Indigenous Wins at ACCTA Awards

It was what the world was screaming out for-another set of film awards !

Miranda Tapsell,Deborah Mailman,Jessica Mauboy                           & the original Sapphires

Host Russell Crowe and Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) President, Geoffrey Rush, were joined on stage by  Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman to honour the year's best achievements in Australian film and television at the 2nd AACTA Awards Ceremony, held at the new The Star Event Centre in Sydney.
 
Since premiering in Cannes in May 2012, the toe-tapping musical drama The Saphirres, about four Aboriginal girls who formed a singing group in the 1960s has picked up awards all over the world and has become box office gold.
 Tonight saw The Sapphires take home six AACTA Awards - Best Film, Best Director (Wayne Blair), Best Lead Actress (Deborah Mailman), Best Lead Actor (Chris O'Dowd), Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Mauboy) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Keith Thompson, Tony Briggs)
 
 The thriller Wish You Were Here won the award for Best Original Screenplay for husband and wife creative team writer/director Kieran Darcy-Smith and writer/actress Felicity Price. Antony Starr also won Best Supporting Actor for his enigmatic performance in Wish You Were Here.

Young German actress, Saskia Rosendahl, received Best Young Actor for her lead performance in the Australian made German language film Lore, directed by Cate Shortland.
A special highlight of tonight's AACTA Awards Ceremony was the presentation of the Byron Kennedy Award to the late filmmaker, animator and artist Sarah Watt (1958 – 2011), accepted on her behalf by her son, Clem McInnes .

Jessica McNamee,          Megan Gale,          Essie Davis     Gemma Arteton,         Brooke Satchwell,    Lucy Durack & 'Taxi'

It was that sort of night !

Russell compared

Hugo was there

Joel Edgerton and new love Lexi Blake

 

Jack Thompson : confirmed luvvie

Fairfax Mergers - The Smage ?

Do they employ a psychic at The Guardian newspaper or perhaps they have called upon Britain's top astrologer Victor Olliver to cast the runes ?

Their timing is perfect to enter the Australian market and seize the left-of-centre ground abandoned by the once great Fairfax empire.

Now a war of words has broken out between newsmen as former Fairfax editor Andrew Jaspan today told the mUmBRELLA website that The Age & Sydney Morning Herald will combine and  "switch their editorial positioning away from the high ground occupied in the past by Fairfax’s metro mastheads and towards what is referred internally as ‘Middle Australia’. That means more mid-market fare: sport, showbiz, gossip, and fast news. He describes this as"like 2 bald men fighting over a comb".

Andrew Jaspan                 Garry Linnell

Current editor Garry Linnell has hit back and described Japser's claims as "complete fiction" and accused him of having taken The Age downmarket during his tenure.

 The Guardian's Australian editorial team are already in Australia and preparing the new local Guardian website.Many of Fairfax's best writers who last year took redundancy have been offered work on the new web newspaper.
Fairfax would do well to actually take Japser's comments as good advice. Well that's what we reckon.

AACTA Awards Announced

 The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) have announced the winners of the 2nd AACTA International Awards in Los Angeles, with actor Russell Crowe leading fellow Australians presenters Jacki Weaver and Scott Hicks.

Silver Linings Playbook won Best Film along with Best Direction for David O. Russell; and Best Lead Actress for Jennifer Lawrence.

Best Lead Actor went to Daniel Day-Lewis for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's historical drama Lincoln. 
Best Screenplay was won by writer and director Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained while the two discretionary AACTA International Awards went to Robert De Niro for his role as an obsessive compulsive football-crazed father in Silver Linings Playbook, and to Jacki Weaver, for her role as De Niro's tolerant and forgiving wife in the film.

(But why no award yet for Samuel L.Jackson  (left) whose acting in Django Unchained is superb and worthy of an Oscar?)

On Wednesday the Social Shuttle will attend the local ACCTA Awards which will be hosted by Russell Crowe at Sydney's Star Casino.

                                                  ***************************
Nicole Kidman will fly into town on Monday to attend Wednesday's ACCTA Awards. Kidman and Keith Urban holidayed in Sydney and the NSW South Coast where they have a holiday home over the Christmas holidays, returning to the US on the 10th January. You can do these things when you have your own jet !
 
The Shuttle recalls speaking to Kidman's publicist Wendy Day at a luncheon is Sydney many years ago when Nicole was divorcing Tom Cruise.

Day was seriously worried that Nicole's career would slump, such was the power then of Cruise and the tendency for Hollywood bigwigs to line up in support of whoever they perceived as Hollywood royalty.
 Nicole of course has proved them all wrong and is the acknowledged most famous and powerful actress in the world today.

