Vanessa Amarosi Sings For Richard Wilkins

Richard Wilkins & Vanessa Amarosi

 Plenty of network heavies and stars from NINE TV clambered up the steep stairs to the second floor in the Kings Cross nightclub Kit & Kaboodle last night to pay homage to Richard Wilkins.

Ben Fordham & David Gyngell

The TV celebrity interviewer was launching his first book :Black Ties, Red Carpets, Green Rooms. It's a series of his interviews with some of the world's most famous stars plus heaps of back stage gossip with an insight into the sometimes strange world of celebrity ego.

However you won't find much in the book about his many love affairs including with the fashion designer Collette Dinnigan or Tottie Goldsmith although there are some tales about Tottie's famous aunt Olivia Newton John. Since arriving on these shores from New Zealand some 25 years ago Wilkins has been working non-stop, first in his own band Wilde and Reckless, then as an MTV  presenter and for the last 15 years as the Nine network's top interviewer of celebrities including on-camera stints from the red carpet at the Oscars.

Among those at the party-his Today Show co-hosts Cameron Williams, Georgie Gardner, Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic (who launched the book), Nine network supremo David Gyngell and Sony boss Denis Handlin.

Lots of Richard's interview subjects sent their best wishes- Prince, Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman but one, Vanessa Amarosi presented her fondness by attending the party and singing. The video is below:

model agency supremo Peter Chadwick & Deborah Hutton

a night of hugs and kisses.....

Georgie Gardner & Lisa Wilkinson

even The Wiggles turned up!

Ita Ignites A Storm with Rupert Murdoch Claim

What was Ita Buttrose AO OBE thinking ?. Was it a carefully planned statement or a throwaway line ?. Certainly three of Sydney's top society gossip snoops believe the former.

Ita Buttrose and Prof. Ross Steele

Ros Reines ( Sunday Telegraph), Andrew Hornery ( Sydney Morning Herald) and Annette Sharp (Daily Telegraph) were speaking yesterday at the Secret Women's Business charity lunch at Quay restaurant and basically inferred that Ita had known exactly what she was doing when she made the claim about Rupert Murdoch.

It's already had a run on the top US political website Raw Story and from there it is just a matter of time before it hits the British tabloids.

Ita was talking during the second part of her Australian Story interview- Ita Tells Me So.

Near the end of the program Buttrose- former editor-in-chief of Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, said that Rupert Murdoch instructed her to have a subject tailed because legitimate reporting techniques were not producing the desired results.

“I assigned a reporter to do it but [Murdoch] wasn’t happy with the result and said, ‘No, that wasn’t good enough. Have you followed this person?’” she recalled.
“I can’t give this instruction,” Buttrose later told then-News Limited chief executive Ken Cowley. “I’m not having anybody that works for me, for whom I’m responsible, follow anybody. I don’t want to be a part of it.”

During the credits of the show the following statements appeared :

“Mr. Murdoch has never asked any journalist to do anything improper,” 
a ( News Corp) spokesman said.
“Mr. Cowley has never been asked by Mr. Murdoch to have a reporter conduct surveillance of any kind on any individual and nor would he have agreed to it had he been asked by Mr Murdoch or anyone else,” 

Buttrose has been one of Australia's most successful female publishers having worked for both Murdoch and Kerry Packer. In 1972 she was hired by Packer to launch the Australian edition of Cosmopolitan but when the deal fell through, she and Kerry devised Cleo, one of Packer's most successful publications of all time. The story was told in the recent two part telemovie Paper Giants.The Birth of Cleo.


And even odder was her brother Julian Buttrose's friendly exhortation to spare fellers to give Ita a call and ask her out on a date. The last few times we've seen Ita out and about ( as our picture shows) she has been on the arm of the French tutor Professor Ross Steele. In fact the two sat front row at the Myer parade just ten days ago.


The ABC program Australian Story can be watched here.

Kevin Rudd's Wacky Cat Jasper

 Foreign Minister and former PM Kevin Rudd has another reason to celebrate following his successful heart operation two weeks ago, and the news that Colonel Gaddafi may be on the run (he was the only Australian politician to support the Libyan rebels when the coup began).

