Key appointment

Jenny Key, the Chinese/Italian designer and artist who says she "turned former Beatle John Lennon onto Asian chicks'  has a painting exhibition opening at the Hat Hill Gallery in her home town of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains on Saturday 24th October.

Key's exhibition Heart of the Waratah is about, yes, waratahs. Those kitsch bright red flowers that crop up in their dozens right after bush fires which the Blue Mountains are prone to.

Jenny says she has no idea when the film in which actress Nin Liu will play her-Hippy Hippy Shake , will finally appear although the production office says the flick has been completed and it is to be released in 2010.

Based on the book by 'futurist' Richard Neville of Oz Magazine fame. it's a tale of  London in the swinging 60's . Cillian Murphy plays Neville-once described fairly accurately as the "Joyce Grenfell of the Blue Mountain' (he lives there as well) while Sienna Miller plays Neville's girlfriend Louise Ferrier with Emma Booth given the difficult job of portraying Germaine Greer in the movie.

Neville was famously hauled into court on obscenity charges over an Oz Magazine edition put together by school kids which featured Rupert Bear in pornographic poses. Briefly jailed, he and co-defendants Jim Anderson and millionaire publisher Felix Dennis were released when they won an appeal despite a pompous judge remonstrating with witnesses including the famous lateral thinker Edward de Bono described as a "strange dark-hued man from Malta who gave us his theories on an alternative style of thought"

Greer has refused to have anything to do with the movie saying ; "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modeling a new version of you out of their own excreta." Her advice to Emma Booth who wanted to meet her which Greer refused to do :"get an honest job !"

 Neville also has some predictions for the future including : newborns and 100 year olds could have children : "viro-meat"-actual meat will be produced without the use of animals : robots will make financial, health, educational and political decisions for us : the fashion industry will bring us colour changing and perfume emitting jeans.

Maybe he knows what he's talking about. As an advertising executive he once wrote jingles for toilet tissues.

Emma Booth who will play Germaine Greer. 

                                                                            de Bono of Malta
 

Handling Edna

Barry Humphries speaks on the ABC 's 7-30 Report about his forthcoming unauthorised biography of Dame Edna Everage titled "Handling Edna" (she's threatened to sue) :

"Well, of course, she didn't try very hard to stay in touch with her suburban roots. She used to say quite early on her career, "The secret of my success is that I've put my family last." And she would recommend that to everybody. If you put your family first, they'll never thank you. Which is probably why Edna's family is rather spectacularly dysfunctional.

KERRY O'BRIEN: How do you compare 1955 Edna with the Dame Edna of today?

BARRY HUMPHRIES: There's a total difference. In those days, Edna was, well, a frump. She looked - she stood at her kitchen sink, like so many other women in 1955, wrist deep in grey water, peas and mutton fat floating thereon. She looked out through cracked venetian blinds at a dismal backyard littered with broken plastic toys. "Is this all there is?" she might have said to herself. So, because she was appearing in a passion play in Moonee Ponds, playing the role of Mary Magdalene, she wrote to me, according to this book and the postcard. I wish I could show you the postcard, but it's disappeared. She wanted my advice. Now, I was a very inexperienced actor. I'd barely done more than Edna in the theatrical field, but I'd had a bit of publicity. So she wrote to me and this partnership began.

do not judge...

"Exercise judgement no matter what harm it will do..." was broadcaster Alan Jones perplexing opening statement as he launched ex-cop Roger "Dodger" Rogerson's autobiography at the former gangster drinking hole, the Iron Duke pub.

Exercising judgement hasn't really been a Jones trait over the years. Like the infamous
"cash for comments scandal" when it was discovered he was receiving millions of dollars in secret payments to weave product mentions into his daily broadcast show.

And when a batch of correspondence was released between he and fragrant monarchist David Flint (left), who as head of the government broadcasting authority ABA was investigating the brouhaha. They sounded for all the world like love letters and led to Flint's resignation.

He avoided judgement when charges were dropped after his arrest for impropriety in a Piccadilly Circus toilet in London, with the aid of a friend, the novelist Jeffrey Archer

He did exercise judgement of a type when as a tutor at the very expensive private boarding school Kings. Former pupils recalled in the Chris Master's biography 'Jonestown' , of Alan's fierce temper as he would fling solid wood blackboard dusters at a young lads head with a deadly accurate aim. Other say they were so terrified of attending his classes that they would wet themselves in fear.

But good judgement appeared to be lacking when at the King's year's end school concert , the then slim Jones burst on to stage in purple bell-bottoms and belted out "If I ruled the World" ( from the West End musical Pickwick Papers ) in falsetto to a startled audience, stunned into silence when they realised he was for real.

With better judgement he might give up those troubling matching ties and handkerchiefs or those pink shirts and pullovers that accentuate his pink complexion.

As for the Dodger- he just looked unsteady on his legs. A much smaller man than expected for someone who shot 3 men dead and was renowned as a 'gang buster" (while apparently working with them at the same time) was implicated but cleared in the attempted assassination of honest cop Michael Drury who refused to take bribes.

