More Beauties Headed to LA

Richard Branson &Pia Miller

Following our story yesterday about how Jennifer Hawkins has been replaced by Jessica Hart for the Myer fashion carnival in the G'Day Australia USA promotion in Los Angeles, news comes that two more leggy beauties are joining Jessica on the catwalk.

Hawkins & Jake Wall

Laura Dundovic who is a Myer ambassador and Pia Miller will strut the boards to showcase Aussie fashions in the USA in February.

As for Jennifer, she was spotted by our operative today holidaying in Byron Bay with new fiancee Jake Wall. The loss of the income from her canned USA trip isn't having too much effect on the pair's finances. Jennifer is sporting a $200,000 engagement ring whipped up by the Shuttle's favourite jeweller, Nic Cerrone.

And she should feel flattered that it has taken three models to replace her!

Miss Universe Ditched From Hollywood Gala

The most successful Miss Universe ever, Jennifer Hawkins has been dropped from the annual G'Gay Australia USA celebrations in Los Angeles by the department store Myer.

The annual affair that runs from the 15th to the 29th January features a grand ball attended by the USA's Gum Leaf Mafia at the Hollywood Palladium on the 19th. Guests have  included the likes of Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman and a host of local stars who have made it big in the USA. 

Jessica Hart

There are events from Dallas to Boston as the Australian government promotes everything local from business policy to the still struggling film industry. This year the timing is perfect with the 2 shows filmed in Sydney by Oprah Winfrey to be shown on US TV with Oprah herself being a guest at the ball.

Last year Jennifer Hawkins was a guest along with her fiancee Jake Wall (they got engaged last week) Barry Humphries, Kristy Hinze and Rupert Murdoch.

Myer are investing big in the event with a fashion festival to run for the 14 days and Jennifer was meant to be the star  model but she has now been dropped with the gap-toothed Jessica Hart picking up the role.

The Shuttle can exclusive report that the reason for Hawkins being canned was nothing to do with her personally but because of friction between her ambitious manager Sean Anderson and the Myer public relation's team. Myer CEO Bernie Brookes says that Hawkins was dropped because of a"culmination of a number of issues".

Although Anderson has presided over Hawkin's career as she raked in millions of dollars in appearances and endorsements her crown has begun to slip lately with the Seven TV network announcing that they will not be re-newing her contract this year.

Below: A reason to be glad you were not be at the last G'Day Ball : Nicole Kidman and  Keith Urban's ditty to Simon Baker.

Hopefully in 3D-Murdoch The Movie

A film script on the life of Rupert Murdoch is being hawked around Hollywood.

This news comes courtesy of Franklin Leonard's annual Black List. Leonard is regarded as 'Hollywood's most important soothsayer" according to the LA Times with his list each year of unmade film projects. 

He compiles the list by talking to LA's most influential agents and studio bosses and any script that gets 5 mentions is included  with the added bonus it generates so much industry chat that the inclusion is regarded as a lifeline for ailing screenplays.

'Murdoch' was commissioned by the UK's Channel 4 and written by respected TV script writer Jesse Armstrong but 4 decided against making it. It's now being handled by a top agency Creative Artist's Agency who are looking for a producer and backer.

The script blurb reads : "As his family gathers for his birthday party, Rupert Murdoch tries to convince his elder children to alter the family trust so that his two youngest children by his newest wife will have voting rights in the company."

Ouch ! A little close to home. 

When Rupert divorced his second wife Anna Murdoch Mann , the mother of children Lachlan, James and Elisabeth, Anna went in tough with heavy New York lawyers and  secured a very profitable trust which she controls that holds huge swathes of News Corp shares in her children's names although  she was forced off the News board in the process. 

And she had rather unkind words to say about Rupert in a 2001 interview where she described him as "hard, ruthless and determined".

No-one quite knows what size of inheritance Wendi Murdoch's 2 daughters Chloe and Grace may be in for. With  News Corp  headquartered in Delaware with it's secretive corporate laws, the outside world doesn't really know quite what the media empire or Murdoch is worth although it will be in the billions of dollars.

 Long before Wendi appeared on the scene Murdoch also made a famous faux pas in 1997 when he referred to "my 3 children " while talking about succession in a press conference that drew the ire of his daughter Prudence Murdoch MacLeod, his first child from marriage to Patricia Booker. Never shy, Prudence got a public apology out of her father.

So it's all there-plenty of meat for Murdoch the film !

