Teresa Palmer and Phoebe Tonkin get zen with their fans

Aussie actor and rising Hollywood starlet Teresa Palmer has started blogging on happiness, health and spirituality with friend and actor Phoebe Tonkin. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Briana Domjen, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Hollywood Starlet Teresa Palmer is preaching about love, wellbeing and spirituality to her fans.

Palmer writes a health food and fitness blog called Your Zen Life with her friend and Australian actress Phoebe Tonkin, however has recently taken to YouTube to broadcast video diaries for her followers.

“My very first #Teztalks video blog for @yourzenlife The theme for today is 'Self Love', she posted on her twitter site.

My very first #Teztalks video blog for @yourzenlife The theme for today is "Self Love" Check it out here youtube.com/watch?v=PUE-3f…

— Teresa Palmer (@tez_palmer) May 31, 2013

The cute actress talks to her audience about how she believes some people associate self-love with being stuck up.

“I have been working on loving myself, accepting myself for everything I am, the things I do and the things I say,” she says.

“It is actually very difficult to love yourself.”

Chubby boy Daniel Macpherson was bully victim

Then and now ... Daniel Macpherson. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Jonathon Moran, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Daniel Macpherson was a chubby kid bullied at school. He's anything but now and hopes he can be a positive role model for young boys and girls being picked on because of their weight.

This week he posted a series of instagram photographs of himself as a "chubby" child to motivate other young kids to be healthy.

"I was the fat kid and then there was the guy who was good at running and then there was the funny guy," Macpherson told Confidential.

"It was just part of going to school for me. I guess the most poignant issues now are that I haven't put my hand up to be a crusader for bullying as such. But bullying now has a term and a name. Back then it was just what you did as a kid. Certainly sports and a healthy lifestyle completely changed my life. To me, it is about giving other kids that are going through that awkward teenage phase hope. The truth is your teenage years can really suck."

The popular TV presenter and actor is back home in Sydney on holidays catching up with family and friends.

He's been based in Los Angeles for the past few years and heads back there in a week. In September he will compete in the Iron Man 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, having qualified at an event in California last March.

Aussie actor Lincoln Lewis 'buzzing' after filming Hollywood flick After Earth

 

 Lincoln Lewis / Pic: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Daily Telegraph

 

Briana Domjen, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Despite admitting most of his scenes are on the cutting room floor, Lincoln Lewis is buzzing after working on futuristic sci-flick After Earth.

The former Home and Away actor has a supporting role in Will and Jaden Smith's upcoming movie about a father and his son crash-landing on a deserted Earth.

Lewis took to Instagram and Twitter yesterday to tell his fans how grateful he was to be part of the post-apocalyptic adventure film despite his minimal screen time.

"What an amazing job these 2 blokes did," he posted.

"They brought so much innocence, humour intense action scenes that just kept getting better and better!

"Unfortunately the original start got cut so most of mine & the cadets stuff won't be in film, but I feel so lucky to have this amazing experience & be part of it all."

The New York premiere of After Earth was held at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York on Thursday.

Spotting Shirley MacLaine our new sport

Shirley MacLaine as Martha Levinson in Downtown Abbey / Pic: AP Source: National Features

Annette Sharp, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Shirley MacLaine was seen out and about in Sydney again yesterday, the 79-year-old looking spry in the company of men who have been spotted helping her get on and off motor yachts during her vacation in Australia.

Sources contacted this column to advise that MacLaine's only daughter Sachi Parker was a longtime Australian resident who made her home in the Hunter Valley: Perhaps she is here to visit her, suggested one reader. It's unlikely.

Parker has relocated back to the US where she this year launched her Mommie Dearest-style autobiography about her life as MacLaine's only child to ex-husband Steve Parker.

Entitled Lucky Me: My Life With -- and Without -- My Mom, Shirley MacLaine, doesn't appear to have bonded mother and daughter with MacLaine "heartbroken" by the book.

MacLaine, who refutes the book's contents, has said she is "heartbroken'' by her daughter's public airings.