Most of those in attendance at the book launch, assorted lawyers and former cops and some very hard looking men had kind words for Rogerson. Just don't mention his name to anyone currently serving in the police force.

As he downed another beer Roger said "most people think I'm the most evil man in town". He wobbled slightly, gripped the bar and looked rather frail.

Australia's Taliban supporter

Poor Piers Akerman-he's never been quite the same since his beloved former PM John Howard went down in a screaming heap in late 2007 and lost his own parliamentary seat as Kevin Rudd took the helm and has maintained approval rates of around 70%.

That's despite News Ltd tabloids linking Rudd to everything from New York strip clubs, dodged up emails and the famous lunch he attended with the West Australian lobbyist Brian Burke (once jailed) who former PM Paul Keating dubbed the "Arthur Daley of WA politics". Each attempt has backfired badly.

Now the News Ltd journalist has announced he's a terrorist supporter in this piece "Why I am with Hamas and the Taliban".

Piers has got into a tizz because Barack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize.

He reflects his News Corp confederate in the USA on Fox News, the pill-popping gas bag Rush Limbaugh who similarly announced
"We all agree with the Taliban and Iran"

Piers (c) the Shuttle

One day R.Murdoch is going to ask you to pay for this stuff !.

getting it wrong again..

The increasingly tiresome 20 to 1 gets it wrong again.

Hosted by the amiable Bert 'Moonface' Newton, the show that has a bunch of minor celebrities commenting on other celebrities, including this character who claims he is "king of the UK paparazzi', Darryn Lyons whose rainbow coloured hair still doesn't detract from his pudding shaped face.

Lyons made a gaffe to rival the dud TV show he fronted in Australia and his autobiography that was launched in a blaze of publicity and was soon forgotten.

Moonface Bert above pudding faced Darryn (right)

Guffawing that Bond girl Caroline Cossey was exposed as the "first sex change " to appear in a film (For Your Eyes Only) in 1981, Lyons ignores the fact that one of the most famous cases of gender reassignment surgery, April Ashley appeared in The Road to Hong Kong with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby 2 decades before.

The story appeared in Duncan Fallowell's 1982 biography of Ashley, April Ashley's Odyssey.

April's auto-biography The First Lady (published by the distinguished John Blake) had to be pulped when it was discovered to be a re-hash of Fallowell's book. Ashley had claimed affairs with Michael Hutchence, Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif amongst other notables although most denied it .

April should have taken Shelley Winter's advice to a gal pal who needed more lovers to spice up her book when Shelly advised.."if they're gay or dead just say they were lovers and they'll never deny it". At least she was right in Hutchence's case.

# Lyon's Big Picture agency and others like Splash could be badly affected by the new law signed in California today by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that will severely restrict the intrusive actions of the "stalkarazzi' as they are known. The law will put the onus on photographers agencies and publishers of material equally with large fines making them all liable to law suits from aggrieved celebs who claim their privacy has been breached. Which isn't often in Hollywood where the norm is to have your publicist phone ahead to alert the media when one is out on a private shopping excursion.But it does give stars even more control over their public image.

Most LA agencies only have themselves to blame. For the last 10 years they have been loading up unemployed immigrants with cameras, sending them out into the streets en masse to surround a star's house or car to cause havoc. Payment for any resultant photograph is filtered down to the increasingly desperate snappers. Something had to give.

Liza with a No !

It was a simple question that received a frosty answer-"no"and signalled the end of the subject.

Had Liza Minnelli seen The Boy From Oz on Broadway ?. The show in which Hugh Jackman won a Tony Award for playing Liza's first husband, singer and composer Peter Allen.

Liza Minelli was at the Sydney Opera House today for a press conference about her up-coming appearance there in the Concert Hall where she will re-produce her own Tony Award winning show Liza's At The Palace.

However she was happy to chat about her good pal, the late Michael Jackson who she said had been used by others his entire life . "He knew how to relax around me, we always had fun"says Liza "but everyone just used poor Michael who was the greatest entertainer in the world".

Still bubbly, cute and effervescent at 63, or an "old broad"as she calls herself, Liza's a miracle of surgery in every way and has survived as many life threatening illnesses as Liz Taylor.

She reckons Australia is like a second home (they all say that) and singing at the Opera House has been a dream ever since she saw it's building progressing from her first visit in the 1960's with mum Judy Garland. Liza is Hollywood royalty with both her mother and father Vincent Minnelli winning Oscars as has Liza-the only family to do so.

"Being brought up in Hollywood was like being in a coal town" says Liza."Everyone got up at 5am, went to work, came home and went to bed by 10pm. But I loved it". She wouldn't be drawn on who her favourite entertainers are. "I know then all" says Liza, "how could I single out one?"

Liza's tour begins this Friday at the Opera House and goes interstate from the 21st. Promoter Michael Chugg says tickets are selling well-which is promoter speak for saying there are plenty still available at tickertek.

Ian's troubles...

He's one person the Shuttle admires more than many-the  6'3" former rugby league star turned actor, Ian Roberts.

