A-list Confidential: Fish House director Ronnie Tarabay’s surprising new business
A Brisbane property high flyer and owner of Burleigh hot spot The Fish House has launched a surprising new business. All the A-list gossip and social pics.
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High profile Brisbane businessman Ronnie Tarabay launched a surprising new business last month, serving up a $250 hangover cure to the doors of festive season partygoers.
The prominent Newstead property developer and owner of Burleigh dining hot spot The Fish House founded Mobile IV Drip in early December, offering at-home intravenous vitamin infusions administered by a registered nurse.
The tailored cocktail of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, a favourite Hollywood health craze, is known to speed up recovery, boost immunity, skin appearance and relaxation.
Tarabay has been helping local high flyers, including athletes and influencers, over the festive season.
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“I have been receiving intravenous drips with vitamins every two weeks to improve my overall health, wellness and recovery from my Christmas and social festivities,” said Mr Tarabay, who first tried the treatment two years ago in Sydney and felt an immediate energy boost.
“When I couldn’t book my treatments on a number of occasions with my usual IV company, I realised there was a high demand for this type of service.”
Tarabay, who took over The Fish House from Simon Gloftis in 2016, partnered with registered nurse Gill Emmanuel to launch the mobile clinic last month, servicing the Brisbane metro area and parts of the Gold Coast with plans to expand across all major Australian cities.
The one-hour at home service costs $220 for a 500ml IV drip or $250 for the 1000ml option.
“We have seen athletes, clients looking to enhance beauty, post operation recovery, clients post weight loss programs or during detox programs,” he said.
“We have also seen social drinkers or people who have been generally run down and looking to boost energy levels.”
TAKEN FOR GRANTED
Julia Morris was thrilled about the cast of this year’s I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! but it was Gold Logie winner Grant Denyer being cast out into the Australian bush that she was most pleased about.
“I was thrilled to my very foundations that Grant Denyer decided to go in. Someone who is properly at the top of their game,” Morris told Confidential.
“The one thing you tend to lack once success comes your way is great new experience for people to challenge themselves.”
She added: “For years we thought reality TV was about people reigniting their careers and that’s not necessarily the truth. It’s a chance to turn the phone off and really go back to basics. Learn how to be patient again and learn how to not have things go your way.”
The Channel 10 show, which premiered to a national average audience of 1.39 million last Sunday, its biggest audience since 2018, was filmed in Murwillumbah just south of the Queensland border late last year – with the global pandemic cutting off their usual South African site.
Mel Buttle reveals cause of crippling snake phobia after leaving I’m a Celebrity
The 450 strong crew, who typically work on the British version of the reality show in the region, wore masks and were socially distanced throughout filming.
“It was more difficult than usual. It was a lot to get used to,” Morris said. “But we were overwhelmed by how positive our experience was. We loved being in the same time zone as our families … and I got to immerse myself in one of the most glorious parts of the country.”
Meanwhile Brisbane comedian Mel Buttle, who was the first to exit the show during the week, told Confidential she’d learned one important lesson from watching herself on TV.
“I need to sit up straight; my posture has been appalling,” she said, adding: “When there’s a camera filming under your chin, those bits are not my favourite, but that’s what you sign on for, to be candid.”
DESTINATION QUEENSLAND
Queensland has lived up to its reputation as a festive season holiday hot spot.
A host of celebrities celebrated in the Sunshine State while the international actors currently working in Queensland also had to bunker down during the production pause to avoid lengthy quarantine periods.
Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and wife Catherine Martin jetted up to Cairns during the production break on his Elvis movie while some of the American actors on Young Rock enjoyed dinners in Brisbane, went on a tour of the Christmas lights and also took in – and reportedly enjoyed – their first Big Bash game at the Gabba.
While Chris Hemsworth hosted his annual New Year’s party at home in Byron Bay, his Escape From Spiderhead co-star, American actor Jurnee Smollett, enjoyed a sun soaked holiday in the Whitsundays.
Her entourage shared photos snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef.
Model and presenter Laura Dundovic also jetted up to Hamilton Island to ring in 2021 with friends.
