Appearances

The Sydney Writer's Festival starts today...and I am dragging myself away from novel rewrites to make two appearances (three if you count the launch party tonight.) First off, I'm joining a panel called The Next Wave of Australian Crime Writers on Thursday May 31 at 5:30 p.m at the SDC 2/3 at the Sydney Theatre Company Wharf and on Sunday June 3 I'll be discussing The Empty Circus of Public Life at the Sydney Theatre from 4-5:30 p.m.

What I did on my vacation #4

New York in spring... and a birthday bash for New Yorker cartoonist Victoria Roberts (pictured with pug Archie)...desserts to have a coronary over at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in the new London hotel...almost slamming into Helen Gurley Brown upon my entrance into the new Hearst building, where I was invited to lunch...the heavenly Poiret exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, followed by my usual pilgrimage to the medieval armour collection...the dreadful tone-deaf LoveMusik on Broadway, redeemed by the transporting delights of Grey Gardens at the Walter Kerr...a few nights in my old stomping ground, the East Village, in Gatecrasher columnist Ben Widdicombe's guest room and then the quiet of Harlem where the WildKind boys have made their home...City Hall in full bloom... Bryant Park in the hot sun...my friend Thornton Willis in motion in his Soho loft, completing another glorious painting...discovering it's cheaper to ship books from Strand than lug them home in the case...the craziness of B&H photo...the disappointment of Century 21 at non-sale time...a train ride to Connecticut...devils on horseback at The Spotted Pig...the creeping nastiness of the all the furniture stores that have taken over my beloved Tribeca... too too much, all of it, and too little time.

What I did on my vacation#3

Celebrated with the LA-based Aussie film industry at the 2007 Breakthrough Awards, held on May 3 at the Avalon Hotel in Beverley Hills...each year a golden boomerang is given to three Australians who have made significant breakthroughs in Hollywood in the past year. This year, the trio included teeny-weeny actresses Isla Fisher and Emilie de Ravin and the slightly more substantial director of Wolf Creek, Greg McLean. It's an event that might be called "intimate" - not too many of us could fit around the pool at the former nursing home. But that's its charm and what struck me was how damn sexy the crowd looked - especially the young Aussie actors, like Kick Gurry, who scrubbed up a treat in their slick LA suits. As an added bonus, heart throbs Chewitel Ejoifor and Michael Vartan could be found lurking among the cabanas. Talk about flying pheromones! One sour note was the conditions Isla Fisher's fiancee Sacha Baron Cohen put on his appearance at the event, although he seemed affable and relaxed on the night to me. Chatted to the Countess von Bismark-Schonhausen, actress Laura Harring, about her new film, Mike Newell's Love in the Time of Cholera, and Persian director Ramin Niami (married to Australian powerhouse entertainment lawyer Karen Robson) about his forthcoming feature to be partly filmed in Iran. All in all, a bit of a shock to the system to find so many people in LA - and all in one place! - who were so engagingly intelligent and sartorially splendid.

What I did on my vacation #2

Discovered Cafe Audrey...a block or two away from the Napoleon Perdis store, this charming cafe is the brainchild of another Aussie, Lola Nelson, a former Sydneysider who has been ensconsed in LA for fifteen years, working as a decorator. The derelict old drycleaners had been empty for 35 years and the neighbourhood was a big gang hangout until only a couple of years ago, but sensing the winds of change on the boulevard, Nelson and her business partner set up camp in the derelict store and revamped it as a shrine to the fashion icon after coming across a cache of old Audrey photographs in a drywall during the renovation. The cafe is a delightful riff on Hepburnism and the little black dress, with a black and white decor (houndstooth recovered cinema chairs; zebra-stripe painted floors, a wall of framed Audrey photographs, handwritten Audrey quotes on the walls.) Nelson combed thrift shops and junk yards for elements of the design. "Everything has a story; nothing came brand new," she says. Missing from this scenario is any obvious fan stuff - Nelson refuses to hang any posters of Breakfast at Tiffanys. However, in a tribute to Funny Face, poetry readings happen sporadically. Cafe Audrey, 6701-B Hollywood Boulevard, CA 90028. Phone (323) 465 5359.

What I did on my vacation #1

May 1 2007... the opening of the Napoleon Perdis concept store on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles - the first makeup store there since the now defunct Max Factor emporium opened in the 1920s. You can't miss it - a double-fronted gold-painted vision of glamoroma on the formerly derelect boulevard. Inside, Napoleon's makeup academy, store, and private rooms for celebrity consultations. The decor? Leopard print, zebra stripes, crystal chandeliers, vintage lamps, baroque mirrors, studded satin sofas. (Think Gianni Versace and Roberto Cavalli in a menage-a-quatre with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.) I'm writing about Napoleon's empire for the July issue of The Australian Women's Weekly, so I'm going to save all the juicy tidbits for that. At left, the exuberant Napoleon on his red carpet. "They wanted to do a gold red carpet and I said, it's my first time in Hollywood - I want a red red carpet!"