Featured on the cover of the latest Hollywood Reporter Nicole speaks about life with Tom and standing up to the Studios, Scientology and sex. 

Vale Pat Lovell

Pioneering film producer Patrica Lovell has died at the age of 83.

Pat began a show business career on radio and as Miss Pat in the children's TV show Mr Squiggle . She was also part of the original beauties on the panel show Beauty and The Beast as well as acting in several of the Skippy The Bush Kangaroo episodes.


Lovell formed a film production company with fledgling actor Mel Gibson and produced some of Australia's most acclaimed films including Picnic At Hanging Rock and Gallipoli. She spoke warmly about working with Gibson in a 2004 documentary about the religious actor : Mel Gibson, God's Lethal Weapon.

Pat Lovell retired from the industry in 2003 when she was head of producing at the Australian Film, Television School. She died yesterday surrounded by family members.

Miriam Margolyes Becomes An Aussie and annouces : I'm A Dyke!

Actress Miriam Margolyes has had a long associtation with Australia : her partner is a local and when not travelling the world to appear in films and stage plays, Miriam retreats to a magnificent property in the Southern Highlands of NSW.

Today she formerly became an Australian citizen and was presented with her citizenship certificate by prime minister Julia Gillard at a ceremony in Canberra. Miriam spoke about her long time Australian female partner and as an after thought announced to the assembled dignitaries :"if anyone doesn't know, I'm a dyke"

The Inspiration for Kevin Spacey's New Hair

The UK Daily Mail newspaper has run a story with some pictures of actor Kevin Spacey's gorgeous new hair which he premiered at the Australian Open yesterday in Melbourne.
 Kevin watched enthralled along with the nation as tennis greats Andy Murray and Roger Federer battled it out.

But as always the Shuttle is ahead of the others and today we present the man who inspired Kevin to banish those grey wisps and give his scalp a complete make-over : brother Randy Fowler who as our snap shows has one of the most magnificent manes seen around Las Vegas where he lives, shepherding folk around town in his luxury limo service and enthralling audiences with his Rod Stewart impersonations.
Sadly the two show-biz brothers are estranged and Randy once said to  Britain's Daily Mirror in an interview about Kevin : My brother is a lying weirdo !

Happy Australia Day ! (and a message from Russell Crowe)

In the interests of fairness : here is Russell Crowe's contribution to this holiday :

Earth to ABC News Radio

Right wing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is anything but 'fluid' and was most likely speaking form the Likud Party HQ rather than the 'Liquid Party' HQ today as reported on the ABC's 6.30 News Radio.

Just thought we we would mention it !

Dick Smith's " I Love Dick" Advert Banned !

Entrepreneur Dick Smith's latest TV advertisement has been banned. Here it is. His products are actually very good and worth those few cents more they cost.

Stage Heavyweights attend Awards

                                       The winners of the 2012 Sydney Theatre Awards have been announced with around 300 members of the Sydney theatre community attending the auditorium at Paddington RSL to cheer on their fellow thespians.
 International stage royalty presented awards including Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones and Barry Humphries.
Best Mainstage Production went to Belvoir Street's Medea while Best Actor in a Leading Role of a Mainstage Production was won by Josh McConville for Griffin’s The Boys.

Angela Lansbury

Lucy Durack

James Earl Jones & wife Cecilia Hart

 Caroline Brazier won Best Actress in a Leading Role in an Independent Production for I Want To Sleep With Tom Stoppard, while James Lugton won Best Actor in a Leading Role in an Independent Production for The Taming of the Shrew.
 South Pacific was awarded Best Production of a Musical, while Lucy Durack won the Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Legally Blonde, and Ben Lewis was awarded the Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Love Never Dies.


 Wacky Hairstyle of The Month

David Lynch.  New York Social Diary

Pictured : filmmaker David Lynch with his magnificent cockatoo parrot inspired thatch at a recent fundraiser in New York for the David Lynch Foundation. Fab!

Scooped Again

Several reports have appeared today on the ABC, in Fairfax Media, in Rupert Murdoch's Australian paper, on the Crikey website and distributed far and wide via AAP : Britain's Guardian Newspaper is to set up in Australia with an on-line newspaper publishing local content.

Graeme Wood

The project is a joint venture with Guardian Newspapers and multi-millionaire philanthropist Graeme Wood who has invested around $20M in his Global Mail digital news magazine.

Annabel Crabb

None of this is news of course for regular Social Shuttle readers who were brought this exact news on the 31st December last year.

The Oz Guardian is expected to employ up to 35 to produce local journalism and already leading ex- Fairfax writers- some who took a nicely padded redundancy package last year including Annabel Crabb and David Marr have been offered posts by the Guardian's deputy editor Katherine Viner.

