EXCLUSIVE 'Risky' craze at high society parties... Plus, a spicy rumour about 'playboy' banker who called off his engagement - and the murky past of Vaucluse's new $27M man: THE GROUP CHAT
Welcome to The Group Chat with Lucy Manly, where Australia's most-trusted society insider shares the hottest gossip BEFORE it makes the news.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Hugh Jackman gives small Melbourne theatre huge celebrity endorsement
Hugh Jackman has given a huge shout out to a little local theatre in regional Victoria. The Aussie A-lister, 56, took to his Instagram Stories on Saturday to drum up support for his old drama school mate, Mark Constable, who is putting on an Australian comedy in Macdeon. 'I recommend you go and check out this gem of a play. It's an Aussie play. 'For people who are in Australia, or wherever you are in the world, if you want to go down to Mount Macedon just outside Melbourne - there is an incredible little theatre called the Mountview theatre,' Hugh said. 'And they are doing a production of the Appleton Ladies Potato Race. It's a gem of a play. It will move you. It will make you laugh. You will laugh your heads off. 'It's directed by a great mate of mine that I went to drama school with, Mark Constable, who is awesome. He told me to say he's a genius. He's great.' The Aussie A-lister, 56, took to his Instagram Stories on Saturday to drum up support for his old drama school mate, Mark Constable, who is putting on an Australian comedy 'The Appleton Ladies Potato Race' at the Mountview Theatre in Macedon from June 13 'It's at a regional theatre and it's going to be phenomenal,' the Wolverine star continued in his glowing endorsement. The Mountview theatre has a capacity of 100 and the play will run for three weekends from June 13 to June 29. 'Although I have a funny feeling it may get extended,' Hugh said. 'When Penny Anderson, the town's new GP, returns to her childhood home of Appleton, she's shocked to find the local potato race prize still sits at $1000 for men and just $200 for women,' a synopsis for the play reads. 'Determined to change this outdated tradition, she sets out on a mission to even the playing field. But not everyone is on board, especially the no-nonsense Bev, who sees Penny as another city slicker disrupting country ways.' Margot Knight, Shayne Francis, Sharnie Page, Sophie Cleary and Sheila Kumar star in the 'big-hearted Australian comedy.' Hugh, who is currently starring in his one-man live show at Radio City and his new off-Broadway play 'Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes', recently appeared on Good Morning America to talk about why he returned to the stage. 'I felt I wasn't doing the thing I loved to do enough,' he revealed. 'I wasn't acting enough. I love the theatre. I think it should be available for everyone.' 'Sometimes I feel more relaxed on stage than I do in life,' Hugh admitted during his sit down interview. 'I don't know what it is. I'm living the dream.' In Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Hugh engages in multiple steamy make-out sessions with his 25-year-old co-star, Ella Beatty. The pair were seen larking around in rehearsals this week. Hugh had his arm wrapped around the budding actress, who is the daughter of Hollywood legend Warren Beatty, and he beamed from ear to ear as he gave the camera a thumbs up. It follows reports that Hugh is turning up the heat on stage - as he continues to date his new girlfriend, Broadway actress Sutton Foster. Foster, 50, even made a backstage appearance this week, trying to quiet whispers that their new relationship has been on shaky ground since going public in January. But the show's raunchy moments can't be easy to watch for Foster, who reportedly struck up an offstage relationship with the Greatest Showman star while playing his love interest onstage. Adding more fuel to the gossip mill, fresh photos of the pair holding hands during the curtain call have sent tongues wagging. Offstage, Hugh's own split from Deborra-Lee Furness seems to mirror the emotional storm The two beamed with pride, looking completely at ease with the intimate gesture. It's not just the steamy make-out scenes turning up the heat — Hugh also unleashes a barrage of expletives, including blunt, graphic lines about a college cheerleader 'sucking his c***' Offstage, Hugh's own split from Deborra-Lee Furness seems to mirror the emotional storm. The actor, who has only been married once, announced his split from Deborra-Lee Furness, 69, in September 2023 after 27 years of marriage. In a joint statement at the time, they said they were 'shifting' and had decided to 'separate to pursue our individual growth.' The couple share two adopted children, Oscar, 24, and Ava, 19. Hugh and Sutton's relationship reportedly overlapped with the end of his marriage.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Bezos vs Venice: Will the billionaire's wedding sink the city of love?
