stocking fillers

A week of book launches as everyone who is anyone gets their book out for Christmas. Peter Fitzsimmon's biography of flying pioneer Kingsford Smith looks like it will outsell the rest with TV host Ray Martin's autobiography a runner-up with a 100,000 print run.

'Super-agent' Harry M. Miller's "Confessions of a Not So Secret Agent' written with Rolling Stone & FMH managing editor Peter Holder should be a winner as well.

Written in a question and answer style it's a witty run down of Harry's 40 years as a show-biz promoter, manager and confidante of those whose careers fall upon difficult times like Lindy Chamberlain who was jailed and released over the sensational disappearance of her baby Azaria at Ayers Rock in the infamous Dingo Baby case ( Meryl Streep played her in Evil Angels) along with Stuart Diver who

Harry M. Miller above with Lindy Chamberlain

was trapped for days in the Thredbo snow avalanche disaster. Toss in a few affairs with his clients-Shirley Bassey and others and endless anecdotes about Harry's tours with everyone from Chubby Checker to the Rolling Stones. The 70's style club Kit'n'Caboodle in Kings Cross was the perfect location for a gathering of media heavyweights to toast Harry M.

(right) TV boss David Leckie, Deeta Colvin, Womans Weekly editor Deborah Thomas and radio king Alan Jones.

Christian the Lion's Ace Bourke & Vitek

Fashion heavyweights Peter Morrisey and Maggie Tabberer with media mogul Charles Curran

grumpy Royal

Seventh in line to the throne HRH Prince Edward paid a visit to Admiralty House in Kirribilli on Wednesday and left behind a bunch of slightly miffed kids.

Edward presented 2 dozen recipients with the gold award known as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

While happy to pose in photographs with a group of the young Australians following the ceremony, the prince wasn't too keen on the idea of giving autographs.

One lass who volunteers with Mission Australia, asked for his signature as a memory of the occasion but Prince Edward declined and said that a copy of his father's autograph, which is on the award, would have to do.

More accommodating is the 13th in line-his cousin Viscount Linley who was in Sydney a few years ago to attend the opening of an exhibition of his custom made cigar boxes at the Art Gallery of NSW. As Princess Magaret's son arrived early with his wife Lady Serena , the Shuttle had to negotiate entry for the pair as a guard tried to enforce the " no admittance before 6pm" rule. He relented after we pointed out the remarkable resemblance between his Lordship and the invitation's photograph. Linley rewarded the Shuttle with a personally conducted 20 minute pre-drinks tour of his work. Asked if he would sign the invite, he warmly agreed but not before requesting us to not to tell other guests. "We never give autographs" he confided as he scribbled his Royal signature.

Is a Royal autograph worth much ?. We wouldn't be so crass to sell but the latest offer was nearly $1500.

surely some mistake...

In May 2008 a controversey over some nude teen photographs by internationally aclaimed artist Bill Henson swept the nation as the Ros Oxley Gallery in Paddington was raided by police with the offending items carted off to assess whether they could be deemed to be illegal porn. Self appointed child advocate Hetty Johnson demanded that heads roll, shock jocks went into screech mode, State and Federal politicians weighed in and the owner of the gallery, Ros Oxley who resides in Sydney's, if not the countries most splendid harbourside home, the gothic pile Carthona, decamped with her family to Switzerland for a few months.

Oxley friend and Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull declared the photos to be art and confided that the walls of his Point Piper mansion hosted a few Henson items. But newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd weighed into the frenzy describing the photos (without actually seeing them) as "absolutely revolting".

Fast forward to the present date and the soon to be announced Prime Minister's Literary Awards  which has a $100,000 prize up for grabs. And there amongst the contendors- Henson vocal defender David Marr with his latest book 'The Henson Case' in which the brilliant Sydney Morning Herald journalist and former Media Watch host dissects the whirlwind that surrounded the whole affair. Winning the prize would catapult the book into instant best seller status.

A prize giving ceremony not to be missed.

Chiggy Wiggy and even more gaiety..

Paddington's working class RSL club will host Indian royalty on November 4th in the form of his splendid highness Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil the Maharajkumar or Crown Prince of Rajpipla belonging to the royal family of the former princely state of Rajpipla in India which dates back at least 600 years.

Singh Gohil, who outed himself in 2006, will be a guest at a conference on HIV AIDs prevention for ACON and as a guest for the Burnet Institute and the Dept of Foreign Affairs. Brought up surrounded by luxury and servants he is the only known person of royal lineage in modern India to have publicly revealed he is gay.