They don't come much nicer than Roberts or with as much integrity. The sort of chap the term 'rough diamond' was invented for.

Currently studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art  ( NIDA), the alma marter of the likes of Mel Gibson, Simon Baker, Judy Davis, Baz Luhrmann and Toni Collette, amongst a host of artists who have achieved international success, Robert's has already scored roles in Superman Returns , Little Fish with Cate Blanchett and the hit series about mobsters , Underbelly, A Tale of Two Cities. Some say it's harder to get into NIDA than the Britain's equivalent RADA.

Roberts, born in London, England and brought up in Australia became the star footballer for the
Manly rugby team and was renowned on the field as one tough guy.

In 1995 Roberts outed himself as gay, the first footballer to do so, and revealed football's worst kept secret. For years Ian had put up with homophobic taunts from opposing visitors at the football field although none would be foolish or brave enough to confront the brick-built Ian personally.
Rather than the expected backlash from the macho footie world, he received overwhelming support from colleagues.

Now he faces torment as he attends the inquest of the 17 year old Aaron Light, reported missing in 1997 whose body was found in a shallow grave alongside the inner city Alexandria Canal.

Light had been working as a male hustler at the infamous Wall in Darlinghurst. The Wall forms part of the convict built former jail that now serves as an art and fashion school. During the 80's and 90's it achieved a notorious reputation as a hustling ground for underaged prostitutes.

Roberts had befriended Light and was attempting to turn the young lad's life around as a mentor when he suddenly disappeared. Investigators have spoken to Roberts and have never had doubts of his intentions. In 2005 he told of the relationship with the murdered boy in the award-winning ABC's Australian Story.

But after a 2 year delay into Light's death, for Roberts the drama has become intolerable.

Yesterday at Light's inquest Roberts lashed out at an 81 year old man named as "person of interest' in the murder of the boy and had to be restrained by police.

Howling at the Moon

Yoko unravels


Britain's most irreverent blogger Madame Arcati brings news of a missive that arrives from Yoko Ono in her endless quest to make a million $$ from, I mean preserve the memory of former Beatle John Lennon.

Ono has purchased a plot of land on the Moon to honour Lennon named the '"Peace Crater". At $34.25 an acre from some firm called the Lunar Republic Society, Lennon's plot isn't in the smartest area-unusual for Yoko. It's in the Lake of Dreams and any budding realtor knows the Sea of Tranquility is far grander.

The Shuttle's going to pass on the generous offers for Moon plots-even at the lower end of the scale and the budget bargain price of $18.95 an acre in the appropriately named Sea of Vapours.

Travelling to visit your new dream holiday home will always be the problem-even if Sir Richard Branson ever gets those Virgin moon flights up. The Social Shuttle visited a Russian Moon Shuttle positioned in Darling Harbour during the 2000 Sydney Olympics and we weren't impressed.

Apart from being greeted at the bottom of the stairs by Mikhail Gorbochev who has a bone mangling hand-shake, the Moon Shuttle is quite frightening. They look wonderfully shiny and slick from the outside but when you enter you are confronted by a sea of dangling wires, old batteries , weird instruments and contraptions bound up with gaffer tape.

                                                  do not shake hands with this man !

Why are we not surprised that Tom Cruise has a Moon plot and one is soon to be dedicated to
Michael Jackson ?.
You can also get a Moon citizenship and a passport but be warned-the The Lunar Embassy's Canadian franchisee, a fugitive wanted on fraud charges has just been arrested outside a Las Vegas casino.

following in mum's footsteps

Lady Mary Fairfax AC OBE

When the rather splendid Bondi Beach hotel Ravesi- favored base away from home for actors like Keanu Reeves and Terrence Stamp, opened it's new cocktail bar on Thursday night, most eyes seemed to be on the Cockney accented fashion designer Wayne Cooper and his wife Sarah Marsh.

It's less than a year since Cooper was placed on a good behaviour bond in Waverley Court over an incident between he and his then estranged wife Sarah. On Thursday they couldn't have looked happier.or healthier.

Also beaming with good health was actor Steve Bisley and his current partner Amanda Imrie . Bisley will appear in front of a magistrate at the Downing Centre court in December over an alleged fracas between he and estranged wife, publicist Sally Burleigh at their former marital home in Balmain. Sally was last spotted at the Variety Club bash a week ago.

Sarah Marsh & Wayne Cooper at Ravesi's Wine Bar (C)

Ignored by most and dining quietly in a corner were another couple who are enjoying marital bliss with the birth of the third child , David and Anna Cleary.

Anna is the only daughter of Lady Mary Fairfax and heiress to the Fairfax publishing fortune. Like her mother, Anna has become a tireless charity worker and financier husband David told the Shuttle of Anna's plans to bring the all important organizations that deal with the increasing and serious problem of mental health and depression, under one banner. There are already excellent charities like the Black Dog Institute and Beyond Blue, one headed by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennet which are working away to bring public awareness of depression which is reaching alarming proportions which Anna feels will benefit from greater co-operation.

Fortunately many sporting stars who suffer are now speaking out publicly in attempts to dispel the idea of shame that was once associated with what is, a frequent illness.

