By Andrew Hornery
Private Sydney: IT WAS the dress that stopped a nation, but Brynne Gordon's disco-ball-girl-meets-pole-dancer ensemble was actually the work of her 65-year-old sweetheart, Geoffrey Edelsten.
''They were a lovely, down-to-earth couple,'' said the Las Vegas store manager, Patty Acohido, when PS called the Nurielle boutique to learn more about the saucy brunch coat-evening gown.
That dress...Brynne Gordon at the Brownlow Medal awards.
''It was Mr Edelsten who suggested Miss Gordon get the crystal bra … that was his idea,'' she said.
And Edelsten was keen to make sure his 26-year-old American fiancee got everything her heart desired. He splashed out $US2200 ($2500) on the Swarovski crystal bra, dropped another $US8000 on the gown she wore to the AFl Brownlow Medal awards on Tuesday night and another $US10,000 on two other numbers from the boutique, said to be equally - ahem - dazzling.
Gordon, who once posted her life motto on her MySpace website as ''You are only as strong as the tables you dance on, the drinks you mix and the friends you roll with'', has been dating Edelsten for the past year. She told PS yesterday she was overwhelmed by all the attention the dress had attracted and said the 40-year age gap between her and Edelsten was not an issue as ''he has more energy than I do''.
While there have been no helicopters or fur-lined sports cars, Edelsten is keen to spoil his bride-to-be since proposing with a diamond ring and box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
''He was unable to get down on one knee because he had just had surgery on his knee,'' Gordon explained, adding: ''He has wanted to honour me in such a way it's so much further beyond anything I could have imagined.''
As for that dress: ''I thought it was beautiful. Geoff and I love to shop together … Sometimes our tastes differ and sometimes they are very similar … When I get dressed up and really done up I love sparkly things, very girly, lacy … More on the sexy side usually.''
She's in good company. The former supermodel and television personality Heidi Klum has the same crystal bra, and the Las Vegas female impersonator Frank Marino, who is starring in the La Cage show at the Riviera Hotel, says: ''Nurielle has so much fashion sense that they can dress me as a man or a woman any day.''
The label's creator, Nurielle Mawardi, told PS from her Miami home that many celebrities wear her ''sexy'' designs, including ''America's No. 1 porn star, Jenna Jameson'' along with that other great arbiter of style, Paris Hilton.
Gordon and Edelsten will be back in Las Vegas next month before their wedding and are planning another shopping spree at Nurielle with several honeymoon outfits on the agenda.
We can't wait.
Merrie times in the hood
DOUBLE BAY is a long way from Sherwood Forest, however, the merry men and women of Transvaal Avenue could be forgiven for thinking they had been transported back to medieval times on Monday when Maid Marion and Robin Hood - thankfully sans tights - hit the shops. Well, at least the latest big screen versions, Russell Crowe, who is playing Hood in the yet-to-be-released Hollywood blockbuster, and Cate Blanchett, in the role of Marion. The pair bumped into each other in a power-shopping expedition. While the chemistry was not obvious, Crowe and Blanchett have filmed a sex scene for the film, which Crowe recently described as ''very special''. The pair also rode horses together, saw off the bad guys, got partially naked, wallowed chin-deep in mud, danced by firelight, attended a funeral and did plenty of kissing. Tough gig.
ANOTHER KSUBI DUO
They sent rats down a runway to promote their jeans but don't expect fashion's well-rehearsed bad boys George Gorrow and Dan Single to start pouring beers any time soon. The rumour sweeping Sydney's bar scene that the Ksubi duo were about to take over the Flinders Hotel in Darlinghurst is a little off the mark. Instead it is two of Ksubi's key team members, the global brand director, Paul Wilson, and the art director, Michael Nolan, who have been in talks with the property developer Greg Magree about ''doing something'' with the hotel.
