Shocking war of words between hospo kings as MasterChef star opens Italian restaurant across the road from popular local trattoria - and the owner isn't pulling his punches
Celebrity restaurateur Neil Perry had barely scraped the last dim sum off the floor of his failed Chinese eatery Song Bird before unveiling Gran Torino - a two-level Italian restaurant in the same location.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Sam Burgess reveals how Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe lured him to the Rabbitohs - and it involves a prank call to Shane Warne and Leonardo DiCaprio
Sam Burgess had been 'hell-bent' on joining the Manly Sea Eagles. Under the stewardship of legendary coach Des Hasler, the Sea Eagles had gone on to win the 2008 premiership, having placed as a runner-up the year prior, before going on to win the flag again in 2011. The club was expanding and it was an attractive prospect for 'Slammin Sam' Burgess, who admitted he had been blowing up Hasler's phone with calls, even offering to play for the club for reduced fees. Multiple other clubs had been interested in snapping up the former Bradford Bulls star, who had his sights set on making a move Down Under to play in the NRL. But that's where Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe stepped in. The Gladiator star and co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs had been over in the UK at the time filming Robin Hood and had heard through the grapevine that the now Warrington Wolves coach, Burgess, was making rumblings about a move to play rugby league in Australia. So Crowe got hold of Burgess' phone number and gave the footy star a quick call to see if he could tempt him to join the Bunnies. But speaking to cricket legends, David Lloyd, Sir Alastair Cook, Phil Tuffnell and Michael Vaughan on The Overlap and Betfair's Stick to Cricket show, Burgess revealed he actuall snubbed Crowe's phone call because he thought someone was prank calling him. 'We were playing down in Wales at the time,' he said to The Overlap and Betfair's Stick to Cricket show. 'I'm just getting a massage - you're not really supposed to have your phone on the massage beds - but I took the call because I was taking anything at the time. It was Russell Crowe on the phone! 'I thought someone was pranking me, so I hung up. I thought: 'I'm not paying a fine just for someone on a prank phone call'. 'Anyway, he rang me back a few times, I let it go through.' After Burgess got off the massage bed, the Bradford Bulls star finally answered one of the Gladiator star's phone calls. 'He said: 'It's Russell Crowe. I want to catch up with you, I want to meet you. Do you want to come play in Australia?' 'I said: 'Yes, I do.' He said: 'Okay then. I'm filming a movie in Derby, I'll be there next week, you want to come down?'' Burgess, who had spent three years at Bradford before finally moving to the Souths in 2010, agreed to come down and asked the Hollywood star if he could bring some friends along with him. Crowe, keen to get the England star on board, obliged. 'So, I took four of my mates down and we go to this fancy hotel in Derby - can't remember what it's called - that's where he was staying,' he told the cricket legends. 'We arrive and security's there - 'Name? Where are you from? Who are you seeing?' - Yes, come in. My mates are all walking in, looking at this establishment. We sit and have dinner - the cutlery's laid out perfectly. Burgess and his friends sat down for dinner with Crowe but the footy great revealed that rugby was not spoken about once during the meeting. 'We end up having a great feed, didn't talk one thing about rugby, but we got a little bit p***ed,' he explained. 'They start bringing out desserts - they had like gold spoons, real gold. So, my mates are ordering extra desserts, saying, 'Yeah, get me one more of them please,' and they're pocketing the spoons. We get in the car on the way home and they've all got two or three spoons each - 'We're killing it, boys!' 'We didn't have any conversations about rugby.' Instead, they opted to play a few pranks on some of the illustrious names in Crowe's phone book, including Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary Aussie cricketer Shane Warne. 'We were prank calling off Russell's phone - that's how the night finished up. We prank-called all these movie stars,' he said. 'We rang Leonardo DiCaprio. We rang Shane Warne - Warney, big mate. We rang a few other people. I'm thinking, this is amazing, how fun is this?' After the lavish dinner, Burgess explained he went down to meet Crowe again where they talked shop. 'A couple of days later, I went down, and we spoke a bit more about the opportunity to play in the NRL and my ambitions as a player - I was only 20 at the time. From that day on we've been great mates. 