Unleashed: Pip Edwards attends Missoni x Crown Sydney Resort Club
As Aussies head into the gorgeous and scorching summer months, Pip Edwards says Sydney – with its iconic city status – is ripe to hold ‘elevated’ pool parties and events to attract international visitors. Read this week’s Unleashed to find out more.
As Sydney’s social scene warms up for a huge summer, the Harbour City’s top fashionista believes the timing is right for a pool party.
Stepping out in the heat on Thursday for the launch of the Missoni x Crown Sydney Resort Club, Pip Edwards said Sydney stacked up with the biggest and the best party scenes in the world.
“(The Missoni x Crown collaboration) is just what Sydney needed,” Edwards told Confidential.
“We are an international city and pool clubs and pop-ups – those kind of curated, elevated scenarios – are what people are interested in.”
Crown’s infinity pool deck has been transformed into an Italian-inspired resort club for the summer in partnership with the luxe European heritage brand.
Peking Duk performed at yesterday’s launch, with a slew of celebrity faces in attendance, including Karl and Jasmine Stefanovic, Richard Wilkins and AFL star Isaac Heeney.
AI misfire from Hoenig
The government’s resident social media tragic Ron Hoenig is at it again, going crazy with generative AI.
Hoenig has been an enthusiastic adopter of AI video tools since they hit the mainstream a few months ago. The foray into fake images started out innocently enough – turning himself into superman and flying off into the distance, for example – but we reckon he has now crossed a line.
Ahead of extreme fire conditions across Sydney on Wednesday, Hoenig took to Instagram to remind his followers that a total fire ban was in place.
So far, so good.
However, the warning was accompanied with an error-riddled piece of AI slop.
First, Hoenig’s post declared there would be “VERY HGH TEMPERATURES” on Wednesday – an obviously AI-induced typo.
More importantly, the iconic fire danger rating scale posted showed the arrow at its lowest level, which had the nonsensical label of “NOOIRATE” (AI speak for “Moderate”).
The fire danger rating for Greater Sydney was actually “extreme” on Wednesday.
It looks like someone told Hoenig to clean up his mess, because the post was deleted shortly after, only to be replaced with another piece of nonsensical slop.
Weirdly, this second image declared it was paid for with “Partia/lamentary entitlements,” rather than “parliamentary entitlements”, or maybe “partial parliamentary entitlements”.
Hoenig told us that the arrow on the first image was supposed to be animated, but it didn’t work.
“The information was critical, not the design,” he said.
He also said that the AI graphics came “at no cost to the government or parliament” – despite what the image disclaimer seems to be trying to say.
Hoenig’s social media content – colloquially known as “Ron-tent” – has been the subject of much discussion on Macquarie St.
Earlier this year he raised eyebrows by inserting songs with blatantly sexual lyrics over videos showing teenage school students, a “Women in Local Government” award winner, and a visit to a school construction site.
He rejected any suggestions the music was inappropriate.
“I am not making any subliminal political statements through social media music, they’re simply the trending tunes,” he said at the time.
Meg’s in fine voice after two decades
Australian singer Meg Drummond was just 18 when she became a single mum — a turning point that nearly derailed her career before it even began.
“Back in the day, the music industry was still very much a male-dominated and so the labels were just like, you’re a teenager and you’re pregnant. It was a hard out no,” she said.
Drummond has spent more than two decades fighting for her place in music, this year appearing on The Voice Australia, making it through to the knockout rounds.
Is it Bailey’s time to be next 007?
Jonathan Bailey is keeping his cards close to his chest on rumours he could be the next James Bond.
The superstar British actor has been in Sydney this week as ambassador for watch brand Omega, which is linked to the Hollywood movie franchise.
“I’m excited to be a bit more nimble with maybe smaller projects … but who knows,” Bailey told Confidential.
Bailey has risen to superstar status off the back of the Bridgerton TV series and for playing Fiyero in the Wicked franchise.
Mayoral ‘salute’ goes viral
On the road to the Local Government Conference in Penrith, Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg and Deputy Mayor Jeri Hall turned a cramped car into a PR speed bump, both flashing “the bird” in a candid snap that spread fast.
The grins were huge; the reaction was bigger.
Comments flooded in from “whatever” and “ignore the fun police” to stern reminders about “how elected officials should behave.”
By midweek, the Mayor – also chair of Regional Cities – issued a mea culpa: “Several individuals have contacted me directly and expressed their views about the image, and in hindsight, on my behalf, I should not have flipped the bird. To those who I have offended, I apologise.”
What was billed as “a bit of banter” in a “very crammed car” quickly turned the “lighthearted moment” into a lesson in optics: it’s all fun and games until your finger does the talking.
Hall kept her powder dry in public, but the pair’s road-trip levity has now been logged in the file marked Things Not To Do When You’re On Camera.
Supporters say “move on”, detractors say “grow up”, and somewhere between those two, a municipal truth emerges: even in regional politics, there’s no such thing as off-duty anymore. The bird has flown, the apology has landed, and the lesson has been learnt: in public life, cheeky gestures travel faster than any conference agenda or press release these days.
Robert’s cosy secret meet up
Robert Irwin has sparked further dating rumours after he was spotted having a private meet-up with an American actor.
Just before taking out the title on US Dancing With the Stars on Wednesday, the Aussie Wildlife Warrior, 21, was seen privately hanging out with Xochitl Gomez ahead of the big finale.
Gomez, 19, rose to fame in Netflix series The Baby-Sitters Club.
A source told the New York Post’s Page Six that Gomez also “spent some time backstage” with members of Irwin’s family.
Darren buys new block in Byron
The Block judge Darren Palmer and his husband, the cosmetics industry operative Olivier Duvillard have bought back into the Byron Bay market.
Having sold their former Suffolk Park holiday retreat late last year, Palmer and Duvillard have settled this time on Belongil Creek.
They have paid $4.2m for an original three bedroom home that no doubt will be a project for the couple. The 410sq m block has creek views through established palms.
It was marketed as a “classic Byron-style beach house” which could either be retained as an “infinitely charming Byron escape” or reinvented into an “ultimate waterfront sanctuary.”
It has three bedrooms, each with raked ceilings, and an open plan living and dining room.
It was offered for the first time since its 1998 sale at $315,000, settling earlier this month when the couple returned from holiday in Taormina, Sicily.
The home sits on the same street as the big ticket purchases by Merivale billionaire Justin Hemmes in 2023.
The couple previously owned Pompano House at Suffolk Park, before selling the investment Byron Bay district holiday home for $2.8m to Candice Rose O’Rourke, the founder of the Zulu & Zephyr lifestyle brand, and her husband Josh O’Rourke.
It resulted in a $1.2m loss having paid $3.85m in Covid boom time in 2021.
Car park closes the generation gap
Wednesday night at the ICC in Haymarket was a melting pot for quite an unexpected culture clash.’
At one part of the facility, in the newly named TikTok Entertainment Centre, Gen Z converged in their sparkles, feathers and mobile phone for the TikTok Awards.
While just next door, at the Darling Harbour Theatre, British Gen Xers Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook were hosting a live recording of their podcast The Rest Is History where the sold-out crowd was entertained with stories from Ancient Rome and novelist Victor Hugo’s France.
Both crowds left at the same time, meaning, it doesn’t matter what generation you’re from, you’re guaranteed to get stuck in a Sydney carpark.
From Gold Coast wife to global disgrace: The Bonnie Blue story
