Screaming groupies, paparazzi, a TikTok superstar bombshell on his arm and an entourage rivalling Beyonce’s. Yes, the hype machine was in full swing around the teenage rap star The Kid Laroi when he returned – triumphant – to his old stomping ground this week in the shadows of Waterloo’s public housing towers.
Not so long ago, around the neighbourhood he was known simply as Charlton Howard. But to millions of adoring fans, he is The Kid Laroi, a name derived as a mark of respect to his Indigenous ancestral roots within the Kamilaroi tribe in north-west NSW.
The Kid Laroi at his top-secret Ivy concert late on Thursday night.
At the centre of the 18-year-old’s world is the one person who has fiercely guided his career since he was a little boy: his powerhouse mother and manager, Kamilaroi woman Sloane Howard.
And she still calls the shots. PS can reveal Sloane Howard met heavy-hitting US music executive Scooter Braun in Sydney this week. Braun famously ended up in a feud with Taylor Swift over copyright to her music.
Braun flew into Sydney on Thursday especially to see Laroi’s concert (which also included a surprise 20-minute performance at Justin Hemmes’ Ivy on Thursday night), and pitch a new global management deal for the singer – via his mother.
Sloane Howard has been described as Australia’s answer to Kris Jenner, the infamous Hollywood stage mother responsible for the seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of Kardashian and Jenner celebrity progeny.
The Kid Laroi with his mother and manager, Sloane Howard.Credit: Twitter
But unlike Jenner, Sloane Howard is keen to remain out of the spotlight. When PS made inquiries this week, the response was loud and clear: she has no interest in publicity, preferring her star son soak up all the attention because “he deserves it”.
However, she is clearly the one person “Laroi” listens to most. The disarmingly down-to-earth singer has revealed in interviews his mother doesn’t like him “spending money”, though she encourages him to “treat myself”.
She also inspired his love of rap and hip hop, some of his earliest musical memories listening to his mother’s Tupac Shakur and Eminem albums, along with music from The Fugees and Erykah Badu.
After founding her own professional acting and modelling agency in Broken Hill, she later established another outfit when she moved the family back to Sydney, Mama Capone Management.
His father Nick Howard, who separated from Sloane years ago, is a music producer and sound engineer who has worked with Australian stars such as Bardot and Delta Goodrem. He has also joined the tour, along with Laroi’s grandparents and younger brother, 15-year-old Austin, who is fast making a name for himself as a music producer.
In 2004, when Laroi was but a toddler, Sloane Howard told the Herald about signing new talent among indigenous youngsters in Redfern in the fledgling local hip hop scene: “A lot of rappers come out of Harlem and have real stories to tell. In Australia, they are mostly just copycats.”
Laws rock goes big in New York
Billed as one of Sydney’s most extraordinary love tokens, the huge diamond ring John Laws gave to his late wife Caroline has sold at the New York salon of Bonhams auction house. The impressive 17.25-carat diamond sold for more than twice its estimate following frenzied bidding in the Madison Ave salerooms, fetching nearly $1.2 million, which includes the buyer’s premium.
John Laws has sold the spectacular and huge diamond ring his late wife Caroline once wore – one of the largest in Sydney – in New York.Credit: Jenny Evans
The diamond ring was a gift from Laws to his beloved Caroline in 2003 while holidaying in Hong Kong. In the words of Laws: “I saw it, she loved it, I bought it!”
John and Caroline Laws drive away in his black Rolls Royce after their wedding in the tiny chapel in All Saints Church of England, Woollahra, in 1976.Credit: SMH Archives
It was PS that dubbed the ring “the skating rink” given its magnificent size and sparkle, which was often a talking point around the tables at Woolloomooloo’s Otto where “the Princess” dined.
The piece was offered in good company. The auction included jewels from the collections of Bette Midler, Lady Sylvia Ashley and Belle Époque sugar heiress Helene Irwin Croker Fagan, whose Cartier emerald and diamond bracelet achieved $4.569 million.