Like her mother Lady Mary, Anna likes to take a low key role behind the scenes and put her university education and organizing skills to good use for the benefit of others.

David tells me Lady Mary, now 83 and sadly confined to a wheel chair, is still in good form and in chatty moods, eager to hear the latest as the Fairfax clan meet for lunch on Sundays at the family home Fairwater.

Lady Mary received the ultimate accolade recently when she was featured on the nation's stamps and it's reputed she has given over $15M to charities just in the past 5 years.

It's seems Anna has adopted her mother's motto ; “Touch every life with good.”

Sally Burleigh (right) with broadcaster Chris Smith and his wife at the Variety Club (c)

Sydney reverts to type...

broadcaster Alan Jones 


 As Australia, (and Sydney in particular ) is declared the 2nd most desirable place in the world to live according to a UN study, the Emerald City has always had an underbelly that rivals Chicago in the heyday of Al Capone.

Beginning from it's early days as a convict settlement and the infamous Rum Corp Rebellion in 1808 when a military junta overthrew the oppressive Governor Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame), most Australians seem to have an inbuilt mis-trust of authority. In what other country would a criminal bush-ranger like Ned Kelly be a national hero or the national song ,Waltzing Matilda-a tale of an sheep stealing itinerant, be so celebrated ?.

News reaches us that the auto-biography of corrupt ex-cop Roger Rogerson is to be launched by the country's top radio host Alan Jones. Can it be true ?. We'll know by next Wednesday when the tome is released.

Cast one's mind back to the late 90's when a Royal Commission found police corruption so entrenched in NSW that a complete outsider was commissioned to clean-up the state police. Commander Peter Ryan was imported from Britain. Ryan was boss at the Hendon Police College in the UK and was the sort of copper one wishes to see walk the streets.

Honest, intelligent and with complete integrity in the process of law. Ryan succeeded and NSW is far the better because of his efforts with a young, energized, intelligent and largely efficient police force.

But Ryan was driven from office by fierce media critics by 2002. He now heads security for the IOC. You can be sure you will always be safe at the Olympic Games with Peter Ryan at the helm.

One of Peter Ryan's fiercest critics was broadcaster Alan Jones. Ryan's wife Adrienne went public with the puzzled question..just why was Jones such a fierce critic ?. She never got an answer.

The Shuttle met and formed a brief friendship with Adrienne. We all had something in common. Peter Ryan and his future wife Adrienne had met as young Met officers when they were called to the horrendous Harrods IRA bombing in 1983. We all reminisced over the incident at the Police Museum at the launch of a book by best-selling author Tara Moss.

The Shuttle was walking across Hyde Park at the time to meet a journalist friend who was killed in the bombing. His body blasted from the street to the roof of Harrods.

One of the guests supposedly lined up for the Rogerson book launch is the ex-criminal-now 'media personality' Mark 'Chopper 'Reid who has claimed to have been involved in around 17 murders , amongst other crimes, and whose life was featured in the film Chopper which launched actor Eric Bana into international stardom.

Chopper Reid and Roger Rogerson have toured a stage show and Reid has become a successful author.

But again, cast your minds back to the 1990's Mid-Day TV show fronted by the perennial Kerri-Anne Kennerley, still the current reigning chat-show host. Chopper Reid was a guest along with Alan Jones who castigated the promotion of guests like Reid. Chopper  retorted "well at least I've never been arrested in a toilet "!.

It was a reference to Jones' arrest in a gentlemen's convenience in 1988 in London's Piccadilly Circus when Jones was initially charged with two counts of outraging public decency over a  misunderstanding between he and a policeman. Jones, staying at the nearby Ritz Hotel said an urgent 'call of nature' had led him to the toilet. Friends like the then respectable Lord Jeffrey Archer rallied around and the charges were dropped. It was all a terrible misunderstanding.

Readers may recall the best selling biography about Jones-'Jonestown' by the award winning journalist Chris Masters , claimed Alan had shielded his homosexuality throughout his career and pondered on the amazing skill of Jones to wield such extraordinary power for decades where politicians and others would be crucified if they refused to appear on his radio show. Although the book damaged Jones' reputation for awhile, and Jones has recently recovered from unfortunate bouts of cancer, he still rules the airwaves as the premier broadcaster. and part-owner of the 2GB network.

Will some of Jones' fiercest critics, the openly gay writer David Marr and recent addition to the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Mike Carlton  turn up to the Rogerson launch ?. We shall see.

Now the Shuttle has uncovered another brewing scandal that seems to be overwhelming the NSW police as they struggle with organized crime which has reached epidemic proportions in the state.

As politicians bring in unworkable laws in an attempt to nip in the bud the thugish groups generally referred to as 'bikie gangs' which in reality are highly organized Mafia style associations that reap millions of dollars a year in criminal enterprises, yet fail to empower police with necessary funds for crime prevention, the Shuttle has uncovered at least 2 illegal operations underway in inner city suburbs where social clubs-a bridge club and another, have been infiltrated by gangsters intent upon driving out innocent club members by all means fair and foul in order to set up seemingly innocuous meeting grounds for gang members ahead of laws that will outlaw gang headquarters.

