NOT SO PHYSICAL
Everyone who’s spent half a second in the same room as Newton-John will be rolling out the memory to all and sundry this week. But SMH/The Age reader Dave Miller‘s takes the cake. Working as a personal trainer in 1984 at Kerry Packer’s exclusive Hyde Park Club, he was wowed by celebrity attendees like West Indies cricketers Viv Richards and Joel Garner but couldn’t believe his luck when he was asked to give one-on-one fitness sessions to Newton-John.
He was amazed by her warmth, friendliness, beauty but also… Her lack of physical prowess. Miller’s other client, former cricket captain Tony Greig, would turn “as red as a beetroot” in workouts, but Newton-John was the exact opposite, he says, rarely breaking a sweat. “I had visions of the Physical film clip … But no way. She didn’t push herself too hard, she didn’t need to.”
GETTING SUED
Lawyers are an industrious bunch. None more so than defamation lawyers working on the plaintiffs’ side.
On Thursday, Sydney silk Sue Chrysanthou SC wrote to the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, complaining about reforms to the Defamation Act – which have been in operation for more than a year.
Chrysanthou’s views are hardly a shock: espousing that charities should be able to sue more easily, bemoaning that plaintiffs have to wait a full 28 days before they can commence litigation, and complaining that the new process is so complex that counsel often has to charge $10,000 to write the first letter. Quelle horreur!
You’ve got to admire the persistence. After failing to get their way during the two-year-long reform process, and after the new laws were enacted in April 2021, Chrysanthou and her cohort circulated a briefing note to state MPs condemning the changes as “fundamentally flawed” and calling for them to be scrapped.
Undeterred by a rebuff from NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman, Chrysanthou & Co had a meeting with the department in December last year to have another whinge. It’s taken seven months to follow up on that meeting with last week’s letter.
The delay is perhaps unsurprising, as Chrysanthou must have been terribly busy unsuccessfully appealing a costs order in relation to her conflict in acting for both Jo Dyer, a potential witness to the now-infamous rape allegation against Christian Porter, and for Porter himself. (At least she only has to go halves with Porter’s secret donor.)
‘UNHAPPY MARRIAGE’
Hard to imagine, but it’s a tough time to be an Australian fund manager right now. Looking across the ASX-listed majors, share prices are tanking.
The worst performer is unsurprisingly Magellan, caused by the chaos following star founder Hamish Douglass’ abrupt exit late last year
But not too far behind is the freshly merged Regal Funds Management.
Sydney investment guru Phil King said it was a good-time to be shorting stocks, when his company merged with bad boy Robert Luciano’s VGI earlier this year.
Perhaps he’s now wishing he shorted his own company.
Loading
Regal shares are down 54 per cent over the past 12 months, which has only continued to tumble since the tie-up.
CBD has obtained a recent note to clients, signed by King and Regal CEO Brendan O’Connor, that shows six of Regal’s 10 funds have slipped into negative returns over the six months to June.
Clients were told short-term pain is “never pleasant” – you don’t say – but never fear because happier times are just around the corner.
While hedge fund managers are no strangers to volatile times, some market watchers are not so convinced.
“Their main fund has fallen off a cliff, the share price has been decimated,” one well-placed source tells CBD. “That’s going to be a pretty unhappy marriage.”
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Recent Comments