Plenty of Gold

Last year Whispers attended the Gold Ball held at the Darling Point home of Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond. One guest crashed to the floor perhaps overwhelmed by the lavishness of the Symond digs with it's sweeping harbour views.
Fortunately numerous doctors were on hand, as guests, and our patient quickly recovered to enjoy the evening. This year the Gold Ball which raises funds for the Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick- Nicole Kidman is a patron- packed in over 400 guests at the Royal Hall of Industries in Moore Park and we are happy to report not one ball goer swooned and a massive $1.6M was raised for the kids. Our snap (below) shows nightclub mogul Justin Hemmes with John Symond on the right and Symond's wife Amber. Amber & John were married earlier this year and it's the second time round for both- Amber was married to former prime minister Paul Keating's son Patrick Keating (yes we were at that wedding too as out exclusive snap above right shows).
On the subject of Prime Ministers and kids- Justin held a fundraiser on Saturday night for Malcolm Turnbull at his magnificent Vaucluse pile The Hermitage (pictured above) and a bunch of children turned up correctly dressed and waving bundles of cash asking to be admitted so they could grill the PM over environmental matters. Sadly they were rejected.

photograph by Belinda Rolland

Spotted..

Barry Humphries and wife Lizzie Spender were spotted celebrating Lizzie's birthday at Billy Kwongs in Potts Point this week. Joining the celebrations was film director Bruce Beresford who directed Barry in the Barry McKenzie films. Lizzie is 66 and is the daughter of the late famed poet Stephen Spender and his musician wife Natasha.

Women of Achievement

The Black and White Committee has been established for over sixty years now and is made up of a team of hard working ladies who organise several fund raising functions each year. 
Uniquely every single penny raised goes to aid Children’s Services Development Fund of Vision Australia. The Women of Achievement annual lunch was held this year at the Four Seasons Hotel near Circular Quay with over 440 guests who turned up to listen to this year's speakers : actress Marta Dusseldorp, SBS broadcaster Jenny Brockie and the president of the Human Rights Commission Professor Gillian Triggs pictured here in our snap.
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 I Got You Babe
Pictured left is the Black and White Committee's publicist Angela Belle McSweeney. Angela is the mum of Juliet Love who is married to horticultural expert Charlie Albone who is often seen on Foxtel cable TV shows. 
Charlie picked up yet another award at this year's Chelsea Garden Show where he is becoming a fixture. It was at Charlie's garden exhibit attended by Juliet and her mother Angela and Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge that the entire world got to hear that Kate's name for William is 'Babe' when the pair were admiring Charlie's peonies display. 
Isn't that fun ! 



below: Charlie Albone & Juliet Love   William & Kate

Whispers can also be read in the print copies of LatteLife Newspapers distributed in the city of Sydney, Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and the Southern Highlands of NSW.

Farewell to Kerrie

 It was to be artist Kerrie Lester's last exhibition and the night also would have been her 64th birthday. Lester passed away earlier this year after a battle with cancer. Around 200 pals gathered in the Australian Gallery to toast & farwell Lester and by the look of the red dots that appeared, Kerrie's last show is a sellout. Folk historian Warren Fahey gave a talk about his good pal including his first meeting with Lester- he arrived at her house to find her with a large joint in her mouth and mowing the lawn.  Kerrie Lester's work is included in major corporate collections as well as the National Portrait Gallery and she was a favourite Archibald entrant once winning the Packer's Prize, Lester died from Leukemia at the age of 63.

GoggleBox stars Mick & Di                    Professor Ross Steele                      Martin & Michelle Walsh

Warren Fahey & Stuart Purves                                         V itek Czernuszyn & Deborah Thomas          

Taki's Take

It's been nearly ten years since Whisper's attended the Cannes Film Festival. We may be there next year for a film project we have been working on for years. We met Taki Theodoracopulos many moons ago in London at the launch of a book he contributed to : High Life, Low Life by Jeffrey Barnard. Barnard wrote a column in The Spectator titled Low Life while Taki wrote one called High Life. They were complete opposites. Taki is so far to the Right he makes Margaret Thatcher look like a Girl Scout. Here is Taki's take on Cannes. It's hard to fault him. Click here.

