

 Desmond made his money with soft-core porn magazines like Peaches and Reader's Wives before going slightly up market and purchasing the UK Daily Express and the Daily Star. TSS isn't complaining either as we regularly sell snippets and photographs to his publications. 

But are there enough 'celebrities' to go around ?. Expect exciting new  reality TV shows and insights into Jordon and Peter Andre's lives. No we still don't know what they do but re-call there was once a charming Aussie singer called Peter Andre who left these shores about 15 years ago to seek fame in the UK.

Where is all this leading to with the New Media ?. That is the question. An indication- the last photograph we sold to Hello was featured once again in their Chinese edition. It was an exclusive pic of Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi- as shown on here. When the residuals arrived the princely sum we received  was $4.15!

Fantasy versus reality

photo shopped Sarah

The Sydney Morning Herald draws attention to the changing face of Sarah Murdoch, wife of Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan and the host on the next Australia' s Next Top Model.

stunning..a natural Sarah

Sarah recently joined  Youth Minister Kate Ellis's advisory board to help foster a healthy body image for youth which includes a policy for fashion magazine editors to label doctored and photo shopped pictures so that young people do not get an unrealistic belief in how one can look. She also appeared on the front cover of the Australian Women's Weekly last November au naturel, flaws and all.

The SMH 'PS' column quotes a spokes person for Sarah saying : ''Sarah never said she would never again appear in a retouched photo. Her appearance on the cover of the AWW untouched was and remains an incredibly bold and important statement,'' PS was curtly informed. ''Sarah will, of course, continue to appear in both completely natural campaigns as well as photos that require hair, make-up and retouching to suit a client's needs, as you would expect from any professional."

at the ANTM launch

Here are our exclusive pics from the launch of Australia's Next Top Model a fortnight ago which was hosted by Sarah Murdoch along with her fellow judges from the show, fashion designer Alex Perry and Charlotte Dawson. Both Charlotte and Alex seem to have obtained a stretched smooth look. But Sarah looks quite amazing..gorgeous!

the real Elle

fantasy Elle

 Another Aussie supermodel will be judging new talent with Elle McPherson hosting Britain's Next Top Model. Her promo shots give us a smoothed out Elle. We like the real one as well.

Perhaps BP should employ the expert photo shopper.

exclusive-Mel's fire sale

Mel & Bruce Davey

What is behind Mel Gibson's disposal of so many properties ?.

He has sold off his New York house and a beach house in Malibu is on the market.

Now there is a rumour from a reliable source that Mel's partner in Icon Films, Bruce Davey may be putting Craigend  up for sale. Craigend in Point Piper is one of the elite suburb's most iconic properties with a commanding view of the harbour.

Davey and Gibson purchased Craigend  in 2001 for $16M and announced it was to be the headquarters of their burgeoning film production company Icon which has produced 3 box office success- Apocaypto, The Passion of Christ and. Braveheart. These 3 films pushed Mel into billionaire status and has made him one of the richest of Hollywood stars. The 2 producers announced last year that Icon was going into a production hiatus.

Craigend

Tales of the demise of Mel's career are of course greatly exaggerated. As an actor/director who has total control over his career, Mel calls the shots. But he has taken a thumping on property prices as he sells up just at the wrong time. The Sydney market has also gone quiet for high end properties.

As we exclusively reported earlier actor Russell Crowe and wife Danielle Spencer viewed Altona, on the market for $45.5M but owners Deke & Eve Miskin have rejected an offer from Crowe  of $36M. It's doubtful the Miskins will get their asking price in today's market.

It's a buyer's market. What has spooked Mel ?

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While Gibson and Crowe can play the property market with ease, things go from bad to worse for budding property developer Gary Baker and his wife, Chanel boss Karin Upton Baker as their property empire collapses under a sea of debt.