Fleeing from a disastrous and unconsummated marriage and a nervous breakdown, the prince flung himself headlong out of the closet to assist gay causes. He's done the Oprah Winfrey show, inaugurated the Euro Pride gay festival in Stockholm, Sweden in 2008 and trawled the UK's gay haven Brighton for a British boyfriend for the BBC cameras. Glitter saris all round !

It's all for a good cause : tickets for the night are available at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/The_Prince

### The Singing Budgie's first Bollywood appearance in Blue has been deemed a disaster. British critics who usually go completely ga ga over our gal have called Kylie Minogue “as sexy as a fat housewife in a kaftan”. Kylie shouldn't worry-she picked up a million dollars for her short appearance singing the wonderfully named song Chiggy Wiggy !

more gaiety

Just as former PM John Howard gets the boot as the prospective head of Rugby League (with the help of Labor's Anthony Albanese) news comes of an autobiography that has footie players quaking in their boots about potential changing room revelations.

Rob Astbury, formerly the countries top sports broadcaster is soon to publish his autobiography called Twice as Hard.

Television personalities, top executives plus Australian Football Rules stars and officials are on tenterhooks in anticipation of Astbury’s book.

Astbury infuriated friends of the late Graham Kennedy by publishing explicit details of his relationship with the King of Television in a book called King & I. The late Don Lane tore it up for the TV cameras, Melbourne radio host Derryn Hinch went into meltdown, others cried foul but the tome sold like hotcakes. It wasn't like Astbury was revealing the entertainment world's worst kept secret-that Gra Gra was Gay - they just preferred not to know. Apart from about 50 thousand who bought the book that is.

The former multi award winning journalist, who won a Logie nomination for breaking the news of the Sydney Swans invasion, won the confidence of former owner the flamboyant Doctor Geoffrey Edelsten revealing exclusive stories about the doctor, his former wife Leanne and former star footballer Warrwick Capper. Edelsten is now squiring the buxom 25 year old Las Vegas fitness trainer Brynne Gordon and threatening to marry the blond starlet in a $250K wedding after negotiating picture sale rights to OK ! magazine. As one does.

Astbury’s autobiography will feature stories that were too hot to be published at the height of his career concerning Aussie Rules legends, some of whom have sons playing today including Brownlow Medallist Gary Ablett.

In talking about his experiences with TV stars including Eddie McGuire, Jana Went, Daryl Somers, Naomi Robson, Don Lane and others like Tracey Grimshaw who hit headlines in the UK when foul mouthed TV chef Gordon Ramsey recently went head to head with her on her chat show, he describes television as a despicable industry. Television executives have not been spared and lawyers are painstakingly scanning the manuscript to offset legal action. Astbury refused to answer probing questions from Social Shuttle until lawyers have completed their job.

To promote Twice as Hard and re-establish Astbury, videos of his career at Channel 10, 9 and 7 have been posted on You Tube .

Here is a young Rob (2nd left front)with a host of big-time media personalities.

To the far right,( in every sense of the word) is the current airwaves king Alan Jones in plaid jacket and kiss curls. Behind with the started look is the late Don Lane who died this week, with a youthful George Negus shaking his fist. Negus is currently whipping up a storm as a guest in Masterchef. At the top waving his fist in delight is John Blackman who recently re-apprised his role in the revived Hey Hey it's Saturday show that hit worldwide headlines for all the wrong reasons over a Michael Jackson tribute which probably scored the show another few episodes, if not a whole series. (instant update-a series has been announced)

Astbury now lives in the saucy seaside town of Pattaya, Thailand where he helped build a property empire and divides his time between a seaside penthouse and a cattle ranch in the north.

Next week promoter Harry M.Miller launches his autobiography and Shuttlers may recall he was once sued by his former client Graham Kennedy over a secret commission he received when he lured the legend back to TV. Miller also threatened to sue Astbury if he published his tale about life with the legend. Just to show there were no hard feelings, Rob published anyway.

No-it's not another transvestite footballer but a former cast member of the late 'Mr Sin' Abe Saffron's famous Les Girls cabaret in Kings Cross, Karen Chant. Described as a 'living gay legend' and a close friend of Astbury's (with her in the snap). Karen makes an appearance in the book as well. Doing what, we aren't quite sure but it sounds like fun.
We can't wait !

