THE DIARY
Chance to shine … Pacha dancer Zoe Black will perform at the Ivy. Photo: Sahlan Hayes
THE global Ibiza-club franchise Pacha launches in Sydney on Saturday night. Bar tsar Justin Hemmes has partnered with the owners of the Ibiza nightclub to hold court at his venue the Ivy. Pacha Ibiza has been voted one of the world's best nightclubs by DJ magazine. Regulars at the club include Bono, Boy George, Jude Law and Kylie Minogue. Part of its appeal is a reputation for securing internationally renowned DJs to perform. Hemmes promises it will be Australia's first ''super club'' with different themes each week, guest DJs, burlesque performers, aerialists and dancers all part of the show. The creative team for Pacha Sydney has Ignatius Jones at the helm, who is best known for his creative work running Mardi Gras and his contribution to the Sydney Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. He's planning to transform every alley, room and level of the Ivy into a hub of creativity. Before the party, Hemmes will co-host a VIP dinner with the founder of Pacha, Ricardo Urgell, at the Felix bar and bistro. Guests include X Factor judge and former Spice Girl Mel B and her husband Stephen Belafonte, Romance Was Born designers Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett, and model Nikki Phillips.
WHO SAID CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME?
It has all the hallmarks of a fabulous event, with a triple-A guest list, a prominent location and a high-profile charity attached. But the black-tie Christmas dinner under a marquee on the tennis court of the Horizon apartment building on Friday is rapidly turning into a fiasco and has left the residents of the Darlinghurst landmark divided. The Diary has learnt some of the building's 500 residents have been left underwhelmed by the event which will have the Governor, Marie Bashir, actor Claudia Karvan and Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull among those attending and James Valentine emceeing. It is hoped the $220-a-head event, organised by the building's executive committee, will generate as much as $50,000 for The Wayside Chapel. The focus of the complaints has generally been the location, the common property tennis courts, with claims that the area shouldn't be used for a private event and that a simple donation would be more successful and less hassle. And there has been some hassle. On Thursday an engineer was called in to allay fears that the tennis court slab wouldn't be able to hold the weight of the marquee and diners, but the executive committee's chairman, Brett Anderson, told The Diary it was all systems go. ''Some people have had their differences of opinion,'' he said. ''People are entitled to their point of view but everyone was invited and while not everyone is attending, we have 280 people going including Wayside Chapel pastor Graham Long and his wife, Robyn.''
GEORGE BACK UP
WHEN actor Melissa George hit the publicity hustings last week for the new TV series Hunted, she was noticeably prickly when the questions turned from the new show to her old role on Home and Away. Now, the writer and producer of Hunter, Frank Spotnitz, has revealed George was not the first choice for the role of agent Sam Hunter. The character was originally written with the former star of The X-Files, Gillian Anderson, in mind. The first series of Hunted was a co-production between the BBC and the HBO-owned US cable channel Cinemax. The BBC confirmed last week it would not continue its involvement with the series, after less-than-stellar ratings in Britain, but Spotnitz said the second season had the green light, though the details were yet to be confirmed. ''I don't know exactly how it's all landing yet - this is one of the hazards of doing this international co-production thing, [but] I know we're going forward,'' he said on BBC Radio. Hunted airs on SBS.
AAAHH HAM BAG
We've heard of women forking out big bucks for a handbag but what about a ham bag? One of Australia's best-known fashion designers, Akira Isagowa, has been commissioned to create a series of bags to hold the Christmas ham. Butcher to the rich and famous, Victor Churchill, in Woollahra, has joined forces with Isagowa - favoured designer of Antonia Kidman and Melissa George - to sell the bags for $16.95 each, or offer them ''free'' with any ham, including the Kurobuta Berkshire bone-in traditional 8-10 kilogram ready-glazed ham at $248. The shop will donate $10 from each ham sale to the Sydney Children's Hospital. ''We're in this unique position as a bespoke boutique - we've been likened to Tom Ford and Bulgari,'' said butcher Anthony Puharich. ''Why not collaborate with a great Australian designer? I want to do a series of ham bags and ask a different designer each year. After 10 years they'll be collectors items. It's humbling to be collaborating with Akira on the first ham bag.'' He says even in the present economic climate, the shop is thriving. ''We have a combination of customers, firstly in Woollahra, but we have passionate foodies who travel just to buy our meat. They may only shop here once a week or fortnight but they love the high-end service and restaurant-quality.'' At left, Darren O'Rourke from Victor Churchill shows off what the best-dressed hams will be wearing.