The Bakers are heavy duty social scene members but have gone quiet recently with a Supreme Court battle over money lenders and loans on their sumptuous pride of joy, an Elizabeth Bay duplex that has been the locale of many parties for visiting celebrities.
The duplex has a 3 car garage with a turntable that housed their series of black autos with XXX number plates- a Rolls Phantom, a Bentley Continental and a vintage pagoda style Mercedes. The Merc is regularly put up for sale and withdrawn-it's Karin's favourite car and she is finding it hard to part with.

Now it seems Gary is finding it hard to part with some of the properties that have been his financial downfall. After a finance company took hold of 3 Bondi Beach apartments that were once owned by the late singer Peter Allen, an auction on the weekend of one of his Bellevue Hill apartments saw Baker hovering around the auction, pulling funny faces at prospective buyers and generally acting slightly odd.

Gary is also said to have photographed a member of the press who had been "stalking him for 20 years".

Mad Mel-coming or going ?

News Ltd has scotched rumours that actor Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson is upping stakes and moving back to Australia where he still owns a substantial farm in the NSW countryside. The story can be read here where the largest news outlet in the country (world?) says :

"REPORTS Mel Gibson would flee the growing leaked tape-scandal in the US for his native Australia were today dismissed by his rep.
British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported that Gibson had told friends that he will move back Down Under with his ex-wife Robyn, who still supports him and publicly defended him as a husband and father.
But Gibson's rep Alan Nierob said the Oscar winner is planning on staying put in the US.
He told NBC: "There's no truth to the Mail story."

It's hugely satisfying  putting the competition in it's place.

One should completely ignore the tale on the same webpage.

Mel Gibson wants to call Australia home

"MEL Gibson is poised to quit the US and return to Australia with his ex-wife Robyn after selling his mansion near New York."

Comings and goings..

A reminder this week of a once grander Australian social scene with the passing of 2 stalwarts.

Pat Tudor

In London the former beauty queen Pat Tudor has died after a tragic accident when she fell down a set of steep marbles stairs in her Knighstbridge home. Aged only 68, Pat was regarded as one of the great beauties of her day. 

Tall. elegant and with impeccable manners and poise she was crowned Miss Victoria in the early 1960s and forged a highly successful modeling career in Melbourne and Sydney before moving to London to act as a sort of roving ambassador for Qantas.

She was also appointed as Kerry Packer's personal UK representative and up until her death still liaised with Kerry's widow Ros and son James Packer, organising all travel arrangements whenever they visited the UK.

When the Packers wished to throw a shindig in the Old Dart, Pat was the girl to get the details right especially when high profile guests like Rupert Murdoch or Lord Rothschild and Sir James Goldsmith were expected.

Pat had only recently attended the Ascot races with visiting Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones.

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After a lifetime of refined wealth the last scion of the David Jones department store empire, Charles Lloyd Jones has died after a long illness at 77.

Lloyd Jones' funeral was held at All Saints Anglican Church in Woollahra yesterday and a who's who of the retail world turned out to send him off.

Sidney Baillieu Myers from the Myer empire (he married the daughter of Sam Horden from Hordens), John Walton of the Walton Stores chain and former newspaper publisher James Fairfax all attended.  Former premier Neville Wran read the eulogy along with nephew Edward Lloyd Jones. A wake was held at the nearby home of Lady Pagan, widow of the former High Commissioner in London Sir Jock Pagan.

Charles Lloyd Jones, a confirmed bachelor was born into extraordinary privilege and wealth. Brought up in the magnificent Rosemont mansion in Woollahra he attended Tudor House and Cranbrook, being ferried to and from school in a chauffeured Rolls Royce. Shy and easily embarrassed., he would ask to be dropped off around a corner.

With his father an avid art collector, Rosemont was packed with valuable artworks amongst them  a Chagall, Picasso, 2 Van Goghs and a Rembrandt

Weekends were spent at the David Jones corporate summer house at Palm Beach. Lloyd Jones became chairman at the family store  (begun by his Welsh grandfather David Jones in 1838) when his brother David died suddenly and later  he headed the advertising department. It was Charles who introduced the houndstooth pattern that has become so synonymous with the store. Today flags at all of David Jones flew at half mast.