 Talk about the Bada Bing and the Sopranos !

when media moguls collide..

                               Sam Chisholm                                                 David Leckie
 

Days out from the launch of Paul Barry's James Packer biography comes news of a  confrontation at the Opera House's Bennelong Restaurant at a party to  celebrate the career of 5'2" powerhouse and former Channel Nine boss and Packer associate Sam Chisholm.

As David Leckie-the man who is credited with bringing the Channel Seven network to the fore on behalf of billionaire owner Kerry Stokes  (and rewarded with yearly $10M bonuses)-approached the son of his former boss Kerry Packer , James rounded on Leckie and told him to "f**k off' in front of startled on-lookers and then invited Leckie outside to "sort this out".

James Packer is apparently furious over Channel 7's coverage of his business affairs. Leckie, who once worked for Packer and who has not long recovered from an unfortunate incident where a car door slammed on his finger which turned septic and became a life and death emergency, remained calm.

As the 2  6'2" media moguls stood nose to nose, tiny Sam, known as Little Rambo in board rooms and worth over $100M calmly reached for another drink.

how to lose a billion $$ or 2

Packer and ex-model Erika Baxter marry in France.(c)

Paul Barry's Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? The James Packer Story is about to hit the shelves and is eagerly awaited by those who are looking for an insight into whether the 'third generation' syndrome-where the grandson of self-made successful men can dilute the fortunes built up over decades and handed down through a family has come into play.

James Packer is son of the late media mogul Kerry Packer who transformed his father Sir Frank Packer's  one newspaper into Australia's dominant media company with TV stations and a magazine publishing empire.

It's reputed that James has lost two billion dollars on his Machau casino venture. Young James, it's claimed, ignored advice from various advisors to take note of Chinese superstitions about Feng Shui or indeed , taking on the Chinese at their own game and in a location where they dominate. He built on the "wrong" side of a river , is one claim,and was hoping to reap in a fortune at the gaming tables via sponsored gaming tours from the Chinese mainland.

This was complicated when the Chinese government began a crackdown on civil servants who were popping over to Machau and losing small fortunes of government funds at the roulette tables.

James Packer has divested himself of all his father's media assets including the once successful Nine TV network and Kerry's personal favourite that the Packer fortune was built upon-the Women's Weekly-once the biggest selling magazine in the world and still with a healthy circulation. In 2005 when the Shuttle attended the grand soiree thrown by big Kerry at his Nine studios to celebrate 50 years of the Weekly's publication, James was absent.

Insiders say unlike his father, known for his legendary grilling of business owners when about to purchase a corporation, James seems to rely on the advice of  investment bankers which can complicate a decision if a sale involves large fees from negotiations. They say his desire to outdo his father is so driven that he makes quick decisions that have seen him now reduced to the 4th richest Australian while Kerry was always number one.

Kerry Packer was regarded as a tough operator but always fair and was a low-key philanthropist who would think nothing of donating a few million dollars to purchase a fleet of ambulances outfitted with cardiac arrest units after a nearly fatal heart attack in 1990's. There are still dozens of older Packer employees who still live on generous pensions from Kerry long after they left his employment. Loyalty was the older Packer's trademark.

Father Kerry apparently despaired when James joined Scientology upon advice from his good pal, actor Tom Cruise. Although he has since left Scientology he still regularly holiday's with Cruise. James also sold Kerry's much loved Arctic P- a converted minesweeper on which James and newly wed wife Erika Baxter honeymooned on the Med with Cruise and Katie Holmes after their wedding in the South of France in 2007.

An example of James Packer's odd decisions was the launch of his new Nine's network season in 2001 at Garden Island when James spotted the Murdoch gossip columnist Ros Reines . Packer exploded at the sight of Reines. took her aside and berated her for 5 minutes about her intrusive articles about his private life.  It dominated the media for days, his TV season launch ignored.

An Eastern Suburb's hairdresser claims he took a recent call from James who remonstrated with him for commenting on wife Erika's hair to salon clients. 

Perhaps he should take advice from former partner Lachlan Murdoch, born on the same day as Packer, who left his father Rupert's empire and sold off his News Ltd shares to retire from public life. James and Lachlan together lost over $200M when they invested in Jodee Rich's One-Tel mobile phone company against their respective father's advice.

  James Packer & ex-wife Johdi Meares at Garden Island (c)
 

Paul Barry who wrote best-sellers about Kerry Packer and former entrepreneur Alan Bond is to launch his book in Sydney next week.

twittering on...

Masterminding the new media career of Melbourne underworld figure-or 'building consultant'. Mick Gatto-is the PR supremo Max Markson who spent the entire lunch Gatto threw for a few pals yesterday at the Woolloomooloo Wharf texting and twittering the latest updates on Gatto's next move.

Max twitters 

Markson hales from Shepherd's Bush in London where he once sold saucepans at a market stall, apparently successfully with his brilliant gift of the gab before he emigrated to Australia in his early 20s. He has since built an amazing publicity and management company-Markson Sparks.

