BEHIND the showbiz smiles, the all-singing, all-dancing Irwin
family has been targeted by a vicious rumour campaign which is
getting those famous khakis twisted into one almighty knot.
For weeks now rumours originating from within Australia Zoo on
the Sunshine Coast have claimed that relations between Terri
Irwin and her father-in-law, Bob Irwin, had broken down,
that Bob had left the family “compound” at the zoo and was upset
with the direction the Irwin empire was headed.
However, those closest to the Irwins say the rumours are not
true, are baseless and that there had not been any sort of dispute.
Efforts to reach Bob Irwin, who was named 2007’s Queensland
Grandfather of the Year but did not personally accept the award
because he was catching crocodiles in Cape York, were thwarted this
week by an apparent lack of any contact information among those
closest to the man who taught Steve Irwin just about everything he
knew.
Wes Mannion, who manages Australia Zoo, grew up with the
late Steve Irwin and is described on the Australia Zoo website as a
surrogate brother, was reluctant to talk to PS about the rumours
yesterday. Mannion said he had “heard just about every rumour you
could imagine”, adding that “Bob is a top guy” and that the family
was still grieving the loss of Steve Irwin nearly 18 months
ago.
“Bob would not be inclined to talk about family matters,” he
said, adding that Bob and Terri remained close.
Similarly John Stainton, the television executive who
introduced Steve Irwin to the world via his internationally
successful Crocodile Hunter series and is guiding daughter
Bindi’s media career, said he was aware of the rumours, but said he
“knew nothing about it” when contacted by PS.
Stainton said Bob Irwin had not been involved with Australia Zoo
since he handed over the operation to Steve and Terri in 1992,
denying rumours he had evicted from the “compound”.
It was Bob Irwin and his wife, Lyn (Steve’s mother who died in
2000), who bought the 1.6 hectares in 1970 that formed the
foundation of what would become Australia Zoo, a
multimillion-dollar operation drawing hundreds of thousands of
tourists annually.
A former plumber from Melbourne, Bob Irwin built the Beerwah
Reptile Park himself, which was later renamed Australia Zoo. As the
attraction’s website, which bizarrely does not mention Steve’s
death, says: “His foresight and innovation in captive care of
Australian native animals was setting a new benchmark for wildlife
welfare in Australia.”
Back on set for the glossies
Nicole Kidman has a varied relationship with
photographers.
While she goes to great lengths to escape Sydney’s paparazzi,
there are other snappers she is only too happy to accommodate.
With Kidman leaving Sydney to present at the Academy Awards and
free herself of the paps for a few weeks as she enters the next
phase of her pregnancy, the star has been busy posing for
uber-snapper Annie Leibovitz.
On Monday the American photographer was in Sydney to shoot
Kidman for a coming issue of US Vogue, with Kidman decked
out as her WWII character from Australia, Lady Sarah
Ashley.
An elaborate set recreating the mythical Faraway Downs homestead
featured in the film was constructed in Richmond, with spies
reporting a crew of more than 50 assistants including Australia’s
creative genius responsible for much of the film’s “look”,
Catherine Martin, on set. They were joined by hordes of
make-up artists, lighting experts and stylists to assist in the
shoot, which was conservatively estimated to have cost several
hundred thousand dollars.
Meanwhile, those dreaded paps say they have been followed by
private investigators. Kidman’s camp have denied it was their
doing, although photos of the surveillance have surfaced.
Two of Sydney’s best known paparazzos, Jamie Fawcett and
Peter Carrette, have been engaged in their own dispute over
Fawcett’s photos of Kidman and girlfriends touching her “baby
bump”.
Fawcett sold the shots exclusively to Woman’s Day for the
magazine’s cover, but called in lawyers when he discovered Carrette
was selling similar shots, taken from a TV report featuring the
photos. Carrette told PS he had done nothing wrong.
Brand Kylie not so lucky now
THEY have loved her for more than two decades, but has the tide
finally turned for Kylie Minogue and her adopted British
homeland?
Certainly seems that way after reading a particularly catty but
admittedly amusing opinion piece in London’s Independent
last weekend by commentator Sophie Heawood, who launched her
attack on Minogue as the ever-smiling singer launched her range of
pretty pillow cases and inoffensive doona covers, summing up the
Minogue enigma as “uniquely depressing”.