In later years he fell on financial hard times. Charles invested  most of his money in a scheme proposed by 2 friends that fell apart within 3 years. He was broke and suffering cancer and the 2 friends agreed to re-pay him $3000 a month, expecting the payments to last less than a year. But Charles survived the cancer and outlived the 2 friends putting him in a precarious financial state.

A brief scandal ensured in the early 1990s when it was claimed that Lloyd Jones and , improbably the American actor Karl Malden (who had never visited Australia) had allegedly attended a notorious Kings Cross bar frequented by underage male prostitutes.
Friends who had been trying all their lives to get Charles to just once, walk into a pub or bar and never succeeded found the ridiculous claim a huge joke.Those who knew Charles well noted his preference for rather muscular male gentleman but he did score on one occasion with a lady who fell for him and wanted marriage-Zsa Zsa Gabor !

                                       
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And off briefly to the launch of a new Samsung TV where the guest of honour was actor Simon Baker who was voted by US magazines as the World's Sexiest Man. Simon says he never watches The Mentalist , the series that has brought him stellar fame throughout the world as it's hard enough making the series to also have to watch it. 

With family in tow, he was soon off to north NSW to the once sleepy former whaling village that is pricing out locals, Byron Bay. Earlier this year Baker paid $1.5M for a nice but average sized cottage in the hinterland of the resort.

Who is Rhys Muldoon ?

Rhys Muldoon & Peter Garrett at the Hawke book launch

Who is Rhys Muldoon ?.

The quick answer is a very successful actor. A former host of a kid's TV show Muldoon has acted in numerous critically acclaimed roles including the Oscar nominated The Saviour in 2006 and Bitter and Twisted, the hit of the 2008 Tribecca Film Festival.

But perhaps one role could have revealed a political side to Muldoon. In the Melbourne and Sydney productions of the David Hare play Stuff Happens he played the lead role of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On Tuesday night as our exclusive picture shows, Muldoon was at the Blanche d'Alpuget's book launch of her new title Hawke The Prime Minister. He stood and chatted with Environment Minister and former Midnight Oils front man Peter Garrett MP.

Now it appears he is also a close personal friend of former PM Kevin Rudd, recently ousted by Julia Gillard who launched d'Alpuget's book. And if we believe an article in tomorrow's Australian newspaper Muldoon is so close to Rudd he may have been advising him on certain matters during his tenure as PM. He and Rudd also penned a children's book together-Great Australia Day Kerfuffle.

What does all this mean ?. Well we have no idea but it does add to the amazing publicity campaign-planned or unplanned that is certain to push Hawke The Prime Minister into the number one book spot.

As media reports continue unabated with Labor tribes lining up on either side to support former PM Paul Keating or Bob Hawke the relationship between the 2 former political allies seems busted beyond repair. Or is it ?.

Keating say he hasn't previously considered writing his own book about his term as PM from '91 to'96 and as the World's Greatest Living Treasurer ( an honour accorded by a host of financial publication editors around the world) from 1983 to 1990.

If he puts pen to paper now his book is also bound to be a bestseller. Perhaps Hawke will return the favour.

The tables turn on the Silver Bodgie

happier days-Hawke, Keating & Gough Whitlam

Days after the launch of the Blanche d'Alpuget book  (see below), Hawke The Prime Minister, his successor Paul Keating has come out sledging Bob and Blanche Hawke with a letter published in the Australian in which Keating reveals for the first time that Hawke was suffering from depression during his tenure as PM.

At the launch on Tuesday night at the Wharf Restaurant Blanche mentioned Hawkie's bout of depression, as did Hawke himself but both said it lasted a few months.

Keating claims it was for 4 years while  he Keating as Deputy Prime Minster , carried  Hawke through the most difficult decisions including his advice to Hawke to immediately approach George Bush Sr before the first Gulf War and establish Australia as the USA's first ally-which he did giving Bush Sr much needed moral support for the pending war and in return obligating this country the need to only provide 2 warships as support.

