Just Like Central Park

To St Mary's Cathedral in the heart of the city and the launch of the Australian Winter Festival's pop-up ice skating rink.
The 1200sq m rink is twice the size of last year’s and will play host to alpine-themed events such as ice dancing, ice hockey, ice discos and mulled wine drinking.Hungry skaters can tuck into bratwurst and poffertje and more importantly, glasses of Veuve Clicquot.

The 2011 Alpine Winter Festival offers an exciting array of gourmet winter food sensations, some dazzling action on the huge open air ice skating rink, skating performances, themed nights and much more.
It's open 12pm-10pm on weekdays and 10am-11pm on Saturdays and 10am-10pm n Sundays.
Entry to the event site is FREE - We highly recommend that you book ice rink tickets online in advance as they often sell out.

Singer PJ Lane gets romantic

Husky Rusky wonders who the sponser is

                                                             

Jack Vidgen Joins Eric Bana & A Murdoch

Getty

YOTS patron Eric B

Having picked up a prize of $250,000 with his spectacular win in the latest Australia's Got Talent, 14 year old Jack Vidgen has been revealing how he plans to spend some of the money.

A new Audi is on the cards- for Mum ( Jack has 2 more years to go before he gets his P plates) but Jack also wants to donate to charity with has heart set on Youth Of The Streets, YOTS the charity started and run by Catholic priest Father Chris Riley . YOTS provides services to assist homeless and disadvantaged, abused and neglected youth.

And Jack joins some high profile names- actor Eric Bana is the charities patron and publisher Matt Handbury, nephew of Rupert Murdoch has been a patron of YOTS for decades. Handbury donated a farm to YOTS in NSW to be used as a rural retreat for deprived city kids.

Vidgen is working on his first album having been signed by Sony and the song he wowed audiences with, Yes I Am is now available on iTunes here.

For more about Youth Of The Streets go to their website here.

Gae Avoids Bomb Drama at Fashion Show

Gae, Robbie, Hoda and Tom Waterhouse

THE WATERHOUSE FAMILY were out in force at David Jone's Summer fashion show on Wednesday night, including the recently married Tom and new wife Hoda and Tom's parents the famous and highly successful horse trainer Gae Waterhouse and husband Robbie.

While the four sat front row to watch Miranda Kerr treading the boards little did they realise the drama that was unfolding in the street where the Waterhouse family home is located. Gae and Robbie live in the same Mosman street and within sugar borrowing distance of the luxury house where plucky teenager Madeleine Pulver was attached to a fake bomb device in a terrifying ordeal that gripped the nation and that was splashed across front pages around the world as the NSW bomb squad liaised with British police to remove the device from Madeline's neck.

Today Gae was able to give police some valuable information about 2 'suspicious' looking individuals she had seen in the street earlier that day.
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Megan Gale at DJs

Meanwhile the sensationally beautiful Megan Gale  who was also at the David Jones event has today been named as the new face and world ambassador for L’Oreal. Megan describes the job "the Holy Grail of modelling".

Perth born Gale is part Maori which explains her dark looks and height. In Italy she has reached goddess like status and cannot walk down a street without attracting the attentions of hundreds of  fans.

Megan is also an accomplished actress and she really should be in many more movies. Easy on the eye and and charismatic as this clip from her 2010 appearance in "I Love You Too " demonstrates:

Miranda Kerr Models for DJs

Miranda Kerr jetted in for the David Jone's summer fashion show at Fox Studios last night and to introduce her new baby to the family. Hubby Orlando Bloom baby-sat Flynn while Kerr showed of her stunningly slim and in-shape body. Afterwards she mingled and chatted with guests at a party where magnums of Veuve Clicquot were served well into the late hours !

Miranda & make-up king Napoleon Perdis

with Natalie Imbruglia

Camerman Displays Perfect Tabloid Mentality

The Shuttle interviewed him once in Sydney on his many visits to promote his movies. Matt Damon is an intelligent and polite actor (not star truck, just impressed).

In this answer to a cameraman as Matt explains to an interviewer why he supports US teachers (one success of the Tea Party in the USA has been it's ability to convince the country the worker is now the Enemy Of The State) he illustrates the state of today's media.

The public may say they "don't believe everything they read in newspapers" but still buy them in large numbers. The demise of the News of The World has seen a surge in the circulation of other Sunday tabloids in the UK.

With some in the media business now mounting a campaign to convince the public that freedom of the press is about to be trashed by politicians (Brendan O'Neill on Monday's Q&A) and that the attacks upon News International are some sort of Commie plot, despite one newspaper, The Guardian having uncovered one of the greatest scandals in decades in British public life by legal means, it's scary how many media workers today are possibly more gullible than the public.

Gone are the grizzled old cynical hacks of yesteryear who pounded away on typewriters and created a network of contacts, trudging their beats and uncovering all manner of underhand political machinations, fraudsters and so on, replaced by a new breed who believe everything they write is gospel, re-produce press releases or simply don't give a damn and even worse, believe what their rivals publish.

Was Nikita Krushev channeling the future when he reputedly asked JFK in the 1960s how the West got journalists to write their lies when he had to threaten Pravda scribes to do likewise ?
..and here is the 14 year old lad who won Australia's Got Talent last night (plus $250,000) who Kyle Sandilands says has "a black woman inside him and looks like Ellen DeGeneres" : Jack Vidgen.

The 2011 Robert Helpmann Awards

Marina Prior

So You Think You Can Dance judge Jason Coleman

To the Sydney Opera House for the Helpmann Awards, recognition for local theatre, musical theatre, opera, dance and music.          

Geoffrey Rush at the Helpmanns

Barry Otto adores his daughters-Miranda Otto & Gracie

The new musical Mary Poppins picked up the most awards including best musical, Stephen Mear and Mathew Bourne for best choreography, Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne-direction, Philip Quast for best supporting actor, best actress for Verity Hunt-Ballard and best actor for Matt Lee.

Our favourite Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush picked up best actor in a play for  The Diary of a Madman which also earned Rush's great pal Neil Armfield the best director award and best original score for Alan John.


Cate Blanchett won best actress in a play for her role in Uncle Vanya produced by the Sydney Theatre Company.

International acts who won awards for their appearances in Australia-Leonard Cohen and Sir Simon Rattle and the

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's for their performances at Sydney Opera House and the Perth Concert Hall.

Rock of Ages cast Melanie Hawkins Michael Falzon and Ellen Sutton

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Aussie actress and model, gorgeous Cheyenne Tozzi (left) was out in New York last week at a screening of  "The Whistleblower" at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, hosted by The Cinema Society and DeLeon.

pic by Patrick McMullan  www.patrickmcmullan.com

Hemmes New York Move

Tom Waterhouse & Hodo at the Cosmo bash

One happy looking couple at Wednesday's Fun Fearless & Female awards sponsored by Cosmopolitan Magazine were bookmaker Tom Waterhouse and his new bride Hodo Vakili.

 The pair have just returned from their Italian honeymoon after marrying on the Mediterranean island of Sicily in front of two dozen family and friends who jetted in for the nuptials.

Tom, who at 29 has now become Australia's top bookmaker and is a regular at the race tracks in Melbourne and Sydney told the Shuttle that his new online betting business is going gangbusters and he and Hodo plan to buy a home in Melbourne where he is increasingly spending more time.

No word yet on whether we can expect a Waterhouse junior any time soon but the couple say they're working on it !
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Hotel and nightclub entrepreneur Justin Hemmes who has a $200M empire employing over 3000 people is planning to expand to the Big Apple next year and has been spotted checking out locations in the trendy Soho area of Lower Manhattan.

Although Hemmes has said he plans to first open a restaurant based on his successful Potts Point Lotus, our New York spy says the nightclub mogul was seen inspecting a building in Tribeca that was large enough to contain a hotel and restaurant complex.

Justin Hemmes-headed for New York City

With a swag of smart boutique hotels including the Establishment and Ivy complex and several pubs around inner Sydney, Hemmes seems to have the golden touch. Where he goes the punters follow and much of that is down to his talented sister Bettina Hemmes who designs the decor in all his nite spots.

Top New York photographer Patrick McMullan, an editor on Vanity Fair and corespondent for a swag of US magazines like Ocean Drive, Interview and New York Magazine says there is already a buzz in NYC about Hemmes who has been seen at several smart parties in recent months.

As no function in the city that never sleeps is complete without McMullan and his attendance at a party is a guarantee of social success, when Patrick starts mentioning your name, you know you have it made !

Just so Justin can get in a Big Apple mood-here's young Liam Burrows who blew away the audience last week on Australia's Got Talent with his version of New York New York. Perhaps Justin should invite him to sing at the opening of his new US nite-spot !

Drama In Double Bay

The chattering amongst the clientele of the cafes, bars and hairdressing salons in the streets of Sydney's up-market Double Bay has been deafening.

Dee Bees : flags are flying but no-one's home

Last Saturday in the late afternoon huge black plastic covers started appearing on the windows of the suburb's most popular coffee shop and restaurant, Dee Bees. Stickers were pasted on the windows stating Closed For Renovations.  Removal vans appeared and the hundreds of photographs that adorn the walls- mostly of celebrities who have visited Dee Bees- began to be loaded into the back.

Many carry signatures of the great and famous who have dined at the restaurant-from Bill Clinton, Bob Dylan, Kylie Minogue to Michael Parkinson.

All this was happening while customers were still drinking their coffees around 5pm but it's what happened next that has set tongues wagging. An ashen faced  manager gathered the staff in a corner and soon several were in tears and it's said one even collapsed and had to be revived. Some have been employed at Dee Bees for as long as 15 years. Will Dee Bees ever open again ?.

Times in The Bay are hard and the suburb has numerous empty business premises. As Dee Bee's owner Graeme Goldberg, (known locally as Mr Double Bay) has pointed out numerous times in his Latte Life columns, former properties like the Ritz Carlton Hotel (which he once managed) are lying derelict and empty. For 20 years it was the favourite inn for visiting international celebrities like George Bush Jr, Princess Diana,Tom Jones and Madonna.

Graeme Goldberg

Sam Neill

Goldberg has been a thorn in the side of the snooty Woollahra Council who control Double Bay and has constantly urged them to up their game. He's fought against odd decisions to no avail, like the bizarre 2 hour parking limit imposed a few years ago in the streets in an area where people loved to lunch for hours and then wander amongst the shops.

The Shuttle has been unable to contact Goldberg but perhaps an odd moment said it all as we passed via the back lane on Tuesday. Workmen were seen removing the kitchen equipment and loading it into the back of a van. Watching with a rather puzzled look was a Dee Bee's regular, actor Sam Neill, puffing away on a cigar.

Saatch Art in South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia has a great exhibiton opening tomorrow. 

The galleries website blurb reads :

Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide: British Art Now brings together the audacious best of contemporary art straight from London’s internationally acclaimed Saatchi Gallery – arguably the biggest influence on contemporary British art over the past 25 years. It features groundbreaking works that challenge conventional artistic sensibilities, created by more than forty of the new generation of daring British contemporary artists. 

Tracey Emin’s messy My Bed, with dirty sheets and used tissues will be on display if you like that sort of thing and there are heaps of other wonderful works to be seen.
Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide: British Art Now
30 July - 23 October 2011

Book tickets at their website. 

Fun, Fearless and Female

Fifi Box looks pleased to win an award.

To one of Sydney's best restaurants, Catalina nestled by the harbour in Rose Bay for Cosmopolitan Magazine's Fun, Fearless & Female annual awards.

Hardly a chore with champagne cocktails and superb food and a chance to mingle with some of the countries nicest ladies as awards were handed out in a variety of categories with almost half a million readers voting on their favourite top gals.

Hunk Daniel meets Shelly Craft

Danielle Cormack

Loving : Radio DJ Fifi Box, Charlotte Dawson's bare tattooed foot, Funny Home Video's host and MC Shelley Craft, Funny Home Videos ex-host Toni Pearon, and gorgeous singer Jessica Mauboy, the pink carpet.


Faces to watch : # 27 year old novelist Jessica Rudd, daughter of former PM Kevin Rudd, based in Beijing and whose novel Ruby Blues earned her a gong as best novelist.

# Actress Danielle Cormack in her first big role as 1930's Sydney crime boss Kate Leigh in Underbelly Razor.

Jessica Rudd

cute Lauren Eagle

Toni Pearon

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Aussie Films Open Toronto Film Festival

Geoffrey Rush in Eye Of The Storm ( at Luna Park)

Three Australian made films have been included in the Toronto Film Festival including Eye Of The Storm directed by Fred Schepisi starring Geoffrey Rush, Burning Man by Jonathan Teplitzky and Daniel Nettheim's The Hunter.

Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davis & Geoffrey Rush in Eye Of The Storm

Eye Of The Storm also stars Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis (the best actress on the planet according to Woody Allen) and is based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Patrick White.

The Hunter with Willem Dafoe, Frances O'Connor and Sam Neill (spotted by the Shuttle today buying cigars in Double Bay)  has been adapted from the book Sleeping Beauty and is directed by Julia Lei.
The Toronto Film Festival runs from September 8th to the18th.

Mrs Murdoch Steps Out

For the second time in as many weeks the beautiful Sarah Murdoch, wife of Lachlan Murdoch has fronted the cameras.

They're tall, beautiful and Aussie- Sarah Murdoch (centre) with contestants from the show

Sarah hosted a preview of Australia's Next Top Model at Fox Studios last night followed by a drinks party and for once, the media was far too polite to mention that matter that has consumed them for the past 3 weeks.

They should be models : gorgeous Charlotte Dawson with some hunky footballers

But where do they find such beautiful and tall girls?. As you can see from our exclusive snaps another bevy of statuesque teens are battling to win a lucrative modelling career.

They'll choose Australia's Next Top Model : Charlotte Dawson, Sarah Murdoch & Alex Perry

Vale Margaret Olley

Margaret Olley, Portrait in the mirror, 1948

It's been just four months since Australia's much loved artist Margaret Olley attended the controversial Archibald Prize when the portrait of her by artist Ben Quilty won Australia's richest art prize for portraiture.

Dobell's portrait of Olley

But it was also the second time a portrait of Margaret had won the Archibald-the first was in 1948 when William Dobell took the gong and launched he and Olley on the road to art celebrity.

Margaret with Ben Quilty in April

Today Margaret passed away at the age of 88 in her Paddington terrace. She'll be sorely missed. No event at the NSW Art Gallery was complete without Margaret shuffling through the crowd with her walking frame-bell ringing incessantly if anyone dared to momentarily impede her trajectory.

Olley was an icon who held over 90 shows during her life. Her paintings brought the largest price for an Australian living artist and she leaves a legacy of work behind, painting right up until the end. She also left a mass of works to the NSW Art Gallery, nearly seven million dollars worth and donated her own collection of masters including 3 Cezannes and a Picasso. When she purchased the Cezanne at auction in London she thought it looked rather lonely so snapped up 2 more saying "three makes a better statement".

Olley never married and once said in an interview that she liked to be "a one-woman band, too independent to be subservient to anyone". She loved helping new young talent and to that end has left a trust fund of a million dollars to assist budding young painters.

Christian The Lion Hits Hollywood

 Ace Bourke & friend Christine at the Sherman

Ace, Christian $ John

One half of the Christian The Lion duo-Anthony 'Ace' Bourke has confirmed that the famous saga about Christian, the Harrods bought lion that was raised in a Kings Road, Chelsea furniture shop is to be made into a Hollywood film.

Ace was talking at the Sherman Gallery at the exhibition of Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê. 

In 1969 he and Australian born social writer John Rendall purchased Christian and raised him in their shop Sophisticat, eventually returning him to Africa under the care of the famous conservationist of Born Free fame George Adamson.

Bourke and Rendell returned a year later to see how Christian was faring and the grainy film of Christian bounding down a hill to hug both John and Ace became a YouTube hit  (with over 30 million views) when put to the song I'll Always Love You. It lead to a  publishing deal and a world wide tour on TV interview shows including Oprah Winfrey.
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Brian Sherman & Dinh Q. Lê

Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation's current exhibition Erasure, is a newly commissioned work by Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê – an interactive sculptural and video installation that draws on recent debates in Australia concerning refugees and asylum seekers.

The darkened gallery space is dominated by a floor-to-ceiling moving image of an 18th century tall ship beached on an isolated coastline slowly being consumed by flames. The gallery floor is strewn with small islands of debris – discarded clothing and wooden fragments. Amid the destruction are thousands of small black and white photographs – self-portraits, family and passport photos – which Dinh spent years buying in second-hand stores in the hope of finding his own family’s pictures.

To date the Shermans have now sponsored 11 similar artists to the tune of $100,000 each. The exhibition runs until the 11th September 2011, Wednesday to Saturday 11 am – 5 pm
16–20 Goodhope Street, Paddington
Sydney NSW 2021 Australia
Phone +61 (0)2 9331 1112

# a short film of Dinh's installation :

Rupert & Wendi The Movie : X Rated

 The Plot :

The News of the World hacking hearing was interrupted when a man attacked Rupert Murdoch with a plate full of shaving cream. The attack was foiled when Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng pounced to the defense of her husband. The assailant is a comedian who calls himself Jonnie Marbles. People are curious how he managed to get past security. Meanwhile, hacktivist's LulzSec came out of "retirement" to prank Murdoch. They hacked The Sun's website, posting a fake report of his suicide. But Murdoch is still very much alive. Does Wendi regret her decision to save him?

For more go to : nma.tv/

Not All Doom & Gloom For The Murdochs

Sarah Murdoch at the Astras last night

The Murdoch family still face battles with the British parliament and a public still reeling from the great phone hacking scandal but life appears to be far rosier for some members of the extended first family of the media.

While Lachlan Murdoch accompanied his father Rupert Murdoch and brother James to London this week keeping a low profile and returning to New York with them on their private jet, his beautiful wife model and TV presenter Sarah Murdoch was  last night voted Favourite Personality at the Astra Awards for pay TV held at the Sydney Theatre Company.

Anna Torv splash

Sarah is host and executive producer of the series Australia's Next Top Model which co-incidentally is screened on Foxtel , the cable network part owned by her famous father-in-law.

Meanwhile the on-line magazine The Beast has come into bat for the Australian actress Anna Torv and claimed that she is a victim of the The Emmy Awards’ 10 Biggest Snubs.

Kia Torv, William & Anna Mann, Hans Torv

Anna appears in the hugely popular TV series Fringe which has a world wide cult following.

She's the daughter of Gold Coast radio network owner Hans Torv who is the brother of the former Mrs Anna Murdoch and she's the cousin of James, Lachlan, Prudence and Elisabeth Murdoch. Anna is named after her famous aunt.

John Noble

Not that Anna has much contact with her famous media family cousins. She's been estranged from her father Hans since the age of eight when he and her mother parted company but she does maintain contact with the former Mrs Rupert Murdoch and regularly visits her aunt in New York.
Anna Murdoch  married New Yorker financier William Mann and as our exclusive picture shows is extremely close to her brother Hans and his present wife Kia. Anna Mann is also a co-owner of the Queensland radio network run by Hans.
Anna Torv has been signed for another series of Fringe along with the star of the show, Australian actor John Noble who The Beast reckons should also be up for an Emmy.