Rupert ?

Who would play the roles in this gripping drama where the clan get-together to discuss high finance?.

As the media baron Rupert Murdoch  step forward Barry Humphries who played Rupert in the 1983 film Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries. Humphries has aged nicely with the same crumpled look as Rupert.

Matt Damon is a cinch for the role of the American accented Lachlan Murdoch and surely  Sarah Murdoch with thespian ambitions could play herself. New actor Leighton Meester could do a good Elisabeth Murdoch. Hayden Christensen with specs could play James Murdoch.

That leaves roles for the two who are bound to play  a leading part in the carve-up of Murdoch's billions-Wendi Murdoch and Mathew Freud. Answers on a postcard please.

# you can download Leonard's Black List here and see other scripts 'Murdoch' is competing with. The Shuttle's favourite : Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter. The future president's mother is killed by a vampire and Abe spends the rest of his life hunting down the killers !

It's 2011 - Happy New Year !

It can only get better !

Our thanks to Channel Nine for allowing us to share this video of the spectacular  fireworks and a here's to a wonderful 2011 and a very special thank you to the over 350,000 readers who visited the Social Shuttle in 2010.
Part One !
Part Two !

A Very Nice Chrissy Present

Sargeant & Ferrari

Every girl should treat herself and that's just what marketing expert Sharon Sargeant has done after successfully selling the escort agency she set up 18 months ago.

Sargeant, a country girl from Queensland is shaping up to be one smart cookie. 

The world was alerted to her when she started dating the famous private investigator Frank Monte around 4 years ago. Frank threw a party at the uber smart Otto's Restaurant on the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo to introduce her to Sydney and around 14 months ago they became engaged at the very same spot. 

Then Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph discovered that Sharon owned an up-market escort agency Red Velvet Models. Sharon says she manned the telephones and organised the lives of the models working for her and checked out the credentials of the prospective customers.

A wardrobe malfunction that happened after Sharon and the girls had a night out to see Lady Ga Ga and went partying in Kings Cross was splashed across tabloid pages around the world.

Soon she was appearing again in newspapers from Sydney to Delhi when Ms  Sargeant  was discovered dancing in Las Vegas with one of the USA's top porn stars Claudia-Marie (beware-it's an adult site). 

Finally a controversy blew up in British newspapers after raunchy pics appeared of the British Rugby team setting off in a million dollar gin palace from the very same wharf in Woolloomooloo.

Sharon meets the English Rugby team

 Sharon had been spotted and photographed talking to the footballers in a restaurant earlier in the day before she farewelled them off in the boat with some scantily clad models.

But it seems Sharon had ulterior motives all along.
When we contacted her today she confirmed she had sold Red Velvet Models to a US firm and was pondering  her next business move.

they sail off into the sunset

"It was always my plan " says Sargeant " I always planned to set up the business, promote it like crazy until it was a success and then sell. I get bored easily and I'm always looking for the next business venture"

And it seems the business paid off. Our snapper spotted Ms Sargeant a few days ago in the Bondi Westfield car park about to clamber into a gleaming new black $400,000 Ferrari.

"I treated myself for a good year's work" says Ms Sargeant.

As to her future plans :"I'm looking around for opportunities and have a few in mind" she says. " One is an adult product supplies service-most of them look terribly old fashioned and I think I can whip the industry into shape quick smart "

Sharon and Monte have moved out their Icon apartment in Kings Cross into the Toaster building near Circular Quay where they plan to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks. 

"Frank and I still date and go to parties together but he's spending more and more time in the US and I always travel with him " says Sharon  'He's a fascinating man and being around him is never boring".

Will she be assisting with his Upper House bid in the NSW March election?.
"I should put my marketing skills to work but actually he's pretty good himself and I haven't really followed state politics. But Frank would make an excellent MP as he would ensure that other MPs would remain honest given his background"
 Perhaps I should have asked advice from the 2 state MPs who were customers of my last business" she says.

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

Leo Sayer

Santa & Rabbi

Showing why he's been dubbed " Mr Double Bay" in a suburb with a large Jewish community, Dee Bee's owner Graham Goldberg threw his famous Christmas drinks party on the 24th and made sure he had all bases covered.

Joining guests like Leo Sayer, actor Michael Caton and around town ladies Marie Sutton and Angela Belle McSweeney- a Santa Claus and a Rabbi !

