Nicole Kidman is slammed for being 'out of touch' as she reveals her top five places to go in Sydney and recommends outrageously overpriced treatment
The Aussie actress, 57, revealed the places she finds 'comfort and ease' when she visits Sydney during an interview with The New York Times.
Her favourite places to visit include the Royal Botanic Garden, The Art Gallery of NSW, day spa Venustus, Harry's Café de Wheels and The Harbor Pools.
However, many have criticised Nicole for suggesting a Six Hand Body Massage at luxurious day spa Venustus, which starts from $1059.
'Thanks Nicole for recommending a spa where, for a mere [starting at] $687.00 [USD], I can get a massage,' one person joked.
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'Nicole, I never knew we were so similar. Maybe we can hang out sometime!' another sarcastically wrote.
The Six Hand Body Massage involves three specialised therapists massaging together in sync.
During the interview, Nicole explained: 'They just know how to take care of people, and their treatments are amazing, especially after a long flight.'
'A massage at Venustus will have you ready to go to take on the city.'
Nicole and her husband Keith Urban regularly travel to Sydney, where they own a penthouse in the luxurious Latitude Building in Sydney's Milsons Point.
They purchased two penthouses in the building and then combined them to make a mega-apartment.
They went on to buy four more apartments in the same building.
The celeb couple first bought a 420sqm pad on the 21st floor in 2009 for close to $6 million according to newspaper reports.
Three years later, they bought the slightly smaller 380sqm apartment next door with better views of the harbour for a reported $7 million.
In 2011, they also splashed out $2.68 million on a 19th floor apartment, which the Oscar-winner initially used as her home office.
The Hollywood stars also own an idyllic farmhouse called Bunya Hill in the Southern Highlands village of Sutton Forrest which they bought in 2008 for $6.5million.
Set on a sprawling 45-hectares featuring herds of cattle and alpaca, the Georgian mansion boasts a traditional wide sandstone verandah.
Since buying the property, Keith and Nicole installed an 18m swimming pool, new gym, full-sized tennis court and 250m grass mounds around the perimeter to block out prying eyes.
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Telegraph
6 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Merv Hughes interview: I should be knighted for ‘dragging' Botham out of crocodile-infested waters
Merv Hughes has spent nine months relishing his reimagining as a 21st-century Crocodile Dundee, plucking a stricken Lord Botham from the jaws of an apex predator 15 feet long. Their escapades last November on the Moyle River passed instantly into folklore, with the great larrikin of Australian cricket reportedly shelving any thought of self-preservation to ensure that England's beloved Beefy – who published photographs of bruises sustained in his fall from their fishing boat – did not end his days as the local crocodiles' lunch. 'I should be knighted,' he says with a laugh, that famous moustache twitching with delight. 'I can't believe King Charles didn't give me a call.' There was just one problem: Hughes, far from diving heroically into the murky, treacherous waters, was blissfully unaware his friend had even taken a tumble. Deciding it is finally time to come clean, he says: 'We did go fishing, and Ian Botham did fall in the water. But did I have anything to do with dragging him out? Not quite. I was asleep in my cabin. I found out about two hours later.' Hughes and Botham are hewn from the same stock, having both become Ashes icons through a combination of playing hard and celebrating harder. If Botham is immortalised in the mind's eye through that picture of him dragging on a dressing-room cigar after hitting 145 not out, en route to the timeless 1981 triumph at Headingley, then Hughes is best captured by an image marking Australia's 1993 series win by necking a bottle of Veuve Clicquot at the same ground. 'He's great company, Beefy,' says the incorrigible Merv. 'He loves a lot of things I love doing – loves his fishing, loves his drinking, loves his eating.' Tales of Hughes's ox-like constitution are legion: he could put away so much ale in his pomp that the Bay 13 brewery, named after the Melbourne Cricket Ground's rowdiest section, has launched a 'Merv' pilsner in his honour. As for food, the scale of his late-night room service orders, involving steak sandwiches galore and milkshakes in every flavour, could shock even his room-mate Shane Warne. When he failed to make the cut for the 1997 tour of England, he joked that it was the right one to miss given that the Australians were no longer backed by the XXXX brewery. 'Got to honour the sponsors,' he grins. 