Simon Francis exit end of lunch as we know it

Illustration: Rod Clement.

After more than two decades as Kerry Stokes ’smaster of the dark arts, Simon Francis is leaving Seven West Media.

This is the end of an era.

Francis — a ferocious spin doctor and unrivalled luncher — has been a key component of Stokes’s ruthless executive team.

He was a shadowy, and hilarious, member of the Machiavelli Ristorante team that under David Leckie’sleadership turned Seven into Australia’s dominant commercial TV station, displacing Channel Nine.

Francis’s departure follows that of Seven’s corporate and regulatory affairs boss Bridget Fair, who is off to run industry group Free TV Australia in the new year.

That leaves embattled CEO Tim Worner and commercial director Bruce McWilliam as the surviving remnants of Seven West’s executive old guard, which has taken a battering over the past 12 months courtesy of Amber Harrison, Worner’s former mistress.

As for the cancer stick and caffeine-loving Francis, here’s hoping there’s a memoir in the raconteur’s near future. Imagine the stories he could tell.

All about the words

British tech writer turned alt-right hustler Milo Yiannopoulos rolled into town this week for his capital city speaking tour.

Considering the cast behind the venture, the 33-year-old is lucky to have been paid up front for the cash-for-controversy ­enterprise.

Yiannopoulos is being handled here by celebrity agent Max Markson, while Mark Latham is master of ceremonies for six of Yiannopoulos’s shows and fellow commentator Andrew Bolt will host another two.

The events are being brought to us by Penthouse Australia and New Zealand, and began last night in Adelaide before a crowd of more than 1000.

The fine print reveals the outfit behind it is Filthy Gorgeous Productions, established three months ago by sole director Damien Costas, who is also a half shareholder alongside Adelaide businessman Sean Dolman.

Costas, 36, is also the director of Filthy Gorgeous Pty Limited, which has the local licence for Penthouse.

Speaking to Margin Call yesterday, Costas reckoned he was going to make “a fortune” from the tour. He told us that next year he has plans to open a Penthouse “supper club” in Sydney, as he further leverages the adult entertainment brand. Sounds charming.

Filthy Gorgeous is old territory for Costas. The mag was published by him in 2014 and 2015, before it was renamed FG Media, which went into liquidation in April last year. The liquidator received $667,000 in claims from creditors, including Costas.

Before the first version of Filthy Gorgeous there was also PH Publications, of which Costas was a director and which also published the mag. It also changed its name — to ACN 166 546 747 Pty Ltd — with PH Publications also going to the wall with debts of $600,000.

Costas says all creditors of the publishing vehicles were rolled into new incarnations and have been paid. Although he admits Chris Jordan’s tax office wasn’t so lucky.

“We have no issues with creditors,” he said. “If they were phoenix companies they would be obvious and I’d be banned as a company director. And I’m not,” Costas said.

Markson, who is also the publicist for Penthouse, says he has been paid upfront for his work on the tour.

So what does Costas think of the headline act’s views?

“I don’t believe in everything he says,” Costas finishes, “but I believe in free speech”.

Just like Penthouse, it’s all about the words.

Lew’s reign of rain

Retail billionaire Solomon Lew had a Game of Thrones-inspired warning yesterday for his foes at department store Myer.

“Summer is coming,” the 72-year-old Premier Investments chairman declared to his $2.2 billion group’s AGM at his Just Jeans head office in Richmond, a sunny appropriation of House Stark of Winterfell’s ominous motto.

But as the rain came down outside and Melbourne braced for a drenching, Lew’s CEO Mark McInnes had other things on his mind.

A fortnight ago the backyard of McInnes’s new $12.3 million Toorak mansion flooded. And with rainageddon engulfing Melbourne, the retail exec was preparing for a soggy weekend and wondering if he should shoot home and line his doorways with towels.

Yesterday’s meeting, which drew a crowd of about 65, was the last for retiring Premier directors Gary Weiss (known to many for his guitar work in pub rock band The Asset Strippers) and trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, who fronted the gathering with a grey cable-knit sweater draped about his shoulders.

Lindsay Fox hams it up with Gary Weiss. Picture: David Geraghty.

While thanking his wealthy friends for their service, Lew reminded investors that “it certainly wasn’t the board fees that motivated them”. Too true.

Lew is still snooping about Myer boss Richard Umbers and new chairman Garry Hounsell ’sempire, visiting its Bourke Street store late last Saturday, where Lew said he saw just three people taking in the once iconic Myer Christmas windows.

“If you were looking at a Melbourne Cup form guide Myer would be at about 50 to 100-1 ... That’s their chance of success,” Lew said of the group, before adding that, sometimes. roughies do win.

Now you see him

Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon and his handsome new teeth arrived in Sydney this week for his annual Australian summer visit.

It’s the first visit Down Under by the enigmatic media mogul since Communications Minister Mitch Fifield shepherded the Turnbull government’s media reforms through parliament.

Thanks to Fifield’s negotiating heroics, all sorts of deals are possible.

Gordon is in an interesting place. His portfolio of assets includes his regional broadcaster WIN, 15 per cent of the Peter Costello-chaired Nine, just under 1 per cent of the Nick Falloon-chaired Fairfax and, Gordon’s latest media acquisition, a 15 per cent stake in the John Hartigan-chaired regional broadcaster Prime, which he scooped up from Seven billionaire Kerry Stokes.

Gordon’s WIN also has a chunk of secretive billionaire David Teoh ’s telco TPG.

As Gordon does the summer rounds catching up with chairman Costello, Ten CEO Paul Anderson (whose relationship with Gordon has changed from shareholder to affiliate) and other media execs, all will be trying to work out: what will be the former child magician Gordon’s next trick?

And who does the 88-year-old’s sparkling dental work?