SydCon Unleashed: Princess Aussie to star in new season of The Traitors
Australia’s top international wrestler will step out of the ring for a new challenge — reality TV. Plus Kings Cross identity Billy Bayeh pops up on TV, and a pollie’s pay rise request, in SydCon Unleashed.
NSW
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Princess Aussie will ditch her alter ego and play herself, Simone Williams, when Australia’s top international wrestler appears as a contestant on the latest season of reality show The Traitors.
Premiering on Channel 10 on Sunday night, Williams is one of 20 contestants set to compete in the series hosted by actor Rodger Corser.
Contestants will face various challenges with the aim of winning the pot of $250,000.
“I can tell you right now I am the most adaptable person on the show,” Williams told Confidential, adding what she learnt about herself in the process of filming: “I am not familiar with a lot of things in Australia any more but that is what made it so fun as well.
“It was really nice to be back in Australia.”
Other familiar faces this season include Ash Pollard, Gyton Grantley, Luke Toki and Paul de Gelder.
Williams has been based in the US for several years and is one of the fan favourites of WOW – Women of Wrestling, which streams on 10 Play in Australia.
“People have this vision of what a female wrestler should look like and it is not me. Princess Aussie is one of the smallest athletes on the roster,” Williams explained. “But she is also one of the most athletic, one of the fittest, one of the fastest, she is a risk taker and doesn’t back down to anyone, no matter what size her opponent is. I always find a way so I always outsmart and outwork my opponent. Princess Aussie is fearless and brave.”
Those skills, she explained, will help her compete on The Traitors.
BILLY BLURTS FOR LUCKY SEVEN
Eagle-eyed crime watchers were amused to see one of Sydney’s most infamous characters from Kings Cross back in the ’80s and ’90s being “vox popped” on 7News this week.
Former owner of the Love Machine and star “non” witness at the Wood royal commission into police corruption in the 90s, Billy Bayeh was asked about council rates.
“They are not giving anyone a fair go,’’ he told viewers.
Channel 7 should count their lucky stars because Billy was famous for not answering questions at the commission, which focused on huge cash bribes Bayeh paid cops to operate his drug business.
His silence, refusal to dob anyone in and drug dealing in Kings Cross got him 15 years at various prisons around the state.
After his release he was charged with assaulting Leanne Nesbitt, formerly Leanne Edelsten. He pleaded guilty and was put on a good behaviour bond.
RUBENSTEIN LUXE AMBLES HOME
Estate agent Gavin Rubinstein has finally got his second office with the much-spruiked expansion of his TRG sales empire to Rose Bay coming in long behind schedule.
He’d signalled the premises would be complete by late-2021, but the lavish fit-out by designers Esoteriko, with Instagramable spiral staircase, is just finished.
Rubinstein had indicated the addition of the Rose Bay office space, which cost $5 million, and retention of Queen St, Woollahra rental space would provide for potentially 75 staff.
The opening comes after his recent winter break in Europe, with him photographed outside the Missone store in Positano and swimming in Sardinia.
He also went to the wedding of Rubenstein Group’s head of operations Shani Asadon to estate agent Tas Costi at The Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel in Athens.
Their engagement was the finale of the seemingly shuttered Luxe Listings Sydney series when it was last filmed in 2021.
Rubinstein’s listings include the unsold offering in Darling Point of tailor Patrick Johnson and his designer wife, Tamsin.
TWINS’ HUNGER GAME
By day, identical twins Radha and Prabha Peters, 26, are healthcare professionals but by night, they’re My Kitchen Rules superfans.
“It’s a dream come true to participate,” Radha said of their new season role. “We just felt like this year was the year,” Prabha said.
The Western Sydney twins who, at age 2, lost their father, say Indian food is their connection to heritage.
Chef Colin Fassnidge is “an idol”, and Manu Feildel “is royalty to us”.
A BLOW FOR BRONNIE’S PAY DEAL CLAIM
A spat has ensued in the halls of parliament over whether Nationals Deputy Leader Bronnie Taylor should get a pay rise.
According to Ms Taylor, other party deputies get a pay increase up to 11 per cent.
According to the government, Ms Taylor is not entitled because of a technicality where deputies from parties with less than nine members in the NSW upper house are not eligible for extra pay.
A source from Premier Chris Minns’ office told Unleashed the pay rise would require changing an act of parliament.
“Nothing more popular than a pollie asking for a pay rise in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis,” the source said.
NO BULLYING OF POLLIES ALLOWED
Still in NSW Parliament, state politicians, staffers, contractors and even journalists will undertake “mandatory and comprehensive” training courses under a proposed policy to prevent bullying, harassment and sexual harassment on Macquarie Street.
The policy, now out for consultation, is being enacted after a review into bullying at parliament.
That review, by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, also created an “independent complaints officer”.
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