Missing AA Gill

baboon

Gill

The writer AA Gill is in town for the Sydney Writer's Week which concludes today. Infamous for once blasting a baboon to death to 'see how it felt' the grovelling to the scribe around town was embarrassing. The Shuttle missed his interview on Thursday (one of the few events that wasn't sold out) and we lost count of the number of restaurant workers phoning us to impart the news that "AA Gill is here eating "

Even at the launch party at Porteno for the second season of Foxtel's 'Spirited' a waiter collared the Shuttle and solemnly informed us that Gill was downstairs if we wished "to pop down and get a snap  ". We passed.

We did manage to hear him on radio being interviewed by local foodie God and long time Shuttle pal Tony Bilson along with American ex-chef Anthony Bourdain . When Bilson commented that large food corporations were colluding to force manufacturers to list ingredients and that he believed it was a conspiracy to drive small providers out of business Gill launched into a diatribe about the importance of those tiny lists on the side of products. Ten minutes later when Bilson defended vegetarians Gill railed against foodies who included endless claims about the ingredients their nosh was complied of.

Emma Forrest

Later when a female audience member asked a question and Gill interrupted, she scolded him with "oh shut-up Anthony, you're no better than some yapping kid at the back of the bus ". The applause was deafening.

We did make it to the small cocktail party given by the advertising agency BWM for American /English writer Emma Forrest. Emma has just published an autobiography Your Voice In My Head.

Forrest was diagnosed as a manic depressive (bi-polar!) at 14 and began self harming, slashing her legs and arms.

She became fascinated and obsessed by sex whilst being repulsed by it and remained virginal until she finally flung herself into a series of destructive relationships. Emma wouldn't confirm or deny that the 'famous actor who broke her heart' was the long rumored Colin Farrell-she simply told us that she 'knows and likes his work'.
Emma now writes movie scripts and lives between New York and Beverley Hills. 
"I couldn't handle the grey skies of London anymore "said Emma when the Shuttle commented on her breezy outlook for someone who had gotten off an 18 hour flight at 11am that morning.

"I love LA, no matter who bad it is the sun always shines. This morning I bounded off the plane when I saw the brilliant sunshine".

She told us of the interview she once did with Brad Pitt who told her obsessively of how he and Angelina Jolie wanted to have a 'surrogate' baby. The following day Pitt phoned and left a voicemail message asking her to phone him urgently. 2 more messages followed over the same number of days. She never called him back. She thought he may ask her to have his baby !

Murdoch : "you're fired!'

Your Voice in My Head  is to be made into a film. I asked Emma who she would like to play her in the film
"Cate Blanchet" she responded." but when I told the producers they said 'oh no'. It doesn't matter that Blanchet has won Oscars. They don't know her in Middle America. They only know 2 actresses- Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts"

Honourable mentions at writer's week : * Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson in discussion with Frank Moorhouse celebrating the return of the comic mode in fiction. Brilliant.
 *Elisabeth Wynhausen and Bruce Guthrie telling Mike Carlton about the shock and the fury of getting fired by Rupert Murdoch. Very funny.

The Rumour Mill #2

# Which TV host had a blazing stand-up row in the street of a posh suburb recently when the representative of a media organisation refused to interview that host in the boutique of their choice because they supply the host with outfits for their TV show. It nearly came to fisticuffs.

The interviewer preferred neutral ground and suggested a local coffee shop only to find themselves on the receiving end of a "don't you know who I am ?" tirade. Perhaps the TV host should remind themselves that fame is fleeting!

# Which Eastern Suburbs society figure with a substantial country holding was only boasting a month ago that they had received free "human fertiliser" to the tune of $80K's worth from the State government anxious to unload the load of s*it!.

Human fertiliser going cheap

When the great "poo scandal" hit the front pages of the tabloid newspapers 2 weeks ago in which it was claimed dozens of people were becoming ill from farm products that used 'human fertiliser' our society pal went strangely silent.

