Paul Keating’s daughter Alexandra dating Hollywood director Rupert Sanders
It’s been revealed the youngest daughter of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating is dating a controversial Hollywood director, and the pair has appeared in an Archibald Prize entry.
Arts
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The youngest daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating is dating controversial Hollywood director Rupert Sanders.
Confidential can reveal Alexandra Keating and Sanders are an item, and have appeared in a double portrait that was entered in the Archibald Prize, whose winner is announced on Friday.
The portrait, titled Alexandra Keating and Rupert Sanders on a Yacht in Sydney Harbour, is by artist Oliver Watts who is friends with both Alexandra and her sister Katherine Keating. Katherine was drawn into the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal when she was filmed farewelling Prince Andrew at the front door of Epstein’s New York mansion when he was staying there in 2010.
There is no suggestion Katherine Keating, who was reportedly friends with the Duke, knew of any wrongdoing by Epstein.
Rupert Sanders is controversial in that he made international headlines when he and actor Kristen Stewart were photographed in an intimate embrace in 2012.
Sanders was at the time married to model Liberty Ross, with whom he has two children. The couple divorced in 2014.
Stewart was in a relationship with her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson. Both Stewart and Sanders issued separate public apologies after the images were printed.
Oliver Watts told Arts Editor Elizabeth Fortescue that he joined Sanders and Alexandra on a boat at Rose Bay in January or February this year.
The couple had agreed to let Watts paint them, and Sanders stepped in to direct what sort of pose they should take for their portrait.
“Obviously Rupert is very creative,” Watts said.
Sanders directed Snow White and The Huntsman in 2012, which starred Kristen Stewart. He also directed the film adaptation of the sci-fi manga franchise Ghost in the Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson.
Watts would not comment on whether the boat in the painting belongs to Paul Keating, or whether the former PM was on board that day. But he did reveal his admiration for Alexandra.
“She’s really a special person — very clever, very charismatic,” Watts said.
“She is happy that Rupert is her boyfriend.”
The painting is “a tender conversation piece of a couple”, Watts said.
Alexandra’s father was himself the subject of a very handsome painting by Brian Westwood which won the Archibald in 1992 when Keating was PM.
While Watts’ painting of Keating’s daughter and her boyfriend was not selected as a finalist for the $100,000 Archibald Prize, it was chosen for the Salon des Refuses. The Salon is the “alternative Archibald” exhibition, chosen from among the Archibald rejects and shown at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in The Rocks.
The Archibald Prize will be announced on Friday at the Art Gallery of NSW. Both the Archibald and Salon des Refuses open on Saturday.
Notables in the running for the Archibald this year include broadcaster Adam Spencer (painted by Samuel Rush Condon), documentary star Dujuan Hoosen (by Blak Douglas, aka Adam Hill), journalist David Marr (by Nicholas Harding), journalist Annabel Crabb (by Jane Guthleben), chef Adam Liaw (by Yoshio Honjo), ALP leader Anthony Albanese (by James Powditch), writer Bruce Pascoe (by Craig Ruddy) and Magda Szubanski (by Wendy Sharpe).