Vivid Sydney

Whispers ventured out on a chilly night with our Box Brownie to check out the cities colourful Vivd Sydney festival.

Naked Justin Bieber

Well OK Justin Bieber is not quite naked, just wearing his Calvin Kleins in his latest Instagram photo.

 But hey, if we put the words nude-justin-beiber together we get 1000s of new views per day so that's as good a reason as any to run another gratuitous snap of The Bieber.

Oh yeh- and he's clutching his crutch.

New York Letter #44

Paris Hilton at the Designer of The Year awards..and with brother Barron & Nicky Rothschild

 Some snaps from Whisper's resident New York City spy the ubiquitous social snapper Patrick McMullan. 
It's just a hint of the Big Apple's social scene and golly, there isn't a newsreader or footballer to be spotted.
left : Richard Gere at the Carnegie Hall 125th Anniversary dinner 
right : Henry Kissinger at the Carnegie Hall dinner

Donald Trump's ex Ivana Trump with Karl Wellner & Larry Kaiser at the Designer of the Year awards

singer Neil Sedaka (you remember him: mega hits) & wife Leba at the Designer of The Year wards.

Meanwhile Downtown at the Lucky Bee Restaurant in Soho owned by Aussies Rupert Noffs & Matty Bee, writer Sir Salman Rushdie paid a visit for dinner- pictured here with Noffs

More

Fashion Week foibles

 The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week is underway in Sydney. Whispers will have a full report at the end of the week after the conclusion but here is snap of model Bella Hadid posing with a Whisper's discovery : Cheyenne Tozzi on Sydney Harbour. Apparently Bella changed her hotel room which has sent a few journalists into a frenzy. It doesn't take much to excite some people in this town !

Openings

 Isabella Blow : A Fashionable Life opens on Saturday at the Powerhouse Museum and we a were lucky enough to attend a preview launch. The exhibition was opened by the extraordinary fashion figure Daphne Guinness shown here in our snap chatting to Neale Whittaker of The Block reality TV show. Guinness owns the Isabella Blow collection which has outfits from Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy, Hussein Chalayan, Julien Macdonald and more. The private collection of late fashion visionary Isabella Blow will be on display for a strictly limited exclusive season at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

English stylist, editor and muse Isabella Blow championed British fashion, nurturing the careers of many designers in the 1990s and beyond. Isabella Blow: A Fashionable Life provides a rare chance to see over 45 of her outfits comprising clothing, hats, shoes and jewellery from more than 20 of the world’s top fashion designers, photographs from key fashion photographers and hats from Philip Treacy’s personal

Wintour Blues

She's the Queen of the fashion world but many are criticizing Anna Wintour and US Vogue

magazine for proclaiming that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were the Best Dressed at Wintour's increasingly down-market annual Met Gala ball in New York.
Says Vogue: "It’s not the first time that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have coordinated their style. You might say it’s an art form that the pair has honed in their downtime, often subtly matching their off-duty looks with his-and-hers monochromatic ensembles, but little can compare to the stunning fashion moment they orchestrated on the Met Gala red carpet tonight" 
Oh yeah? Kim managed to make this ultra expensive Balmain dress look, well cheap. As for Kanye's Fear of God outfit- those tragic slashed jeans were passe even when they were in fashion.

Purveyor of uber smart Polish Vodka Vitek Czernuszyn who doubles up as the husband of Australian style queen and Bauer publishing maven, Australian Women's Weekly editor Deborah Thomas says : "Kim and Kanye declared best dressed at the Met Ball - REALLY?

In a desperate panic at the loss of circulation and relevance amongst the under 30 year olds, American Vogue has resorted to courting the Kardashian's for their enormous following amongst the vacuous young. I guess you can't blame them for doing what they think is necessary to save the venerated 125 year old title- though the compromise in their integrity is considerable".
 Harsher words come from former Australian fashion expert and now top selling author Maggie Alderson who said of Kim'n'Kayne "American Vogue has just lost all its credibility, as far as I'm concerned. How is this well dressed anywhere? Let alone the Met Ball. Tragic - and craven." Ouch.
As for Sarah Jessica Parker's interesting white outfit Maggie simply said : "lost for words".