Her fellow Miss Universe Australia alumni Rachael Finch visited family in North Queensland before enjoying a New Year’s holiday on the Gold Coast, as did actor Gyton Grantley.
DESIGNER DUCHESS
Meghan Markle could soon be spotted in more Australian designer threads.
During the week, Gold Coast expat Julia Chalmers gave fans a peak behind the curtain at what it’s like dealing with the Duchess of Sussex, revealing she had sent the trendsetter items from Australian label Matin.
Chalmers – who heads fashion and lifestyle agency, Lucky Chalm, in Los Angeles – shared a personal correspondence her staff received from Markle’s office on Monday, which bore the official Duke and Duchess of Sussex letterhead.
“On behalf of the Duchess of Sussex, I want to thank you for sending through the items from Matin. We appreciate the generosity and wish you a very safe and healthy 2021,” the letter read.
In response Chalmers wrote: “If only every piece of correspondence we received was like this.”
Chalmers champions local labels in LA, with her cousin, Hollywood star Margot Robbie, making headlines in Matin last July.
Meanwhile Markle shot Gold Coast ethical label Outland Denim to global stardom when she wore a pair of their jeans during her visit to Australia in 2018.
SCREEN COUP
Queensland writers are being offered a groundbreaking opportunity to work on a series with a high profile US showrunner and pitch it to broadcasters.
In an initiative announced by Screen Queensland last week, Bradford Winters, of The Sinner, The Americans and Berlin Station, will work with five Queensland creatives in an intensive writers’ room structured on the US showrunner model.
The writers will then pitch their series to a panel of Australian broadcasters and streamers, and at least one will be picked to write a pilot episode of their series with support from Winters.
“I’m excited to partner with Screen Queensland and help tap the rich pool of new Queensland talent in the increasingly global TV market,” Winters said.
Screen Queensland has promised to co-finance development of the project if it secures funding from a broadcaster or streamer.
Applications open January 28 via screenqueensland.com.au
10 QUESTIONS WITH … Dan Anstey
1. Who was your teen idol/crush?
Taylor Hanson. I thought she was just beautiful, until I found out she was actually the middle Hanson brother. The day I wasinformed was a tough one at school.
2. Who are your three ideal dinner guests?
Not Hanson, it’s just too weird now. Probably a Qantas airliner, Boony and fifty-two cans of Milton’s finest.
3. What’s your worst date experience?
One of my best mates kissed my now-wife when we all first met, because she suggested the group of us play spin the bottle. She spun him up first. I still invited him to the wedding, just.
4. What’s the movie that made you cry?
The 1986 animated Transformers Movie when Optimus Prime dies. Still gets me. Also *spoiler alert*.
5. Which song do you sing in the car?
Not much of a singer but I find it impossible to resist the drum solo in “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. No one can. If you say you can, you are a filthy liar.
6. What’s your favourite movie or TV series you never admit to loving?
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a good movie and Jar Jar Binks is not annoying; I will die on this hill.
7. What’s the most sentimental thing you own?
My wedding band. It’s my mum’s old triple set (her diamonds have been re-set into new rings) melted down and combined intoone ring. Bit of a Hobbit vibe to be honest. The ring that is, not my mum.
8. What was the last thing you Googled?
“Has anyone ever seen Chris Lynn and Pitbull in the same room at the same time?”
9. What’s your most embarrassing moment?
A few years ago I got invited to a party by some cool people I had just met and really wanted to impress. The theme was “Bananaman”, that cartoon from the ‘80s, which I thought was hilarious so I bought a full Bananaman outfit and turned up ready to be showeredwith praise and lauded as the best dressed. Except I had misheard; the theme was “Burning Man”. They were all wearing chichipster kit highlighted with fluoro and glitter. The looks on their faces when they saw me are still seared into my mind. To this day I sometimes get called “Banana Dan”.
10. What’s on your bucket list?
Getting Chris Lynn to sign a Pitbull album.
Dan Anstey, a Hit 90.9 breakfast show host, will MC the Brisbane Heat’s final home game against the Sydney Sixers at MetriconStadium on the Gold Coast tonight.
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