The Source: Holiday pics fuel rumours of Dusty’s new romance
Old holiday snaps have surfaced of Dustin Martin and Elli Johnston, adding fuel to rumours the pair have rekindled their romance.
The Source
Don't miss out on the headlines from The Source. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers.
Let’s call it a Thursday throwback.
Following Source revelations this week that Tiger star Dustin Martin and Elli Johnston, the daughter of Carlton legend Wayne Johnston, have been romantically linked, ancient photos of the pair relaxing together have been dusted off.
Martin and Johnston knew each other before Martin’s three flags and three Norm Smith medals.
The photos are dated to a decade ago when the pair were said to have gone on “a romantic holiday together”.
In one, they are having a drink on banana lounges in a backdrop that suggests Bali or somewhere similarly fabulous.
Tattoo aficionados could independently date the photos by the relative scarcity of tattoos on the topless Dusty.
The era predates Johnston’s subsequent marriage to NRL star, Brett Finch, who was convicted late last year of sharing child pornography online.
Johnston stood by her husband through the judicial process, but the couple have since split, leading to a Source tip that Martin and Johnston have reconnected.
Share your tips to thesource@heraldsun.com.au
Double trouble
One top influencer has paid the ultimate price for wearing a showpiece gown that another influencer had — gulp — already worn.
The first influencer wore her gown for a party a few months ago.
When she heard the second influencer had committed one of the great fashion crimes of the week, perhaps even the month, she applied the rules of the influencer jungle.
The two influencers are acquainted and regulars on the social scene. Yet “fash clashes” must be fought to the (virtual) death.
The second influencer was admonished, according to influencer custom — blocked on Instagram and never to be spoken to again.
Blood no barrier to sticking boots in
Adelaide’s Kane Cornes has been brutalised in recent days about his provocative football commentary, likened to verbal click bait by Richmond coach Damien Hardwick in criticisms that others have since echoed.
It gets worse for Cornes. Overlooked, until now, is that even his dad, Graham, has joined in.
North Melbourne great Corey McKernan offered this tweet after Kane Cornes bagged the Roos recently:
Hey @kanecornes I’ll have a bottle of @penfolds Grange that @NMFCOfficial win a game before Round 18? https://t.co/4IX0NW1vfz
— Corey McKernan (@CoreyMcKernan) April 25, 2023
To which Graham Cornes replied:
😂😂😂😂😂😂. My son buy a bottle of Grange?? He thinks that’s a song by ZZ Top. But I don’t think he actually said that.. keep the pressure on though. https://t.co/H38QYClGJe
— Graham Cornes (@Cornesy12) April 25, 2023
Dad, it should be said, has form.
Back in 2020, when Kane Cornes said the Adelaide Crows were the club everyone loved to hate, Graham tweeted: “Somewhere, somehow, sometime the genes mutated.”
No plans to branch out for Sydney-centric ABC, SBS
It’s an unfortunate fact that the two taxpayer-funded national broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, are based in Sydney.
Critics, stretching to all corners of our wide, brown land, have long ascribed unconscious (or conscious) bias to these Sydney bases, citing “national” news items about Sydney which are of no interest nationally.
Fortunately, SBS moves are afoot. Unfortunately they don’t point to Melbourne.
SBS is discussing an HQ shift from Sydney’s north shore — to western Sydney. The federal government even has a steering committee for a feasibility study into SBS moving 35-odd km west.
Why not think bigger, asks one of Victoria’s best spruikers, former premier Jeff Kennett.
Why isn’t a move 870km south, to Melbourne, in the SBS migration equation?
He has a few points.
The cities of Melbourne, Dandenong and Monash feature in the top 10 national list for their proportion of people born overseas.
Melbourne is expected to gain 73,100 foreign migrants this financial year and 74,500 next year.
And what of the bigger is better argument, now that Melbourne’s population has surpassed Sydney’s (by one measure, anyway) in a gap expected to widen?
“Given Sydney is home to the very expensive ABC why not give the SBS a real
opportunity for renewal by moving to Melbourne?” Kennett asks.
“Victoria has a very proud, harmonious, multicultural reputation.
“We have plenty of modern offices available in the city of Melbourne,
or in the fringe suburbs.
“Bring SBS to Melbourne, or Bendigo, or Ballarat.”
Meanwhile, Victoria’s Shadow Minister for the Arts, David Davis, has fired off letters to federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, the SBS board and multicultural community groups across Victoria, arguing that a western Sydney move would be a “massive mistake” and “deeply unfair”.
Anywhere but Sydney? May the SBS HQ debate begin.
Has Finch been ditched for Dusty?
After The Source revealed disgraced former NRL star Brett Finch had split from wife Elli Johnston, it’s been suggested that she may have moved on with the Richmond superstar.
Martin, of course, is the AFL’s most mysterious bachelor.
He has been linked in the past to models including Jessica Gomes, Chontelle Berryman and Elissa Burns, as well as Sydney food blogger Tania Acitelli.
Martin has never confirmed or denied a romantic rumour.
It is believed he’s known Johnston in the past.
And given the media coverage of the Finch court case it’s hardly surprising that any such friendship has been kept very quiet.
Finch escaped jail time last year after pleading guilty and being convicted of sharing “depraved” child sex abuse material online amid a crippling cocaine addiction.
He and Johnston share a young daughter and Johnston stood by him through the judicial process.
Johnston, the daughter of Hall of Famer and Carlton great Wayne Johnston, spoke of the need to heal after Finch was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended, in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on November 23.
Royally rude
The coronation of King Charles has, predictably, charged the republican movements of Australia with new-found zeal about dabbling with the mechanics of Australian democracy.
They may have many Australians on side, but not all of the receivers of their missives have been amused.