'He's been true to his word: 'There won't be a door in the world I can't open, you just gotta walk through them.' And he's just such a great bloke. Loves his cricket.' The rest is history, with Burgess going on to cement himself as a legend of the club, helping lift the Bunnies to win their first premiership in 43 years during the 2014 season. He would go on to make 176 appearances for the footy club across two spells, sandwiched between a stint in rugby union back in England. He would notably pick up the Clive Churchill medal during the Grand Final that year, after suffering a horror head collision with fellow Brit James Graham in the opening minute of the match. Burgess had fractured his cheekbone in the collision and could barely see out of his right eye. 'First tackle of the game, I clash heads with James Graham a great mate of mine and smash my face up,' he told the podcast. 'I had no option but to come off. South Sydney hadn't won for 43 years. We'd had a great season, worked our backsides off, and now we're here. 'The trainer comes out, I tell him I'm in a bad way - he says: 'Oh f***'.' Burgess revealed to the podcast that he tested out the injury to see if he could keep playing. 'One of my thoughts was: 'I'm not going to have a beer tonight, because my face will be out here.' But I thought: 'Let's see how far I can get before I have to leave the field'. Tried running, tackling - pain was manageable - so I stayed on. 'At half-time, the doctor wants to assess me. I say: 'Doc, all due respect, I want to sit and listen to the coach, stay connected to the team'. In the second half, my brother George misses a tackle. I give him a spray: 'You lazy b******, I'm here covering you with my face busted - you better make it up'. Next set he scores one of the greatest individual tries in a grand final. The footy great revealed he didn't go to hospital after the game, instead joining his team-mates to celebrate the huge victory.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
JK Rowling pens foul-mouthed 'review' of Nicola Sturgeon's autobiography as the pair's clash over gender rights rumbles on
JK Rowling reignited her bitter feud with Nicola Sturgeon today after penning a foul-mouthed 'review' of the ex-Scottish leader's new autobiography. The former Scottish First Minister's memoir, 'Frankly', hit shelves this week but has seen her ridiculed after fawning reviews compared her to Barack Obama. Now, the ex-SNP boss's old nemesis, Harry Potter author Rowling, has once again taken a potshot at Ms Sturgeon by trolling her in a ruthless post online. It's the latest clash in a long-running feud between the two women over transgender rights which dates back more than three years. Seemingly resuming the war of words, Rowling focused her tirade on a segment in the memoir in which the 'heroine [Sturgeon] opines on the need to make the "public sphere" safe for women and girls'. Accompanying the post is a picture of Sturgeon's autobiography in which Rowling scrawled across the top of the page: 'Are you f***ing kidding me???' She added: 'Annotating as I read to review. Might auction my scribbled-on copy, proceeds to go to. NB: nobody who's offended by swearing should bid.' The multi-millionaire author's post comes a day after she tore into Sturgeon during a fierce attack on X over their long-running row about transgender rights. It followed a car crash TV interview in which Sturgeon claimed anyone who rapes a woman 'forfeits the right to be the gender of their choice' - while struggling to answer fresh questions about transgender prisoner, Isla Bryson. '"We've lost all sense of rationality in [the gender] debate,"' said Nicola Sturgeon,' Rowling wrote. 'Only one side has lost rationality. Only one side pretends there's more than two sexes. Only one side lets male rapists into women's prisons. Only one side supports child sterilisation. Yours.' Rowling, who is a staunch women's rights activist and has been furiously critical of the transgender movement, previously offered her services to 'review' her old foe's autobiography in a tongue-in-cheek post on her social media. It followed one fawning review of the book, which dubbed it a 'triumph', and added: '"Frankly" is the most insightful and stylishly open memoir by a politician since Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father.' 'I am available to review Nicola Sturgeon's memoir,' children's writer JK Rowling later announced. 'No fee required, as long as you don't edit out the swear words.' Today's post by Rowling, slating Sturgeon's memoir, is the latest broadside levelled at the former First Minister by the Harry Potter creator, who has a net worth of around £945million. In 2022, Rowling wore a T-shirt which branded Sturgeon a 'destroyer of women's rights' in protest against the Scottish Government's gender recognition reform laws, which were later blocked by the UK Government. The move prompted Sturgeon to call for those with strong views to 'treat each other with respect'. When Ms Sturgeon refused to comment on the Supreme Court gender ruling in April, Ms Rowling hit out again She said: 'I have always thought that on this issue, where people have very strong views, we should all try to treat each other with respect and that is what I will continue to do.' The row escalated after a landmark Supreme Court ruling in April, which clarified that a woman is biologically female for the purposes of equalities laws, when Rowling compared Sturgeon to Pontius Pilate, who ordered Jesus' crucifixtion. After Sturgeon refused to comment on the ruling, Ms Rowling mocked her silence by sharing a social media selfie of the Glasgow MSP in the gym on Easter Monday calling her 'Pontius Pilates'. In the Bible, Pontius Pilate did not believe that Jesus had committed a crime but condemned him to death because the crowd called for it. And last month, after Sturgeon chaired a discussion about the witch trials in Scotland, Rowling hit out at her adversary again. She said: 'If Sturgeon had been around in the 1500s she'd have been right there lighting the pyres. 