And she certainly looks happy.
As are those sponsors who have invested millions into both athletes; with broadcasters, women’s magazines and mainstream media beyond the sports pages, all lapping it up. Simpson has even launched his own fashion range.
The more news the McKeon-Simpson relationship (which surely deserves its own celeb portmanteau? Codem? Perhaps Emody?), the greater return on sponsor investment, and at a time when competition for corporate endorsements is cut-throat.
After her victorious outing at the Tokyo Olympics, McKeon’s manager Tony Box revealed sponsorship had changed dramatically since the days of Ian Thorpe reeling in millions, telling PS last year: “There is a lot more competition and the sports and athletes that don’t provide the regular content have suffered.”
“Content” is one thing “Emody” will not be short of, especially if Simpson’s social media posts are any indication, like being filmed – supposedly surreptitiously – checking his phone to discover he had made the Australian team for the world championships.
A proud McKeon rubbed Simpson’s back and hugged him. The post was shared thousands of times.
Kyle Chalmers and Cody Simpson.Credit:Getty
Throw in a complicated love triangle involving McKeon’s former boyfriend Kyle Chalmers, along with the prospect Simpson could compete against Chalmers in the butterfly sprint events in Birmingham, and the scene is set for high drama poolside.
Crowe’s sons front and centre
Russell Crowe, in Rome to star as the late Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s former chief exorcist, in an upcoming movie, The Pope’s Exorcist, was copping flak for posting photos inside the Sistine Chapel on Twitter this week (less worthy tourists are banned from taking them). But it was his snap with sons Tennyson and Charles that perhaps gave us a greater insight into the actor’s private world.
Russell Crowe with sons Charles and Tennyson in Rome this week.Credit:Twitter
It’s been a while since the public has seen his boys with former wife Danielle Spencer, the couple fiercely protecting their privacy while they were younger children. Now Charles is 18 and “Tenny” 15, and it appears their famous father is more relaxed about sharing them with the world. The boys didn’t appear to mind too much either.
Hammer falls
The relationship breakdown of a pair of unidentified wealthy individuals has resulted in an extraordinary collection of designer furnishings going under the hammer at Woollahra’s Shapiro auction house next week.
The Boca do Lobo Studio Newton Bubble Bath going to auction at Shaprio next week, estimated to fetch between $10,000 and $15,000. Credit:Shapiro
Among PS’s favourite items is the hysterical-looking Boca do Lobo Studio “Newton” bubble bathtub, featuring pink and cream lacquer brass spheres with high gloss varnish finishing. Price estimates are between $10,000 and $15,000. Who says money can’t buy taste?
Boat show back in business
While the truly colossal superyachts are carving up the Mediterranean at present, in Sydney business has been booming among those in the market for a “tinnie” in the $5 million to $10 million range, plenty of which will be on display at next week’s rebooted Sydney International Boat Show at Darling Harbour.
The Sydney International Boat Show was last held in 2019.Credit:Wolter Peeters
The Sydney show is one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and attracted more than 60,000 people in 2019, but was canned for two years because of COVID-19. However, the pandemic ironically meant the industry boomed, with more people investing in water toys and staying put in Australia.
For the year ending June 30, 2021, there were more than 920,000 registered boats, while more than 2.5 million Australians held a boat licence and some 18,500 new boats were registered.
Ocean magazine founder Hillary Buckman will be popping corks on Thursday night with her mid-winter soirée, while Ray White Marine is throwing a VIP party next Saturday night. Sales director Brock Rodwell will have eight boats on display, including a Pershing 82 and Ferretti 780, with a combined value of $20 million, plus a Rolls-Royce Black Badge GHOST alongside the boats, a $100,000 Roger Dubuis watch and diamond sparklers from Calleija jewellery.
Parting ways
As building continues at Darling Point on the huge house being built by developer and former boss of troubled former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro, Joseph Nahas, PS has learnt the six-year project looks set to outlive Nahas’ marriage, with word he has quietly parted company with wife Danielle Elkorr.
Construction on the new Nahas home in Darling Point where more than $1 million is going on imported designer tiles.Credit:Wolter Peeters
Nahas and his now former wife have been building one of the most ambitious and expensive family homes in Sydney, in a prime harbour-front position, but they now appear unlikely to ever live in it together.
The drawn-out project has already become the bane of neighbours in the Broadwater block of apartments, worried about losing harbour views. Interestingly, one of Nahas’ companies recently sold one of two apartments it owns in the building, retaining a one-bedroom unit bought for $1.37 million in 2019.
The building site was purchased under the name of Elkorr for $11.125 million in late 2015. Millions of dollars have since been poured into the new multi-level home with estimates the entire project’s value is around $50 million, with more than $1 million going into the imported floor tiles alone.
Leckie honoured
A year after he died, and in honour of his posthumous induction as a Member of the Order of Australia, the television industry gathered at Royal Sydney Gold Club on Friday afternoon to honour the late television executive David Leckie.
Skye and David Leckie, then CEO of Channel Seven, at the opening of The Star in 2011.Credit:Andrew Quilty
Once one of the most powerful and feared figures in Australian television, Leckie was the former chief executive of the Nine and Seven networks, and along with his wife Skye a fixture in Sydney’s social diaspora for decades.
Former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson and television news veteran Peter Meakin, proved an entertaining double act as they shared MC duties, while PS spotted a cavalcade of television and society faces among the 350-strong crowd, including Andrew Denton and Jennifer Byrne, Mark Ferguson, Peter Overton and Jessica Rowe, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Col Allan, Gretel Packer, John Hartigan, Phil Kearns, Eddie McGuire, Daryl Somers, Sonia Kruger, Craig Macpherson, James Warburton, Hugh Marks, Mike Sneesby, Hamish McClellan, Vince Sorrenti and Tracy Grimshaw.
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