Vale the Don

He only came to Australia to host a brief series of a 'tonight' style shows in the 1960s and stayed until he passed away today at 75 from a dementia related illness.

Don Lane was born in the Bronx as Morton Donald Isaacson in 1933 and was a moderately successful lounge singer in Las Vegas before an offer came out of the blue to host 6 variety TV shows in Sydney which the producer thought Don could fit in between some Hawaii nightclub appearances. He was to be a replacement for host-Irish comedian Dave Allen who had been sacked for appearing drunk on his first show.

He had been recommended as a suitable candidate by singer Wayne Newton who was in the country at the time. The Lanky Yank never left and became one of the most loved and popular show biz personalities.

In the 90's he became the voice of American NFL broadcasts for local TV with his American accent and passion and understanding of the sport. From the 60's to the late 90's Lane never stopped working in entertainment,becoming a successful talk-show host until sadly he was diagnosed with altheimers in 2008. The end came quickly today.

Memorable moments in Lane's career included being invited to join Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr on a tour and his run-in with skeptic James Randi. Spoon bender Uri Geller and British psychic medium Doris Stokes were regulars on his shows discussing the paranormal.

When Randi began to make derogatory remarks about Doris Stokes who Lane adored, he said to the skeptic :"we're going to a commercial break now and you can piss off". As a stunned Randi stared-Lane swept props off a table and to audience applause, stormed off his own set.
He was corny, he was too American, he couldn't sing that well but Don was loved by all.

RIP Don Lane.

coming to the screen..

The extraordinary life of the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin is to be examined in the film Model Daughter: The Caroline Byrne Story, nearing completion and due for broadcasting this year.

The telemovie concentrates on the arrest and trial of Rivkin's chauffeur and confidante, Gordon Wood who was convicted of throwing his model girlfriend Caroline Byrne over The Gap, the infamous suicide spot near the heads of Sydney Harbour in 1995.

It took investigating police over 10 years to finally charge Wood who was jailed for 17 years last December. He was arrested in Switzerland after fleeing from London where he had built up a chain of successful exercise gyms. Wood has lodged an appeal and proclaims his innocence.

Rivkin's life was highly controversial at the best of times. Born in Shanghai China, his Georgian family migrated to Sydney where Rivkin built up a $50M fortune as a financial advisor to film stars like Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe and was the youngest ever member of the stock exchange.

His life began to fall apart in 2003 when he was convicted for insider trading after making a paltry $2300 profit on some Qantas shares. Friends scoffed at the time that Rivkin could easily spend that much over lunch. Many spoke of how the "establishment" was out to get Rivkin over his presumed flashy lifestyle. A gold Bentley convertible with matching worry beads, huge cigars and tendency to love appearing in gossip columns. In 2000 Rivkin hosted the media aboard his huge new cruiser with it's helicopter pad that was to be loaned to visiting stars for harbour cruises. In 1999, he played himself in the last of the US hit TV series Baywatch when 4 episodes were filmed on the northern beaches.

Gordon Wood & Carolyn Byrne

Rivkin received a 9 month periodic weekend detention sentence. His first appearance at Silverwater Correctional Centre was accompanied by a fleet of media crews as Rikvin arrived in a limousine. Despite saying after the first 2 days that he was enjoying teaching fellow inmates stock investing skills, Rivkin collapsed as he was about to leave on Monday morning. Outrage followed when it was revealed a Murdoch newspaper had supplied a mobile phone to a fellow inmate to snap Rivkin in jail with the photo splashed across front pages.

Doctors diagnosed a brain tumour and Rivkin's lawyers negotiated a deal with authorities where Rivkin would spend his entire sentence in one stretch at the Long Bay Jail psychiatric ward after an operation to remove the growth.

But Rivkin's life was about to unravel further as he heard he was being investigated over secret Swiss bank accounts. Living in his mother's Point Piper apartment, the day Rivkin's wife Gayle announced she was to divorce him, Rene killed himself with an overdose of pills in 2007. He was bankrupt-his fortune had seemingly vanished.

Finance journalist Andrew Main's bestseller Rivkin, Unauthorised: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of an Unorthodox, revealed that Rivkin had skirted on the edge of legality from the very early days of the heady 1980's when insider trading was the norm. It was inevitable that a crash was to come. Some speculated that Rene had a built-in self destructive streak, haunted by the suicide of his loved older brother.