'Ungodly women like this not only blight the crops and turn the milk, they almost certainly put a spell on my husband which made him pilfer all the tithes.' The author has consistently stuck up for women's rights in recent years - and has even pledged to personally fund gender-critical legal actions. The 'fighting fund' is helping women who have lost their livelihoods or are facing employment tribunals because of their views on sex-based rights. The criteria covers those who 'don't have adequate means to bring actions to court or to defend themselves'. It was publicly announced in May after prisoner Jane Sutherley said she was considering suing the Scottish Prison Service after she was forced to share facilities with transgender women.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Apple and Google found to have breached Australia's competition laws in landmark court case
Tech giants Apple and Google have been found to have engaged in anti-competitive conduct, paving the way for a payout that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Epic Games, the developer of popular online game Fortnite, sued the two tech giants in the Federal Court, claiming they engaged in anti-competitive and unconscionable conduct against those developing apps distributed through iOS and Android devices. The lawsuit was launched after Epic was booted from Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store after attempting to introduce its own payment system into Fortnite games in August 2020. Justice Jonathan Beach on Tuesday found Apple and Google had breached Australia's competition laws, upholding key elements of Epic's case. Apple had a 'substantial degree of market power' because of the restrictions placed on in-app payment systems and the distribution of iOS compatible apps, he said. Google also had a significant degree of market power and was the predominant supplier of Android apps, the court was told. The tech companies' dominance had the effect of substantially lessening competition and breached Australia's competition laws, Justice Beach found. However, he rejected Epic's argument Apple had engaged in unconscionable conduct. Justice Beach also found in favour of a class action lawsuit comprising Australian developers and gamers who claimed Apple and Google's monopolistic practices led to inflated prices. The app developers had to pay higher commissions than they otherwise would have if there was more competition in the market Lawyers for the plaintiffs welcomed the result as a significant win for consumer rights and digital fairness that could have global implications for how digital platforms operate. 'This judgment is a turning point,' said Kimi Nishimura from Maurice Blackburn Lawyers. 'It sends a clear message that even the most powerful corporations must play by the rules and respect the rights of consumers and developers alike.' The lawyers said the decision could result in 'one of the largest class action payouts in Australian legal history with potential compensation of several hundreds of millions of dollars to come from two global corporate Goliaths'. The parties have been given time to consider the 2000-page judgment and will return to the Federal Court at a later date to determine compensation and directives aimed at increasing transparency. A Google spokesperson said the company disagreed with the court's characterisation of its billing policies and practices and would review the full decision. The Epic Games Store and Fortnite will come to iOS in Australia! An Australian court just found that Apple and Google abuse their control over app distribution and in-app payments to limit competition. There are 2,000+ pages of findings that we'll need to dig into to fully... - Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) August 12, 2025 Apple welcomed the 'rejection of some of Epic's claims, however, we strongly disagree with the court's ruling on others.' Epic Games took to social media to herald the result and say Fortnite would return to iOS soon. 'A federal judge just found that Apple and Google both engaged in anti-competitive conduct,' the company wrote. 'Another HUGE Win for Epic Games!' Epic won a separate US case against Google in 2023 after a jury found it had engaged in anti-trust conduct through the Google Play Store. It was less successful in its case against Apple, although the court found the tech giant had engaged in anti-competitive conduct. Apple has also been forced to implement changes to its App Store in Europe, including allowing third-party payment systems.
