Olivia Newtown-John’s older sister Rona has died after a short battle with brain cancer. She was 70.
Rona, British-born and Melbourne-raised model and actress, was diagnosed with cancer in April.
Olivia, 64, who is in remission after her 1992 breast cancer diagnosis, announced her sister’s illness in a statement last month.
“As a cancer ‘thriver’ myself, as many people are, I am very aware of the importance of love, support and family during this journey she is about to begin,” Olivia said.
“I want to thank everyone in advance for respecting our privacy during this difficult time.”
Rona’s condition deteriorated so fast Olivia was forced to cancel her upcoming concert dates in Las Vegas.
Rona married Olivia’s Grease co-star Jeff Conaway in 1980 and they had a son, racing car driver Emerson Newtown-John. The marriage ended in divorce in 1985.
Rona later married Melbourne restaurateur Brian Goldsmith and had daughter Tottie Goldsmith.
I’m standing under a chandelier the size of truck with my mouth open. “Donatella’s never set foot in the place?” I ask incredulously. The chandelier and I are in the lobby of Palazzo Versace and the crisply tailored man who’s uttered this piece of bling is an employee. But he’s adamant. Ms Versace, who once had an in-house TV channel devoted to her at the Palazzo, has never stepped over the threshold … not once since it opened 13 years ago.
“Kate Hudson, Beyonce, Owen Wilson, Bono, Mick Jagger, Paris Hilton, Natalie Imbruglia and hundred other celebrities have,” he says, but not a single Versace has. One suspects Donatella, has more than enough palazzos in the northern hemisphere.
Like Donatella, I’ve kept my distance. On former visits to the Gold Coast, I’ve swum with sharks at SeaWorld and dodged the monolithic shadows on Broadbeach (cast by the skyscrapers at Surfer’s Paradise), but Palazzo Versace sounded too luxe for me. How wrong one can be.
As I stood under the famous chandelier that once graced the Milan State Library, it took just two minutes to fall under the Versace spell. Coco Chanel fell in love with the Paris Ritz and ended up spending the rest of her life in one of its suites. And anyone with a spare million or two can become a resident at the Palazzo — simply by buying one of its luxury apartments.
Palazzo Versace has been described as “a temple to all things gaudy and glitzy”. Glamorous, yes, and opulent in a subtle, understated way, but there’s nothing gaudy or glitzy about this neo-classical masterpiece. The Versace soft furnishings of the 1990s — those ghastly melanges of gold, orange and pink — are nowhere to be seen. Think ivory, oatmeal, cobalt blue and a few hints of gold.
Launched in 2000 with a price tag of $300 million, three years after the murder of Gianni Versace in Miami, it’s stood the test of time. Soaring marble columns, vaulted ceilings, parquet floors and exquisite mosaics guide the eye from the lobby through a plate glass wall to the heated salted “lagoon” — an organically shaped swimming pool with a sandy beach and a view across the bay.
The lagoon is at the heart of the resort, a place to lounge and be seen, or not be seen, if you prefer. Just hire one of the cabanas for privacy. They look like four-poster, king-size beds with floaty gauze drapes. Here, you can sip Champagne, nibble canapes or have lunch with a friend and stickybeak a lazy summer’s afternoon away.
The entry level rooms also have parquet floors, as well as wall panelling and corner columns. Comfortably spacious enough for two, these rooms have sumptuously dressed beds, deluxe bathrooms with frosted glass doors and fine views over the lagoon. No trace of gaudiness or glitz here.
Coco Chanel once said, “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” On my visit to the Palazzo, most of the guests were dressed casually and all I remember are their fraying lycra trackies, nylon shorts and shapeless T-shirts emblazoned with logos. You can build a palace, but you can’t dictate what your guests wear.
There are three restaurants:Il Barocco, where the breakfast buffet looks so tempting it will stop you in your tracks;Vie, overlooking the ocean, which serves food of such quality and simplicity, it’s one of the best restaurants in southern Queensland; andVanitas, which, for my taste, takes sophisticated dining a little too seriously — fruit sandwiches and goat’s cheese lollipops may be novel, “show-stopping” canapes, but they left me yearning for a mini beef pie.
However, anyone in need of indulging their inner-Heston Blumenthal should join one of Vanitas’ sophisticated cooking classes. They’ll leave with an impressive list of canapes to wow their guests with.
No resort can survive without a spa and the Palazzo’s Aurora Spa Retreat is sublime — without doubt, one of the most refined temples to indulgent pampering in Australia.
Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk
Once inside the Palazzo, it’s tempting to stay cocooned from the outside world. Luckily, the lush rainforests of Mount Tambourine draw many guests west into the Gold Coast hinterland.
Highly recommended is the Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk, (07) 5545 2222, where you can explore 12 hectares of magnificent rainforest with a kilometre of tumbling creek and rock pools. Forest floor paths and a steel walkway 30 metres high in the canopy give two fascinating perspectives.
