A-list Confidential: Why the Premier came clean about new romance
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her new beau had been trying to keep their romance under wraps. This is why they went public.
U on Sunday
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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s new man is a well-known face on Brisbane’s social scene with a high-powered circle of friends.
Ms Palaszczuk confirmed last week that she had found happiness with Brisbane surgeon Dr Reza Adib, who she met through mutual friends at the Eagle Farm races in June this year.
It was not an unusual outing for Dr Adib, who has been a regular guest at Brisbane’s A-list events for a number of years, attending annual soirees such as the Gambaro Moet and Chandon Ball, courtesy of a close friendship with the Gambaro family, and many functions at Treasury Brisbane.
He initially attended the social gatherings with wife Carol Adib, a dermatologist, but since their divorce Confidential has spotted the father of two mingling solo or with friends and dates.
Through his friendship circle, Dr Adib was also regularly invited to race days. At the 2019 Ladies’ Oaks Day races he was squeezed into a packed lift with Sam Thaiday and John Gambaro when it came to a halt and he helped Thaiday pry open the elevator doors.
Since he began dating the Premier Confidential heard the pair had attempted to keep a low profile, with Dr Adib telling friends he was used to a quiet life.
But gossip was quickly circulating Brisbane’s social scene late last month after the pair were snapped together on multiple occasions.
Ms Palaszczuk brought Dr Adib as her guest to a Brisbane Fashion Festival runway show in late August, where they were seated together and posed for photos alongside Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Gina Rinehart.
As word filtered through the high profile crowd, it is understood Ms Palaszczuk’s team requested the photos not be released at the time so the relationship could be kept under wraps.
Earlier in the week they had dined at up-market Japanese restaurant Takashiya at Emporium Hotel in South Brisbane, where they posed for a photo with executive chef Takashi Nami.
It is understood Ms Palaszczuk then confirmed the relationship rumours the following week, hoping she could bring her new beau to official engagements without being met with whispers.
It was little surprise to see the pair happily step out together at the Welcome Home Olympic dinner at the RNA Showgrounds last Saturday after their relationship was confirmed.
Born and raised in Iran, Dr Adib moved to Australia in 1991, when he was 25, and worked at the Royal Brisbane Hospital as an intern.
After studying in Scotland, France, Austria and England, he returned to Australia in 2004 and is now the chief executive of Brisbane Obesity Clinic.
His late father Iraj was a tools consultant in the Iranian oilfields and wanted a different future for his children.
“His job was very hard in very hot, humid conditions,” Dr Adib said in an interview in 2014. “Dad had this dream. He wanted all of us (kids) to become successful doctors. We were all happy to oblige.
“Navid is Queensland’s only paediatric rheumatologist. Vida is a Queensland University graduate who works as a specialist in dental surgery in London. Violet is a professor of radiology in Shiraz.”
“Every day is a new challenge in surgery, and I love to be able to help people and see the results immediately.”
SPECTACULAR, SPECTACULAR
Attaching belly dancing coins to garden chains and tassels to a lamp shade, production designer Deborah Riley has revealed how she crafted the elephant set in Moulin Rouge!
Riley, who grew up in Brisbane’s northern suburbs, worked on the iconic Australian film in Sydney in 1999 at the start of her career.
She went on to lead the art department on Game of Thrones, earning her four consecutive Emmy Awards, but still considers the film’s famous elephant, the home of Nicole Kidman’s Satine, as her most treasured work.
“I remember in the script it said, ‘she goes inside an elephant’ and it wasn’t anything more than that,” said Riley, a judge on new reality show Making It Australia.
“That was my first experience being able to create something no one had seen before … just make something spectacular.”
She began sculpting a model, which she would carry around the stages at Fox Studios while consulting with filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and costume designer Catherine Martin.
Having just wrapped film Anna and the King, Riley was familiar with Thai architecture and began interpreting that.
“We had chain that ran up the side of the stairs. I went to a hardware store and bought lengths of chain and presented them to Baz on a table, and he said ‘that just looks like garden chain’. And I said ‘that’s because it is’,” she recalls.
“He said ‘I think you can do better’, so I went and bought belly dancing coins so we could stick them front and back on every second link.
“I got a giant lamp shade and tacked rope through it to make a scaled tassel. I would go home at night and make pompoms while I was watching television.”
“I was completely mad.”
She asked Luhrmann if there were enough stairs for the length of the song Kidman was to sing as she climbed them, and recalled him acting out parts of the movie in front of her.
“He disappeared and came back and put on the song,” Riley said. “I had to in masking tape map out the size of the head and the number of stairs and it became like a rehearsal. He put on the soundtrack and acted it out for me. At the end he dramatically passed out and I remember clapping.
“He said, ‘It’s going to be fabulous and the stairs are fine’.”
Using mostly plasticine, Riley built five versions of the elephant at varying sizes to meet the filming requirements.
“I was up on a cherry picker decorating it and Baz walked by and said, ‘Just like you got it out of the microwave, Deb’,” she said.
“I remember when I left, on my last day, having to go down and say goodbye to it. I get so attached. It becomes this labour of love and then one day you’re done and it’s time to move on.”
She said she believed the set was mostly destroyed by the end of filming, becoming a thoroughfare for the cast and crew.
Riley will judge the work of Australia’s best amateur crafters when Making It Australia airs on Channel 10 from Wednesday.
THE ROCK IS BACK
Young Rock is heading back to Brisbane.
Confidential has heard the second season of the NBC comedy series about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will film in the city in the coming months.
The first season of the show filmed in Screen Queensland Studios and on location around Brisbane and the Gold Coast for from October to February, creating fanfare with film crews regularly spotted around town.
The production also relied heavily on local extras and crew members in a boost for the local industry.
It is understood casting is currently underway in Brisbane for additional roles in season two with filming to begin shortly.
“We kick off shooting season 2 of #youngrock in Australia very soon,” Uli Latukefu, who plays 20-year-old Johnson, wrote to social media this week.
Young Rock was a hit in the US and in late August won The Hollywood Critics Association’s Best broadcast network comedy series.
CLEAR AS A BELL
Susie O’Neill had been wanted to appear on national drive show Kate, Tim and Joel for a long time, but when she finally got her chance this week it didn’t quite go to plan.
The Nova Brisbane breakfast host competed in Kate Ritchie’s Quick Draw segment where Ritchie and a celebrity guest are given a category and a letter and the first correct answer gets a point.
On Thursday O’Neill offered the answer “dumbbell” to words starting with ‘W’, leaving the radio hosts slightly perplexed.
She admitted she was thinking of “weightlifting”.
The ultra competitive former swimming champion admitted she was quite embarrassed by the national on-air blunder.
“I always listen to that game in the car and I was so excited to play it,” she told Confidential. “I just wish I had a been a bit better … actually a lot better … but it was still a lot of fun,” she added with a laugh.
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