Anna-Marÿke - new exhibition

 The Yellow House in Macleay Street, started by the late artist Martin Sharp in the 1960s is still going strong. (I think Whispers was there at the opening night party..our father supplied the yellow paint). The latest exhibition is of some fab photos by  Anna-Marÿke and is well worth seeing. The exhibition was opened by one time Sydney style meister Leo Schofield- pictured here with fellow Southern Highland's resident Glen-Marie Frost. We'll let the gallery blurb speak for itself but do get along there.

"Riding on a painting tradition that stretches back to the ancient Egyptians, and, arguably, reaching its summit with the Dutch and  Spanish Masters in the 17th century, Anna-Marÿke celebrates life in nature through the contemporary medium of analogue photography.
Meticulously setting up still life compositions of flowers and produce gathered primarily from her garden in the Southern Highlands, she also includes found objects, birds, insects, fur and animals that finally culminate in complex tableaux."
 Yellow House 57 — 59 Macleay Street, Potts Point NSW 2011 Tel – 0412 856 731
info@yellowhousesydney.com.au Monday to Saturday 10am — 6pm

Everything old is New Again

 It's the title of a Peter Allen song where he refers to fashions being recycled over the decades. But it could apply to the current controversy over the felling of the magnificent Moreton Bay fig trees along Anzac Parade that have survived for 100 years but are now falling to development. The above historic 1914 snap shows Aussie troops marching on the way to Circular Quay to board ships bound

for Gallipoli with the figs in the background and to the left is a Sydney tram.                                                                     
Sydney once had the most extensive tram system in the world. One of the joys of visiting Melbourne is to travel on their superb tram system. It's modern, smooth and gets you everywhere that's worth going to.. But for some reason in the 1960s the burghers of Sydney decided to ditch the trams.
Now they are coming back and that is the reason the Moreton Bay figs pictured above where they remained, grew and prospered for over 100 years are to be felled to make way for tram lines. This has brought the fury of 1000s of inner city residents of all stripes- the well heeled of the Eastern Suburbs and the young alike. Prayers and candles are lit as they line up to watch the trees topple. Tears are shed and occasionally a celebrity like TV presenter James Mathison gets carted off by the Sydney wallopers (police). On a happier note : here is Peter at Radio City Hall in New York with The Rockettes singing his song. We received an invite to attend the latest tree funeral today. And we were there at Peter's concert all those years ago.

The Yartz Party

 The Federal Election is almost upon us and while arguably the most artistically inclined
prime minister Malcolm Turnbull will be fighting for his political life a new party has been launched and is hoping to pick up one million votes.
The Arts Party "exists to encourage a more creative, cultural, educated and prosperous life for every Australian.". The first candidate will be Lou Pollard who will be standing for the North Sydney seat.
And the party is now crowd-funding to raise money for the coming election. You can read more or join the party at their official website here.
And there are some real heavy weight show biz names already spruiking for the campaign including Bryan Brown, Geraldine Turner and Lex Marinos. The only thing missing is a word from Australia's Cultural Attache to the Court of St James Sir Les Patterson.

Picture Post # 43

An occasional series:

Our exclusive photograph of Dame Edna Everage from the set of the new Absolutely Fabulous film in which she has starring role. More than that we are not at liberty to reveal.

Pomp & Ceremony : This is how the French honoured the Australian Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove when they arrived in Paris to commemorate Anzac Day on April 25th.

A replica of the Palmyra Arch – a 2,000-year-old Syrian architectural landmark believed to have been destroyed by Islamic militant group ISIS – has been erected in London's Trafalgar Square. The loonier sections of the so-called 'truther' movement on the internet claim is it a portal to allow Beelzebub to enter the Earth and take command. All we got was London mayor Boris Johnson.

Nicholas has designs on Miami

Nicholas Huxley began studying at the Fashion Design school at East Sydney College in 1973, before working for a number of prominent fashion houses in Australia, He became head teacher of the Fashion Design Studio in 1990, a post he still holds. 