Perhaps readers should avoid  a certain over -priced inner city charcuterie which proudly stocks meat from our friend's estate.

#. Which mainstream telly news host went strangely silent when their female co-host made some very funny jokes about a celebrity's hair piece after they had just appeared in a news item?. They basically called the famous actor a 'goose' for wearing the rug.
She obviously hadn't noticed their co-hosts expertly enhanced follicle adornment. He quickly changed the subject while she chortled on.
                                                            **************************
 ## On the subject of celebrity spats the Shuttle couldn't help but notice an item in the latest Latte Life newspaper in it's Bitter Dregs column and a small mysterious piece that says :'Charlotte "I'm a Celebrity" Dawson'. What can it mean ?. Perhaps Sunday Telegraph columnist Ros Reines, a friend of Charlotte's will illuminate us tomorrow.

### On the subject of rugs and enhanced follicles, read Vanity Fair's examination into Donald Trump's hair with it's 360 degree view courtesy of our favourite New York pal photographer Patrick McMullan who has been snapping the Trump for over 20 years.
According to Private Eye magazine, Barack Obama has demanded to know if "Donald Trump's hair is real and if so that he should provide the proof" !

exclusive : Jeanne Joins Gough

As we exclusively reported several months ago, Gough Whitlam the former Labor Prime Minister of Australia who broke the conservative stranglehold on power in 1972 when he was elected after 23 years of Liberal/National Party dominance, has moved into the luxury retirement home Lulworth House in Elizabeth Bay.

Now we hear that the 93 year old -who the famous British interviewer Sir David Frost described to the Social Shuttle earlier this year as: "probably the most intellectual of all world leaders I have interviewed"- has been joined at the home by Jeanne Little , the much loved TV personality who is suffering from a severe form of Alzheimer's.

Lulworth House which is part of St Luke's Hospital is considered to be one of the finest retirement homes in Sydney with it's beautiful leafy gardens and superb views of the harbour.

David Frost : 'most intellectual world leader'

Ironically, Whitlam who gave Australia it's Medicare system of free public health care which is regarded as the best in the Western world is a private patient as is Jeannie who in her heyday would have been the ideological  opposite of Gough.

Wheelchair bound Gough still makes it out almost every day to lunch with old political pals and foes- former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser who defeated Gough in 1975 after Whitlam was dismissed by the Governor General Sir John Kerr, is a visitor and friend.

Sadly Jeannie no longer recognises her family and friends. Her family have asked people to donate to the Jeanne Little Alzheimer's Research Fund.

More Facebook Legal Woes

An interesting story into today's Sydney Morning Herald brings us news that the popular Herald web writer Ben Grubb has been arrested after he filed a report on the social network Facebook.

The head of Queensland's Fraud Squad Brian Hay has said that the police are "still cutting our teeth in the rapidly evolving online environment."

He has described the receiving of a photo taken from a Facebook profile without the owner's permission is like "receiving a stolen TV set"

While this is sure to be a test case and may not even get to the courts, it's clear that Facebook will be facing legal challenges from all angles. Earlier today we wrote of the unidentified Melbourne celebrity who may be suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg personally for the publishing of defamatory statement about them on a false Facebook profile.

The SMH also carries a story today of a "men only" Facebook club that deals in purloined profile photos of scantily clad females.
To date persons have been charged with criminal defamation on Facebook in Australia, Canada and the USA.

Is it time to consult your stockbroker over those Facebook shares in your portfolio?.

Hugh Grant :Thumbs Up for Social Shuttle & Others

OK the title is an exaggeration.

We feel sure Hugh Grant would love the Social Shuttle even if when he asked your scribe one day what his occupation was and heard the reply (Australian journalist ) he responded "that's a contradiction in terms".

Grant was talking today on the Richard Bacon show on the BBC's
Radio Five Live which was broadcast from the offices of The Independent newspaper in London. He said he was still deciding if he should sue the News Of The World after being shown evidence by British police that he was a victim of phone hacking in the scandal sweeping the British media.