Keating demanded Hawke's resignation in 1990 after he claimed a previous agreement between the two would see Hawke  handover power and when Bob refused, Keating retreated to the back bench only to usurp him 10 months later in 1991. Keating held power for 5 years until he lost to the man he hated more than any-John Howard in 1995.

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Miranda

In a more disingenuous article, the fragrant Miranda Devine has also gotten stuck into Bob and Blanche in a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Miranda is meddling it again. She claims all of Hawke's children wore black when he and Blanche wed in 1995 . Not true. The Shuttle was there. And all the Hawke children and grandchildren were at the book launch on Monday and happy to support their step-mum Blanche.

Miranda's biggest faux pas though is her attempt to paint former wife Hazel Hawke, who remained loyal beside Bob while he was PM  and while he was conducting a secret affair with Blanche who he would eventually marry, as being 'discarded' when no longer needed. Hazel sadly is in the advanced stages of alzheimers.
She was diagnosed with the disease while Bob was still PM and both she and her husband carefully planned Hazel's gradual withdrawal from the public eye. 

Hazel Hawke

People we trust more than Devine have said Hazel was almost saint  like in her love for Hawke and said that she told most close friends that as she deteriorated mentally, she had no wish to put him through what is acknowledged as being one of the most debilitating  and soul destroying illnesses a couple can face together.

Oscar winner at the Bob-a-thon

Only ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke could draw an Oscar winning actor to a book launch. Geoffrey Rush confirmed he had always been a Hawke fan. It was also an opportunity to meet for the first time the new Prime Minister Julia Gillard-a smaller, prettier woman in real life with amazing white porcelain like skin

PM Julia Gillard with Bob'n'Blanche

Hawke, The Prime Minister  is the next instalment on Hawke's life covering his 9 years as PM and is written by his wife, Blanche d'Alpuget. Her first biography of  Hawke remains the best selling political biography of all time in Australia.

Hawke fan

Hawke is a unique creature almost universally loved even by his political enemies. At 81 he still draws an admiring crowd anywhere he goes. When Bob gets out on the hustings for the Labor Party during an election campaign it can be pandemonium. With the image of the average Aussie, Hawke is anything but. 

After attending 3 universities including 2 years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Hawke went straight into the top spot at the ACTU without ever having to hustle for a job He became the unionist's hero when unions  were the most powerful force in the country. 

An example of his power was when Frank Sinatra visited Australia for concerts in 1972 and referred to female reporters as "$2 hookers". Unions closed ranks and refused to re-fuel Sinatra's plane. Frank found himself stuck in the penthouse suite of the Boulevard Hotel without even room service while his manager Jilly Rizzo fumed. Hawke was called into conciliate and told Cranky Frankie that of he didn't have wings he'd never leave the country without apologising first.

Peter Garret at the book launch

B1 & B2

Over a day long drinking session a deal was thrashed out with Sinatra agreeing to give 2 charity performances.
Later Sinatra was to tell friends "that Hawke could have given the guys in Chicago lessons".

The episode was later made into a film-The Night They Called It A Day with the late Dennis Hopper playing Frank.

Hawke's forte was conciliation. Preventing strikes before they happened whilst getting wages up. Big Business loved him and got behind him in his election campaign for PM. Along the way he saved huge swathes of Australia and Antarctica as national parks, was instrumental in ending war in Cambodia, formed APEC, sent troops to the first Gulf War, actively opposed the later invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

An example of Hawkie's amazing charisma was at an American Australian Association dinner about 8 years ago. Then PM John Howard was the guest of honour. When Hawke walked into the room it was electric. He was quickly surrounded by ambassadors from all over Asia. The US Ambassador, a George Bush Jr pal warmly embraced him. When Howard arrived he was like any other guest. A waiter with  a plate hors d'œuvre would have gained more attention. As the politician Gareth Evans once said scathingly-"when Howard walks into a room, it's like he just walked out of another one". No wonder the cricket world wants anyone but him to be the new boss.

Next Sunday in the Hawke-a-thon is the premiere of Hawke, the Movie. A gripping look at the tussle between he and Paul Keating who eventually deposed him in a party room coup, just like Julia Gillard who launched the book, did with Kevin Rudd.