'We also had the McDonald's Cup in those days, where we were given Big Mac vouchers.' It feels somewhat against the grain, then, that when we meet on a breezy day in Melbourne's Docklands, still deep in the southern-hemisphere winter, he opts for nothing more fortifying than a latte. At 63, he is all that you would hope for in the flesh, with his luxuriant whiskers and well-upholstered physique arguably more redolent of a bush ranger than a fast bowler. He made an indelible impact, though, with England fans' mocking chants of 'Sumo' contradicted by his 212 Test wickets and by the verdict of the late, great Bob Simpson, Australia's former coach, that he was 'one of the most underrated bowlers in the history of the game'. There is so much to discuss, from the England players he ranks as his toughest opponents to his views on the Bazballers' new stated commitment to sledging, an art in which he can claim to be especially well-versed. Beyond all this, though, we need to establish the real chronology of his Boy's Own adventure last year with Botham in the Northern Territory. After all, his reputation for machismo is at stake here, with Botham himself hailing him as integral to the rescue act: 'Merv asked, 'Have I done the right thing?' Or words to that effect.' 'We had gone up for a charity lunch in Darwin,' Hughes reflects. 'We had a fish, and on the second day Beefy turned to me and said, 'You don't see many crocs here.' I said, 'Mate, it's not the crocs you see that are the problem.' When I got up early to admire the sunrise, I saw a 4½-metre crocodile 10 metres away, just sitting there. What people don't realise are the tides – it's a nine-metre tide. If you go off the back of the boat, you're going to get swept away. The moment Beefy went in, a couple of guys grabbed hold of his shirt so that he didn't lose contact. That's the true story. But if you want me to tell the fictitious one, I'm happy to go with that, too. The one where I dived in the water and dragged him out of the croc's grasp.' Well, it did seem a persuasive image. Although not, perhaps, if you knew the first thing about crocodiles. 'One of my sons rang me up and asked, 'Dad, did you really dive in and save him?' And I told him, 'If my eldest child went in that river, I wouldn't dive in.' You don't even dip your toe in the water up there.' Ultimately, it was the three crew members who were awake – Justin Jones, Hughes's friend and an avid fisherman, Greg Ireland, chief executive of the Northern Territory's chamber of commerce, plus the on-board chef – who took credit for hauling Botham to safety. Not that the man himself let his battered torso and wounded pride detract from the object of the trip. A few hours later, he caught a 3ft barramundi. 'He knows what he's doing, I'll give him that,' Hughes says. 'I thought he'd just be a fly fisherman, catching trout. Some people get intimidated by big fish, but he just does it easily. I was thinking, 'I wish I was that calm.'' It might be the warmest compliment to an Englishman that has ever passed Hughes's lips. For in Ashes mode he became a terror, a cartoon savage, with his curiously pitter-patter run-up – 'mincing', one observer called it – disguising an extreme malevolence of intent. It was just not his deliveries that could unsettle, with his 1993 yorker to demolish Mike Gatting's stumps a particular highlight, but also the four-letter oaths he would throw in afterwards. 'I was pretty basic,' he admits. 'That's where Mike Atherton was too good for me. He walked past me once and said something, and I had to ask Ian Healy, 'What was that?' 'Oh, he meant that you look like a chimpanzee,' Heals said. 'Why didn't he just say it, then?' 'I think he's educated, mate.' It's interesting, the way people go about it. There was nothing subtle about what I did on a cricket ground.' By any standards, it was a fascinating duel: Atherton, the Cambridge Blue, versus Hughes, whose formal schooling ended at 16 and who, pre-stardom, kept himself fed and watered working in a Melbourne toy shop. In 1989, he targeted the 21-year-old Atherton deliberately because he was young – 'I'll bowl you a piano, see if you can play that' was one favourite barb – and was impressed by the stoicism of the response. 'I went hard at him, to see what he was made of. And he was pretty b----- good. It was just water off a duck's back, it didn't faze him.' The same could hardly be said of Graeme Hick, whom Hughes tormented so relentlessly throughout the '93 Ashes that umpire Dickie Bird intervened, saying: 'Don't talk to Mr Hick like that. What has he done to you?' Apparently, he had been fond of taunting his prey: 'Turn the bat over, the instructions are on the other side.' While the Ashes brought out his most devilish instincts, his finest moment of spontaneity came against Pakistan in 1991, when Javed Miandad had the temerity to deride him as a 'fat bus conductor'. Taking his wicket a couple of balls later, Hughes, suitably piqued, revelled in calling after him: 'Tickets, please.' It is his virtuoso abilities at what Australians call a 'bit of chirp' that make him well-placed to judge England's efforts at amplifying their nasty streak. With Harry Brook, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett all far more belligerent in confronting India this summer, the pre-Ashes tensions are coming to the boil beautifully. Except Hughes believes it is all a little too premeditated. 