Now he has been commissioned  to set up a fashion design school at the Miami Dade College in the US and it's hard to think of a better choice. Almost every successful name in the Australian fashion scene has studied under Huxley . He's been nominated for numerous awards including  an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Costume Design for the film Sons of Steel and has been
asked to be a part of the annual Jeans for Genes art auction for five consecutive years. Nicholas has won two Fashion Industry of Australia awards and was nominated three times for the NSW Government Fashion Laureate in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
But for the next nine months Huxley will be living in Miami helping bring fashion to that great city. In the meantime he's busy furnishing his new apartment nearby the campus. So that's another Aussie taking over the world ! 
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 Exclusive on the 60 Minutes Beirut Kidnap Plot

While 60 Mins presenter Tara Brown and her film crew were sipping champagne in First Class on a flight back to Sydney today, one of those involved in the matter remained in jail He is Adam Whitington an ex-UK policeman and  head of the Child Abduction Recovery agency. No being whisked through Sydney Airport by Nine's top PR Victoria Buchan for Whitington.

Gatto                           Obeid                       Depp & Heard

All manner of characters seem to be coming out of the woodwork including former NSW MP Eddie Obeid (we reported on how his 6'4" drag queen nephew was intending to turn up to court in support of his Lebanese born uncle when he was under ICAC scrutiny) and now Melbourne "underground" figure Mick Gatto has claimed he was asked to help negotiate the 60 minutes crew's release. Quite how Gatto, the boss of a building scaffolding firm could assist is a mystery although completely unnoticed by the Oz media, Gatto supplied the security for Johnny Depp and Amanda Heard when they arrived and left a Southport court for the great Boo & Pistol Scandal. 
 
But a blogger who goes by the name of Anna Raccoon (she is a retired British lawyer) has come up with some new info on Whittington who was involved in the mysterious Madeleine McCann affair. 
Read Anna Raccoon's article here 

She's back !

Reines & Mail stablemate Katie Hopkins

Six months after being unceremoniously dumped by the Sunday Telegraph, Ros Reines, billed as the "columnist they can't silence" has resurfaced as a writer for the Australian edition of the MailOnline (as we predicted).

The Mail seems to specialize in picking up dumped News Ltd columnists after they also employed Katie Hopkins who proved even too inflammatory for the downmarket Sun newspaper.




In an almost perfect Private Eye magazine "Glenda Slagg" moment Reines has been defending the Nine Network's bizarre decision to kidnap children from a Beirut Street while side by side was the alternative view by Mail writer Corrine Barraclough.
Meanwhile the 60 Minutes crew languish in Beirut jails which are not exactly 5 star establishments. Why did any of the crew including presenter Tara Brown accept an assignment that included breaking Lebanese laws?. Even if they had been successful the ramifications would have caused an even worse diplomatic incident than the present one. And as Fairfax foreign editor Maher Mughrabi explains, securing the release of the 60 Minutes crew may be a lot more complicated than people believe.

Out & about with Fergie

Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York is in town visiting relatives and attending a few events. Here she is at a charity bash for the much loved St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst. Pouring a tipple for Sarah is Lisa McGuigan who now oversees the family wine business McGuigan Wines. Whispers has been consuming McGuigan wines for a long time now. Founder Brian McGuigan hosted some pretty swell lunches & dinners  over the years. If you haven't tried these wines they really are possibly the best Australia has to offer which is saying something. Check them out here. The Duchess looks pretty happy to be served a glass as well.
We once encountered the Duchess at a Foxtel event where the 100,000 subscriber was being signed up in the beach side suburb of Clovelly. Sarah was in a fox-hole in the street surrounded by electrical equipment and about to plug the new subscriber to the service, as the media looked on. Suddenly a window was flung open in a block of flats opposite and an elderly lady yelled "what the hell is all that racket down there ?". PR persons rushed over to calm her down & informered her that the Duchess of York was about to do something very important.
" I don't care if the bloody Queen of England is there, put a cork in it !" was the pensioner's response.
It's never dull in Sydney.