No client is too lowly or grand for Max. From errant 17 year old party-boy Corey Delaney who had 1000 gatecrashers cause havoc at the shindig he threw whilst home alone-grabbing headlines worldwide, to Bill Clinton, Cherie Blair wife of the former British PM and recently the American boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

Markson has built himself a magnificent palace in Dover Heights just up from Bondi Beach with splendid views out to sea and a cliffside pool that seemingly hangs right over the edge of the 200 metre drop to the rocks below. Never one to miss a trick, you can hire Max's house for a party or product launch for around $15000 a pop.

Now news comes of a former client who has apparently been spotted on day release from the 7 year sentence imposed in 2006 for operating a Ponzi scheme and ripping off a few hundred members of his local Assyrian community-the ebullient Karl Suleman who cut a swathe-if only a short one-through society as he passed himself off as a high-flying financier. He was certainly high flying at various stages-paying $100,000 to lunch with Bill Clinton at a charity bash and then flying the former US president to Melbourne in a Lear jet purchased with a bouncing cheque.

                                                                     Suleman & Bush (c)

Suleman-or Soloman as he was listed at one Jewish charity event, also hosted former US president George Bush Snr at a few parties before the law caught up with him.

As for the former clients who all lost fortunes in his bogus finance company-the local Assyrians who are  Christian Iraqis and are pretty upset about their lost savings-they aren't feeling terribly forgiving at this stage and word is they are planning their own special greeting for Karl when he finally emerges from jail.

just another balmy day in Sydney...

The perfect start to a warm sunny spring day with a light breeze. Breakfast at Doyles with former chat-show king Michael Parkinson. 

In Watson's Bay with it's boardwalk lined with weatherboard houses-Doyles gives the feeling of a Mediterranean fishing village cafe. It was where the legendary Marlene Dietrich dined before she appeared on stage one night at the Theatre Royal in 1972, promptly fell over mid-song and broke her leg which not only ended the cabaret but the great Marlene's stage career forever.

Parkinson is as amusing and interesting as any of the guests who appeared on his show. He doesn't mind he may always be remembered for Rod Hull and the Emu incident or the Meg Ryan debacle."Part of the territory" he says. Asked what went wrong between he and Ryan, Parky has a quick answer-"it was hate at first sight and went downhill from then on".

2 of Parkinson's favourite interview subjects were Dame Edna Everage and the late Kenneth Williams : "both made an interviewer's job so easy-one could sit back and let them do all the work".
He related the tale of when he, Kenneth and the late Marti Caine were invited by Lady Hardy to go on a Sydney Harbour cruise aboard an ancient clipper. A proper boat as opposed to the gigantic gin palaces that now blight the docksides.

" I'd warned them both it was a sailing boat-not a cocktail cruise. Marti turned up in 6 inch stilettoes and Kenneth wore a suit, a homburg and a mac. He spent the next 3 hours shivering in the cold wind and complaining about his piles" .

His most satisfying interview-Nelson Mandela who he travelled to South Africa to interview. "I couldn't have the president walking down that staircase on the show like he was a celebrity" says Parky.

He won't name the few stars whose interviews were nipped in the bud just as they were about to appear-totally written off. But he did cope with a stoned Robert Mitchum, and a drunken Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland . Sutherland apologized 20 years later.

And his very first interview for TV in Manchester ?. A young Mick Jagger who reckoned he had about one year to make the most of his rock career-as long as Parky thought he himself may last.

Parkinson's reason for his cool manner during interviews-"sheer terror "!. He doesn't miss being on television and he doesn't miss 'modern ' celebrity and says he wouldn't touch reality stars with a barge poll. This weekend he gives the keynote address at a journalism conference.

"Ironic" says Parkinson,"especially as I know less about the business than I did 40 years ago. But I'll muddle through ".

Michael Parkinson's "the One-Man Show" begins in Melbourne on Monday 12th October. Bookings at the Arts Centre. 
                                      ***************************

And so to a light lunch at our favourite Manta Restaurant on Woollooomooloo Wharf. It's strangely quiet for mid-day, mid-week. Except for one table looking alarmingly like the Last Supper.

It's new 'media personality' Mick Gatto and associates. Mick has been doing the rounds of the chat shows to promote his auto-biography (see below). As I took a snap and eyed the small gold mine adorning his wrists and fingers he kindly gave me a quick rundown-'Cartier, Versace and Bulgari" he said beaming. 

Mick Gatto (centre) with friends (c)

Mick's a pretty friendly bloke for someone who the National Crime Commission says is a figure behind organized crime and may have been involved in a few murders." Would you like a copy of my book" he asked ?."I declined."Never much time to read" I replied as Gatto's pals eyed me suspiciously.

I made my excuses and left.

shoot the messenger...

And that's what 'building consultant' Mick Gatto did when professional hit man  Andrew'Benji' Veanamin called to deliver a message to Gatto at his Carlton restaurant in 2004.