Kevin has won a competition to produce a unique Australian blend of Twinings afternoon tea. He knocked out 4 other challengers-shock jock Alan Jones, Kerri-Anne and John Kennerely , folk singer John Williamson and world surfing champ Layne Beachley. Proceeds from the sale of the tea go to the RSPCA.

Kev's recipe : smoky Russian Caravan with full bodied Irish Breakfast and then add light Ceylon Orange Pekoe. 
And to show how successful the blend is, we've unearthed a video of Kevin trying to coax his cat Jasper to taste the brew:

Sexual Frenzy & Unmasking the Real Madame Arcati

Duncan Fallowell  ( Prospect Magazine)

 The novelist and travel writer Duncan Fallowell has a remarkable revelation.

In his latest book, How To Disappear : A Memoir for Misfits Fallowell says he had 40 ‘sexual partners’ in the month following Princess Diana’s death, ‘including a group of women in a naturist Jacuzzi in Brighton.’ We learn this in an interview with the writer conducted by the British Blogger Madame Aracti.

Princess Diana's funeral in 1997

The Evening Standard's Londoner's Diary has also picked up the tale :

“People were impassioned but slowed right down, which are the two best conditions for sex,”. “On September 29, several weeks after all these events, I noted in my journal that I’d had 40 sexual partners in the month following Diana’s death, including a group of women in a naturist Jacuzzi in Brighton where I’d found myself by chance.“Most of the encounters had something accidental about them, and were not coarse or contrived. I’m not bragging. And I’m not going into details. But I’ve known nothing like it since and it wasn’t only me. One could hardly venture out without some interaction taking place in which strangers became friends.“It reached an airy culmination off Portobello Road around 10.30 one morning. I was on my way to buy fruit from Nellie’s barrow when a pair of eyes crossed my path, there was the look, I followed him down an alleyway and hey, presto, it was all happening, screened by the packing cases in a little warehouse behind Woolworth’s.”Well, how was it for you?

The Shuttle has read two of Fallowell's travel books : One Hot Summer in St Petersburg and Going As Far As I Can about his travels in New Zealand. That book upset the Kiwis badly which alone should be an endorsement. Both books are a superb read and Fallowell has some heavyweight fans. Graham Greene became one as did William S.Burroughs.

But researching Duncan Fallowell via the Internet we came across this intriguing piece in his Wikileak's page :

"Fallowell currently maintains a weblog Madame Arcati."

Is it true ?. We should be told.

exclusive : Jack Vidgen's Debut Album

Here's a of taste of his debut album from young Jack Vidgen who picked up the $250,000 prize for winning Australia's Got Talent.

Listen to River Deep Mountain High and Think-you could be forgiven for thinking this is an album by a black female singer with Jack's amazingly mature voice.
As for Michael Jackson's Who's Loving You..we're sure Michael in Heaven is certainly loving this version.

You can get the album at Sanity , JB HiFi or Itunes.

Will Shane Warne Succeed where Gordon Ramsay Failed ?

Sad news today and a further blow for embattled restaurateur Gordon Ramsay as he announces that his Melbourne restaurant- maze Grill at the Metropole Hotel-part of James Packer's ritzy Crown Casino, is put into liquidation.

Despite the gleaming new restaurant receiving excellent reviews and a reported turnover of nearly $14M in the one year it was open, it was loosing money and becoming a drain on Ramsay's declining restaurant empire.

Melbourne's maze Grill

The Crown Casino by the Yarra River is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the biggest in the world. With 3 hotel tower blocks including the Metrople, endless fast food outlets and a string of 5 star restaurants , luxury stores,cinemas, theatres, a ballroom and a convention centre it is one of the most opulent gaming establishments on the planet.

Stars like Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Tiger Woods  have called it home while in Melbourne on extended visits.
Fine dining restaurants at Crown that are going gangbusters include the Japanese Nobu part owned by actor Robert de Niro (who officially launched Nobu in 2007) and  Bistro Guillaume owned by French chef Guillaume Brahimi who also owns Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. In both establishments it often takes weeks to book a table.

