He's the baby-faced Sydney paparazzo who has managed to get himself in an awful lot of hot water and in a very short time.
Meet Liam Mendes, the 22-year-old self-styled paparazzo who took the photos of Samantha Armytage going about her business on a Bondi Street a week ago that set off a tsunami of criticism after they became the centrepiece of a bizarre story which ignited a feminist fire.
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Private Sydney: man behind 'undie-gate' uncovered
The Sydney paparazzo who managed to get Samantha Armytage's knickers in one almighty knot is revealed.
The Daily Mail paid a measly $112 a frame, a total of $224, for the two shots it published as part of a story claiming that Armytage was wearing "giant Granny panties".
That initial story resulted in widespread condemnation of the media outlet's handling and negative coverage of Armytage's presumed choice of underwear (she later claimed she was wearing her bathers).
![Liam Mendes, 22, the self-styled paparazzo who took photos of Samantha Armytage going about her business on a Bondi ...](/web/20161217023113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/b/r/r/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtbnbp.png/1481894414579.jpg)
The chorus of complaints also took aim at the unnamed (until now) photographer who took the shots.
The widespread negative reaction eventually resulted in a rare public apology to Armytage from the Daily Mail after she retained lawyers and threatened to sue, though the Daily Mail's Australian executives would not be sorry for the huge amount of traffic the coverage generated for the fledgling website.
PS has also confirmed Armytage received an apologetic text message from the photographer over the "Granny Panties" treatment, which the Sunrise co-host ignored.
No doubt watching from the sidelines would have been one of Mendes' previous targets, celebrity fat-fighter Michelle Bridges, who was the subject of an unsuccessful AVO that had been sought to restrain Mendes from coming near her following a well-publicised run-in during her grocery run inside her local Woolworths supermarket.
However, one of Mendes' colleagues and close friends, fellow "pap" Jonathan Marshall, confirmed to PS this week that when it comes to taking photos of Armytage, who has been publicly scrutinised over her voluptuous figure for years, demand was very much for "shots taken from behind ... they want to see her backside".
![Carla Zampatti's spring-summer 2016 show at her home in Edgecliffe. Samantha Armytage. Thursday 28th April 2016. Photograph by James Brickwood. SMH NEWS 160428](http://web.archive.org./web/20161217023113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/8/t/4/0/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1481772577855.png)
Samantha Armytage was the target of a paparazzo campaign focused on her undergarments. Photo: James Brickwood
Mendes, who previously worked as an intern at accounting firm Ernst & Young when he landed in hot water for taking shots of radio personality Rove McManus, whose studios share the same foyer, did not respond to PS' calls this week.
Mendes' colleagues said he was highly anxious about being identified as the photographer of the controversial Armytage photos.
Ironically it was Armytage herself who had unintentionally fuelled media interest in her private life after she took to social media to deride media reports elsewhere claiming she had a new man in her life.
PS has obtained the original proof sheet of the images featuring Armytage, which made no comment of her figure let alone what sort of underwear she was wearing, but did purport to be the first sighting of her since she made those comments about her love life.
Indeed it was the team at the Daily Mail that conjured up the underwear angle.
Roxy Jacenko sure knows how to lift her little girl's spirits
There wouldn't have been a heart that didn't melt a little this week when Roxy Jacenko revealed, via yet another media interview, how her little girl/star client/cash cow, five-year-old fashion blogging dynamo Pixie Rose Curtis, cries herself to sleep because she misses her dad, jailed insider trader Oliver Curtis, who lost his appeal on Friday and will remain in prison for Christmas.
As PS has previously revealed, Jacenko has enjoyed the support of her former boyfriend, millionaire Nabil Gazal, since Curtis went behind bars.
![Roxy Jacenko attends the Crown Resorts Ladies Lunch at Inglis Stables at Inglis Newmarket Stables on March 18, 2016 in Sydney](http://web.archive.org./web/20161217023113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/c/f/8/o/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1481844172669.png)
Mother of the year material: Roxy Jacenko. Photo: Don Arnold
On Friday, friends of the pair told PS that Jacenko and Gazal were "still going strong".
This week, Jacenko spoke openly about her hopes for her husband's return home for Christmas, which, with Gazal about, would presumably have made things a bit, ahem, cosy on Christmas morning.
Jacenko also revealed she has told their kids that "dad is in China" rather than the Big House in Cooma.
The tireless self-promoter certainly knows how to lift a girl's spirits too.
In between flaunting her latest haul on Instagram (from French bubbles to yet more bling), spruiking about her inclusion in "2016's Most Intriguing People List" and gushing about her Norma Desmond-like return to television (turns out she's joined the conga-line of talking heads on Channel Nine's truly turgid 20 to 1), Jacenko treated her little multimedia rug-rat to a session with a professional hair and make-up artist so the little Dior-clad darling could attend her kindergarten "graduation" in style.
Surely Mother of the Year material?
Jesinta Campbell realises her girlhood dream with Harper's Bazaar cover
It was one of the most anticipated celebrity weddings of the year: beauty pageant queen marries the $10 million footballer, the sort of wedding the gossip magazines would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the "exclusive" on.
