2019: Sydney’s year of celebrity gaffes and society slip-ups
From James Packer selling his stake in Crown Resorts to Edwina Bartholomew’s errant tweet, these were the stories that kept us talking, Annette Sharp writes.
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It was the year in which, if you believe my trolls and critics (and there are plenty out there determined to), I killed former prime minister Bob Hawke by dropping by his Northbridge house to request a photo ahead of the federal election, prompting Hawke, in another room, to look up from his crossword and say “What?! She’s in the house!?”, bringing on a fatal heart attack — and also the high-flying career of the country’s formerly top philandering television executive though not Kyle Sandilands, who survives unscathed again, darn it.
It was a tough year for many Sydney society princesses and media identities.
We farewelled some much-loved Sydney personalities, among them swimwear model Annalise Braakensiek and society chef Justin Bull — both of whom struggled with their mental health and survived last year’s emotionally taxing Christmas and New Year period but left us soon after — a reminder to the rest of us to look out for vulnerable friends and loved ones this festive season.
Here’s how I’ll remember 2019:
JANUARY: JEANNE’S BRUSH WITH STYLE ICON
One has Australia’s most famous bobbed hairstyle. The other the fashion world’s. Five years after Jeanne Pratt’s hair stylist compared the billionaire philanthropist's trademark bob to that of international fashion icon Anna Wintour, the pair crossed paths at the Australian Open Inspirational Series in Melbourne. Thank goodness a photographer captured it, one of the year’s best random society moments.
FEBRUARY: SOCIETY HEIRESS REARRESTED
Two years after she was released from Silverwater jail for her role in the robbery and murder of a Sydney drug dealer, reformed ice addict Harriet Wran, daughter of the former NSW premier Neville Wran and his wife Jill, was arrested in February and charged with possessing prohibited drugs (crystal meth) and stolen goods in custody after being pulled over on the Central Coast. Wran pleaded guilty in May and was fined $550 and handed a 12-month community corrections order. The 31-year-old finishes the year working for renowned punter John McGrath, of McGrath Estate Agents.
MARCH: RAY HADLEY ACCUSED OF NEW BULLYING ALLEGATIONS
Macquarie Radio network put its head in the sand in March as new bullying allegations were levelled at its morning radio anchor and anointed breakfast kingpin Ray Hadley. Chris Bowen, a former panel operator at 2GB, said he’d suffered psychiatric issues due to the tragic deaths of both parents but also over being bullied for a decade at work by Hadley. Others soon emerged with similar stories. Hadley apologised to Bowen, saying “I’m sorry for any hurt I’ve caused him …”, Macquarie (by then majority owned by Nine) denied any knowledge, and Bowen started legal proceedings privately against Hadley that are ongoing.
APRIL: O’KEEFE CHECKS INTO REHAB
Production on top-rating game show The Chase was suspended in April after its exhausted host Andrew O’Keefe checked into rehab. “I got to the point where I knew it wasn’t sustainable to work, to grieve, to feel pain and not to sleep,” O’Keefe, 48, said in October speaking exclusively to this writer about his unscheduled eight-week break. Recognising he needed some time out to deal with “poor (health) choices”, he returned to work in June but was off air again by November, with production on The Chase wrapping for the year a month early.
MORE FROM ANNETTE SHARP: Testing time for Nine boss
MAY: JAMES PACKER SELLS HALF STAKE IN CROWN RESORTS
A year after resigning from the board of family company CPH and checking into a Boston facility citing mental health issues, James Packer sold half his Crown stake — owner of under-construction Barangaroo Casino — for $1.76 billion to a Macau-based entertainment company (pending judge Patricia Bergin’s inquiry which starts next month) run by his friend Lawrence Ho, whose father Stanley Ho is accused of having links to Triad crime gangs. Ho denies this. The sale followed Packer’s attempt to take Hollywood, China and the world by storm while drastically culling his inner circle. Last Christmas he bought a cavoodle, Waffle.