The actor is hopeful to see the end of tabloid newspapers : “We don’t need them  we don’t want them and the sooner they go out of business the better."

On the  tabloid's invasion of privacy he said: "They would go temporarily out of business because they rely almost entirely on stealing people’s privacy, but then I think they would actually be grateful because in six months, a year they would have to go back to being real journalists and they would feel good about themselves.”
 
 Journalist Nick Davies who first wrote of the hacking scandal and who wrote Flat Earth News, a book about media manipulation was also on the programme and said  Grant was "thinking along the right lines”.

Ironically, when Grant was busted in Hollywood with Devine Brown it was the making of his career. Never looked back really. We feel sure thousands of vicars all over the UK will rest easy if the NoTW goes to the wall plus websites like the Shuttle could only find a vastly increased audience (currently around 2000-2400 readers a day ).

# More news on the purported libel case that may be mounted by a Melbourne based celebrity against Facebook and it's founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Shuttle has read some of the legal advice on the case and Zuckerberg's words may come back to haunt him.

In the past week it has been revealed that Facebook hired a big PR firm to spread tales about Google. The escapade has completely backfired on Facebook.

Reading Facebook's introductions it goes to great pains, like many other social media websites, to point out that it cannot be held responsible for the content on Facebook as it is 'stored ' on outside servers which are not controlled by Facebook.

The Rumpole's advice is that the claim is nonsense as it attempts to avoid responsibility for publishing and a journalist, editor or publisher could make the same claim that their product is carried on outside newsstands etc.

But he also points to a speech given by  Zuckerberg in 2010 and where he proclaimed that "the age of privacy is dead". Our learned friend says the statement points to the 'intent' of the net tsar to re-write privacy laws without having the right to !.
                                           ***************************






US  giants Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores have censored a book cover featuring Australian androgynous model, 19 year old Andre Pejic who has become the darling of the fashion world.


Read the story in the Mail Online.

Bringing Home The Bacons

Word comes that 2 professional treasure hunters have arrived in the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya intent on investigating the strange case-as exclusively revealed on the Social Shuttle, of the missing Francis Bacon collection of paintings. Apparently they have been making discreet enquiries around town.

The rumor has been the talk of Pattaya since Bacon's lover John Edwards died in 2003

The Shuttle was an occasional drinking pal with Bacon at the legendary Colony Club in London's Soho during the 1980s.  Bacon was a friendly and unpretentious man for an artist whose paintings brought the greatest ever price for a living artist. Although he lived in comfortable circumstances, they were relatively modest compared to the eventual fortune he was to leave his lover John Edwards when he died in 1992:  approximately 30 million dollars.

In his early years Bacon survived by stealing, dodging rent collectors , working as a domestic servant and as a shop assistant.

Born in Ireland with an English mother and an Australian army officer father, Bacon was a descendant of Sir Francis Bacon and it was only in later life he experienced success and indulged in his passions-drinking, lunching and gambling.

Francis Bacon self portrait

He was also fond of 'rough trade'. Several affairs with young men ended acrimoniously. One whom he  discovered breaking into his apartment one day become his live-in lover. Eventually he was to settle down with Edwards whom he doted on.

Bacon would sell a painting  and lavish money on Edward's East End family and bought them a huge house where he occasionally stayed for weeks on end . He treated Edward's to a Rolls Royce with the number plate BOY 1.

When Edwards inherited Bacon's fortune he moved to Thailand and purchased a magnificent seaside penthouse and a country mansion . In 2003 Edwards died in Bangkok.

According to Bacon's original will all his works of art where to be given to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and it's said, most where.  But visitors to Edwards Pattaya apartment said that they observed at least half a dozen Bacon works on the walls. When Edwards died one London newspaper speculated the paintings were copies which seemed a bizarre claim when Bacon gave Edwards anything he asked for.  One tale was that Bacon had actually given the 6 paintings to Edwards but told him not to declare them for tax reasons.