It begins, as all good fairytales do, with a $10m budget, a megayacht the size of a football pitch and a network of A-listers so starry it could alter the tides: in a few weeks, Jeff Bezos ' wedding to Lauren Sánchez is set to be a spectacle of opulence. After a five-year romance, the pair have planned an extravagant celebration in the heart of Venice, a city renowned for its timeless beauty, labyrinthine canals and centuries-old architecture. But the Adriatic city isn't swooning – far from it. In fact, the locals are absolutely seething. One of the richest men on the planet is holding their home 'hostage', they say – to the Venetians, this isn't so much of a destination wedding but an occupation. Residents and activists say that the nuptials – and the pure extravagance planned for the celebration – are set to turn their home into a 'playground for the wealthy'. The 'luxury footprint' – the environmental cost of the weekend in private jets and yachts contributing to Venice's already high carbon emissions – they say, will be huge; the celebrity entourage and logistical chaos they'll bring with them a perfect example of how the spirit of the city has been eroded by unchecked tourism and commercialisation, this time with the added audacity of exclusivity. The response of the locals? Widespread protests reportedly being planned to take the city by storm and attempt to mar the so-called wedding of the year. It's not all that hard to see where they're coming from. The basics are this: reports suggest that on 24 June, billionaire Bezos and his once news anchor, now socialite fiancée, will wed on his $500m (£370m), 3,493 tonne yacht, Koru (also the tallest sailing yacht in the world). However, reports say that views from the boat, which will be anchored in Venice lagoon, will be severely restricted – it can't be moored too far into the famous Grand Canal, because it is (you guessed it) simply too big. The Amazon boss and Washington Post owner, who proposed to Sánchez with a $2.5m diamond ring in 2023, has also secured more or less all of the city's water taxis for guests, and Venice's most luxurious venues and hotels across the city, including the 14th century Venetian landmark, the Scuola Grande della Misericordia. It's one of the largest and grandest buildings in Venice – and it's right in the middle of the historic city centre, much to the horror of the locals. They've also reportedly booked The Gritti Palace, Hotel Danieli, Aman Venice, Belmond Hotel Cipriani and St Regis Venice for the three-day event. Room prices at Gritti Palace and Aman Hotel start at $3,200 per night and soar up to 10 times that amount for the most extravagant suites. Fitting for a 200-strong guest list that reads like a who's who of the global elite. Rumoured to be attending are the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbra Streisand, Lady Gaga and Elton John; the latter two are both expected to perform. The couple themselves are rumoured to be staying at the grand canal suite at Aman Venice, at a cost of $11,600 per night. Of course, it was never going to be a humble gathering for Amazon's boss – a nerdy bookseller turned leather-jacket-wearing 'biohacker' famed for his cliché tech-bro lifestyle (ice baths a-plenty), phallic rocket launches and quest for immortality. To some, he's a genius innovator, a trailblazer in technology and space exploration – to others, the face of exploitative capitalism. He's known for his spineless bootlicking when it comes to Trump – the billionaire took a front-row seat at the US president's inauguration in January – and for reportedly paying very little tax. Despite his enormous concentration of wealth, the struggle of his workers at Amazon, who have in the past been found to be working in unsafe and unethical conditions, is regularly exposed and documented. The Venetian mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, insists that the wedding won't be that disruptive, since the city is used to hosting high-profile events, like the film festival, La Biennale di Venezia. And one report in The Times suggests that Morris Ceron, the director general of the Venice council, actively campaigned for the wedding to take place in Venice. 'Seven months ago, Domenico Dolce [co-founder of Dolce & Gabbana] told me Bezos was getting married,' he told the paper. 'I got to work to bring this marriage of the century to Venice – that's how it started.' But as the wedding date approaches, the tension between the couple's plans for a grand celebration and the city's need for preservation is only continuing to escalate. It's an undoubtedly beautiful place, but one that's undergone profound (some would say devastating) changes over the past few decades due to mass tourism. Away from the incredible architecture and romantic canals, littered with gondolas, Venice is in crisis, its residents say, and in danger of becoming 'Veniceland' – a city with all the charm of a museum, and none of the vitality of a real community. Skyrocketing rents and a city packed full of holiday homes have led to a mass exodus of Venetians. For years, locals have protested against giant cruise ships carrying day-trippers (who spend very little but cause a lot of chaos) docking so close to the ancient city to stop the physical damage occurring to its fragile foundations. And, of course, famously, Venice is literally sinking. Which, to be fair, is hard