But as the freshly minted Jesinta Franklin, nee Campbell, tells next week's edition of Harper's Bazaar Australia, she was never in it for the money.
Instead, it was a girlhood dream of gracing the cover of a prestige fashion magazine like Harper's that clinched the deal and got her finally talking about her wedding, rather than a fat cheque.
"She did it for free," Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Kellie Hush told PS: "She really wanted a cover, that's what her dream has been ... to be on the cover of Harper's."
Franklin even took a break from her honeymoon at Port Stephens with Sydney Swans football star Lance "Buddy" Franklin to do her interview with the magazine following the top-secret wedding on November 4.
![Jesinta Campbell and Buddy Franklin for Harpers Bazaar Australia](http://web.archive.org./web/20161217023113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/b/w/r/m/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1481776065657.png)
Jesinta Campbell and Buddy Franklin pose for the cover of Harpers Bazaar Australia.
"We could have bought a small apartment with the money we were offered by the media for the engagement and wedding stories, but for us, so much of our life is public because of what we do, we wanted our wedding to be private. Getting married was such a sacred, reverent thing, we wanted to keep it just for ourselves," she tells the magazine.
The garden wedding, in the Blue Mountains, was attended by just 24 close friends and family members, who were all under strict instructions not to let the cat out of the bag until Mr and Mrs Franklin broke the news to the world via their social media accounts.
The bride wore two custom-made Vera Wang dresses she'd secretly had fitted in New York just two days before her shoot for the magazine's cover.
"It was funny, my work schedule actually ended up working perfectly around the wedding," Franklin says. "Originally, I wasn't supposed to be working the day before the wedding, but my schedule changed and I had to, so no one at all suspected what was going on. But it was also planned so precisely."
Even when she arrived on set for the magazine shoot, Franklin admits she was "really, really quiet because I spent the entire day going through a mental check list of what I had and hadn't done. 'Veil done. Tick. Flowers. Tick.' All that Buddy had to do was steam his suit on the day.
"It honestly was a real testament to the people who came, the people we trust, because no one said a thing. It was pretty special when we pulled it off."
Seal and Erica Packer call time on relationship
Just as her ex-husband James Packer's engagement to Mariah Carey has unravelled so spectacularly, so too has his ex-wife Erica Packer's 18-month relationship to another pop star, Seal, albeit their break-up has largely been out of the limelight.
PS can confirm that Seal and Packer, who appeared very much in love throughout 2016, have called it quits on their relationship, with suggestions that it was Seal who broke it off.
Last week PS reported that Erica and her three children with Packer, were by the billionaire's side in Argentina over Thanksgiving.
At the height of their relationship, Erica described Seal as "'a very beautiful and magical soul", with photos of the pair showing they appeared to have successfully blended their respective families, with family trips out for ice cream and trips to the park.
Throughout the relationship Erica has remained "friendly" with her ex-husband James as they reach the three-year separation mark, though their family reunions have not been as well documented.
![Seal and Erica Packer take the children to get Froyo in Brentwood, California. Mandatory Credit: NINJA/INFphoto.com Ref: infusla-312 .](http://web.archive.org./web/20161217023113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/m/6/8/a/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1478857372175.png)
Seal and Erica Packer take the children to get Froyo in Brentwood, California. Photo: Ninja/INFphoto.com
Erica and the children's recent visit to Argentina was described as a much welcome family visit for the embattled casino mogul, who friends have described this week as being "very unhappy" over recent events involving both his personal and business lives.
And while the former couple's friendship remains strong, PS understands a marital reconciliation would seem unlikely as, according to friends, both have forged ahead in their own personal lives. Instead they "remain committed" to co-parenting their young family, albeit in separate homes around the world.
The demise of Erica's relationship with Seal also means she will not be joining the singer in Sydney during his time shooting The Voice, on which he is resuming his role as a judge for Channel Nine, with shooting set to get underway in mid-January.
However, Sydney has welcomed home a few other familiar faces in recent days, with Collette Dinnigan back in town from her Roman digs, along with Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch, who are understood to be looking forward to a warm, Australian Christmas at their lavish Vaucluse mansion Le Menoir.
Delta's dream gig as Olivia a nightmare for Fremantle
Playing Olivia Newton-John in her television biography on Channel Seven has been described as Delta Goodrem's "dream gig", however behind the scenes tensions are running high on the Melbourne set, with production company Fremantle Media pulling out all the stops to make sure filming is wrapped within the incredibly tight one-month timeframe they have for the shoot.
Goodrem is due on the set of rival Channel Nine's The Voice by mid-January.
![Delta Goodrem has appeared on The Voice for five of its six seasons to date.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161217023113im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/k/v/0/5/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1478600381122.png)
Delta Goodrem has appeared on The Voice for five of its six seasons to date.
Interestingly Goodrem remains under contract with Nine, though despite this the network has given her the OK to work for a rival because, as PS was told, "the role means so much to her ... but it has been a debacle since the beginning".
Meanwhile PS hears some of Fremantle's other clients awaiting productions to get underway for 2017 have expressed some frustration at the amount of resources being directed into the Olivia project.