'If you've got to practise it, you've lost,' he says. 'If it doesn't come naturally to you and you have to add it to your game, you're better off not doing it. I grew up with it. At 14, 15, I was copping it. The big thing you learn is that you have to be in control. The best sledge you can give an opposing batsman is one that totally humiliates him and makes your team-mates laugh.' With many predictions suggesting the closest series in years, would Hughes like to see a more even series? 'Nah,' he replies. 'I really enjoy the blow-outs.' With scorelines Down Under of 5-0, 4-0, 4-0 since 2011, he has had plenty of sadistic pleasure at the Poms' expense. The difference was that the extraordinary team to which he belonged, under Allan Border's captaincy, achieved the same dominance on English soil, securing big wins on both his Ashes tours. 'I had gone over to England on an Esso scholarship in 1983, spending time in Essex, and I progressed five years in six months,' he reflects. 'Heading off on the '89 tour, we had been written off as the worst Australian team of all time. But we had confidence among ourselves. Plus, there was real combat for spots on the team. I was looking over my shoulder at guys like Michael Slater, Shane Warne, Paul Reiffel, Damien Martyn, thinking, 'I don't want to put in a bad performance here.'' Their supremacy set the tone: when they wrested the urn back from England in '89, they would not relinquish it for 16 years. It was Hughes's antics on tour that would define him. With the demeanour of a villain in a silent movie, he was fodder for England supporters whenever he ventured near the boundary rope, not least when he began chasing a stray dog on the Trent Bridge outfield. And yet the casting was one he loved. 'I can't for the life of me understand how opposing players get disturbed by the crowd. If the crowd bait you in England, you think, 'Well, at least they know who I am.' Mitchell Johnson said it was really intimidating. But mate, it's only intimidating if you allow it to be. It was the same for Botham at the MCG – they knew who he was. It's a feather in your cap.' Sometimes, Hughes's distinctions as a cricketer can be forgotten. In 1988, he took the most wickets ever for Australia in a losing cause, with his 13 for 207 against the West Indies in brutal Perth heat. That featured the most convoluted hat-trick of all, spread across three overs and two innings. Woe betide anyone who argues that it is diminished on that basis. 'People say, 'A batsman can't get 80 in one innings, 20 in another, and be credited with a hundred.' Well, batting's easy, bowling's hard. Make the rules for batsmen and leave the bowlers alone.' He blazed relatively briefly as a player, retreating to the margins after a serious knee injury. But he takes comfort from the fact that he savoured every minute. 'Paul Hibbert used to say to me, 'Treat every game like it's your last, because it could well be.' When you're 20, it sounds a stupid saying. But then you get to a point where you think, 'How real is that?' It's amazing, the things that hit years later.' Hibbert, nine years his senior, died at 56 from an internal haemorrhage reported as possibly related to alcoholism. The generation of which Hughes was part has suffered no shortage of tragedy, from Shane Warne to Graham Thorpe. 'Dean Jones, too,' he says, remembering the batsman he once called his 'brother', who died from a stroke in 2020. It is why, although he tires sometimes of being celebrated as a 'character', he is just content that his contribution continues to endure. 'You don't play 10 years of international cricket because you're a character. But I'm happy to run with it – it still gets me work, still gets me recognised. 'Character' is fine. I'm happy to go with whatever anyone wants to call me, to be honest.' And therein lies the essence of Hughes, a sledger extraordinaire but a man with no shortage of soul.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sunrise star Natalie Barr shares rare insight into her 30-year marriage as she reveals why she keeps her husband private
Channel Seven star Natalie Barr has given fans a rare glimpse into her very private marriage to Andrew Thompson. The Sunrise host, who is Australia's longest-serving breakfast presenter after 23 years on the screen, admitted that she and film editor Andrew prefer to keep their relationship away from the cameras. 'It was something we decided years ago,' she told Stellar magazine adding that her husband was never interested in being in the media. 'I share lots of my private life on air. I talk a lot about me and what I'm doing and what I think about things, and I have for many years, but you need to draw the line somewhere.' Despite keeping their romance private, Natalie admitted her relationship with Andrew is 'a real gift' after recently celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. 'We had started our relationship as best friends and we still are. I couldn't have done any of this without him. Not one day,' she said. 