And on facebook you can join the Bring Back Bob Hawke page.

Hawke The Prime Minister is published by Melbourne University Press


Hawke (the film) starring Richard Roxburgh premiers on Sunday night at 8.30pm on the Ten Network

One Lady, 3 Lords.

News comes that one of Britain's most famous society hostesses, the late Lady Edith Foxwell is to be the subject of a documentary that will tell the story of her amazing life.

Lady Edith, who died in 1998  was known as the 'Queen of London Society' during the 1970s and '80s . With New Zealander Stephen Hayter-who once boasted he kept his press clippings in a Swiss bank vault, Edith opened the Mayfair nightspot The Embassy Club.

 Once married to film producer Ivan Foxwell. she was granted her title with "the rank of a daughter of  an Earl" in a rare move by Royal Warrant because her uncle, the Earl of Cavan was a celebrated war hero.

The Social Shuttle spent many a night in our youth with Lady Edith as a 'walker' accompanying her to parties and she occasionally stayed in our London apartment for weeks on end. It was always meant to be overnight but somehow time stretched as did the horrendous telephone bills that followed her departure. In the day of timed calls, Edith's endless chats to her Hollywood pals like Zsa Zsa Gabor or Joan Collins could almost bankrupt one.

Lady Edith owned a splendid country manor called Sherston where she threw great weekend parties relying on an interesting mix of people from all walks of life. She would phone tSS and say "I think it's a bit top heavy with gay boys this week-could you bring a couple of women?". Inevitably her butler would then phone shortly after and request we also pick up half a dozen bottles of champagne and assorted spirits on the way down. That call usually went to just about every guest. Edith kept her cellar fully stocked without spending a penny.

Once over a Sunday lunch at Sherston with 40 guests the cook disclosed to tSS that none of Edith's staff had been paid for 6 months and her credit had finally been cut off in the village.

 Sherston backed onto Princess Anne's property who Edith sued once when Anne's gamekeeper shot one of her dogs. It also bordered a 'commune' where Princess Margaret dallied with her paramour Roddy Llewellyn . The commune was run by the Australian 'Christian The Lion' identity John Rendall who owned an antique shop in the Kings Road at the time. Asked if she ever mingled with neighbours she replied "good God no, frightful snobs the lot of them . It's much more fun in the local pub". She did however give Sherston over to Prince Andrew so he could conduct a then secret affair  with his girlfriend Koo Stark.

 Lady Foxwell had a London flat but she gave it to her daughter Atlanta as wedding present when she got married, hence she was perpetually homeless in London. Atlanta married a very handsome Italian, Prince Stefano Massimo , the son of a Riviera playboy and Dawn Addams, a 1950's British movie star. Stefano is also a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia and a Roman emperor.

'once black, never go back'

Hubbard

Once at one of Edith  parties  tSS noticed a face that seemed vaguely familiar. On asking our hostess who he was she said "oh that Scientology man, he's so much fun and brings crates of Moet". It was  L. Ron Hubbard who was living on an old tramp steamer on the Thames River. A few days before we had read in the Times that the FBI were looking for him to interview him over some matter.

 Edith had an affair when she was 62 with the African American singer Marvin Gaye and then she was hooked saying "once black never go back". She had a string of young black boyfriends who she loved to flaunt around town. Once tSS returned home and burst into our bedroom in the afternoon and with huge embarrassment found Edith in flagrante with her  22 year old beau Winston. Edith just smiled sweetly and winked while we backed out of the room.

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Meanwhile journalist Marcus Scriven has penned a book on 3 aristocrats who fell on hard times and squandered huge family fortunes. 

Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster, also known as "the bedsit duke" spent a $600M fortune before he committed suicide. Angus Montague, horrendously  overweight, was the 12th Duke of Manchester, who died in 2002 after being crane-lifted out of his tiny flat. He spent time in an American jail for fraud but avoided the slammer in the UK for similar charges when the judge decided he was 'so dim' he didn't know better.
Another who Scriven writes about is John Hervey the 7th Marquess of Bristol.

 tSS  got to know Hervey briefly during his short 44 years before he died of a drug overdose in 1999 having spent a $10M inheritance. There are tales that didn't make it into Scriven's book. Hervey adopted a sort of Oscar Wilde pose although he wasn't quite as amusing but certainly indulged in rent boys and dubious acquaintances.

The late John Hervey

We ran across John Hervey once in New York in the early 1980s. He was accompanied by a man who  he introduced as his personal lawyer although we had already met that man. The lawyer had been a friend of the writer Robin Maugham who was the nephew of Somerset Maugham.

Robin Maugham wrote a rather scandalous book called The Wrong People about a wealthy man who adopts a young boy and moulds him into his ideal image of a boyfriend. Our lawyer was the real life example and few knew that Maugham was writing from real life experience.


Hervey and the lawyer were busted for drugs in a New York hotel. The lawyer took the rap and Hervey said he would hire the best attorneys to get him off. He promptly returned to London and forget about the man languishing in jail. The lawyer got a 25 year sentence and died 8 years later in Rikers Jail.

Towards the end of his life John Hervey visited Australia but was arrested after a week on an immigration charge. He hadn't notified authorities upon his arrival that he had been arrested and served time in jail in the UK for drug offences.
In the magistrates court the prosecutor asked Hervey why, when filling in his immigration card, he didn't note as required, that he had a criminal record. 

Hervey replied " oh I thought you had to have a criminal record to get into the country". He was deported the next day.

 Splendour and Squalor : The Disgrace and Disintegration of Three Aristocratic Dynasties by Marcus Scriven

What a beauty !

 

Presenting the latest Australian model taking the overseas catwalks by storm-6' 2" Andrej Pejik. 

Having moved to Paris in February this year and doing the fashion circuit, Adrej hit the scene at the very top 

Designers John Paul Galtier, John Galiano and Paul Smith are confirmed fans and manager Martin Walsh who also looks after Elle McPherson has said-"get ready for the first male supermodel"!

Move over Imelda Marcos !

Lang Hancock

Our favorite local Filipino gal made good Rose Hancock Porteous is about to be immortalised in song and on stage with the gala premiere of  Prix D’Amour (The Price of Love) a musical based upon the life of the former nurse and maid who snared the heart of her billionaire patient.

Prix D’Amour was written by  Paul Dion of Merimbula.and is to be presented at the local Twyford Hall  with a show that promises laughter, tears, singing and dancing. No mention yet if the beloved Rose's drug conviction for forging a script for sleeping pills features. Surely the incident is an ideal moment for a dreamtime sequence or a dramatic interlude, perhaps just at the end of the first half. 

The musical is based upon the book "Rose" by Robert Wainwright.

It poses the question : was Rose a gold-digger or was she a woman misunderstood by the values of two vastly different cultures?. The mind boggles.

This is the story of a woman who began life as a small town girl but became one of Australia's wealthiest and most eccentric socialites.

the Prix D'Amour cast

Rose was born in Silay City in the Philippines and was the granddaughter of a Philippine Revolution war hero. Her father was a friend of Ferdinand Marcos.

It has been claimed that loved blossomed between Rose and the ailing Hancock when she was watching TV reports of the dramatic fall of the Marcos regime that was broadcast live. At one stage after  the Marcos clan had scrambled aboard a US helicopter to flee to Hawaii, with a dozen Louis Vuitton suitcases crammed with US dollars- Imelda turning to her tearful and loyal servants proclaiming  "I leave with nothing but your love" diamond bracelets cascading down her wrist-.a camera crossed to the then Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans who was one of the first visitors to the former presidential palace. 

Evans described for the cameras the chaos he found as he toured the palace and his puzzlement on coming across Imelda's bedroom where he opened a chest and discovered a variety of brightly coloured objects, holding one one up for the viewers to reveal a very large purple veined dildo. Evans feigned ignorance as to the dildo's use wondering  aloud what Imelda could possibly do with such a strange object.. (Rose also has a collection of shoes just like Imelda).