Heawood wrote it was no coincidence Kylie’s pop videos often
featured robots, as “she is one”.
“It’s one thing being a bit mysterious, a bit sexy. And it is
understandable that somebody so famous wouldn’t want to reveal too
much about her private life,” wrote Heawood.
“But the Kylie brand is all about being all things for all
people, which is, of course, akin to being nothing for nobody, as
any popularity-hungry teenage girl will discover soon enough.”
Finally Heawood goes in for the kill: “And if there is one thing
more annoying than an intelligent person pretending to be stupid,
then it is a stupid person pretending to be an intelligent person
pretending to be stupid.”
ON A ROLE
The model and Bra Babe (she’s Bra Boy Koby Abberton’s
squeeze) Tahyna Tozzi is the latest name linked to Hugh
Jackman’s Wolverine action film, about to be shot in Sydney
and New Zealand. Word across town this week was that Tahyna had
landed a sizeable role, which would be her first real acting gig
since starring in the ABC’s teen surf soap opera Blue Water
High.
ONE WITH THE WORKS
Harry M. Miller is hoping to reap $50,000 from the sale of
his “intimate” collection of artworks, including a Brett
Whiteley piece called Lovers Under The Shower, which was
a gift to Harry from Wendy Whiteley. The works will be
auctioned at the Deutscher-Menzies Fine Art Auction on March 18 at
Deutscher-Menzies in Kensington.
HIS EXCESS SAFE
Rumours that John Laws had pranged his new million-dollar
Rolls-Royce Phantom during an outing with the missus last week were
way off the mark, according to the old boy’s spokesman. But PS
hears Golden Tonsils and his Princess Caroline are busy preparing
for tonight’s 21st birthday party for Angus Nicholls, the
son of Lawsy’s stepdaughter Susie Hagon.
SHOWER OF BABIES
Reports in the US about Tom Cruise’s wife Katie
Holmes buying up on baby blankets this week sparked the
predictable speculation about whether the couple are having another
baby. After denying she was pregnant, sources close to Holmes said
the six petal pink and ocean blue organic baby blankets were for
friends of the couple expecting babies, including Jennifer
Lopez
who has two buns in the oven.
So, does that mean at least one of the other blankets is for
fellow Scientologists and mates James and Erica Packer, who
are also expecting the arrival of their billion-dollar bundle of
joy? Now
we can only guess which colour they will be getting.
IT ALL CATCHES UP
The celebrity hairdresser Joh Bailey picked up more than a
little jet lag after his whirlwind trip to New York Fashion Week,
with the snipper’s boyfriend, the cabaret performer Adam
Williams, telling PS at the David Jones parade on Tuesday that
Bailey was at home sick with pneumonia, though Bailey has since
told friends it was a chest infection.
Williams was representing Team Bailey at the parade, along with
the hairdresser’s new business associate, Suzanne Pritchard,
who stood out from the crowd in her postmodern bright orange
beehive.
Meanwhile PS incorrectly reported Paul Kornmehl’s company
Kulgoa Investments had been a creditor of Bailey’s salon.
In fact, the creditor was Kulgoa Investment, a similarly named
but separate company which has no relationship to Mr Kornmehl.
PSsst%26#133;
Move over Cate Blanchett. Step aside Nicole Kidman. A
new Australian thespian is aiming for the bright lights of
Hollywood with Sydney’s Rebel Penfold-Russell, pictured
right in black, flying off to London to appear in a film
co-starring Jessica Biel (centre), Kristen Scott
Thomas (right) and Colin Firth. Ok, so it’s only a
cameo, but it means a whole lot of fun. RPR is best known in Sydney
as a film producer/director and a renowned bon vivant. In Britain
this weekend she will star in a scene with KST under the
directorship of Australian Stephan Elliott, with whom she
made The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert. The
film is a romantic comedy for London’s Ealing studios, called
Easy Virtue, based on the Noel Coward play. The Hollywood
Reporter says Biel plays an American divorcee who travels to
the south of France and marries a young Englishman, played by
Ben Barnes, on the spur of the moment. The couple return to
England to face his parents, played by Firth and KST. Elliott is
following in Alfred Hitchcock’s shoes, who was the first to adapt
it in film as a 1928 silent movie.
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