The late architect Harry Seidler may have designed the odd building near the Downing Centre Local Court in Liverpool Street, but it is doubtful that he ever imagined his son,Timothy Seidler, would be visiting to face drug possession charges. According to court documents, police allege the 44-year-old company director was carrying 21.59 grams of cannabis, two brass "smoking pipes" and amyl nitrate - a drug commonly purchased from sex shops under the name "rush" - when he was stopped at Town Hall Station at 9.30pm on a Friday in mid-February. Seidler, whose address is listed on the court papers as the family home in Killara, where his mother Penelope lives, is charged with possession of a prohibited drug, possess/attempt to possess a prescribed, restricted substance and possession of equipment for administering prohibited drugs. The matter is listed to be heard tomorrow and Seidler has pleaded not guilty to each charge.
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MORE DANCING FOR MP
The NSW minister for dirty dancing, Matt Brown, aka Captain Underpants, celebrates a momentous anniversary today: 10 years as an MP. Appropriately, the former police minister (for a record three days) is holding a shindig at the Hilton which will double as a $1000-a-table fund-raiser. The Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, is the keynote speaker. According to the invitation, guests will enjoy "fine wines from award-winning vineyards in the emerging Shoalhaven Coast" over celebrations for the MP for Kiama, who is one of Labor's best fund-raisers. Just who the guests are is a secret, but it is believed the ethanol company Manildra has secured several tables. The Greens MP Lee Rhiannon is demanding the list be made public. "Both Matt Brown and Nathan Rees need to wake up to how disdainfully Australian voters view these big-end-of-town fund-raising events," she said.
SHORT MEMORY, JIM
It's good to see the former bankrupt "Big Jim" Byrnes being outraged at the corporate skulduggery of others during the BrisConnections saga. It takes one to know one, we say. After all, Big Jim is serving a five-year stint in the corporate sin bin for "demonstrated incompetence, a lack of commercial morality and a disregard for his statutory duties as a director". And this is his second ASIC banning in a decade. His other sterling efforts include being jailed for the deemed supply of heroin, labelled a habitual offender by the Roads and Traffic Authority, convicted for assaulting a bikie, acquitted of fraud charges, and being on a good behaviour bond for taking a baseball bat to a solicitor's office. The big man's financial situation is not that rosy either - he has a personal insolvency agreement with creditors after incurring $19 million in debts. Given his form, it was wonderful hearing him say he'd trust Nicholas Bolton "like I'd trust a rabbit with a lettuce leaf."
RED MEAT AT STAKE
The National Press Club has more or less got over its reputation for serving rubber chicken. But yesterday it cooked up an ultra-healthy course which staggered the florid old hands at the club, including this column's correspondent, Mark Metherell. Missing were intrinsic elements of the Press Club table: the butter and the cheese plate. This was at the behest of the National Heart Foundation, whose chief, Dr Lyn Roberts, addressed the club. Instead of last week's thick chunk of steak, (or was it lamb?) , there was steamed barramundi set on a salad of roast pumpkin, black lentils and marinated tofu topped with lemon yoghurt dressing and fresh chopped herbs. Fresh fruit and light virgin olive oil replaced the dairy fat. The club's manager Maurice Reilly says this should put paid to the rumour "that maybe some journalists don't have a heart". The menu is expected to revert to type next week, however, when the red-meat American writer P.J. O'Rourke speaks.
IT'S PLAY SCHOOL-COOL
You could call it a pitch for the youth market. ABC TV yesterday announced four hipster presenters will join Big Ted, Humpty and the rocket clock on the Play School set. The Packed To The Rafters actor Hugh Sheridan (Ben Rafter), theatre stalwart and Australia cast member Essie Davis, the All Saints actress Jolene Anderson and former McLeod's Daughters' face Abi Tucker have started recording episodes which will screen later in the year.A BIG DAY FOR BO THE DOG
The Obama family's new Portuguese water dog, Bo, had little time to settle into his new home, the White House, this week before he was given his first official duty: facing the US media. The puppy, acquired by President Barack Obama for his daughters Malia (pictured) and Sasha, has presidential clearance to visit the Oval Office, just like the Bush family dog, Barney. Bo, however, is yet to bite a White House correspondent.
