Preview screenings of Mariah Carey's ever-so-humbly titled new reality television series, Mariah's World, are happening in Sydney next week.
And while the show's producers have been scrambling ever since news of Carey's split to her would-be husband, billionaire James Packer, to keep the series looking "fresh", from the teasers of the show PS has seen, it would appear the project has spent plenty of time in the oven.
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Private Sydney: Mariah's world and fake movie Aussies
Will Mariah Carey's upcoming reality TV show 'Mariah's world' address her very public split from fiance James Packer, and what exactly makes a good Australian accent in the movies? Andrew Hornery investigates.
Indeed the scene of Carey disembarking from a private jet wearing an evening gown, sunglasses (at night), stratospherically high heels and carrying what appears to be a half-filled red wine glass, Mariah's World would appear to be a very different one to the place the rest of us call home.
Then there are the moody "piece to camera" segments, featuring Carey, shot through a foggy soft focus, reclining about on her chaise lounge and wearing another pair of ridiculously high heels, dripping in diamonds and strapped into a skimpy corset, drivelling on and on about her life.
Mariah Carey and James Packer in November last year. Photo: Bloomberg
So far PS is yet to see any scenes featuring Packer, though he is understood to remain in one episode during which he sits awkwardly next to his former diva fiancee as sparklers are set off from a birthday cake and one of Carey's huge army is overheard saying something about them being a "hot" couple.
The show makes its debut on E! in December.
Plenty of baggage for soprano
Billed as one of the world's "most adored" coloratura sopranos, Sumi Jo, has been criss-crossing the country for her tribute to the legendary diva Maria Callas which rolls into Sydney for a one night only performance at City Recital Hall. And in keeping with the show's theme, Sumi Jo has been living up to the expectations of a diva, with no less than seven huge shipping trunks stuffed to the gills with elaborate gowns for her to wear throughout the tour. PS hears the tour's organisers have had to enlist a small army of hired muscle to help get the huge haul from hotel to hotel. Clearly it's not just Sumi Jo who is suffering for her art.
New beginnings after Lindt siege loss
On the eve of the second anniversary of the Lindt Cafe siege tragedy, a much happier footnote can now be added to that dark day in December 2014.
Sydney solicitor Paul Smith lost his much-loved wife, barrister and mother of their three young children, Katrina Dawson, during the siege.
Paul Smith (second left) has had plenty of support from Katrina Dawson's family: Sandy Dawson (left), Alexander Sandy Sawson Snr, Jane Dawson, Angus Dawson and his wife Nikki Dawson. Photo: James Brickwood
But today Smith has begun to emerge from the shadows of grief and has found some much needed happiness after confiding in friends and family that there is a new woman in his life.
That woman is Sanchia Brahimi, who quietly separated from her husband of 16 years, celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi, at the start of the year. She is the daughter of millionaire Sydney business identities Charles and Eva Curran.
Chef Guillaume Brahimi and his estranged wife Sanchia. Photo: Supplied
PS understands that Smith and Brahimi, who is a mother of four children, have similarly aged daughters attending the same Eastern Suburbs school and have grown close in recent weeks, having been friends for several years.
"It is very early stages but they are both such great people and they really deserve to find happiness, which is what appears to have happened ... it is a happy story," a friend of the couple confirmed to PS this week.
The couple's respective children and wider families have been told of the relationship and are said to be "very supportive" of them, while they are also fiercely protective of their privacy for the welfare of their children.
A year ago Smith and his in-laws launched the Katrina Dawson Foundation, a charity set up to provide scholarships to assist young women in furthering their education.
Lindt Cafe siege victim Katrina Dawson will long be remembered after a foundation was set up to assist young women in furthering their education.
At the time he said the foundation was his late wife's family's way of creating a lasting and positive legacy in her honour.
"'Having someone who is your match, we could be silly, we could be serious, we could have fun, we could talk about law, we could do anything and it always felt very natural – she had a wonderful family and I was very lucky to meet her," Smith said during the foundation's launch.
The foundation is also something Sanchia is said to be keen to support, having pursued her own philanthropic endeavours over the years, including cookbooks with her now ex-husband to raise money for cancer research.
Meanwhile Brahimi last week revealed he would be closing his relatively new fine dining restaurant Guillaume in Paddington after just three years of trading.
The restaurant is one cog in a much larger business empire the popular French chef has built over the past decade or so, having opened restaurants across Australia.
Indeed, it was the pressure of building the gastronomic empire that was identified as the reason his marriage with Sanchia had come unstuck.
Bring back Jordan!
The British producers of Old Blighty's version of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here have once again taken over the "jungles" of the Gold Coast hinterland. However, an apparent ban on "reality television stars" for this year's series, which in past years gave us Peter Andre and Jordan, has made for slim pickings when it comes to 2016's line-up of – ahem – celebs. Among the names vaguely familiar to PS are Welsh television presenter Carol Vorderman, former Chelsea footballer Wayne Bridge and actor Larry Lamb, best known for playing Archie Mitchell in British soap EastEnders. Bring back Jordan!