One memorable account in the book deals with MacLaine's belief that Sachi's father, Steve Parker, was a cloned extraterrestrial. Sachi claims she had to persuade her mother he was not an alien but a conman duping the kooky MacLaine out of $60,000 a month.

Parker was born in LA and raised by her father in Tokyo. Having attended boarding schools in England and Switzerland, and worked in Hawaii and France, she became a flight attendant for Qantas Airlines and made her home in Australia. She later resettled in the US.

Parker is also an actress who appeared in films Back To The Future, About Last Night, Peggy Sue Got Married and Scrooged.

MacLaine, we hear, has been staying at Pyrmont's The Darling during her Down Under expedition.

Ricky Martin to tour on Oz stadium show

 

Singer Ricky Martin will be a coach on the next season of The Voice. Picture: AP Source: AP

Kathy McCabe, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Ricky Martin has answered the social media siren of his Australian fans and will shake his bon bon on our arena stages in October.

The wildly popular coach on The Voice told fans earlier this month he would return for his first tour in 13 years if they made their demands for shows via Twitter.

The national run has been in the works since the Latin heart-throb signed up to replace Keith Urban as a coach for the reality series' second season. Ricky negotiated with Nine Live, the network's touring arm, to promote the tour.

Fans have been hanging for Ricky to strut his stuff on stage since the show started airing last month, the popular Latin performer barely satisfying his legion of loyal admirers with the coaches' performances of Muse's Uprising and Rihanna's Diamonds.

Ricky has promised he will showcase new songs as well as the favourites from his recent Greatest Hits Souvenir Edition, which has achieved gold status in six weeks.

"This is the first time in more than a decade that I will be back on tour, live, in Australia. I am looking forward to singing all my greatest hits and some special new material that I can't wait to share with you all," Ricky said. "I'm ready to leave my soul on stage."

Visa customers can buy tickets from noon tomorrow via visaentertainment.com.au, while general tickets go on sale on June 3 from noon.

Ricky will open his tour in Melbourne on October 5. He will lob in Adelaide on October 10 to play the Adelaide Entertainment Centre before heading to Perth, Brisbane and Sydney.

Biggest Loser finalist Richard Roach: 'I was happier when I was fat'

Biggest Loser contestants Richard and Amber (QLD) have fallen victim to online abuse and death threats. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

Biggest Loser light blue team member Richard Roach has revealed that, despite losing more than a third of his body weight, he was happier before participating in the reality TV show.

The resident "bad guy" says his new slim frame has come at a price, with he and 20-year-old daughter Amber becoming the victims of constant online abuse and death threats.

"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," the 45-year-old father tells Woman's Day magazine.

"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."

With the series gearing up to the finale tomorrow night, the finalist tells the mag he has been unfairly vilified and "hung out to dry" for the sake of Channel 10's ratings and is nothing like the bully he is made out to be.

Roach says he originally agreed to go on The Biggest Loser to help his clinically depressed daughter, who weighed 112kg and was a social recluse when the show started.

Both father and daughter have achieved their weight goals. Richard has lost more than a third of his 139kg but says the negative reaction from Biggest Loser fans, both in public and online, has strained his relationship with his family.

Spice Girl Geri Halliwell's piddling issue with Taronga koalas

 

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

If being pooed on by a bird is good luck, what's the pay-off for a koala peeing in your purse?

It's a question we've often wondered and one on the mind of Geri Halliwell yesterday following an unfortunate run-in with a furry friend.

Taking daughter Bluebelle on a trip to Taronga Zoo, the sassy Spice Girl and incoming Australia's Got Talent judge was left gobsmacked inside a special enclosure when the critter walked over to her handbag and relieved himself on top of it.

"Oh, no problems," Halliwell said afterwards, according to onlookers, before posting a picture on Twitter.

The excursion was part of a weekend of exploring for the 40-year-old singer, who will call Sydney home intermittently for most of the year. She was seen among the rugged-up revellers taking in the light shows of Vivid on Saturday night.

Work on AGT starts today.

On her blog, Halliwell lamented the closure of the Spice Girls musical Viva Forever! which will close in London next month after disappointing ticket sales and terrible reviews.