Star Struck Weddings & a new Beiber

 

Former Home & Away star Chris Hemsworth has married his girlfriend Spanish actress Elsa Pataky. Hemsworth has a major role in the new Avenger's film along side Scarlet Johannsen and Robert Downey Jr due for release in 2012 but it's his starring role in the film Thor which should catapult him into action superstar status. Thor is to be released in March next year.

Hemsworth and Elsa married in Bali surrounded by a handful of close friends and family and are honeymooning on Phillip Island.

Emma Cooper

And one of Australia's top film publicists Emma Cooper wed  film writer  Henry Cripps at a North Sydney chapel yesterday with a host of Hollywood stars in attendance including her good pal Naomi Watts as a bridesmaid. Naomi's husband Liev Schreiber gave a reading of Henry Lawson's After All during the service and the party moved onto Taronga Park Zoo for the reception.

Emma's dad Guy Cooper was the director of the zoo for years and was once named Australian of The Year.

bridesmaid Naomi Watts

And cheering on the couple-Mentalist star Simon Baker who has just scored a $30M contract to appear in his hit show for the next 3 seasons,  Without A Trace's Anthony LaPaglia who flew in from the US for the wedding, actress Lisa Hemsley, singer Tim Freedman from The Whitlams and designer Collette Dinigan.

Cooper who has become the top Aussie film publicist over the past 20 years divides her time between Sydney , Melbourne and New York. In 1996 she masterminded the successful Victor Chang charity visit of Princess Diana to Sydney on her last ever public appearance.

The happy couple return to New York next week where they are neighbours of Watts and Schreiber

              ******************************************
 Move over Justin Beiber.

Get ready for Munther Mania with the new teen heart throb 16  year old Swedish singer and songwriter Ulrik Munther. 

With the cool tussled looks of the late Rivers Phoenix Ulrik has become an internet sensation and his first album-Boys Don't Cry had 30 record companies bidding for it when the title song was uploaded to YouTube. It's released early next year and here is rough cut of the video :

George Michael, Real Estate Fantasies & Serial Killers

It's laughingly referred to as No Idea in the trade. Pacific Magazines hugely popular weekly New Idea magazine which has around one and half million readers each week.

Unfortunately it doesn't, unlike a few British tabloids and several News Ltd publications scour the Social Shuttle for tips. Otherwise they would have known as we reported on the 10th October that Oprah Winfrey would be staying at the Hotel Intercontinental when she booked into Sydney to record her 2 shows at the Sydney Opera House.

New Idea brought it's readers the fantasy story (pictured) on December 6th of how Oprah would be choosing from one of several million dollar harbour side mansions lining exclusive Wolseley Avenue.

Their choice was home loan's king John Symond's new $60M glass palace which was a surprise to him when we contacted him a week after the story was published and he told the Shuttle he wouldn't be moving out for Oprah or anyone else.

The usually reliable Real Estalker website informs us that George Michael has purchased a $6M house in Whale Beach (left-and not Palm Beach as they call it) which may come as a surprise for Michael who next February is booked into the same Icon apartment in Kings Cross where he stayed for 6 weeks earlier this year when he was the guest at the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras- as exclusively revealed by the Shuttle 5 weeks before anyone else.

As George spent nearly every night partying on the Oxford Street gay strip, ten minutes from Kings Cross it's a mystery why he would buy a house on the Northern Beaches when it takes a good two hours to travel into the city.

In a city obsessed with property, how appropriate then that the Darlinghurst Theatre brings us a musical about real estate titled 'Open For Inspection' opening on the 21st January 2011.

It's a rollicking tale of a real estate agent who becomes a serial killer as 2 rival agencies battle for customers during a property slump and go to extreme lengths to literally make a killing. Nice. Here is a number from the show :


To book seats for Open For Inspection go here.

 

Happy Birthday Regine, Nightclub Queen of the World

Regine

Boxing Day is the 82nd birthday of Regine Zylberberg, the creator of the modern nightclub. Born in Belgium to Polish Jewish parents, Regine spent her early life hiding from the Nazis in France during the occupation.

In 1953 at the age of 24 she was managing the Paris Whisky aGo Go dance club when she seized upon the idea of exchanging the American jukeboxes common in nite spots with record turntables and hiring a disc jockey to spin new records. Thus, the modern discotheque was born

Soon a rival Whisky aGoGo opened in Los Angeles copying Regine's idea as it spread throughout the world.  Regine opened her own club in 1957-Chez Regine in the Latin Quarter of Paris which became the smartest nite spot in Paree. She imported twist king Chubby Checker to introduce his new dance to the Continent and taught the Duke of Windsor how to do the Twist.