Edwards took on a series of young Thai men as lovers although he had an English lover as well. As Edwards became ill from AIDS it's said that he gave his last Thai lover who he had known for a little over 2 years, the 6 Francis Bacon works to store at the young man's family home  near the Chaing Mai area. When Edwards died the young man was away visiting his family and never returned.

Several people who tried to track down the Thai man have been unsuccessful and the tale of the missing Bacon paintings has become a local legend. It's believed that somewhere in the north of Thailand the 6 paintings may be displayed on the walls of a simple farm house without the occupants realizing the true value of them.

A local interior decorator who also has showrooms in London and owns 2 Bacon paintings is said to be the only one who had met Edward's Thai lover and attempted to trace him but then got cold feet because of the implications over the provenance of the paintings.

In 2008 the Russian oligarch Roman Abrovanich paid nearly $83M for Bacon's 1974 work Triptych.
The previous record for one of his works was $53M. This year Bacon's portrait of his friend and artist Lucien Freud sold for $35M.

Lucien Freud

That puts the estimate of the value of the 6 missing Bacon's (if they exist) at a possible $330M !.

Miranda Kerr-looking fabulous

New mum Miranda Kerr and hubby Orlando Bloom attended the "Alexander McQueen : Savage Beauty" Costume Institute Gala at the New York's Metropolitian Museum last Monday as our exclusive pic from PatrickMcmullan.com shows.
See much more at Patrick McMullan's on-line magazine PMc.

All photographs by Chance Yeh for Patrick McMullan Company (c) 2011

Diana: the gift that keeps on giving

Brisbane based writer John Morgan has published the latest in a long line of Princess Diana death books claiming that Diana’s post-mortem samples were switched with those of another woman.

He says that the cover-up could only have been ordered by The Queen.

Morgan says in the UK Daily Express that : "There is a lot of evidence which points to the toxicology testing being carried out on samples that did not come from the body of Princess Diana,... and that the documents were, along with others, withheld from the inquest jury"

"The evidence I have studied indicates that there are two lots of samples. One belongs to Diana, which is held by the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Paget, and the other lot are samples from another body and held by Charing Cross Hospital.

“Diana’s UK post-mortem samples were switched ahead of the toxicology testing.”

“I am asking why?” So are we. It seems that Diana had been drinking on the fateful night and this is a possible reason as according to a Fulham mortuary worker her "stomach smelled strongly of alcohol".

But then Diana's body was supposedly embalmed in France before it was returned to London. And why was a mortuary attendant sniffing around Diana's stomach ?

All these questions and more maybe answered in "Diana Inquest: Part 4: The British Cover-Up "
apparently the fourth volume in the saga.

Needless to say the tome has been warmly received by Mohamed Fayed who calls the book "heroic".

Tupou IV

Fayed has reportedly backed a 90-minute film "Unlawful Killing," by British actor and director Keith Allen which contains a "shocking "photo of a dying Diana which will be shown for the first time. Despite the fact the snap can be viewed on the interent and really isn't  all that shocking.

 Diana conspiracies have become Mohamed Fayed's raison d'être and he has accused Prince Phillip in the past of conspiring to murder Diana and Dodi.

Just 2 weeks ago at the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton ,  royal 'watcher' James Whittaker was reporting live for the Nine network when he announced the arrival of Dodi Fayed at Westminster Abbey.


Fayed

"I mean Mohamed Fayed" he soon corrected himself, and then commented how gracious it was that the royal family had invited the hapless former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi who died with Diana in the Paris smash.

The portly figure in a morning suit and bedecked with medals was in fact, Tupou IV, the King of Tonga.

William's grandmother HRH The Queen was crowned in 1953 and one guest was Tupou's grandmother, the enormous girthed Queen Salote of Tonga who held an umbrella aloft shielding her and an aide as they travelled in a coach to Buck House in the pouring rain.