Nicole Kidman's Cannes dress under fire

Nicole Kidman and Ang Lee attend the Nebraska premiere during The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph reports

It’s the dress mess that designer Valentino wants to go away. Stat.

Moments after Nicole Kidman made yet another stunning appearance at the Cannes Film Festival at the weekend, fashion critics were quick to dismiss the gown she wore, made by the revered Italian fashion house, a red-carpet reject.

According to the nitpickers, the lacy creation was the same one Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway turned down at the last minute for the Academy Awards in February after learning her Les Miserables co-star, Amanda Seyfried, was wearing something very similar by Alexander McQueen.

Having never had its moment, it was assumed the dress was pulled from the archive and refitted for Kidman. However a spokeswoman on behalf of Valentino promptly released a statement saying they do not recycle looks and that the gown worn by the Grace Of Monaco star was an original.

Glad we sorted that out.

Biggest Loser fat farm irks winner Adro Sarnelli

Adriano 'Adro' Sarnelli from The Biggest Loser / Pic: Channel Ten. Source: The Daily Telegraph

 

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

The winner of the inaugural first local The Biggest Loser, Australia, Adro Sarnelli, has hit out at the show's producers over plans to open "Australia's first-ever weight loss retreat", saying that he has been operating a same-minded obesity rehabilitation centre for the last five years.

Last week it was announced that the Golden Door Health Retreat on the Gold Coast will undergo a complete overhaul and be re-branded The Biggest Loser Retreat as part of a partnership with series producer Shine Australia. It will offer services seen on the weight-loss show and be promoted as the first of its kind.

However, Sarnelli, who won the TV competition in 2006 after losing 70kg, used his $200,000 prizemoney as a start-up for his own retreat, The New Me in Melbourne, which opened in 2008 and offers two 12-week courses for people who weigh more than 100kg.

"We set this up privately and we've had to work really hard to get this far,'' Sarnelli said yesterday.

"When you have a big corporate like The Biggest Loser come in and think they can start at the top is kind of like putting shit on the little guy.''

Sarnelli said he used the "voids'' of the show to build his business. "There was lots missing from The Biggest Loser, such as psychological support, long-term planning, teaching you how to cook and shop - the things that are prevalent to keeping the weight off,'' he said.

"A production company didn't teach me that and that's what made me want to teach and help others.

"I just hope this retreat is actually about helping people and not about making a TV program.''

There was no comment from a spokesman for Golden Door said its services differed from what Sarnelli was offering all Australians.

The new retreat will open in July.

Sydney to 'fanboy' Gabriel Mann's taste

Actor Gabriel Mann in Sydney / Pic: Media Mode Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Fashion model turned TV favourite Gabriel Mann - AKA good guy tech guru Nolan Ross on Revenge - has made his first trip to Australia to drum up some (more) buzz for the soap-thriller's second season finale.

Looking much younger than his 41 years, the former Calvin Klein pin-up was spotted out in Bondi yesterday, heading into Icebergs for the requisite visiting-celeb lunch, later tweeting that he is "already a fanboy" of Oz.

However it is the food of his onscreen ally, Emily VanCamp, that Mann really raves about. "She's such an amazing cook," he said. "She can make me banana chocolate-chip muffins any time. She has cooked the most incredible meals up at her house and she hosts the best parties for our cast."

Is she only good in the kitchen?

"She's just fun. She's a very well-adjusted, really intelligent person who I've really appreciated having as a co-star," he said.

Mann will be in Sydney only two days.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman tops the 'which-famous-person-would-you-invite-to-dinner' list

Hungry Hugh? Jackman has been chosen as the celebrity we'd most like to have dinner with. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph reports

It is the question that pops up constantly (even if it's just in your imagination) - when planning a dinner party, who is the most fabulously famous person one could invite over?

And, as it turns out, Australians are after a mix of good looks, witty banter and talent, which explains why triple threat Hugh Jackman has topped a new survey endeavouring to find the nation's most loved and engaging star.

The list, called the Australian Celebrity Report and set to be released today, has been compiled by Southern Cross Austereo and Nine Rewards over two years.