Privately owned by the Moore family, the property has one of the last remaining north-facing valleys in south east Queensland where rainforest thrives. It’s a haven for wildlife, including 12 different species of tree- and ground- frog, bower birds, dinosaur pines, freshwater turtles, rare wild orchids, 100 species of trees, 20 varieties of vines and a selection of wide-eyed nocturnal critters.
The Mt Tamborine Cooking School.
The Mt Tamborine Cooking School.
Exploring this lush wilderness is guaranteed to sharpen the appetite and as luck would have it, Mt Tamborine Cooking School, (07) 5545 4564, is just up the road. Terri Taylor is your host and her professional kitchen at her mountain home has not only has a memorable view, but enough cooking mod-cons to impress a masterchef.
In a morning, Terri taught us how to cook her Italian Menu with its 12 dishes. Yes, in a couple of hours, we created the following feast: Ligurian scallop tartlets, Baked ricotta and tepenade, Zucchini wrapped bocconcini, Gorgonzola in grilled figs with prosciutto, Prawn and sweet potato ravioli with pesto, Polenta and mushrooms, Lentil salad, Chicken scallopini, Salade Caprise, Rhubarb cake, Tiramisu and Bake rhubarb and cherries.
Then we ate it … and it was glorious, but the best of it was that with Terri’s thoughtful tuition and tips, and armed with her recipe sheets, we were all confident of pulling off our own Italian lunch party!
Women are monogamous and men are promiscuous, or at least that’s how the stereotype goes. But evidence is mounting that when the spark fizzles out of a relationship, women are the ones who feel the itch faster.
Studies are suggesting women get bored with monogamy faster than sex, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into infidelity, rather, the New York Times reports, spouse-weary women tend to avoid sex altogether.
New York Times reporter Daniel Bergner cites numerous studies busting myths that men are “hard-wired” to cheat or get bored with monogamous relationships, and indicating a societal shift towards women wanting to mix thing up more than men.
A German study of 2500 subjects found that women and men in new relationships reported, on average, equal lust for each other, but for women who have been with their partners between one and four years, those levels plunge leaving male desire far higher.
The same phenomenon was found with lesbian couples, who tended to lose interest in each other far quicker than male gay couples.
Rather than accepting women’s dwindling sexual desires or tendency to stray, as Bergner argues men have been treated for shirking monogamy, a huge investment in developing a drug women can take to restore desire for their husbands.
The drug, Lybrido, is in clinical trials in the US and should be available within the year.
Just two weeks after Angelina Jolie revealed she had a double mastectomy, her aunt has lost her battle with breast cancer.
Debbie Martin, the younger sister of Angelina’s mother Marchelina Bertrand, died on Sunday morning in California, aged 61.
Her husband, Ron Martin, told E! News Angelina had been in contact with the family over the past week.
“Angelina has been in touch throughout the week and her brother, Jamie, has been with us, giving his support day by day,” Ron said.
“They both loved Debbie very much and although Angie is not able to come right now, she has sent her love and support, which was very nice.”
Ron said both he and his late wife were very proud of Angelina’s decision to have a double mastectomy.
“We have seen Angelina a number of times since Debbie was diagnosed with breast cancer and Debbie and I were both very proud of her recent decision to have the double mastectomy and to do everything she can to keep her family from having to go through what we’ve been through,” he said.
“Angelina’s father [actor] Jon Voight has also been tremendously supportive. He came down to see Debbie last Sunday and spent the whole day, talking with her and sharing his love, and I know Debbie really enjoyed seeing him and talking with him.”
Angelina announced in The New York Times on May 14 that she had undergone a double mastectomy, after discovering she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation, which increases a women’s risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
Her decision to go through with the mastectomy was influenced by the early death of her mother, who passed away from ovarian cancer in 2007. The procedure decreased Angelina’s risk of developing breast cancer from 87 per cent to less than five per cent.
Since her announcement, doctors and health authorities have reported a phenomenon called “the Angelina effect”, whereby more women are coming forward and asking to be tested for the harmful BRCA1 gene mutation.
A few bevvies with the girls is just what the doctor ordered.
Princess Mary was far from her usual polished, poised and graceful self when she let her hair down on a night out with the girls last week. Hitting hip Copenhagen nightspot Pluto with her besties in tow, the Australian-born royal was seen throwing back cocktail after cocktail during a boozy bender that went on well into the wee hours.
But it wasn’t all gins and giggles for Mary and her troupe of ladies. “She had at least eight drinks. It didn’t seem like Mary was in a very good mood,” an eyewitness reports to Danish magazine Se og Hor.
“Often she sat looking the other way while the others talked. She didn’t seem present. At first I didn’t think it was her. One is used to seeing Mary as an enthusiastic princess. She always smiles.”