Princess Marina who was watched the passing parade with the writer Noel Coward asked who she was.
"Queen Salote" said Coward.
"And who is that with her ?" said Marina. " her lunch " responded Coward !

                                       *****************************
Famous Last Words:
As the shenanigans of the enterprising Ibrahim family-owners of nightclubs and unidentified enterprises, plays out in the media and the courts- now with 2 nights of gun shots being pumped into various Ibrahim abodes by unknown would be assassins, we noted the words of a NSW Detective commenting on the mayhem.

Fadi Ibrahim is currently appearing in the Central Criminal Court, alleged to have conspired to bump off a man who he believed was one of the hooded men who pumped a dozen bullets into he and his girlfriend as they sat in a Lamborghini outside his North side house two years ago.

"This isn't acceptable" said the copper outside the court "and I advise the Ibrahim family to keep a very low profile so they go about their business unnoticed" while in the background, the diminutive Fadi in a snappy Italian suit and mirrored sunglasses clambered into a brand new silver, million dollar Rolls Royce Phantom!

Chef Goes Bananas !

Courtney Act & Danni Minogue at Aria

Is it all a stunt ?. It's certainly a wonderful promotion for Masterchef now in it's 4th season and driving us all witless as we sit munching on our baked beans and watch amateurs produce sensational dishes.

Chef Matt Moran who is now a fixture on the show has thrown a tizzy and it could become a youtube hit (with our help)

Moran owns Aria, one of Australia's smartest restaurants over-looking the Sydney Opera House. His food is simply to die for and the Shuttle will go to the opening off a pantry door if it's at Aria just to sample the hors d'ouvres.

The last shindig a few weeks ago was a promotion for Danni Minogue's TV show and the previous party late last year was a super secret bash for the Queen of TV Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey who was staying at the nearby Hotel Interontinetal also rented an apartment above Aria in the infamous 'Toaster' Building. She used the apartment to dine on several nights with Matt preparing some of his world famous dishes.

Here's Matt doing a Gordon Ramsey:



Update : as we correctly guessed..a stunt !. All for a good cause by http://www.ozharvest.org/ to highlight food wastage.

The giveaway- despite Matt's superb acting skills, when the camera pans around the crew as Moran storms off. It's something we see in every fake 'reality' TV show ala The Office.

Madame Arcati Returns From The Ether

It truly was a case of  "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated ". The popular British blog Madame Arcati disappeared one day only to reappear a week later.

Just as the website's alter ego Victor Olliver announced the launch of his new astrology consultancy  website, his much feared Arcati site vanished into thin air. In it's place was an announcement from Google saying there was no such entity called Madame Arcati.

But a collective sigh of relief from the reptiles of London's tabloids was just a tad  premature. An earlier victory that saw an Adult Content page to be clicked 'yes' or 'no' as a pre-requisite to enter the site had already backfired as readers flocked to see what lay beyond.

And not only did the website suddenly reappear seemingly from an alternative universe, it seems the mighty Conde Nast publishing empire has bowed to Madame's demand to remove an interview with the wife of Syria's president and the countries 'first lady' Asma al-Assad, that was featured on the US Vogue website.

Asma al Assad

In the piece that has now vanished Vogue hackette Joan Juliet Buck enthused : 'Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East,' It is 'a place without bombings, unrest, or kidnappings.'

Perhaps Joan hadn't visited  Damascus where reports arrive daily of anti-government demonstrators being slaughtered by plain clothes government thugs.

In place of the Vogue article is an "OOPS the PAGE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR CANNOT BE FOUND !.

Which is basically what Google said about Madame Arcati just last week!.

"safest country in the Middle East"

MA is obviously not  a woman not to be trifled with ! Read Madame Arcati here .

And as the The International Committee of the Red Cross calls for better humanitarian access to Syria, check out The Sun newspaper's  'Sexy Brit bringing Syria in from the cold' which describes Ms Assad as "not the average Arab dictator's wife" !