In 1987 as Rivkin flew out from Sydney to New York to seal a deal with artist Andy Warhol to launch Rivkin's new art investment company, a message was delivered to him in first class that Warhol had died suddenly. Rivkin collapsed and had to be medicated to return home.

The film is based on Sydney Morning Herald journalist Robert Wainwright's book The Killing Of Caroline Byrne: A Journey To Justice and stars David Lyons as Wood, Tiriel Mora as Rivkin and Cariba Heine as Caroline Byrne.

W*nking For Art's Sake

While John Safran's new ABC, TV series Race Relations is garnering heaps of controversy over some of the scenes-Safran sniffing the underwear of celebrities and one where he masturbates for the camera (yet to be screened), criticism comes from a former foe whose autobiography the Shuttle has had a sneak preview of.

Current affairs host Ray Martin gives Safran a 3 page serve in his up coming book Stories From My Life to be released in early November. Safran and Martin famously clashed a few years ago when Safran was discovered going through Martin's garbage bins looking for evidence of something, anything, similar to investigator's for Martin's then tabloid show A Current Affair.

Martin describes Safran in most unflattering terms including "with his high pitched voice" which could be explained by the fact Martin attempted to throttle Safran at the time after he caught him-all filmed for John's then show John Safran-Media Tycoon.

Safran was 'discovered' as one of the most amusing contestants in Race Around the World where competitors travelled world-wide competing for who could film the most outrageous footage.

Safran's memorable moments including streaking naked through Jerusalem-much to the annoyance of angry locals despite Safran's pleas"I am Jewish!"- being baptised in Africa, having a Voodoo curse put on his former girlfriend, sneaking into Disneyland and attaching small memorial plaques to the rides proclaiming Walt Disney's alleged support for Hitler ( some remained in place for a month ) and the stunt that got him disqualified from the show-filming as he took confession with a priest ( hidden camera footage wasn't allowed in the show.

Early this year Safran had himself flogged and crucified in the Philippines during Easter. A pilot for a new show which never made it to air was titled John Safran: Master Chef where he first cooked a delicious beef steak and then visited an abattoir and filmed the whole process from start to finish of a cow being slaughtered and diced. Not for the squeamish.

Safran's first successful series was in 2003,John Safran Vs God,where he had himself exorcised in front of the cameras by a Catholic priest.

Ray Martin's book is to be launched at the Leichhardt Town Hall on November 4th.

The Safran Crucifixion

The Classy Emerald City..

party pals-John Ibrahim, Paris Hilton & David Freeman

emerald

The last time the Shuttle attended the Embassy Club in Double Bay was in it's previous incarnation 10 years ago. That night 6 men arrived with pistols after an earlier fracas when one had been ejected from the club and declared "try throwing us out now !"

It was also the night then owner, the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin decided the nightclub game wasn't really for him.

On Saturday night the club re-opened in Double Bay under the auspices of David and Adam Freeman whose father George Freeman was once considered a kingpin in Sydney's seedy underworld. He was featured in the series Underbelly where actor Peter O'Brien, husband of actress Miranda Otto portrayed him brilliantly, according to Freeman's boys.

David and Adam have a partner -John Ibrahim who now has an interest in 20 night spots around the city. Ibrahim's brother Fadi is still recovering from an assassination attempt when 5 bullets were pumped into him as he sat beside his girlfriend in a Lamborghini outside their Castle Cove house in June.

John Ibrahim who will be featured in the next Underbelly 3 series is planning a tell-all book about his rise from driver and bodyguard to the now jailed drug king pin Bill Bayeh, to nightclub czar and owner of a security firm that supplies bouncers for most of Sydney.He also hangs out in Las Vegas with Paris Hilton and motorcycle champion Mike Doohan who is now Vegas based, operating a successful entertainment centre there. Ibrahim says he will give half of the 6 figure advance to the children's ward at the Royal North Shore hospital that saved his brother's life after the shooting.

Ibrahim associates have started referring to him as 'Teflon John'. Police claim they have a burgeoning filing cabinet full of information on the promoter but nothing has stuck yet. Murder charges were dismissed in court when Ibrahim claimed that rather than being responsible for the death of a drug dealer, he was attempting to save the man with the "kiss of life" after the man took a drug overdose.

Meanwhile Freeman brothers David and Adam are plowing through a lengthy court process in the Caribbean after their luxury yacht I'l Dapprima, was impounded off the Netherlands Antilles in February with $250,000 in a hidden compartment on board. Money laundering charges were dropped but the brothers were forced to fly home sans yacht.