Rose Shines at Premiere

Rose Byrnes who was in Los Angels last week for the G'Day USA events flew into Sydney yesterday to attend the world premiere of her new film I Give It A Year.

The movie, a romantic comedy looks at the trials and tribulations of a pair of newlyweds during their first year as a married couple. Directed by Dan Mazer, Rose stars with Anna Faris, Simon Baker, Rafe Spall and Minnie Driver.
While in town Rose will be completing some vocals on Hugh Jackman's production of X-Men, Days of Future Past in which she plays a world authority on human genetic mutation. Isn't our Rose talented?

Below is a trailer for her new flick:

Jack Vidgen Grows Up

Jack Vidgen at 16 has survived puberty and still has his voice and amazingly, can still hit those high notes. The then 14 year old whose success on Australia's Got Talent  was sealed with a kiss on the cheek from macho Irishman Brian McFadden is still capitalising on his win and has been working non-stop for the last 2 years,
He still has a little trouble with his hand movements though but he's well on the way to becoming an Oz version of Wayne Newton. Las Vegas beckons.

Here he is at the gala G'Day USA dinner in Los Angeles last week where he sang the Star Spangled Banner for an audience of top Aussies like Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Rose Byrne, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Paul Hogan, models Elle McPherson and Miranda Kerr , Hugh Jackman, our favourite Qantas pilot John Travolta.

Here's Jack singing in our exclusive video from the event :


 

Vale James Miller.
Popular publican and man about town James Miller has been found dead by friends from a suspected overdose at the young age of 38.
Miller owned some of Sydney's most popular inner-city pubs : The Norfolk in Surry Hills and The Santa Barbara in Kings Cross.
Handsome, outgoing and friendly, Miller was named last year in Fairfax Media's Sydney Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People.

A Former Murdoch's Hubby Is Arrested

Dramas in the household of the Earl of Dartmouth according to the the Daily Mail as his lordship is arrested on suspicion of assault following a domestic dispute.

 The Earl is the son of Raine Spencer who was the second wife of Earl Spencer, the father of Diana Princess of Wales.

Fiona  & Matt when she was a Handbury

He was arrested after his wife the Countess of Dartmouth telephoned police after he became 'disoriented' when he woke up with a start. M'lady says that nothing dramatic really happened. The Countess was formerly Fiona Handbury and married to Matt Handbury the son of Rupert Murdoch's late sister Helen Handbury. Matt inherited around $100M along with Murdoch Magazines although he has recently lost a considerable fortune through failed investments.

                                                        

The Handbury's lived in one of Sydney's most magnificent harbour-side mansions, Altona, currently on the market for around $54M. Fiona received Altona as apart of a divorce settlement and sold it for $29M before moving to the UK and joining the British aristocracy. Matt and Fiona hosted sensational parties at Altona where Matt would entertain fronting his own rock'n'roll band.

The Earl is an hereditary peer and a Member of the European Parliament for the UK Independence Party which amongst other polices wants to leave the EU, crack down on crime, defend Britain's borders and a host of other motherhood style things that you can read about here in their manifesto.

Raine                              Barbara                                Mohamed                           Diana                                   Teddy

** The Shuttle was once presented with a delightful Harrods Teddy Bear by Raine Spencer : she was a spruiker for Harrods and it's owner Mohamed Fayed, traveling the world and dispensing cuddly bears to needy journalists. Raine's mother was the charming pink enveloped Romance Novelist Dame Barbara Cartland.

What a complicated world we live in !

Our Spies on the Ellen DeGeneres show

Top Sydney based journos and style writers Melissa Hoyer (from News Ltd  & Foxtel) and Shelley Horton (right) from Fairfax Media have been posting tales and pics from their trip to Los Angeles for G'Day Australia week.
These snaps are from the Ellen show.
Nice work if you can get it !




Our girls in action:

Ellen Downunder

Ellen DeGeneres is bringing herself and 400 fans to Australia in March to film segments for her show.
She made the surprise announcement yesterday with guest Nicole Kidman (who did a good impression of a Kookaburra on the show ) ala Oprha Winfrey in 2011. Hopefully the visit will do more for Ellen than it did for Oprah whose O network ratings have been dismal since she graced our shores.

Our Jackie Does it Again !

She's one of our favourite actors and a friendly sight around Sydney. No airs or graces, down to earth and always happy for a chat :
 Jackie Weaver has done it again and been nominated for an Academy Award for her 'performance by an actress in a supporting role' in Silver Linings Playbook.
Jackie appears opposite heartthrob Bradley Cooper and the legendary Robert Di Niro. 

Hugh Jackman has been nominated for best actor in  "Les Misérables" and Naomi Watts as best actress in "The Impossible".