At her peak Regine had 26 nightclubs around the world. The Social Shuttle attended the opening night of the London Regine's on top of the old Derry & Toms department store in Kensington High Street in the famous Rainbow Room which is surrounded by an extraordinary roof garden complete with  flamingos.

Opening night guests included actors Tony Curtis, Diana Dors and  Larry Hagman then at the height of fame in  the soap Dallas along with 2  guests smuggled in by the Shuttle-Boy George and the singer Marilyn (neither were famous then!).

When waiters pointed out the 2 gatecrashers and asked the hostess if she wanted them booted out she replied "Non non, ils ne sont beatiful !".

Marilyn later became a star guest at Regines when he arrived on the arm of Jack Nicholson.

Regine had a huge hit in France with Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive'. It's the Shuttle's theme song for 2011 and below is a video of Regine's version.

Other celebrity birthdays today shared with Regine include Rattlesnake Annie, Ugly Dave Gray and Bashful Brother Oswald. Look them up.

Saucy Christmas Present for Pope Benedict

He sits mesmerised.
Pope Benedict XVI was treated to a special acrobat show with some hunky topless acrobats at the Vatican. The nuns accompanying His Holiness were impressed as well, snapping pics on their digital cameras:



And for our pussy lovers:

High Court Judge Supports Gay & Lesbian Wedding Album

The Potential Wedding Album is for same-sex couples who would like the option to get married in Australia. Inclusion in the album is to show support for marriage equality, currently a hot topic that has got many Australian politicians in a real tizz and heading for the hills - except notably The Greens who support same sex marriage as one of their main policies. Dr Bob Brown, their leader  is openly gay and lives with his male partner,

Bob Brown

With that in mind, as volumes of The Potential Wedding Album are completed they will be printed and delivered to the Prime Minister Julia Gillard  and the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott and other members of the Australian parliament, to highlight the couples who are treated unfairly by the marriage laws in this country. 

They should make ideal coffee table books for Mad Monk Abbott, a conservative Catholic !

The project has already got some major supporters including former High Court Justice Michael Kirby who retired in 2009 after exiting the closet quietly in 1999 when he listed his long term partner in Who's Who In Australia as Johan van Vloten.

Johan van Vloten & Justice Michael Kirby

Kirby came in for criticism from shocked  conservative circles but stood his ground even after a botched attempt to falsely stitch him up over the alleged use of Commonwealth chauffeured limos to pick up rent boys at Sydney's notorious Wall, a male prostitute haunt.  

It was  discovered the ComCar records being bandied about that purported to show Kirby's movements were fake with the result that then Prime Minister John Howard offered an unqualified apology in Parliament.

 Since retiring, Kirby has toured the world  lecturing at law symposiums and speaking on equal rights, particularly for young gays and lesbians.

If you want to show support for the Potential Wedding Album you can sign up here

And go the albums to view many of the couples who have signed up and contributed their photos. The albums are quite charming.

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

## One budding politician who is openly supporting same sex marriage is the famous private eye Frank Monte who will be standing for NSW's Upper House in the March 2011 state election. 

Frank Monte

Brought up a Catholic in an Italian family in Egypt, Monte says although his political views are fairly conservative, he believes personal liberty is one of the greatest bastions of a free society and he supports the freedom of people of any orientation to get legally hitched-at St Mary's Cathedral if that's what takes their fancy !

Russell Crowe, Kidman & Urban Move House

Antonia Kidman and husband Keith Urban have finally taken possession of a new $17M penthouse in New York at 200 Eleventh Avenue in the West Village overlooking the Hudson River.

The duplex apartment has one outstanding feature: it's own special lift to transport the couple's car to their  19th floor home which has it's own garage adjacent to the flat.

In a city were parking can be a veritable nightmare, this has to be the ultimate luxury.

The building was designed by architect  Annabelle Selldorf who installed freight sized lifts into which a tenant can drive, sit back and relax while remote sensors guide the lift to the correct floor and then the car into it's designated parking area.

All the flats were snapped up as soon as they hit the market and Kidman & Urban's neighbours include celebrity decorator Jamie Drake and  Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana. Actor Kelsie Grammar who had eyed off one of the 2 penthouses decided to pass and purchased in an equally smart building at 100 Eleventh Avenue.