* Miles Franklin Award shortlist announced at the State Library of NSW, Sydney
* Minister for Superannuation, Senator Nick Sherry, at Sydney Chamber of Commerce
* Senate inquiry into draft legislation for the Federal Government's carbon emissions trading plan due to report, Canberra
* World Photography Awards, Cannes
STAY IN TOUCH
WITH DISGRACE IN THE DARK
THE adaptation of Disgrace, adopted Australian J.M. Coetzee's novel, will make its Australian debut at the Sydney Film Festival in June. The film, directed by Steve Jacobs (of La Spagnola rather than Today show fame) and starring John Malkovich as a professor who has an affair with a student, is one of four films announced yesterday as part of the official competition. Disgrace will vie against films such as Coraline, from The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick, for the festival's top prize of $60,000, with director Rolf de Heer serving as president of the judging panel. This year's festival will run for 12 days from June 3 - previous festivals have run for 19 - with the full schedule released on May 13.
WITH JACKO'S STUFF
It was going ahead, then it was not, then going again. Now it appears an auction of Michael Jackson's memorabilia and treasured possessions will not go ahead next week after the singer and Julien's Auction House settled a dispute over whether the 2000 items from the Neverland ranch were ever intended for sale.
In the settlement, Jackson keeps items such as his glove from the Billie Jean film clip and the gates of Neverland while Julien's keeps its exhibition, charging the public $US20 ($28) entry and $US50 for single volumes of the catalogue or $US200 for the five-volume boxed set.
Jackson's production company, MJJ Productions, sued Julien's in early March, seeking to halt the sale and arguing that Jackson hadn't authorised it. A judge blocked one effort by Jackson to cancel it earlier this month. Estimates of likely proceeds from the auction topped $US12 million.
"It's been our hopes to resolve this in the beginning, when the lawsuit was filed," auctioneer Darren Julien told Associated Press. "We continue to have great respect for Michael Jackson ⦠I guess you could call it the greatest auction that never happened."
The singer has struggled financially since his arrest in 2003 on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy, of which he was acquitted. Last year he faced foreclosure on Neverland but was bailed out by an investment company and months later transferred the deed to an entity he partially controls. He is now planning concerts in London in July.
WITH RUSSIAN DOLLS
THE saga of Mel Gibson's marriage breakdown has turned into a tale of two Oksanas. Following angry denials from a Russian nightclub chanteuse, Oksana Kolesnikova, that she was the mystery brunette pictured with the actor frolicking on a beach in Costa Rica last month, a second Oksana emerged yesterday to claim the title of Gibson's cladestine love interest.
Pop starlet Oksana Pochepa, 24, told British tabloids her alleged relationship with the actor is "serious". "I don't know how long it will last ⦠But Mel is a grown man and knows precisely what he wants," she told The Sun.
"The only explanation is that the names Oksana have been confused - it is a very popular name in Russia," Kolesnikova said.
The Daily Mail, however, cast doubt on the blonde Pochepa's claims, running photos of another unnamed brunette Gibson was photographed with recently in Boston, who looks more like his Costa Rica companion.
The multiple links do little to improve Gibson's profile. The devout Catholic stands to lose half of his rumoured $1.3 billion estate after Robyn Moore, his wife of 28 years, filed for divorce this week.
Previous allegations of infidelity came from a former soft-porn actress called Diana Alouise, who wrote a book about an affair she said she had with Gibson in the 1980s . She claimed he seduced her after showing her a Mad Max video.
Shortly before being stopped for drunk-driving in 2006 and launching into an anti-Semitic rant, Gibson was photographed with two young blondes in a Hollywood bar.