Making news for all the wrong reasons

Making news for wrong reasons

The immediate family of Nine’s incarcerated 60 Minutes crew will gather at the network’s Willoughby headquarters today for further briefings from management on developments in Lebanon.

Proceedings in Beirut, where the crew are being held, are in the hands of politically well-connected lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab, the son of former Lebanese independence fighter Niam Moghabghab.

Hopefully he’ll be able to help Nine navigate the perilous politics of Lebanon, a key need given the botched child-snatching operation the crew are accused of abetting that happened on a street controlled by Iran-aligned Hezbollah militants.

Nine’s new boss Hugh Marks has already warned the market that earnings this half will be off, in part due to a spike in legal costs associated with octogenarian Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon suing the network.

The latest offshore legal battle could be a fresh financial headache for Marks, just five months at the helm, as he seeks to bring his staff home.

Sharing the load

Still, the show must go on under new 60 Minutes executive producer Kirsty Thomson, who took over in February. She’s waiting until tomorrow to decide whether to piece together an update on the delicate situation to air on Sunday night.

Detained reporter Tara Brown’s workload is being covered this week by Liz Hayes, who’s jetted to London to pick up Brown’s slack, while Brown’s husband and ex-Nine exec John McAvoy holds the fort at the couple’s harbourside Castlecrag home — a long way from Baabda Prison where his wife is being held.

McAvoy spent almost two decades at Nine, including time as a senior producer on 60 Minutes and culminating as head of factual programming.

In 2014 McAvoy launched his own independent production company, responsible for gems like Territory Cops, Kalgoorlie Cops, What Really Happens In Bali and its cousin, What Really Happens in Thailand.

The couple have 5 and 7-year-old boys, virtually the same age as the children that Brown and her crew were in the Middle East to recover.

Remote control

Visy and Pratt Industries boss Anthony Pratt’s plan to spend the balance of his time back in Oz from next year is coming together.

For some time the billionaire son of late box king Richard Pratt has spent the lion’s share of his life in US, where he has a three-level penthouse in NYC that overlooks Central Park and a mansion in Atlanta, but comes to Australia regularly.

Now he is now preparing, with his partner Claudine Revere, to effectively call Australia home for a while. His mother Jeanne Pratt has just turned 80 and lives in the family’s Raheen mansion in Melbourne’s Kew, which her son and grandchildren will share.

Pratt’s sisters Heloise (now separated from Alex Waislitz) and Fiona both live in Melbourne with their families.

Fiona Geminder, who is married to Pact Group boss Raphael Geminder, continues to put the finishing touches on their whopping home renovation in Kooyong, now almost two years in development.

Their brother’s partner Revere is a successful businesswoman in her own right via her high-end catering enterprise in New York. The couple have two children Leon (named after Richard Pratt’s father) and Lilly. Revere, who is now a Visy director, is expected to continue to run her enterprise.

Pratt Industries is now the biggest Aussie-owned company in the US, with plans by Pratt to double its size in the next seven years: an ambition he looks set to pursue from afar.

The love boat

Is billionaire James Packer’s luxury icebreaker the Arctic P on wedding reconnaissance in French Polynesia?

For the past fortnight the superyacht has been tootling around the Tahitian islands, stopping off at the likes of Bora Bora and Papeete, as the already twice-married Packer’s bride-to-be Mariah Carey explores her vocal range on her Sweet Sweet Fantasy tour. Overnight the diva played in Munich.

The recently upgraded mega yacht has played host to previous Packer wedding parties, including that to Erica Baxter in the French Riviera.

Packer hasn’t been sighted for a while, perhaps busy sorting out troubles in The Philippines and lower than expected revenues in resources crash-ravaged Perth.

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