Rosemont opens its doors
Sydneysiders have a rare chance to see inside one of our town’s most famed private residences when the contents of Woollahra’s Rosemont go on public viewing at 14 Rosemont Avenue, from Thursday to Saturday, ahead of being auctioned through Artvisory on Sunday, June 5.
Rosemont has been the home of Lady Burrell and her late husband Sir Raymond Burrell and their family since 1983.
Rosemont, built in 1857, was the centrepiece of Sydney’s high society for over a century.Credit: Peter Rae
Drew Burrell told PS his mother, Lady Burrell, now 82, is downsizing to an apartment in the eastern suburbs, and while several pieces on loan from the ancestral seat of Knepp Castle in West Sussex have been returned, a vast collection of rare antiques and artworks are to go under the hammer.
Lady Burrell and grandchildren Connie and Camilla at Rosemont.
“For us, it was a lovely, comfortable home to grow up in. Our parties were a bit more low-key than the previous residents,” he said.
Rosemont recently sold for $45 million.
It was built in 1857 by merchant banker and politician Alexander Campbell and was the centrepiece of Sydney’s high society for over a century.
In the 1930s, it was bought by Lady Hannah Lloyd Jones (wife of David Jones chairman, Sir Charles Lloyd Jones), who held lavish parties attended by prominent VIPs, including Sir Robert Menzies, Prince Philip, Noel Coward, Danny Kaye, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein.
Luciano’s foes
“No, I am not running around in a tinfoil hat,” Sydney’s high-flying money man Rob Luciano said after PS checked in with the millionaire hedge fund manager who is planning a much lower profile in the future following the planned merger of his firm VGI Partners with Phil King’s Regal Funds Management.
The timing of the deal provided a catalyst for some of Luciano’s foes to engage in a little tittle-tattle this week, claiming to PS that Luciano travels the world with highly trained former elite soldiers as bodyguards, demands the Wi-Fi be switched off on the entire floor of the hotels he stays in, has his own chef and has installed a “panic room” near his office.
No tin foil hats for Rob Luciano.Credit: James Brickwood
Luciano told PS the bodyguards were for his high-profile business associates, including senior Israeli politicians and a former business partner had sand poured into his car’s fuel tank; that he gets headaches if he sleeps near Wi-Fi routers; and that the “panic room” was little more than a sound-proofed meeting space.
But he did have the place swept for listening devices – given the competitive nature of his business – and had security gates installed at the entrance to his office. However, his personal chef was actually “for all the staff”, but he has no requirement for a “taster”.
“Anything rivals can do to put a question mark over your credibility, they will. These are all exaggerations from vengeful people,” he told PS.
“All this stuff, it’s nonsense being peddled by rivals.”
Mary Poppins’ many pop-ins
There were plenty of spoonfuls of sugar to help former Morrison government foreign minister Marise Payne lick her wounds on Thursday night at the spectacular Mary Poppins premiere at the Lyric Theatre.
As her successor Penny Wong jetted off to Fiji, Payne, along with hubby, NSW Liberal Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres, joined a throng of Liberal cronies, including former premier Mike Baird, Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Treasurer Matt Kean and sitting Premier Dominic Perrottet, whom PS noticed had squeezed three of his burgeoning brood in as his “plus one”.
The “family Von Perrottet” clearly enjoyed the show, along with the diverse crowd, which included everyone from broadcast royalty Liz Hayes to Instagram sensation Carla From Bankstown. And yes, it’s a supercalifragilisticexpialidocius production.
MCB gets Gore nod
Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes can add another feather to his already oversized cap: making it on to the 2022 Time 100 Most Influential People of 2022, joining an exclusive club of Aussies who made it before him, including Nicole Kidman and Gina Rinehart.
Mike Cannon-Brookes.Credit: Wolter Peeters
His entry was penned by no less than former US vice president Al Gore, who wrote: “Cannon-Brookes’ innovative investments and vocal advocacy for decarbonising the private sector are redefining the role of climate activism in business and investment.”
Stick that in your AGL chimney stack and smoke it.
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