The Danish press was quick to point out that for once it was Mary treating herself to a night out rather than her party-hard hubby Prince Frederik. And Se og Hor speculates that perhaps the princess was venting about her life, just like any other woman juggling a family and career.
Read more about Princess Mary’s night out and see the exclusive pictires in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 27, 2013.
As Michelle flaunts her new love, “Commando”, Shari Nementzik meets the first man behind her success.
In the latest shock twist in Michelle Bridges’ relationship dramas, it’s emerged she has a secret husband she’s never spoken about in public. Ben Dombrowski reveals he was married to the Biggest Loser star for three years when she lived in Alice Springs, but despite her countless interviews detailing intimate details of her life, he has been airbrushed from history.
“It’s odd that she’s kept our marriage a secret,” Ben, 43, tells Woman’s Day. “I’m not anything to be ashamed of. It would have been nice to have had a mention.” Ben’s revelation comes just weeks after Michelle admitted her nine-year marriage to Bill Moore is over, amid rumours of a close relationship with her The Biggest Loser co-star Steve “Commando” Willis. Commando has also called it quits with his partner of seven years, Froso, who confirmed the affair to Woman’s Day last week.
In many ways, it was Ben who set Michelle on the path to success, with his love of fitness inspiring her to work hard in the gym. “I actually trained her for her physique competitions,” he reveals. “She won everything she entered: Miss NT, Miss Australasia, Miss Oceana, Miss Melbourne…It would have been nice for her to say, ‘At the start of my career, my husband taught me what I needed to do for developing physique’.”
But Michelle left him to chase stardom in Sydney. “I knew she was looking for it,” says Ben. “You could see that she was after much bigger, better things.” Ben first spotted Michelle at his local gym, where she worked as an aerobics instructor. “She was good-looking and crazy fun, but she was engaged to another guy, so I didn’t ask her out until that ended.” Ben, who was 22, and Michelle, then 21, hit it off straight away.
Read more about Micelle’s secret marriage in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 27, 2013.
Portrayed as a villain, the besieged dad says the show made life hell for him and his daughter.
Resident Biggest Loser “bad guy” Richard Roach says he is paying a heavy price for his slim new frame. As the series reaches its climax this week, “King Richard” has gone on the offensive, speaking out to counter the online abuse and death threats directed at him and his Loser team-mate, daughter Amber.
The finalist claims he has been unfairly vilified and “hung out to dry” in the name of ratings, insisting he is nothing like the backstabbing bully he’s made out to be. But Loser fans reacting to the portrayal have issued a barrage of online barbs, sending his fragile, 20-year-old daughter into a tailspin.
“I’m a tough bloke and I can take whatever is thrown at me, but the [online] abuse my daughter has received has brought me to my knees,” says Richard, 45. “She’s too scared to go to work, because people are threatening to bash her. She now says this is the worst experience of her life.”
Richard says he went on the show to help save his clinically depressed, 112kg daughter’s life. The once happy-go-lucky Amber was living as a social recluse in her bedroom after piling on 30-40kg in just three years. But although both he and Amber achieved their weight goals – he lost more than a third of his 139kg – in many ways, he was happier before. He’s now in the cross hairs of angry fans every time he’s in public, and says the show has strained his relationship with his family.
Read more about Richard’s regrets in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 27, 2013.
TV’s Rhonda took leave so Mandy McElhinney could play the part of a lifetime.
When it came to nabbing the role she believed she was destined to play, actress Mandy McElhinney was determined to put her, well, best “brake foot” forward. The hugely talented Mandy – who brought to life AAMI’s beloved “hot like a sunrise” Rhonda – knew that portraying irrepressible former Woman’s Day editor Nene King in Paper Giants: Magazine Wars simply had to be the next chapter in her career. And she was willing to do whatever it took to prove she was right for the part.
“I tried to make myself look as much like Nene as I could,” Mandy reveals, her blue eyes sparkling. “I slept with pin-curls in my hair, so it would curl out for the audition. And I went to the op shop and bought some garish clothes from the 80s, with shoulder pads. I really wanted the part and so I tried hard for the audition. “I had to do a freak-out where I was overturning tables,” she says about trying out for the hotly contested role. “Then I had to just wait and wait. I was really lucky to get it.”
Seeing Mandy burst into character on screen as the feisty and fiery Nene, it quickly becomes clear it was the series’ producers who were the lucky ones. Mandy, who after 20 years on stage and screen has suddenly become something of a pop-culture phenomenon, completely inhabits the demanding role.
She spent countless hours researching Nene’s life, her time at Woman’s Day, and her infamous rivalry with then New Idea editor Dulcie Boling (played by Rachel Griffiths), and says she became “obsessed” with her latest alter ego. “There’s something larger-than-life about Nene,” she reflects.
Read more about Mandy’s transformation from Rhonda to Nene in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 27, 2013.