ICING ON THE CAKE
Just like one of Margaret Fulton's delicious sponges, the cast of a musical dedicated to her rose to the occasion in the premiere of Queen of the Dessert. The 88-year-old Living Treasure, as deemed by the National Trust, flew from Sydney to watch Amy Lehpamer of Rock of Ages fame don the apron to play the cookery doyenne at Theatre Works in St Kilda, Melbourne, on Wednesday. Fulton became emotional viewing her life on stage and so did family members who joined her in the front row: daughter Suzanne Gibbs, and her daughters Kate Gibbs and Louise Fulton Keats. Other opening-nighters were Kath & Kim'sJane Turner, Neighbours actor Alan Fletcher and Steve Vizard. Fulton was asked to go on stage at the after-party, where she accepted flowers and praised the production that runs until December 1. That's a big tick for writer Doug MacLeod, composer Yuri Worontschak and directors Bryce Ives and Nathan Gilkes and proves they got the ingredients just right.
STAY IN TOUCH ...
WITH JESSICA MAUBOY PUZZLINGLY PALE IN PHOTOSHOOT
SHE stars in a glamorous photo shoot for the Christmas edition of The Australian Women's Weekly. But it's hard not to notice that Jessica Mauboy doesn't look herself. The proudly indigenous singer and actor appears to have a lighter skin colour in the photograph, with her arms in particular looking white, leading to questions from Fairfax Media about whether the images were photoshopped. But the Weekly's editor, Helen McCabe, insists there was absolutely nothing done to alter the portrait of Mauboy, which was taken in Darwin. She said it was ''incomprehensible'' the magazine would portray an indigenous star as having lighter skin. ''It's a lighting thing,'' McCabe said. ''It's just completely incomprehensible that we would do that.
''There's no gain in it. It's not like the old days where you wouldn't put a black person on a cover either, the old days of the magazine world. It wouldn't occur to us to touch her skin colour.'' Mauboy, who has an indigenous mother and an Indonesian father, was unavailable for comment about the picture, right. But the questions raised about the portrait come after similar controversies in the United States surrounding the portrayal of black stars, including Beyonce Knowles, in magazines. Questions were raised earlier this year over a promotional photograph where Knowles was portrayed as looking many shades lighter than her real-life skin tone. McCabe said readers are well aware of the issues surrounding Photoshop - an issue that she had directly addressed as an editor - but she was adamant nothing was done deliberately in this case. ''We get completely caned for all sorts of things which actually aren't true,'' she said. ''Obviously photoshopping occurs at a level on all photos to some extent … but the truth is a lot of it is just lighting and make-up and hair. It's not the really evil stuff. This [picture] is a really good example of the tricks photos can play without going to that extra magic box and pulling out the trickery. We just don't do it.'' McCabe said the photographer, Alana Landsberry, was ''mortified'' at the suggestion that Mauboy's skin had been lightened. ''We have not changed her skin colour nor would we under any circumstance,'' Landsberry said.
WITH ACTOR'S GRASSROOTS
HE RECEIVED Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for best supporting actor in the movie version of Chicago, so we know John C. Reilly can sing, but he is better known for his acting chops in The Thin Red Line, Gangs of New York and The Hours. What's not so well known is his passion for bluegrass music. In fact, while he's in Australia promoting the new Disney film Wreck-It Ralph, he's booked to play a couple of gigs. His band, John C. Reilly & Friends - with Tom Brosseau and Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark - will play Sydney's The Factory on December 3 and Melbourne's Northcote Social Club on December 6. John C. Reilly & Friends have released works through Jack White's Third Man Records, and several releases such as Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar and I'll Be There If You Ever Want were produced by White. He claims music is his first love and in 2007 he was the lead actor, vocalist and songwriter on the soundtrack to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song Walk Hard, and went on the road in the US, performing as his character Dewey Cox in the Cox Across America tour.
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Contact diary@smh.com.au or 92822350
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