Kidman & Urban have a growing real estate collection including Bunya Hill in the Southern Highlands of NSW, a beach side block on the South Coast with 2 Heritage listed 1920's weatherboard bungalows  on it and an estate in Nashville.

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

And still anxious to move to larger premises from his Finger Wharf penthouse in Woolloomooloo, actor Russell Crowe has inspected a Bellevue Hill house for the third time now.

Headingly House

Fashion designer Carla Zampatti and husband John Spender, the former Australian ambassador to France have put their beautiful 26 room stucco mansion Headingley House on the market for $23M.


Crowe is reported to have offered $20M in his bid to find a backyard for kids Charlie & Tennyson. 

With so many rooms the Crowes should easily be able to house Danielle's father Don Spencer a TV children's program host who plans to live with the family.
And our spy in the Crowe camp tells us Rusty & Danielle want to add a girl to the family before too long.

More Legal Woes For Hermes' Boss

Gary Baker

Karin

They were financially devastated by the economic meltdown when their property empire went bust.
Now Sydney's high profile socialites Karin Upton Baker, the Managing Director of the fashion label Hermes and her husband Gary Baker have been summonsed to appear in court.

Troubles began for the pair when they failed to purchase every apartment in a Bondi block with spectacular views over the beach. They had planned to turn the 1920's style flats into luxury condominiums. As property values rocketed,  the remaining tenants demanded multi-million dollar prices for their unconverted flats directly opposite the uber smart Bondi Icebergs restaurant, favourite watering hole of the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Paris Hilton.

Elizabeth Bay Duplex

 The liquidator of Baker's company Montpelier seized the block to re-pay finance companies but some of the flats have been selling for up to two million dollars less than the Bakers paid for them. Now that liquidator has summonsed both to appear in the Supreme Court in February 2011.

Karin is battling to remain in her sumptuous Elizabeth Bay duplex that has hosted some of Sydney smartest parties for celebrities like Giorgio Armani and Elle McPherson. The pair owe $18M to the finance company Perpetual and Challenger Managed Investments who are trying to evict them from the house before it is sold by private treaty.

gone!

The pair have already auctioned  their fleet of sleek black cars that were housed in the heated garage of the duplex that boasts a turntable and an elevator into the living area.

Amongst them was Karin's favourite  vintage Pagoda style Mercedes along with a Bentley Continental and a Rolls Royce Phantom all with distinctive XXX number plates.

Creepy Christmas Collage

Powered by GoodWidgets.com

A Stiffy Arrives From Lord Edward

An invitation to a cocktail party arrives from our dear acquaintance Lord Edward Davenport in the UK. You must know him. From the Davenports of-well we aren't quite sure. For some inexplicable reason the entire Davenport dynasty has been omitted from Burke's Peerage & Gentry.

Fast Eddie with the startling blue eyes is having a Christmas soiree at his pile, 33 Portland Place in London's West End. The mansion landed in his possession after some complicated dealings with the former owners , the High Commission of Sierra Leone and after paying the paltry sum of about $70,000.  The Sierra Leone government is  still scratching it's  head trying to work out what happened.

 

Eddie hires out Portland Place with it's 24 rooms for PR parties and private functions and if you are lucky, Eddie comes to the party as well. And he makes himself available to be photographed with celebrity guests as you can see in our snaps. There are more at his website where you can read that Eddie has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Jean Claude Van Damme, Pink and 50 Cent.

Lord Eddie's  bash is tomorrow night which doesn't give the Shuttle much time to get to London. We'll have to pass on it.  Which may be just as well as last year London's High Court banned him from throwing parties or hiring out the house .

Eddie made a motza organising the famous Gatecrasher Balls in the English countryside in the late 1980s. The Shuttle went to one (one was enough) at Longleat, the seat of a fellow aristocrat, the  eccentric Alexander Thynne, the Marquis of Bath. Edward  moved into property developing, nightclubs and even a pawn broking business and spends much of his time in Monaco.

The Shuttle will be in London next April so we hope to support Lord Eddie in a pending court case. Inspector Knacker of the Serious Fraud Squad felt Eddie's collar in late 2009 over an apparent mis-understanding concerning $15M.

In the meantime, you can see 33 Portland Place in the film that will sweep the Oscars, The King's Speech starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. The house was used for location filming.

Here is a video of Mr Lucas at Monthira's birthday party at Portland Place. It sums up the state of London society today.