to argue with when it comes to defending a needlessly wasteful wedding for the megarich. Right now, it's slowly dropping about 1-2mm per year due to subsidence. Combined with rising sea levels, it means that Venice is facing extensive flooding threats; it now sees extreme floods every year that used to be rare. At the centre of it all, say the protestors, is a city losing its heart to too many elite events. Of which, Bezos' tone-deaf wedding is a crowning example. In the end, Bezos and Sánchez's wedding is a picture-perfect reflection of the broader issues at play. For the ultra-wealthy, the event is a symbol of success and exclusivity – but, as the Venetians taking to the streets rightly ask: what is the real price of prestige and cash for access? Bezos' floating palace, mooring up in a few weeks' time, will put the tension between old-world beauty and new-world excess firmly on display. And as the world's elite raise glasses of champagne behind velvet ropes, the locals will be raising something else entirely: placards, voices and a warning from the heart of their ancient, beloved home – that cities like Venice don't belong to the richest man in the world, no matter how sparkly the ring.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
What It Feels Like for a Girl to Turnstile : the week in rave reviews
BBC iPlayer; full series available Summed up in a sentence The wild, witty tale of a 00s Nottinghamshire adolescence that leaps from sex work to drug-fuelled nights of hedonism, adapted from trans writer Paris Lees' autobiography. What our reviewer said 'A resolutely unsentimental tale of a chaotic, morally ambiguous period of transition. It's certainly a wild ride.' Rachel Aroesti Read the full review Further reading 'All of us felt like we had touched gold': What It Feels Like for a Girl, the BBC's electric coming-of-age tale Netflix; all episodes available Summed up in a sentence A tense, twisty adaptation of an Australian crime novel, set against the tale of the only survivor of a disaster moving back to his rage- and sorrow-filled small town home after 15 years of self-imposed exile. What our reviewer said 'A study in how raw grief and festering resentment warp everything – and how surviving a tragedy rarely means getting away unscathed.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Apple TV+; episodes weekly Summed up in a sentence Owen Wilson charms as a washed-up golfer turned coach in a redemptive sporting tale that hopes to be the Ted Lasso of hitting balls with metal sticks. What our reviewer said 'It's a pleasant, feelgood half-hour every time. It never outstays its welcome, everyone puts in a solid performance and Wilson brings every ounce of energy he has to every scene he's in.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Further reading Owen Wilson's charmingly funny golf drama is as feelgood as Ted Lasso BBC iPlayer; full series available Summed up in a sentence A profile of the terrorist who was once the most wanted man in the world, featuring an exclusive phone interview with him from prison – in which he inadvertently shatters his mystique. What our reviewer said 'This guy has been romanticised as international terrorism's answer to James Bond – a man of mystery as suave as he is elusive. Close up, he gives off loner vibes, and the photos we see of his various guises don't burnish his cool-villain credentials, either: he almost always looks like a beady uncle whom female guests have to avoid at a wedding disco.' Jack Seale Read the full review BBC iPlayer; full series available Summed up in a sentence A thoughtful, sober documentary about a staggering football stadium fire, to mark 40 years since the tragedy unfolded. What our reviewer said 'Perhaps the film's most memorable sequence arrives when we watch television coverage of the game, which soon becomes a report on the fire. The shortness of the time that elapses between minor incident and major disaster is wholly terrifying.' Jack Seale Read the full review Further reading: 'The whole city was touched': Bradford marks 40 years since the Valley Parade fire In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence In a spinoff from the John Wick franchise, Ana de Armas is a feisty assassin trained in ballet and martial arts, combining delicacy and violence in her quest for vengeance. What our reviewer said 'De Armas carries off the essential silliness of Ballerina and, after her performance as Paloma in No Time to Die opposite Daniel Craig's 007, she proves again she can do action, in both couture and daytime wear.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Joachim Lang's bleak film shows a preening Goebbels and a careworn Hitler as they battle to convince the German public, and themselves, they will win the war. What our reviewer said 'In its subversive, austerely satirical way, the film feels almost like a B-side to Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall from 2004, and Lang has perhaps even inhaled, just a little, the numberless internet parody memes that Downfall inspired, with English subtitles reinterpreting Hitler's impotent rage.