When Real Republic Australia issued its latest newsletter, it received this reply from the Monash University Liberal Club: “Please refrain from sending us your disreputable and treacherous newsletters and remove us from your emailing list”.
Real Republic Australia, which, for the record, has never supported sedition in its decades-long history, obliged the request – while noting that the response seemed like a “somewhat illiberal attitude”.
Block it in
Everybody knows good real estate is about location, location, location.
Which makes the whereabouts of millionaire Adrian Portelli, who has been spotted twice with The Block creator Julian Cress in the space of a week, very interesting.
The pair were dining at city hotspot Grill Americano last week and on Tuesday morning were in Phillip Island for a charity car event.
No doubt Cress is hoping to secure the businessman’s interest for the new renovation series currently filming in Hampton East.
Portelli, who just paid $39m for a city penthouse, shot to prominence last year when he controversially bid on Oz and Omar’s Gisborne house that sent the price skyrocketing and handed the boys a record $1.6m profit.
Portelli scoffed at the ‘dummy bidder’ suggestion and then came good with his money when he bought Sharon and Ankur’s house for $4.25m and gave it away through his business LMCT+.
Coldplay gives Melbourne the cold shoulder
Pop superstar Chris Martin, co-inventor of the term ‘conscious uncoupling,’ appears to have done that very deed with Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, opting for Perth only as part of Coldplay’s 2023 world tour plan.
Promoter Live Nation has all but confirmed the wild west coup with a flashy Instagram post of Perth’s Optus Stadium, and a billboard touting Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres world tour, and various sponsors, including the WA Government.
Live Nation had no comment on Monday, but an official announcement is expected to drop on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, insiders said Coldplay’s Perth plan is “100 per cent locked in.”
The tour began in Costa Rica in March last year.
The WA coup is said to be inspired by Billy Joel’s one-night-only show at Melbourne’s MCG last December as part of Victoria’s exclusive music showcase, Always Live.
Coldplay’s Perth show will mark the band’s first gig in WA since 2009. They toured Australia in 2012 and 2016, but only played eastern states.
Coldplay’s latest tour set list includes stadium anthems like Paradise, The Scientist, Viva La Vida, Yellow, Clocks, Sky Full Of Stars and Fix You.
Why Humphries’ farewell may not honour his roots
Melbourne was possibly the most formative influence in the life and times of Barry Humphries.
He grew up in Camberwell, hated Fed Square, and presented Moonee Ponds to the world through Dame Edna’s biting provincialism.
It started in Melbourne. So it will end in Melbourne — won’t it?
Apparently not. Recent chatter points to the growing belief that the most prominent Barry Humphries farewell will be in Sydney.
That follows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement, in a British TV interview last week, that a Humphries state funeral would be shared, somehow, by his government as well as those of Victoria and NSW.
Fresh details — such as where, when and how — have not materialised since.
Rumours persist of local discord in the state funeral discussions.
The Humphries family was said to be unimpressed by the manner of the Andrews Government’s initial approach, said to be made late on a Sunday evening.
To be fair, this take on events is hotly disputed by government sources.
Humphries, aged 89, passed away 16 days ago.
Update: The Source was on the money with the news broken late on Monday that Humphries’ relatives had opted to have the official farewell in Sydney.
Brett Finch and Elli Johnston split in wake of scandal
Disgraced former NRL star Brett Finch escaped jail time but it appears his marriage hasn’t survived the ordeal.
Finch pleaded guilty and was last year convicted of sharing “depraved” child sex abuse material online amid a crippling cocaine addiction.
He and wife Elli Johnston share a young daughter. She stood by him through the judicial process, but The Source understands they are now no longer together.
Johnston, the daughter of Hall of Famer and Carlton great Wayne Johnston, said in December they would need time to heal individually and as a family. They married in 2018.
Finch was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspending it with a $1000 surety in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on November 23.
Send your tips to thesource@heraldsun.com.au
Skirmish and Andy
Well-heeled residents along multi-millionaire row in riverside Hawthorn are railing against TV and radio star Andy Lee’s grand plans to build his dream home and convert a derelict mansion on the banks of the Yarra.
The Herald Sun last month revealed funnyman and entertainer Lee, and his model and influencer partner Rebecca Harding, had lodged plans for a mega-makeover of a Hawthorn mansion they bought for more than $8m in 2021.
The proposed works include building a second property on the heritage site with a theatre, gym, “mail room”, bar and cellar and large outdoor dining and entertainment terrace.
But neighbours have raised several objections around heritage and landscape issues in the plans with the Boroondara City Council.
They have urged the council to block the plans or order significant amendments. The council is now reviewing and assessing all submissions, ahead of making a decision on the posh makeover plans.
In a pitch for council approval, planners Urbis said the proposal “has been driven by the owners’ desire to retain and embrace the heritage values of the place, at the same time adding a contemporarily designed living zone’’.
“The result will be a conserved and adapted heritage building fronting Yarra Grove with a modern living component set well back on the site but cleverly linked to the heritage building through a tunnel,’’ it said.
Lee told Stellar magazine last year the house is “stunning” and “peaceful.”
Built in 1876, the Italianate mansion on a 1950sq m patch is a Hawthorn landmark.
The original manor house (Ravenswood) last sold for $1.18m in 1995, but had since been vacant and fell into disrepair.
Got a tip? Email thesource@heraldsun.com.au
Lord mayoral candidates prefer to stay silent on preferences
For several weeks, this year’s candidates for lord mayor have been eager to say they are putting voters first. But on one all-important issue, they’re not willing to tell us their preference.
Belle Gibson … no not that one, in Yarra council bid
If politics is all about name recognition, then one woman throwing her hat in the ring at the upcoming council elections is off to a flyer.