Gatto shot him dead as a door nail in a storeroom, claimed self-defense and the jury accepted it. It was a featured scene in the famous TV series 'Underbelly' which chronicled the series of mafia style murders in Melbourne during the 1990's as around 24 underworld figures bumped each other off-often in broad daylight, once in front of kids at a Saturday afternoon soccer game as 2 men were blasted to death with shotguns.

The second series Underbelly 2 followed up with their Sydney counterparts, who comprised Sydney's underworld during the 1970's to the 1990's. Now Underbelly 3 is currently being filmed and will concentrate on the current crop of young entrepreneurs who seem to rule the roost around Sydney's nightclub scene although they claim they are merely very successful and misunderstood businessmen.

Readers may recall the sister of one such suspect was arrested a few weeks ago when her humble suburban house was raided and $3.5M in cash was found concealed in the ceiling. Perhaps a forgetful former tenant left it behind.

                                           Men In Black-Gatto (right) leaves a colleague's funeral

Gatto launches his auto-biography "I, Mick Gatto" at the very respectable Border's bookshop in Chatswood this Thursday. Last night it was unveiled in Melbourne's chic Italian restaurant Florentino Grossi.

I'm told there were lot's of very large men in dark suits, wearing sunglasses.





 

Liza with a Zzzzz

She'll be back on October 16th for a country-wide tour with a show based on her Broadway hit cabaret “Liza’s At The Palace”.

The Shuttle loves Liza Minnelli-ever since we met her with our great pal, the late Peter Allen who toured with Liza right back in the 1960's. Peter went on to become the support act for Liza's mum Judy Garland before gradually climbing to the top in the USA where he became one of the most popular live cabaret acts in the country.

Allen, who married Liza was celebrated in the amazing Broadway musical based on his life and full of his songs-The Boy From Oz which rocketed Hugh Jackman to stardom.

When Peter toured with Judy and Liza we received postcards from every corner of the planet from Peter-he was having the time of his life. We finally caught up with Allen in LA in a small cabaret club where Peter was performing 3 shows a night. Liza had become a huge world-wide singing and movie sensation. But within 10 years Allen was headlining at Radio City Hall arriving on-stage via a camel, whistles blowing, maracas shaking. Sadly Peter passed away in 1992 from an AIDs related illness.

The Shuttle saw him in his very last show one year before. He didn't look well but he still managed to leap on the piano in sequin pants and shake those maracas. This is the guy who taught Bette Midler everything she knows about stage presentation.

Whitewashed from the Broadway version of "The Boy From Oz" but in the original Aussie version were tales of Peter's gay life and the great love of his life, the Texan born Greg Connell who died 6 years before Peter. Allen never fully recovered from Greg's death.

Liza's last visit was in 1989 when she toured with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jnr.

And don't think Liza has lost any bit of that magic energy. Expect brilliant versions of her great songs-Maybe This Time, Cabaret and New York New York.

Liza marries Peter

Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen in the Boy From Oz

Shute the messenger

A date for the diary-14th October at the Iron Duke Hotel in Alexandria where ex-detective,some say "disgraced"-Roger Rogerson will launch his autobiography The Dark Side.

For those who have led a sheltered life the Iron Duke is the former favoured drinking den and gathering spot of hard men who robbed banks, hit men who would knock off a rival for a few grand and the odd policemen who were there "seeking out informants" as they put it. (that's cop speak for picking up brown paper bags ).

Look it up in your street directory-it's not too far from the Chippendale lane where Rogerson shot dead drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi.
Rogerson isn't too keen on the media. He reckons they exagerate to the point where "all the public knows about me, I think, was that I was a corrupt cop, shot three men and was a drinking mate of Neddy Smith,''.

As seen in the dramatized ABC series of his life Blue Murder (which couldn't be screened in NSW because of legal technicalities) Rogerson, errr..shot 3 men, was convicted of corruption and was a drinking buddy of Neddy "Stan The Man" Smith. Smith is currently serving a few life terms for murdering a hapless motorist in a rage road incident and the murder of Lanfranchi's girlfriend Sally Ann Huckstep whose lifeless body was found floating in a lake in Centennial Park. Rogerson spent 5 years in jail in a special wing reserved for bent cops.

Rogerson wasn't too happy either with actor Richard Roxburgh's ( with 2 films soon to be released -Ice and Matching Jack) portrayal of him in Blue Murder. "He made out I was a chain-smoking cold blooded killer" complains Roger, "I'm warm hearted and I don't smoke much".                                     Roxburgh in Blue Murder
                                                  

We'll be there with bells on. 
Oh, and Shute the Messenger ?. That's the name of Rogerson's PR company. Most amusing .

a Russian Oligarch writes...

a missive arrives from Nikolay Sintsov: 
                                                                Good day,

I am Nikolay Sintsov,personal assistant to Mikhail Khodorkovsky,once rated as the richest man in Russia and owner of YUKOS OIL (Russian largest oil company),chairman CEO: Menatep SBP Bank (a well reputable financial institution with its branches all over the world).
SOURCE OF FUNDS:
I have a profiling amount in an excess of US$40.5M, which I seek you to accommodate for me. You will be rewarded with 40% of the total sum for your partnership. Can you handle this?