The Ibrahim clan-with John at the helm has it share of woes as well. 2 of his brothers have been refused bail and are accused of a murder plot, his sister is accused of allegedly concealing over $3M in the ceiling of her home, another brother has been accused of kidnap and his 6'6" Tongan bodyguard has been arrested on drugs and weapons offenses.

And as usual, Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd tabloids have hired disgraced ex-cop Roger Rogerson to be their 'consultant' as the Underbelly series is screened on television.

Ahhh Sydney-so stylish at times.

"Clive James is a Silly C**t"

Well that's according to writer Roger Lewis in a very funny interview with Britain's most annoying blogger Madame Arcati (apparently UK tabloid editors have hired private investigators to track down the identity of MA (unsuccessfully) because of her habit of producing accurate tales of their private lives).

Lewis was interviewed by Madame Arcati about his latest book : Seasonal Suicide Notes : My Life as it is Lived. If it's as funny as the interview it should be a cracking read.

The Shuttle was fond of James for a while, (his name was once Vivian James) especially after his original UK, ITV show Clive James Presents which was ahead of it's time and featured the amazing Margarita Pracatan, who once slapped the Shuttle's face when she was on a personal appearance in Sydney (we confused her with the famous local drag queen Mitzi Macintosh).

But after a look at Clive's website it does appear he is either on the pompous pills or losing the plot rapidly. Especially with following quote :

“Humanity will surpass the first dirigibles as it has surpassed the first locomotives. It will surpass M. Santos-Dumont as it has surpassed Stephenson. After telephotography it will continually invent graphies and scopes and phones, all of which will be tele and one will be able to go around the earth in less than no time. But it will always be only the temporal earth. And it will even be possible to burrow inside the earth and pierce it through as I do this ball of clay. But it will always be the carnal earth.” Charles Péguy in 1907

It's the sort of stuff you expect from Richard Neville (see below).

The last time we saw James was at party at the Museum of Contemporary Art when he was lusting over actress Greta Scacchi making one of her rare appearances back home.

Clive described her as "shagable".

Roger Lewis was the writer of The Life and Death of Peter Sellers on which the film of the same name was based on, starring the brilliant Geoffrey Rush as the very dark and complex Sellers and the gorgeous Charlize Theron as Seller's one-time wife Britt Ekland

He's also written a biog of the very funny Carry On star Charles Hawtrey : Charles Hawtrey: the man who was Private Widdle (we've now ordered it from Amazon).
The Shuttle is an unashamed Carry On movie fan, ever since we spent endless weekends in our youth at the home of the late comedian Sid James in Iver, Buckinghamshire .

nb : speaking of "silly c**ts, the Shuttle has received a letter from the Sydney branch of the reputedly respectable UK firm of lawyers, Messers Sue Grabbit & Runn on behalf of a newspaper chain requesting we cease using their copyright photographs

In reply we suggested they might like to check their files and note that the Shuttle originally supplied said pics to those rags and the ownership of copyright was confirmed in an out of court settlement (with costs) in 2006, upon which the Shuttle immediately celebrated with a luxury holiday on the gorgeous coast of Slovenia where we were fortunate to meet the fascinating actor John Markovich who has taken up residence there.

What can you expect from publishers who have fired their in-house legal advisers and outsourced such advice to a huge firm of noted wankers ?

Karin's woes

Managing Director of French luxury goods brand, Hemmes in Australia, Karin Upton Baker is battling to keep possession of her luxurious Elizabeth Bay duplex apartment where she has hosted glamorous parties for the likes of Elle McPherson and recently model Miranda Kerr and boyfriend actor Orlando Bloom.

Complicated property deals have soured with the international property collapse and after husband Gary Baker took out an $18M mortgage on their home in 2006 to finance a number of developments, he is now fighting to prevent Perpetual Trustee and Challenger Managed Investments from gaining control over their home.

Karin and Gary are well known for their collection of sleek black autos with XXX number plates-the latest Rolls Phantom, a stylish Bentley Continental, a 'pagoda style' vintage Mercedes sports car, and for Gary in his day job as one of the only qualified installers of piers along the harbour side, a huge pantechnicon with the distinctive colour and plates.

Considered one of Sydney's most stylish couples, the Baker's pride and joy is the beautifully designed apartment in one of the most sought after blocks overlooking the harbour, with it's ground floor garage to house their luxury fleet and a private elevator.

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 !