****************************
On a brighter note the Sydney Morning Herald's 'PS' column announces that Little Miss Eden Wood may be on her way to Australia. If you haven't yet been exposed to this shining talent, here is the little madam singing Cutie Patootie. Yikes !

A World First-Online Movie Premiere

Reese Witherspoon & Robert Pattinson
st Friday's premiere

Attending the launch of Water for Elephants at the State Theatre last night was always bound to be a gruelling affair.

 Especially with the film's stars , the gorgeous Reese Witherspoon and heart throb Robert Pattinson in attendance. Pandemonium duly broke out with police having to hold back dozens of wailing teenage girls demanding a piece of Pattinson.

How refreshing then to see the first on-line launch of a new movie Me Me Me written and produced by pop impresario Jonathan King (left)

It's the tale of mysterious drawings and graffiti that appear all over London ala Banksy and signed Baby Draw. A London tabloid work experience journalist is sent by the editor to track down the perpetrator of the art works and when she finds him-a good looking lad named Johnny Bambino (played by Henry Stansall) they embark on a love affair. After the trainee hackette pens an article about Bambino, he becomes a huge pop star

The movie pokes fun at much of the current shallow celebratory obsessed society and there's a nice twist at the end. It's a colourful and light hearted musical-the producers describe it as :
"The Rocky Horror Show meets Mamma Mia"
From the opening song Don't Let Him Touch You by The Angelettes (performed by The Sirens)
 the pace never lets up.

And amazingly-it's a freebie !. You can watch it on-line or download ( as we did) and play it on your large flat screen with the sound at top level. You'll love it !

Watch or download Me Me Me at the movie's website .
Here are The Sirens with Don't Let Him Touch You.

Tony Sheldon Conquers Broadway

Tony Sheldon comes from Australian theatre royalty-the son of actress Toni Lamond and the nephew of Helen Reddy.

He's been wowing audiences from Christchurch to Toronto, London and  New York in the lead role of transsexual Bernadette in Stephan Elliott's Priscilla Queen of The Dessert. Tony won the Sydney Theatre Critics Award in 2007 and the Olivier Award for Leading Performance in a Musical  in England in 2009.

Now he's been nominated for the prestigious US Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the odds are he will scoop the award. It's the same gong Hugh Jackman won for The Boy From Oz in 2004 which catapulted him into international stardom

Priscilla is the second Australia musical to crack Broadway and although critics were lukewarm about the gaudy colorful romp through the Outback, it's been a runaway  box office success.

Liz Gardiner and Tim Chappel who won Oscars for the costumes in 1998 for the original film are also nominated.
A clip from the London production of Priscilla :

Doom & Gloom at Fairfax Media

The independent political website crikey brings disturbing news that Fairfax Media are planning to force redundancy on  up to 300 staff.
Fairfax publish two of the oldest and once most respected broadsheets in the world : The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Melbourne.

Just a ten days after Fairfax Managing Editor Greg Hywood gave an interview on the ABC's Media Watch defending the future of printed newspapers, he has told staff at Fairfax that if workers including 90 sub-editors do not accept redundancy, it will be "forced upon them".

Fairfax also own the Southern Cross Broadcasting chain of radio stations and made a profit in 2010 of over $282M

Originally owned by the Fairfax family from 1841, the publishing group has had a variety of owners since Warwick Fairfax's failed 1990 bid to completely privatise the company.

Journalists at Fairfax are not happy campers.

One beef is that editing is to be out-sourced to Pagemasters, a firm owned by AAP. Similar has happened throughout Britain where dozens of small independent news gathering agencies that supplied Fleet Street tabloids with local news have gone to the wall and standard s have declined alarmingly.

king of the world

Britain is still comes to grips with the fact the the giant News Corporation which claimed for years that the illegal hacking of mobile phones was an 'isolated incident' . Demands from politicians for a parliamentary enquiry may have temporarily delayed Rupert Murdoch's plans to snaffle up B Sky B giving him extraordinary control over UK broadcasting but he is expected to still get the go ahead.