'You live through each other's successes and not such good times. You raise a family, you're a team.' The couple share two sons together, Lachlan, 23, and Hunter, 19, who also avoid photoshoots and media coverage. Natalie has become a prominent voice on Australia's screens, with many calling her the 'Queen of breakfast TV'. Natalie starts her day at 3.30am, preparing for nearly four hours of live television. Her mornings are packed with high-pressure interviews, including grilling politicians -often with just minutes to prepare. After 35 years in journalism, Natalie said she has gained the confidence needed to handle even the toughest interviews. 'I've had to go with my gut many, many times. I don't think I could've done this years ago because I would've been too scared,' she said. Despite her incredible TV career, the news reporter recently reflected on a behind-the-scenes challenge: the difficulty of receiving genuine, constructive feedback. Barr, who has been a familiar face on Australian morning television since 2008, told The Nightly that despite her ongoing efforts to improve, honest critiques are hard to come by in the industry. 'It's so hard to get feedback in this business, very few people will tell you that,' she said. 'In my experience, very few people will tell you the truth. 'If you ask most people, "How was that?", they'll say, "Yeah, it was great". That's not what you need. 'Maybe I'm too harsh (on myself), maybe that's just my personality, but I find there's hardly anyone who will give me honest feedback.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Aussie slams major airline after 'mistake' costs her more than $6,000 as she desperately tries to get her money back: 'They're ignoring us'
An Aussie woman has lashed out at a major airline, claiming that a mistake by staff turned her trip to the US into a nightmare that left her $6,000 out-of-pocket. Melbourne woman Daniella Melfi explained that she, her partner, and children flew to America on July 1 to visit her husband's family. 'This was a trip that was, financially, a bit of a struggle, but we knew it was really important to take,' she said in a TikTok video on Friday. Ms Melfi said she was excited and that the trip 'overall' was 'beautiful and amazing'. 'However, it has now been tainted because of this American Airlines mistake,' she said. Ms Melfi explained she travelled from Austin to Minneapolis via Dallas. 'That flight was very odd, because we had a very small connection time in Dallas to get to our next flight,' Ms Melfi said. 'We just assumed the gates were near each other. They weren't. We had to run through the airport Home Alone-style.' Ms Melfi claimed once the family reached the gate, they were stopped from boarding the plane because the 'doors were closed'. She said a staff member 'booked us on the next flight to Minneapolis'. Ms Melfi claimed the staff member accidentally cancelled the return flight they would need to catch back to Dallas. 'We didn't know about it, because there was no email, no notification, so we went about our trip like nothing was wrong,' she said. 'We knew we were going to return home on July 24.' Ms Melfi said the day of departure came and she said her 'emotional goodbyes to everyone'. 'We get to the airport to be told, "Your booking does not exist",' she said. She explained her family needed to catch an American Airlines flight to Dallas so they could catch the international flight back home to Melbourne with Fiji Airways. Ms Melfi said she was informed at the desk at the airport she should have received an email about the change to her flights. 'No, an email wasn't sent to us,' she said. 'We have been blindsided.' She claimed staff informed her there would be no flights available until the next day, meaning Ms Melfi and her family would miss their international flight from Dallas. Ms Melfi explained she tried to speak to Fiji Airways, but couldn't get a flight a couple of days later, and she would need to make a new booking and pay a penalty fee. She claimed the total cost came to $6,322. Ms Melfi said she did everything she could to try and find a way around it. 'In the end, after being at that desk for over four hours, with our family and kids, we had to pay the $6,322 so that we would have a seat on the plane two days later,' she said. 'Two days later, we fly home. We've missed work, the kids have missed school, and American Airlines are coming up with nothing. Ms Melfi claimed she was offered some 'miles' and a '$50 voucher' by American Airlines. She said she just wanted her 'money back', prompting them to file an official complaint. Ms Melfi said she has yet to hear back from American Airlines since their last correspondence on July 31. Social media users were left divided, with some arguing a traveller should always use the same airline for their connecting flights. 'This is a prime example not to do separate bookings when travelling internationally,' one wrote. 'The little savings she originally saved, cost her big $$$. Now she's crying wolf. They were only responsible for the domestic flight. Good luck. You're wasting your time.' Others shared their sympathy for Ms Melfi. 'I hope you get your money back!' one wrote.