Jiggly Iggy gets a gong, then a bad rap
The annual magazine awards season is in full swing, and admittedly many of the gongs being bestowed are pretty meaningless. Occasionally, though, a recipient is recognised who really deserves it as various publications name their "best", "sexiest", "most beautiful", "most intriguing" and "most fabulous" men and women of the year.
On Wednesday night it was GQ magazine's turn, with its annual Men Of The Year Awards at Justin Hemmes' Ivy pleasure palace.
Among the truly inspirational acceptance speeches were those from broadcaster Stan Grant, who gave a moving talk about the plight of Indigenous Australians, Paralympian Dylan Alcott, again proving that wheelchairs are no obstacles when it comes to self-fulfilment, and out and proud comic Joel Creasey, who delivered a poetic lesson in what being a man really is; by praising his own footy-loving father's unconditional love for his gay son.
Then there was expatriate rap star Iggy Azalea, who jiggled her way towards the stage to accept her Woman of the Year Award dripping in Bulgari jewels and with enough Hollywood tape on her newly buxom decolletage to cover the Olgas, which given her racy outfit choice seemed appropriate.
Iggy Azalea's 'joke' during her acceptance speech was lost on most of the audience. Photo: James Ambrose
Either Azalea was too busy taking selfies or just didn't listen to the genuinely humbling speeches that preceded her, but she was definitely a low point when she declared to the packed room she now has an "award-winning vagina". Pardon?
Apparently the only person in the room who understood what she was talking about was Ian Thorpe, who attempted to decipher the "joke" to PS, sadly to no avail.
Then there were the fabulous male models duelling it out, as Jordan Barrett and Jarrod Scott did their best "Blue Steel" poses at competing tables, while former Sydney boy Julian McMahon showed all those years in Hollywood have rubbed off, speaking in a thick Beverly Hills accent as he worked the room.
Finally we had the pleasure of listening to visiting actor Jon Hamm, who was actually born in America. He gave a gracious speech after being bestowed with the rather grand title of GQ Australia's International Man Of The Decade.
Indeed Hamm was channelling his inner Don Draper later at the after party by the rooftop pool, as a swarm of ladies made a B-line for the newly single actor. At one point PS joined the queue and ended up sitting at his table as a bounty of beauties materialised before us.
Sadly there was no sign of Iggy, who by this time had presumably gotten lost in her Olgas.
Floor collapse no laughing matter
If the heat wasn't bad enough, Sydney's social set had to deal with a collapsing floor inside the Land Rover VIP marquee at Centennial Park for last Saturday's Polo In The City. PS hears the likes of Terry Biviano and Russian heiress Alina Barlow found themselves marquee refugees after the floor caved in resulting in an emergency evacuation. Thankfully The Biv was "rescued" by the neighbouring McGrath real estate marquee erected next door, and was later spied with a restorative glass of bubbly in hand. Meanwhile one hapless publicist who got a little too officious with the media who planned to cover the event, has spent the week trying to locate a dozen missing bottles of Moet, sending out bizarre emails trying to locate the haul. Perhaps she should look in the fridge?
Dev Patel has Aussie accent off pat
London-born and raised actor Dev Patel spent months "Skyping" with his Australian voice coach before shooting even began on the critically acclaimed new film Lion, in which he co-stars with Nicole Kidman and David Wenham.
The sessions clearly paid off, as Patel has delivered what many believe to be one of the best Australian accents by a foreign actor ever committed to film.
"He was absolutely committed to getting it right," voice and dialect coach Jenny Kent told PS. "For an actor you have to be very brave to take on an accent. If you get it wrong, your character's credibility is gone. Usually you need an actor to be committed to the process and to have enough time to be able to get it right. On Lion we had those elements.
Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel at the 20th Annual Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills, California, this month. Photo: Getty Images
"By the time we were on set he had mastered the accent ... it was great to see him lose himself in the accent so he could focus on the storytelling."
Those weekly, hour-long Skype sessions included teaching Patel the distinguishing sounds of the Australian accent.
"Australians are known for not opening our mouths very much when we speak, which impacts the sound of our accent," Kent said. "Sometimes actors over-reach when they are doing an Australian accent and it comes out very broad, which sounds like a caricature."
From Meryl Streep's "Dingo ate my baby" take on Lindy Chamberlain to Melissa George having to be re-taught her Australian accent when she shot The Slap, getting the right sound is a critical aspect of delivering an authentic performance.
Patel recently admitted that when he initially attempted the accent he sounded like a "Steve Irwin mash-up".
The actor plays Tasmanian Saroo Brierley and tells the story based on Brierley's memoir, A Long Way Home, of his search to find his birth mother in India with little more than a few faint childhood memories and Google Earth.
Kidman plays his adoptive Australian mother. The film, which is already generating plenty of Oscar buzz, is due to be released in Australia in January.