And News Corp owns 45% of AAP. The world is shrinking.

Read the whole sorry saga here at crikey.com.au.

A Must See

We normally steer clear of talent quests but every now and then someone unique comes along.

It will surprise no-one that 14 year old Jack Vidgen from Manly who blew the judges away last night on Australia's Got Talent and got a standing ovation, is being compared to Justin Beiber.

He's certainly got the cuteness factor-so much so that macho judge and Irish singer Brian McFadden rushed the stage to plant a kiss on Jack's cheek.
You can judge yourself but this lad is going places fast :

Check out some of Jack's earlier performances on his youtube channel and here is Jack's Australia's Got Talent audition :

Age & Beauty

Anthony Minichielo, Terri Biviano, Yasmin Le Bon

Gail & Yasmin

They've been friends for years so supermodel Yasmin Le Bon jumped at the chance to model for her good pal Gail Elliott in her Little Joe range yesterday at the Sydney Fashion Week.
Le Bon, who is married to Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran and Elliott have been friends from years of working in the international fashion world. Yasmin who is 48 doesn't look a day over 30 and with 3 children she's a shining example of a working mum.

Elliott started her label in 2002 in New York and it's a runaway success. Having moved back to Sydney she produces her clothes locally and sells throughout Europe and the USA.

A bunch of pals joined Gail and Yasmin for a celebatory lunch after the parade at the Sake Restaurant in The Rocks

The Kings Cross Harlot's Ball

We didn't make it to the Harlot's Ball but more of that later.

writers Louis Nowra & Mandy Sawyer

The Shuttle did however attend the launch of Mandy Sayer's latest work of fiction : Love In The Year Of Lunacy. It was held at an appropriate venue, the re-vamped Swans Club in Kings Cross in their bar, a haven of leather arm chairs and zebra print cushions.Mandy Sayer was brought up around the Cross and Darlinghurst-her dad was a jazz musician. She's married to writer Louis Nowra and together they make one of Australia's most formidable writing teams.

Nowra is the author of some of our most respected plays  The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney and he's either won a host of awards or been nominated for them including the Miles Franklin. He's also written quite a few screenplays including the Hollywood epic K19 The Widow Maker and 2 of the top Australian films Cosi and Map of The Human Heart.

The Shuttle has only read one of Mandy's books-Velocity published in 2005-but it was hard to put down once started. Velocity was her second no-holds barred memoir and detailed life with her mother and her mum's abusive relationships and attempted suicides tinged with some wonderful and tender moments.

Love In The Year Of Lunacy is set in and around Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo during the 1940s and is described as:  "a moving, tender and compelling story of forbidden love set amid the devastation of war". After snapping up a copy at the launch we're looking forward to a jolly good read.

And the Harlots ?.

Our latest Hollywood discovery Jackie Weaver who is a pal of Sayer was to launch the book but got a sudden call to Los Angeles to sign for her first leading role starring opposite Rhys Ifans.

Into the breach stepped Australian folklore historian and musician Warren Fahey who can liven up any setting. As Mandy's book is set in the '40s Fahey sang us a ditty which he swore is from the era. It's full of dirty words but good fun. Listen below:

Love In The Year Of Lunacy is published by Allen & Unwin and is in book stores now.

What Happened To Madame Arcati ?

She was there one day-the next she had simply vanished into cyberspace.
For 5 years the Madame Arcati blog spot has been a thorn in the side of the British publishing world and such a success that the blog drew an envious 6000 readers a day (the Shuttle hovers around 1200-1800).

Madame Arcati cast a cynical eye over the often pompous print world of UK newspapers and magazines and it's fair to say she would have had a healthy club of critics but they were outweighed by a significant fan base around the world that included some of Britain's top writers and journalists.

The man who some say held control over Madame Arcati's career, writer and film critic Victor Olliver  (right) isn't saying much but he has in the past expressed some dissatisfaction with the world of blogging and twice shelved the blog for long periods. But now the whole thing has vanished seemingly along with it's extensive archives.

On his website Olliver says : "The old Madame Arcati site on Blogger is no more. Duncan Fallowell wrote me earlier today asking whether MA had been censored again because he couldn't find it. I had no idea. Blogger/Google sent no warning or explanatory note. So, all of Madame's musings since 2006 now reside in the colon of some beardie's worst imaginings somewhere across the Atlantic."

Sceptic

"Two days ago I set up a new Madame Arcati here - is this not a marvellous display of intuitive timing? How could have I 'known' that the old Madame was about to shoot up the astral colon?" 
                                                                               
The Shuttle team  (bar the office moggie Mildred Pierce) are firm believers in all things esoteric. Soon we will be commissioning a chart based on the stars from Mr Olliver. It will make a good dinner table topic for the next get-together with our favourite ABC Radio broadcaster but confirmed sceptic Phillip Adams.

Madame Arcati can still be read on the excellent British website Anorak.co.uk or in England's oldest and continuous published magazine The Lady.

Visit the Victor Olliver Astrology website here.

Sign Of The Times?

For 25 years Jonathan Chancellor has been the nation's expert on movements in the property business. Whether it was a soap star selling or buying an apartment or a high flyer trading up in the mansion market, Chancellor has his finger on the pulse.

Now the Shuttle hears that he is moving from Fairfax Newspapers to the top political website crikey.com.au having been snapped up by former Fairfax managing editor Eric Beecher who now owns crikey.

Chancellor's extensive list of contacts within the property market rivals none and he has been the author of numerous scoops on who is going where in the homes market. Often it's an indicator of how the economy is travelling.

In a country obsessed by property prices, reading what the rich and powerful pay for where they live is eagerly perused by those in the suburbs. Jonathan is widely published in various Fairfax newspapers that include the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Canberra Times, Australian Financial Review and the West Australian.

Is it a wise move ?. Fairfax were one of the first of the Australian newspaper networks to move into the Internet world pre-2000 and at the time they were much criticised but it stood them well for the future with Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd playing catch-up ever since. Murdoch has admitted as much.

Legend has it that when he was CEO at News Ltd, Lachlan Murdoch sent a memo around to staff saying not to spend too much time accessing the net as it was a 'passing fad'.

Fairfax's huge yearly profits- the 'Rivers Of Gold' as the late media mogul Kerry Packer coined them, come from it's classified advertising in which it has dominated the Australian market for decades.

The current CEO of Fairfax Greg Hywood was on the ABC's Media Watch last week and scoffed at the idea that printed newspapers were a dying industry as the British media writer Roy Greenslade proclaimed them to be in this article :More US newspapers dying by the day.
Greenslade writes for The Guardian in the UK which along with the Daily Mail have been the two British newspapers to reap a windfall with their internet websites.

Jonathan Holmes

Responding to presenter Jonathan Holmes question on whether  "the newspaper model-is it a dead duck?, Hywood said  "of course it’s not. I mean some newspapers may go but many will survive".
Despite his comments staff levels at Fairfax have been cut by 50% over the past ten years.

Crikey was started by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennet staffer Stephen Mayne in 2001 and despite having to mortgage his home once to pay legal fees, Mayne sold the site in 2005 for $1M.

It's sign of the times that Chancellor would move from the relative security of Fairfax to the much smaller publishing world of crikey.
                                           *******************
Read Jonathon Holmes full interview with Greg Hywood at Media Watch ABC TV.
Stephen Mayne now publishes the internet shareholder's activist website The Mayne Report.
Perhaps perfectly illustratimg the tensions within the publishing world of today : watch the legendary attack upon Mayne at the newspaper gongs- The Walkley Awards as political writer Glenn Milne-revved up on flu medication scuffles with Mayne :