As his personal assistant, I was authorized to transfer money of an American oil merchant for his last oil deal with my boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The funds have since left the shores of America to a European private financial institution where the final crediting is to be carried out. While I was on the process, my boss got arrested for his involvement in politics by financing the leading and opposing political parties (the Union of Right Forces, led by Boris Nemtsov, and Yabloko, a liberal/social democratic party led by Gregor Yavlinsky), which posed as a threat to President Vladimir Putin's second Tenure as Russian president. Since then, I have placed on hold all transactions concerning this amount. You can catch more of the story on this website: http//www.yukos.com

                                                               ********************************

Dear Mr Sintsov : we have forwarded your generous offer to Mr  Roustam Turiko (see below) who we feel would be better placed to handle this deal. Regards and gaday, Oscar.

cc/  Mr Dribrahim Mustapha ,Bank Of Africa (BOA)
       Mr Eric Walter , Chevron/Texaco in Ouagadougou

       Mr Aloysios Aeschelman of Munich , Germany,  (our condolences on the loss of your family in the plane crash)

a Finch flies the coup

Rumour has it that the failed Miss Universe Australian entrant Rachael Finch and manager Grant Dwyer have parted ways in the middle of complicated sponsorship negotiations. Apparently Finch's older brother is to supervise her career.

Rachael was spotted 2 weeks ago at the launch of Russian Standard Vodka and snapped with hugely successful Russian entrepreneur and billionaire, the handsome and dapper  Roustam Turiko who flew in for the night to launch his drink at the Sydney Opera House.

In his early 40's, Turiko pulled off the impossible-sold vodka to a Russian public already swimming in the stuff and made a fortune from supplying credit cards.

With about one hour to admire the Opera House and to comment that "Sydney seems very nice" Turiko then fled in a fleet of limos back to his personal 747 and jetted out.

More God awful talk!

If you are at a loose end this long weekend there's always the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Opera House to be opened by journalist and God hater Christopher Hitchens who will be in conversation with ABC Nightline host Tony Jones on the topic 'Religion Poisons Everything'.

Taking an opposing stance on Sunday is Catholic Archbishop Cardinal George Pell, the man who was nearly Pope last time around who argues 'Without God We Are Nothing' and Muslim leader Keysar Trad who argues that 'Polygamy and Other Islamic Values are Good for Australia'.

If you aren't slashing your wrists by this stage-wait, there's more. Aboriginal activist Gary Foley will argue that 'The Aboriginal Genocide will be complete' and Germaine Greer will be asking "do people really want Freedom ?".

Have a nice weekend.

                                                 *******************************
## there is a God after all....or did Krishna do it! Relief is in sight according to the British blogger Madame Arcati who reports the most unpopular TV series ever foisted upon the Australian viewing public will be no more.' Mumbai Calling' , is to be axed. Amen to that.

my helipad's bigger than yours

Doltone House- a splendid harbourside venue located on a renovated wharf with sensational views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House was the venue for the Variety Club's annual bash on Thursday evening.

The Variety Club raises money for needy kids-about 200 grand last night.  The shrinking violet to the left having her ear nibbled is singer Maria Venuti who is very popular in Greece and Dubai. I wonder why.

Sipping cocktails on the balcony in the warm spring breeze a group of us noticed several large boats being manouvered out to make a sizable space.

Word is that's it to make place for the impending visit of Reg Grundy and his superyacht  Bodicea (pictured below). For the uninitiated Reg Grundy made a billion from producing TV shows like Neighbours, Sons & Daughters, Home & Away and a host of quiz shows. He's lived in Bermuda with his wife Joy for years. Bodicea is on the market though-for around $120M. Or make an offer.

Apparently Russian oligarch and owner of the Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich  sent a team to check out the Bodicea but in the end decided he "wasn't into second-hand boats". So he's having a new $180M boat built with 2 helipads-the Bodicea only has one. 

Also at the Variety Club bash was All Saint's star John Howard (left) who is still confused by some US TV networks for the former prime minister of the same name.

That John Howard is in Venezuela amongst other South American countries on a lecture tour. The Shuttle can't see him seeing eye to eye with Hugo Chavez on much. Should be popular though with the entrenched and belieged upper classes.

Gore Vidal on Obama, gay sex and liars

It's a great read-an interview with America's greatest intellectual (or is that Noam Chomsky ?) by Tim Teeman in The UK Times :

How’s Obama doing? “Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time.

"America should leave Afghanistan, he says. “We’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it.” The “War on Terror” was “made up”, Vidal says. “The whole thing was PR, just like ‘weapons of mass destruction’. It has wrecked the airline business, which my father founded in the 1930s. He’d be cutting his wrists. Now when you fly you’re both scared to death and bored to death, a most disagreeable combination.”

"His voice strengthens. “One thing I have hated all my life are LIARS [he says that with bristling anger] and I live in a nation of them."

“Don’t make the error that schoolteacher idiots make by thinking that gay men’s relationships are like heterosexual ones. They’re not.” He “wouldn’t begin to comment” on how they are different."