Diana at the Commonwealth Day lunch with Samantha Riley

But if Ramsay couldn't make a go of it , will our newly minted Metrosexual Shane Warne do any better?

rough trade?

It's been reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald that Warnie will be attending this year's Melbourne Cup (with Liz Hurley) and will be opening a night club at Crown.
Warnie's new sophisticated image has come some way since the Shuttle sat with him at a Commonwealth Day lunch for Princess Diana in Sydney in 1996.

When we asked if he was a friend of Diana's Shane replied "no, I haven't met her yet" (she was at the next table). Asked if he thought she may be a cricket fan he said "not sure-but I think she likes rough trade !"

A Home For Leonardo DiCaprio

IT WOULD BE churlish to publish the address, particularly as we are sworn to secrecy.
We can tell you it is in Sydney's Easter Suburbs and no further than a ten minute drive from Fox Studios. Is it on the harbour?. That would be telling but water can be accessed from the house (that leaves the Harbour and ocean beaches)

Isla Fisher

We're talking about the new home for the next few months for Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio who will arrive on these shores any day now to begin filming Baz Luhrmann's 3D epic  The Great Gatsby.

Fear not though-there will be ample opportunity to see DiCaprio around town as some of the film will be shot in various locations in Sydney. At Fox Studios, Luhrmann has built massive sound stages to resemble 1920's New York and 6 vintage vehicles have been imported with left hand drive for authenticity.

Also arriving soon to co-star in the movie-Isla Fisher, married to Sacha Baron Cohen (she met him at a Sydney party in 2002), Spiderman's Tobey McGuire and English actress Carey Mulligan.

DiCaprio reprises the role of Jay Gatsby which was played by Robert Redford in the 1974 version of F.Scott Fitzgerald's book while Mulligan plays Daisy Buchanan, a role taken by Mia Farrow opposite Redford. Jason Clarke and Joel Edgerton also have roles.

Leo as J.Edgar Hoover

Quite what Fitzgerald would have thought of his book being turned into a 3D film is any one's guess but DiCaprio is undeterred by Luhrmann's last rather droll production, Australia which went to video soon after release. He has only praise for Luhrmann after starring in Baz's 1996 Romeo & Juliet and is probably the big name-he's box office gold-needed for another Lurhmann production.

And the producers of bio-pic J.Edgar in which DiCaprio plays the legendary cross dressing founder of the FBI, J.Edgar Hoover have released the first pic of Leo in the role.

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"talk to the hand "..Joel Edgerton and Susan Sarandon at a party in Sydney

 JOEL EDGERTON is one of the hardest working actors in Australia and with Gatsby-it will make 8 productions in which he has major roles awaiting release.
The Thing, a blockbuster Sci-Fi epic in which an alien craft is discovered at a research station in the Antarctic, is due for release during the Christmas holiday season and the word is that his acting in the Disney production The Odd Life of Timothy Green, due for release next year will bring high praise.

Here is a trailer for The Odd Life of Timothy Green,:

Is Lincoln Heading For Hollywood?

Rumours are circulating that good looking actor Lincoln Lewis could be headed for Hollywood and a star role in a new US TV series.

Lincoln Lewis

Lincoln, the son of former Australian rugby league great Wally Lewis has a number of appearances coming up on Oz TV including the new Underbelly Razor series that begins next Sunday evening on the Nine network and which is sure to receive high ratings.

Lincoln joined his co-stars in the drama Slide  ( screened on Fox8.) last week for a dinner in the Graceland's Room in Surry Hills Winery to celebrate the new series launch.

Slide is about a bunch of teens making their way into adulthood-something Lincoln has had some experience with, when he and his former co-star from Home and Away Jodi Gordon were involved in a bizarre episode in 2009 with police being called to a harbour-side house with claims of bikie members breaking in to attack the pair. Whatever happened that night, it's probably just added to Lewis's mystique especially after it became public knowledge that he and a 'starlet'; had made a saucy film together.

And on the subject of Jodi- she and fiancee  Braith Anasta attended last Thursday's Myer parade at the Carriageworks, cuddling in the first row throughout the parade.