While Nicole Kidman and - surprisingly - Delta Goodrem came close, Jackman says he was chuffed to claim the inaugural title.

"Just to be clear ... is this as a guest or the waiter?" Jackman joked.

"As an actor the idea of lots of great food thrills me to no end."

Kidman's hubby Keith Urban, actor Russell Crowe and model Miranda Kerr are also hot property at the dinner table according to the 40,000 Australians surveyed.

The report also featured a separate list of our favourite comedians, naming Hamish Blake, Adam Hills, Andy Lee and Rebel Wilson, as well as sporting stars, with Shane Warne, Eddie McGuire, Mark Webber and Ricky Ponting making the cut.

Australia's Top 10 dinner party guests:

1. Hugh Jackman 2. Nicole Kidman 3. Delta Goodrem 4. Kylie Minogue 5. Miranda Kerr 6. Russell Crowe 7. Hamish Blake 8. Keith Urban 9. Jennifer Hawkins 10. Adam Hills

Byron Bay attracts Elle Macpherson, Simon Baker, Jack Johnson, Olivia Newton-John and other stars

Source: Getty Images

Elle Halliwell, The Daily Telegraph, reports

They’re the sleepy towns that don't often hit the headlines - and that's why they're becoming the target of celebrities looking for a hideaway.

NSW's Robertson, Berrara, Nana Glen, Milton, Sutton Forest and Bowral are just some of the towns that play host to stars who have properties there.

Naturally, they're attracted by the anonymity of the surrounds and ability to walk around in boardies and thongs - unshaven and unnoticed.

"In Bryon Bay it's not uncommon to be at a cafe and find yourself sitting beside someone with $10 to his name and another worth $10 million," says Ray White Byron Bay principal David Gordon, who regularly deals with celebrity house hunters.

"I've surfed at Wategos (beach) with Elle Macpherson and been at a coffee shop with Pete Murray."

The NSW north coast town has arguably the densest population of celebrities in NSW outside Sydney, with international and local identities - many of them in the music industry - setting up base in nearby suburbs such as Bangalow.

Simon Baker, Jack Johnson, Olivia Newton-John and Andrew Stockdale all own property in and around Byron Bay, while Angus Stone, Australian Idol contestant Matt Corby, The Living End's Scott Owen and Ash Grunwald are also regularly spotted in town.

Further south in Port Macquarie, Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson has set up home, while residents of Newcastle and the Central Coast include Kasey Chambers and Silverchair's Daniel Johns. "It's all about privacy," says The Property Expert's Robert Klaric.

He says homes with long driveways, good security, and high hedges and fences are sought after.

"Most international celebrities will look for bigger properties which are difficult to be photographed."

Gordon says in the past stars preferred to buy in the Byron Bay hinterland, but now they're more inclined to buy closer to town.

"Years ago celebrities used to come here and buy a long way out of town at places such as Possum Creek, but now they're buying just a few minutes' drive away," he says. "They want privacy but are a lot happier buying within a closer radius of the beach as the travel can get tiring."

He says while many are usually happy to stop for a photo, the locals don't treat them any differently - which is exactly how they like it.

"We don't run up and ask them for autographs, they're treated as part of the landscape and that's why Byron Bay is so popular with celebrities," Gordon says.

Russell Crowe tweets love for Greece island Mykonos

Russell Crowe goes for a swim at Mykonos in the Greek Islands. Picture: Mykonos LiveTV.com

Annette Sharp, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Russell Crowe created a stir when he plunged into the sea off the Greek tourist destination of Mykonos on Tuesday, his coastal dip exciting locals who couldn’t help but admire his manly form.

Currently on a world trip to promote his latest film Man of Steel, Russell Crowe, who plays Superman’s father in the movie, set down in Mykonos during a Mediterranean cruise.

On Tuesday he tweeted: “How is it that I've lived 49 years on this planet but never been to the Greek Islands before. So beautiful. Yassou Mykonos I will return.”

A local film crew shot Crowe breast-stroking in the Mediterranean: “Russell Crowe shows (sic) to go through one of the best periods of his life and in a good shape, though with a few extra pounds excess.”

