“A great friend was colourful TV chef Bernard King,” Bennett recalled.

“Bernard used to throw outrageously decadent parties at his Pymble home. On one occasion the great Sammy Davis Jr was holding up Bernard’s piano, belting out his signature songs.”

TV ace John Newcombe was also a regular guest.

“You never knew who you’d meet at Bernard’s,” Bennett said.

While it might seem surprising that Sammy Davis Jnr tinkled the ivories in leafy Pymble, it shouldn’t be, because behind its quiet, rural facade, it seems the north shore is quite the haven for celebrity gatherings — many with Bennett at the helm.

He can often be found watching movies at Cremorne’s Hayden Orpheum with TV presenter Kay Stammers, or lunching at Burnt Orange in Mosman with Lorraine Bayly, star of The Sullivans.

He is also great pals with news reading legend and north shore resident Brian Henderson, as well as Studio 10 colleagues Sarah Harris, Angela Bishop and Natarsha Belling, who are all locals.

In fact, Bennett, who is showbiz reporter on Network 10’s Studio 10, attracts celebrities like magnets, thanks to his effervescent personality.

There was the time he interviewed Paula Abdul in LA and met her pampered pooches (“She has five spoiled Chihuahuas who have their own doggie psychic and beautician!”).

There was also the time he went to Angela Lansbury’s Hollywood home and revealed to the delighted star that she had a Macadamia tree in her garden (“I sent her a Macca-cracker afterwards!”).

Other notable encounters include a wine-filled lunch with Patricia Routledge, a lunch at Church Point with Elton John’s mum Sheila, and being at the irritated end of Faye Dunaway’s garden hose.

But the most memorable for Bennett is when he snuck into Cher’s dressing room at a concert and tried on one of her wigs.

“It was 1990 on her The Heart of Stone Tour. I knew someone who invited me backstage, and the chance just to glimpse Cher was fantastic,” Bennett said.

“Her dressing room was open, and it was like Disneyland, all of these wigs, costumes and sequins, and so I went in.

“There was a big, white fake fur coat she’d just worn on stage, so I got into it and put on one of her wigs!

“Then I saw there was a box of tea bags with ‘Do not touch’ on the side, and so I stole one. I still have it, right here. It’s a Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime. Sharing this with you, it’s almost like I’ve confessed,” Bennett chuckled. “I’ve been absolved of sin.”

Bennett’s revelations — and we have only just scratched the surface — are the subject of his newly-released book, Confessions of a Shameless Gossip, which he wrote on the back of the suggestion of many a friend and acquaintance.

“I had amassed a war chest of extraordinary stories and met so many wonderful people, and some not so wonderful people,” he said.

“When the word went around that I was doing the book, I had so many calls from people saying, ‘Whatever you do, don’t put me in the book.’

“I’ve never in my showbiz reporting life set out to hurt anybody, so I don’t do it in a bitchy fashion.”

Bennett’s book also gives a glimpse into his own life — one that has been interesting from the start. Born in 1962, Bennett was adopted as a baby. (“Right from the beginning, Mum and Dad were very candid about it. I have a brother and sister, and my adopted parents are simply my mum and dad, full stop,” he said).

While he never had any interest in finding his biological parents as a child, it was Crow’s Nest local, his good friend the actor Elaine Lee, and her reading tarot cards, that shed some light on the circumstances of his birth.

Lee believed Bennett had been abandoned by a bus shelter as a baby.

“I was kind of dumbstruck and I just kind of pushed it out of my mind and never followed it up because it did seem a little kooky,” he said.

The truth came out when his mother was reading his completed book, just weeks ago.

“She said, ‘Oh my gosh, the story is way more extraordinary,’” Bennett said.

“She told me my biological mother and father were never married.

“It was in the 1960s, when this was kind of shameful and scandalous, so (my mother) moved to Queensland. My biological father was still in Sydney, and he thought, ‘Oh no, we really need to do something about this, maybe we should marry’, so he gets into his car and is driving up the Pacific Highway and has a fatal head-on collision with a bus.

“My mother gives birth to me, and was to put me up for adoption, but she drowned in the surf. So, in effect, what Elaine Lee said, well, you can join the dots.

“The bus shelter that she saw — I can only imagine for some odd reason that was my father’s collision with a bus.”

Bennett had a happy childhood (“Mum and Dad were very easy”), and had a passion for

wildlife.

“As a young kid, I would romp through the front door every weekend saying, ‘Guess what I’ve found.’ It would be anything from a pygmy possum to an eel.

“When I was 12, I came through the front door with a diamond python wrapped around my shoulders, and that’s where my love of snakes began.”

He wasn’t an academic child at either Davidson Public or St Ives High Schools.

“Everybody knew I kept snakes. I was looked upon as a strange person who loved old movies and television, and the razzle-dazzle of showbiz,” he said.

“I suppose you could say, even as a school kid, I was a cuckoo in the nest.”

In 1977, the North Shore Times did a story on Bennett, aka ‘The Snake Boy of St Ives’, and it led to an appearance on The Don Lane Show. It was an epiphany for the 16-year-old.

“To be on telly, to be meeting all of those fabulous celebrities, and the lights-camera-action thing … I knew I’d found my nirvana,” he said.

He was invited back on the show several times and soon began co-hosting a children’s show on the Ten Network called The Harry and Ralph Show.

“I’d just left school, and at the same time I’d also started as a cadet journalist on The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mirror. They were great days, and that’s where I learnt it all,” he said.

Today, the Snake Boy of St Ives lives in Northbridge with his partner Craig Murchie, who he met at St Ives High School.

“He is Captain Sensible and I’m completely crazy,” Bennett said.

“For 34 years, he has put up with me and no end of colourful, crazy showbiz people tramping in and out of our lives. We really are a great team.”

Confessions of a Shameless Gossip, published by New Holland, is available now.