Lincoln & Slide co-stars :Gracie Gilbert* Ben Schumann
Adele Perovic*Emily Iris Robins*

Jodi has just finished filming the tele-movie Blood Brothers with Lisa McClune. Gordon plays  the wife of the real-life 'perfect murderer' Jeffrey Gilham, jailed for the 1993 killings of his parents and brother.

Lincoln has also completed the film Bait which stars another Hollywood ex-pat Julian McMahon, the son of the late much loved social figure Lady Sonia McMahon.

Jodi at Myer

Braith & Jodi

Our source says McMahon's US agent was particularly taken by Lincoln's boyish good looks and charm and typical laid back Aussie style that has translated so well Stateside with actors like Russell Crowe , Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana and believes he is perfect for American audiences. To date the Shuttle still hasn't had a call back from Lewis's agent.
                                                  











Here's a clip from Home &Away that shows off Lincoln's perfect pecs that would look right at home in Malibu:

Pop-Up Pommery

Grant Dwyer

 If you plan to go shopping this week at Westfield's new glitzy super centre in the Pitt Street Mall, make your way to the third level. Amongst all those brand name stores-Gucci, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Zegna, Christian Louboutin, Diane von Furstenberg, Prada..you get the drift- you will find an oasis at the centre-the Pommery Bar.

Michael McMahon *  Angela Shallis*Jon Cammell

It's a 'pop-up' bar provided by the management for weary shoppers overcome with the luxury of the whole place. Last night they threw an opening bash with magnums of Pommery doing the rounds and a host of fashion and TV names on hand to sample the drop.                                  

Matt Moran & Deborah Thomas

Lewis Grant & Jordan Coulter

The Nine network's hit show 'The Block' judge Neale Whittaker who doubles up as Editor in Chief of the design bible Belle magazine, Woman's Weekly Editorial Director Deborah Thomas, TV producer Michael Pell, Weekend Sunrise host Samantha Armytage, designer Carla Zampatti , MasterChef star Matt Moran and restaurateur Michael McMahon joined luxury hotel owner Terry Schwamberg and Ashley Dawson Damer amongst others.

Michael Pell * Samantha Armytage

It's only there for one week so don't miss it !

Maggie Tabberer* Michael Love*Amanda Tabberer

Julia Clarke

Carla Zampatti
 Stop Press : According to the Champagne Bureau Australia the high Australian dollar is now making French champagne far more affordable with brands like Moet & Chandon selling for around $44 a bottle. Australia is the ninth largest importer of the bubbly and with the current global financial malaise- Australia being almost unique in having weathered the financial meltdown -French champagne houses are targeting the country in an effort to increase sales.

Buzz Aldrin Down To Earth

Lois & Buzz in happier days

Just a few months ago Buzz Aldrin and his diminutive and glamorous wife Lois were dining and partying around Sydney arm in arm like teenagers in love.

Now they are headed for the divorce courts and Buzz is trying to extract himself from a deal he signed, drawn up by Lois's daughter who acted as Buzz's lawyer.

That deal gives Lois and her daughter Lisa Cannon 60% of Aldrin's income and as he puts it in a lawsuit, the pair now own, "most of what he has acquired since the day he walked on the Moon."

 Astronaut Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon says he was tricked out of making buckets of money off his own name according to the lawsuit he's filed against his stepdaughter.

Buzz filed the suit against Lisa Cannon, who helped run StarBuzz Enterprises LLC which markets and promotes Buzz. He wants a judge to tear up the agreement.

Buzz on the moon

Buzz filed for divorce from Lois in June, not long after he returned from his Australian trip siting “irreconcilable differences”. The two were married in 1988 and Buzz has claimed Lois saved him from bouts of depression. At the several parties the pair attended in Sydney, Lois who wears false finger nails studded with hundreds of tiny Swarovski Crystals, and Buzz appeared very much in love with neither ever leaving the other's side.

At one Sydney official function for the astronaut, Buzz posed with guests for $100 a picture.

 On July 20, 1969 Aldrin landed on the moon in the first lunar mission and followed Neil Armstrong as the second man to walk on the moon. He later claimed to have seen UFOs on the space journey and once punched a film maker who claimed the moon trip was a hoax.

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."