THE BAR SCENE
Greg Magree's name popped up in recent weeks during the McGurk murder mayhem after the Herald revealed Magree's Horizon Development Company, which owns the freehold of the Trademark Hotel in Kings Cross, had been in talks with McGurk about taking over another hotel in the Cross. Magree is an associate of John Ibrahim - described in court papers as an organised-crime figure - the pair recently returning from a Las Vegas holiday together.
ANCHORS AWEIGH
Reg Grundy and Joy Chambers-Grundy have finally sold their mammoth superyacht Boadicea. Putting the giant pleasure tinnie on the market in 2007, the couple were asking for $120 million for their slightly used boat. News from the Monaco Yacht Show, which started on Wednesday, is that the boat has been sold. The 70.5-metre Boadicea, launched by the shipbuilder Amels in 1999, can accommodate 14 guests and about that number again in crew.
LIFE'S A BEACH
The chief executive of Woolworths, Michael Luscombe, may want to avoid hitting his local beach this weekend. The long-time northern beaches resident has upset people with plans to build a supermarket with a three-storey car park on top in Newport. The normally laid-back locals will stage a protest rally tomorrow morning.
TV TIE-IN
The MasterChef judge Matt Preston (pictured) is milking his new-found fame for all it's worth and launching a book next week that features an entire chapter devoted to his love of cravats. ''I started wearing scarves and cravats aged 18, influenced by my three main style icons - the dandified Brian Jones, who was the coolest of the Rolling Stones; Fred Jones from the cartoon Scooby-Doo, who sported a natty orange scarf; and Harry H. Corbett, who played Harold in Steptoe and Son. ''Corbett added a grungy edge to the loosely tied op shop scarf, in contrast to his father's tattered neckerchief,'' Preston writes. He also has names for his cravats, including Mia, which, he writes, ''is a long, skinny, red cravat with a sparse but stylish green and yellow paisley-patterned edging''. There are two Michelles. ''Both are red with white polka dots. 'Long Michelle' is an un-waisted ascot and long (obviously); 'Short Michelle' is a waisted cravat but now known as 'Slutty Michelle' because she kept misbehaving and popping out of the shirt to flap around. She also ran away to the Logies with my fellow judge George Calombaris and was seen in his breast pocket at TV's night of nights.''
PSssst …
Kylie Minogue and politics is a little like oil and water - the star is always keen to steer clear from commenting on anything as divisive as one's political persuasions. However, in pursuit of the almighty dollar the singer appears to have fallen into the embrace of Britain's Conservative Party. Minogue was hired by the billionaire Tory Michael Ashcroft to perform at his wife's birthday party last Saturday in London. Guest of honour at the swish soiree was the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron. Reports from London say the diminutive Aussie pop star performed for an hour and ''was apparently rather good''. Witnesses say they saw Cameron "bopping away", and one columnist in London offered a bottle of Pol Roger champagne for the first person to provide pictures of "Dave" dancing along to Kylie. Meanwhile, on the eve of her first North American tour, Minogue has put to rest reports elsewhere that she is planning a double wedding with her sister, Dannii, in Melbourne soon. Minogue has been dating the Spanish model Andres Velencoso, a decade her junior, for more than a year.
***
THE federal MP Belinda Neal and her embattled NSW MP husband John Della Bosca have been putting on a romantic show around Macquarie Street all week worthy of a Barbara Cartland book. On the same day The Australian Women's Weekly quoted her as saying she would ''fight for my marriage'', Neal was being wined and dined by her cheating husband in the dining room at NSW Parliament House.
Observers noted they were sitting ''tete a tete'' and ''at the most obvious table in the room, right next to the exit. There was no way you could miss them.'' They were wearing matching dark suits, with Neal's hair nicely coiffed, a la magazine makeover. However their matrimonial discourse kept being interrupted by men dropping by to chat with Della Bosca.
On Thursday Neal popped up at Macquarie Street again, this time wielding barbecue tongs on the sausage sizzle to welcome Della Bosca to his new digs as a backbencher.