JUNE: ALAN JONES SIGNS NEW TWO-YEAR CONTRACT AT 2GB
As 2019 began, broadcaster Alan Jones was out of favour at 2GB as the outgoing executive prepared to replace him in his breakfast slot but in February the top-rating presenter went to war with his bosses, winning a new contract to take him to June 2021. Two
months later Jones became the target of a brutal advertiser boycott after saying, on air, that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should have a sock shoved down her throat. Though the boycott continues to hurt new owner, Nine, financially, Jones has appeared happy of late, spending recent weeks holidaying in London with his 22-year-old assistant and mentoree Jake Thrupp, whose family are friends of Jones.
JULY: BOB HAWKE'S DAUGHTER REJECTS INHERITANCE
Two months after her father's death, Bob Hawke’s youngest daughter Ros Dillon, 59, knocked back a $750,000 gift from his $18 million estate and opted instead to challenge her father’s last will, the bulk of which benefits her stepmother Blanche d’Alpuget. This month Dillon filed a $4 million claim against her father’s estate citing three alleged sexual assaults by her father’s friend, a 1980s Labor MP, now deceased. Dillon is seeking $2.5 million for a house in Sydney’s east and money for teeth in her claim.
AUGUST: SEVEN BOSS TIM WORNER DEPARTS
Three years after his mistress Amber Harrison broke her
silence to tell me about her hot and steamy two-year extramarital affair with television chief executive Tim Worner, Worner is replaced at the top of Seven by chair Kerry Stokes, the man who for more than two decades considered Worner, also from Perth, as close as a son.
“It’s with mixed emotion that I tender my resignation,” he said in a statement. Seven’s shares lifted.
SEPTEMBER: SEVEN’S EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW DISSES NINE’S SEB COSTELLO ON TWITTER
Sunrise reporter Edwina Bartholomew is known to have a sarcastic streak and in September she was caught out exercising it when she called out Nine reporter Seb Costello, the controversy-plagued son of Nine chairman Peter Costello, on Twitter. “Surprisingly articulate [redacted],” she posted, apparently attempting to direct message the comment to an unknown party but posting it publicly instead. Six weeks later she apologised to Costello and reportedly handed him a five-figure sum, put at about $20,000.
OCTOBER: LEAGUE STAR SAM BURGESS ACCUSED BY FATHER-IN-LAW OF MENACE
Following his split from the mother of his two children, wife Phoebe, South Sydney Rabbitohs star Sam Burgess was ordered to court after his father-in-law Mitchell Hooke filed an AVO application against the man widely thought of as actor and Souths’ owner Russell Crowe’s surrogate son after the 116kg forward went to Hooke’s Bowral home and the men allegedly had an argument when Burgess was asked to leave. Weeks later, the scandal-plagued 30-year-old retired from the game citing an injured shoulder. Last week Burgess pleaded not guilty to the charge of intimidation.
NOVEMBER: CLIVE JAMES DIES
And out of respect for the writer’s epic talent, no one mentions the famous women he bedded during his long marriage to patient wife Prue — some of them still on television in this country — and his most ruinous affair with Leanne Edelsten, ex-wife of ex-Swans owner Geoffrey, who went public in 2012 with details of her eight-year tryst with James. Oh sod, I’ve just done it.
DECEMBER: AUSTRALIAN IDENTITIES DONATE TO THE NSW RURAL FIRE SERVICE
After Russell Crowe’s Nana Glen property was “absolutely f … ing smashed” by bushfires, the actor offers a soiled cap for auction to raise funds for the Rural Fire Service. Crowe’s donation of $105,000 spurred Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, and Ryan Smith of Qualtrics, to offer $100,000 each. In November, Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliot confirmed going cap in hand to the Packer family whose foundation donated $1 million over five years to the RFS, surely the very best society news of the year. Sincere thanks to all donors.
annette.sharp@news.com.au