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Documentary on Columbia pro-Palestine student protests of April 2024, is fascinating but much has been superseded by the arrest of student organiser Mahmoud Khalil after the re-election of Trump. What our reviewer said 'Khalil is smilingly interviewed at the end, stating his belief that this cause is approaching success. But that interview was presumably filmed before the new brutality of the Trump administration and the outrageous arrest of Khalil, who is now held in a Louisiana jail, and was only recently allowed to see his infant son.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Isabelle Huppert gives the performance of her career in Michael Haneke's 2001 tale of a sado-masochistic music professor, rereleased as part of a Haneke retrospective. What our reviewer said 'There can be no doubt of Haneke's extraordinary ability to generate scenes of nerve-jangling disquiet and intimately unpleasant trauma. He can simply put you in a place you don't want to be, and keep you there.' Peter Bradshaw Further reading No pain no gain: director Michael Haneke talks sadomasochism with Stuart Jeffries Read the full review Prime Video; available now Summed up in a sentence Cillian Murphy plays a man who witnesses Ireland's church's abusive workhouses for unwed mothers in a piercingly painful Magdalene Laundries drama. What our reviewer said 'Murphy shows us once again his sightless stare of fear and pain, as the witness to something terrible not just in the real world but within himself.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Review by Olivia Laing Summed up in a sentence The enigmatic novelist reconsidered. What our reviewer said 'Brilliant, beautiful and disinclined to conceal her talent or ambition, Spark was much desired and much despised in London.' Read the full review Review by Gaby Hinsliff Summed up in a sentence The former New Zealand PM takes us behind the scenes of her years in office. What our reviewer said 'Ardern is a disarmingly likable, warm and funny narrator, as gloriously informal on the page as she seems in person.' Read the full review Further reading 'Empathy is a kind of strength': Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump's America Review by Josie Glausiusz Summed up in a sentence How wildlife survives in the most extreme environments What our reviewer said 'In 2022 scientists were able to film a snailfish at 8,336 metres below sea level off the coast of Japan – a depth roughly equivalent to the height of Everest' Read the full review Review by Sarah Moss Summed up in a sentence A book about art, faith and relationship breakdown that is half fiction, half something else What our reviewer said 'Lacey is fascinated by literary form and by the metaphors for literary form, finding fiction at once a constraint and a space for play.' Read the full review Review by Nina Allen Summed up in a sentence Portrait of a film-maker's moral struggles under the Nazis, from the author of Measuring the World. What our reviewer said 'The Director has all the darkness, shapeshifting ambiguity and glittering unease of a modern Grimms' fairytale: it is Kehlmann's best work yet.' Read the full review Review by Sara Collins Summed up in a sentence An astute and moving exploration of female experience. What our reviewer said 'Such is the nature of Adichie's masterly sentences, clear as polished windowpanes, that one has no choice but to look more closely, and to see that what these women pine for is always out of reach.' Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Already pushing the boundaries of hardcore punk into pop and beyond, the Baltimore band press on even further with their latest LP. What our reviewer said 'There's so much else happening, a profusion of ideas so deftly handled, but it never feels sprawling or indulgent.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Out 13 June Summed up in a sentence They helped to pioneer Zambia's 'Zamrock' sound in the early 1970s – and their first new album in 30 years shows that the vocal power of 74-year-old frontman Emmanuel 'Jagari' Chanda is undiminished. What our reviewer said 'Highlight Nadi could be peak Led Zeppelin if not for Chanda's playfully AutoTuned Bemba lyrics skipping over the band's chugging psych riffs. These joyously strange combinations show the Zamrock originators to be just as imaginative now as they ever were.' Ammar Kalia Read the full review Further reading Witch: the glory and tragedy of Zambia's psych-rock trailblazers Out now Summed up in a sentence The youthful Chicago DIY darlings deliver their debut album of tightly wound post-punk – and it's a total blast. What our reviewer said 'Urgent, off-kilter and even slightly disorienting … it's refreshing to hear a young band make such a bold racket.' Dave Simpson Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Revisiting the work György Ligeti made amid a sharp stylistic shift in the 1980s, this set features Isabelle Faust on violin and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger on piano. What our reviewer said 'Both are remarkable works, which seem utterly fresh and original, yet identifiably remain part of the concerto tradition.' Andrew Clements Read the full review Ovo Hydro, Glasgow; touring to 15 June Summed up in a sentence The 75-year-old pop legend heads back out to arenas, and delivers a masterclass in charm. What our reviewer said 'He has joyful chemistry with his band, and together they put plenty of polish on Richie's trophy cabinet of hits … this is Richie on cruise control, but radiant nonetheless.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review