Ms Hancock nee Lacson  flew in to a rage, issuing Filipino curses and hurled a vase at the telly.

Startled from his oxygen tent , the West Australian mining magnate Land Hancock shot up to see the fiery dark haired downstairs maid with eyes flashing in anger- love was borne and the rest is history.

In his later years Lang languished in the same bedroom  whilst his loving bride /nurse entertained Perth's elite in the downstairs ballroom of their love nest, Prix L'Amour, occasionally ushering a few into his bedroom like a tour group. Will all these wonderful moments be put to song and dance in Prix D'Amour ?.

Sadly Rose will not be attending the world premier. She is still recovering from a stroke late last year. Prix D'Amour opens on July 30th.

We bring you again some clips of our Rose in action and , click here to hear one of the wonderful toons from Prix D'Amour !

Third time lucky for Russell Crowe ?

Our real estate spy disguised as a potted palm informs us that Russel Crowe, wife Danielle Spencer plus children and a number of relatives including dad-in-law, the children's TV host Don Spencer have paid a third visit to Altona, currently on the market and Sydney's most expensively priced house at $45 Million.

The pair have 2 children and are planning another says our source and are seriously looking at upgrading to a house and selling their Wolloomooloo Finger Wharf penthouse where Russ has lived for the past 10 years. Altona has a glamorous history. It was originally an up-marker guest house where the likes of Frank   Sinatra and Bing Crosby stayed on visits to the Emerald City before being purchased by the Man From Uncle-Matt Handbury, publishing mogul and nephew of Rupert Murdoch. 

When Handbury divorced his wife Fiona, the former Vogue  model, Altona passed to her as part of a divorce settlement. She sold out to the music mag publishers Deke & Eve Miskin  for $29M. The Miskins are now planning to move permanently to the dress circle area of Byron Bay, Wategoes Beach. Fiona has now re-invented herself as the Countess of Dartmouth, dividing her time between Belgravia in London and the Hampton's outside New York

Wolloomooloo Wharf

Altona was recently rented to Hugh Jackman & wife Deborra-Lee Furness for $36,000 a month while he filmed Wolverine in Sydney and both expressed an interest in purchasing the mansion that comes with it's own jetty, harbourside pool, boathouse and one of the most sensational views in Sydney. 

The Miskins weren't selling then and a phone to call to Jackman's agent received the response "Hugh has no plans to buy in Sydney at present".

Crowe already owns a farm outside Coffs Harbour that houses a compound for visiting family members. As for the penthouse on the wharf, retired radio announcer John Laws who lives in an adjoining apartment has always told Crowe that if he ever plans to sell, he wants first offer.

Watch a sales video for Altona above !

The Rumour Mill

Rumour has it that.......

a prominent barrister (not a QC or SC !) has joined a colleague in exploring his feminine side with weekly get-togethers where both wear full female attire and discuss all matters pertaining to "I'm a Lady". The pair were spotted by a clerk from chambers who is also an avid amateur astronomer who was scanning apartments with his telescope in ritzy Darling Point and came across them sitting on a balcony ala characters Denny Crane and Alan Shore in the TV series Boston Legal.

Rumour has it that......

a heterosexual chart topping popster has ordered her publicist to generate rumours that she is a lesbian. Having decided that Sappho is currently De rigueur she hopes to crack the lucrative gay market. The very pretty PR flack hit the roof when she realized that she was to be the anointed girlfriend !

Rumour has it that......

a well known local hotshot young business guru who had gone in to bat for the other team with his heterosexual love affair has now caused a pending calamity. After introducing a former boyfriend to his prospective fiancee with a suggestion a threesome was in order, the 2 have now hit it off in a big way. No-one wants to tell our young buck that those 'art' lessons she attends every Monday afternoon are a sexual assignation with his former male flame.

Rumour has it that:

Actress Cate Blanchett is pregnant again.(that's an exclusive !)

A dedication to our legal eagles: