The Streets Ran Red With Blood

It was the 1920s and Sydney was dominated by two rival crime queens who presided over vicious gangs and stand over men. Between them they controlled prostitution, the booming cocaine and heroin trade and dozens of inner city sly grog shops.

Matilda 'Tilly' Devine

It earned Sydney an international moniker as the "Chicago of the South Pacific"


Tilly Devine, a tough Cockney was known as the Queen of Woolloomooloo and her deadly rival Kate Leigh, a former country convent girl, was the Queen of Surry Hills. Both lived to a ripe old age with the law only ever catching up to them for minor crimes.

A state government law dictated severe penalties for carrying guns so the gangs decided razors were an alternative and they used them with deadly accuracy.

Kate Leigh's 1923 police mug shot.

One night in 1931 in Kellet Street in Kings Cross, up to thirty gangsters battled it out with razors, iron bars and knuckle dusters and blood literally flowed in the gutters. Local police sensibly never dared enter the fray while many detectives were on the payroll of the two crime queens.

 A small club Gastro Park, backing onto Kellet Street was the venue on Thursday night where the NINE network launched the fourth series in the hugely successful crime films based on real life

Chelsie Preston Crayford and Danielle Cormack

Underbelly: Razor, produced by Screentime, will screen on Sunday 21 August at 8.30pm and it's back to the future with the series set in the roaring twenties. In the lead roles Chelsie Preston Crayford as Tilly Devine and Danielle Cormack as Kate Leigh.

 Legend goes that Sydney had become so corrupted by the end of the era that it took until the late 1990s for police corruption to be finally winkled out when the NSW government hired Commander Peter Ryan, the former head of London's Police Training Centre in Hendon to clean out the infamous 'white shoe brigade ' as bent coppers had become known.

For his efforts Ryan was pilloried by politicians and shock jocks and eventually left to become the head of security for the Olympic Games.

Fast forward to 2011 and Mark Standen the chief investigator for the secretive and powerful NSW Crime Commission was found guilty last Friday on drug conspiracy charges with an enquiry announced to investigate the Commission itself and it's involvement with leading crime figures.

Not much changes in the Emerald City.

Kerri Anne Kennerley joins Underbelly actors Conrad Colbey & John Batchelor

stars of Underbelly :Anna McGahan & Richard Brancatisano

Kate (left) and Tilly tried reconciliation in 1948. It didn't last. Kate died in 1964 and Tilly in 1970.

Below is the promo film for the series.

Summer Fashion From Myer

As day follows night, the Myer fashion parade occurs a week after the David Jones parade.

To the Carriageworks in downtown Waterloo as Jennifer Hawkins and British import  Kris Smith ( Mr Danni Minogue ) launched the Myer Spring Summer 2011/2012 Collections last night with lots of  fresh, bright and bold colours

Brands new to Myer, Jayson Brunsdon, Fleur Wood and sass & bide (lured away from DJs with a multi-million dollar payout) plus new season collections by Myer’s leading stable of Australian designers and our favourite US import, Charlie Brown.

This summer campaign has drawn inspiration from the Australian landscape, with the show’s set design embracing the expansive and dramatic Pinnacles Desert in Western Australia. Models made their way down a 30-metre catwalk created to form a spectacular panoramic desert scene. 

Check out our exclusive back stage video below                                                              

Jennifer Hawkins

dapper Kris Smith

                                                             

Elle Of A Cover

 


Don't forget to pick up your September issue of Elle Decoration for some handy hints on how to brighten up your home.

There are a couple of tasteful tips on the graffiti style blackboard featured here on the cover- one in the top right corner which reads "our friendship is tighter than a nun's v*gina  "" and the drawing in the lower right corner !

Richard Wilkins & Jeff Goldblum's 'Death'

One guest at last Friday's Volvo Alpine ice skating party was Richard Wilkins who arrived with his pal top chef Luke Mangan.

Luke Mangan & Richard Wilkins

 Wilkins has had a long and varied career. Born in New Zealand he was a budding classical violinist until he decided that rock was more his thing. After graduating from teachers’ college, majoring in English and Music, he started a band – Wilde and Reckless which he fronted under the name Richard Wilde.

He enjoyed some success, touring Australia with the band in 1980 and supporting Grace Jones, while managing several other bands from a small Sydney office. Eventually he became the face of MTV when it was first launched and for many years now he's been a fixture on the Nine TV network jetting back and forth between the USA and Australia and interviewing celebs like Billy Connolly, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Robbie Williams, Olivia Newton-John, Britney Spears and Barbara Streisand.

On the 25th of this month he launches his first book : Black Ties, Red Carpets, Green Rooms published by Doubleday. Richard says it isn't an autobiography but more a series of anecdotes about the people he's met, interviews with some of the world's top stars along with back room show biz gossip.
Maybe he'll reveal how he happened upon one of his top exclusives that swept the world- the announcement that actor Jeff Goldblum had 'died' while falling from a cliff in New Zealand. Fortunately for Goldblum it turned out to be a hoax !.

Hetty Sees Off Robert Crumb

The Shuttle had a rare interview lined up with American artist Robert Crumb who was due to visit as part of the Graphic festival at Sydney Opera House. Now Crumb has cancelled his visit.
The Enthusiast tells the story of the cancellation :

"It only took one article for the notoriously ornery cult cartoonist Robert Crumb to cancel his Sydney Graphic arts festival headlining appearance. And NewsCorp journalists wonder what the big deal is.
In a July 31 article titled ‘Smutty Show A Comic Outrage’, Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph wheeled out professional pearl-clutcher Hetty Johnston of The Won’t Somebody Think Of The Children Association Bravehearts to comment on counter-culture comic legend Robert Crumb.

Go to The Enthusiast here.

Cate Blanchett, Jackie Weaver a Hit in Washington

Cate Blanchett * Hugo Weaving * Jackie Weaver * Richard Roxborgh

 Another US hit for the Sydney Theatre Company under the auspices of Cate Blanchett. The latest production Uncle Vanya has received high praise.

Starring a host of Australian theatre heavyweights- Blanchett, Jackie Weaver, Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh ( currently starring in Sunday's ABC TV hit Rake) one can only hold high expectations for staging of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya, currently running at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Ben Brantley of the New York Times  describes the production as''outrageously funny and heartbreaking''  and the three hours watching it as among the happiest of my theater going life''.

Peter Marks in the Washington Post says :"The Sydney company, run jointly by Blanchett and (Andrew) Upton, came to town two years ago with an astonishing version of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which was anchored by the actress. In its way, this emotionally in-touch “Uncle Vanya,” buoyed by its entire cast, is just as extraordinary. On the basis of this “Vanya,” no one should ever again try to convince you that Chekhov is a delicate flower. As Ascher shows us in his transformative production, the playwright’s pen could contain dynamite."

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.