Crowe is seen chatting to two beautiful young women on a Mykonos beach, overheard telling them he finds the water "cold”.

Crowe started his week in Rome and is now cruising the Aegean as he heads north for Man of Steel promotional commitments.

On Wednesday he posted: “Cruising through the night ... the wine dark Aegean as they say ... dawn will come and I will be somewhere of great spiritual significance.”

And he was.

By Thursday he was in Gallipoli.

"In 1915 we would have been in ear shot of the Turk guns for the last hour. Lest we forget,” he wrote noting that the Turking coastline was "beautiful”.

Later he took time out to ponder and post a photo of Hell’s Spit.

"Brighton Beach, Lone Pine on the right at the top of the hill, looking north to Hell's Spit,” he wrote.

Kevin Moore The Biggest Loser's heaviest contestant taken to hospital

Kevin "Big Kev" Moore, pictured with his mother Rosemary, has taken to hospital after suffering from an irregular heartbeat. Picture: Channel Ten

Holly Byrnes, The Daily Telegraph, reports

The world’s heaviest contestant in the history of The Biggest Loser has been rushed to a Sydney hospital with an irregular heartbeat after being filmed exercising for the Channel 10 program’s finale.

Kevin 'Big Kev' Moore was treated by ambulance paramedics at an oval in Coogee then taken to a nearby hospital as a "precautionary measure", a Channel 10 spokeswoman confirmed.

The 27-year-old, who weighed in at 254 kilograms at the start of this year’s The Biggest Loser: The Next Generation had been eliminated from the TV competition but was filming a catch-up package likely to be aired during the show’s finale scheduled to air next Tuesday night.

The health scare caps Moore’s controversial time on the program, which had sought to give the battler and his mother Rosemary Reynolds the tools to tackle his life-threatening obesity.

Mrs Reynolds, who also struggled with her weight at 100kgs, clashed with the show’s trainers Michelle Bridges, Shannan Ponton and The Commando, spraying them with f-bombs in an explosive tirade when they questioned Moore's diet.

The pair had been used to heavily promote this year’s family series but fell below the weekly `yellow line’ at weigh-ins just three weeks into the TV contest.

The mother-and-son team lost a combined 23.9kgs while on the show, but claim they have kept up a healthier routine, including working, out at home.

Michelle Bridges gives Who Magazine tell-all on Commando 'affair'

Are they on or not? Michelle Bridges and Steve 'The Commando' Willis. Picture: Getty Images

Amy Harris, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Just when you thought the Michelle Bridges/Commando soap opera couldn't get any more tedious.

Prepare for another round of non-admission/denials tomorrow from Michelle Bridges who Confidential hears sat down with Who Magazine this week for a 'tell-all' interview.

Only we hear it isn't so much of a 'tell-all' as a whole new series of ways to admit to something while not admitting anything (still with us?).

Confidential understands the line this time from the recently separated Biggest Loser trainer is that she is 'ready to return to dating' while not committing to a relationship with Steve 'The Commando' Willis - her social handbag and rumoured lover of the past few weeks.

It's understood Bridges, who is believed to have racked up a personal fortune of around $17 million on the back of her wildly successful online weight-loss 'challenge', will also undertake a round of radio interviews tomorrow morning to shill the for the mag.

Perhaps these may provide little to no insight on the "is-it-or-isn't-it fictional' romance.

While the two TV trainers from the The Biggest Loser seem to be happy to keep people guessing (while enjoying some new-found media attention), there is another rumoured magazine tell-all in the works which may have a little more meat on the bone.

Confidential hears Woman's Day is scrambling to get up a sit-down with Bridges' ex-husband ... though it's not the one you think.

Rather than extracting a tell-all from Bridge's estranged husband of nine years Bill Moore, with whom she is understood to be on very amicable terms, it's understood the mag is poised to publish an interview with a little-known first husband to whom she was married briefly during her early 20s.

Perhaps he might shed some light on the current brouhaha though we learned not to hold our collective breath.

Seven News couple Jim Wilson and Chris Bath's other passion

Chris Bath and Jim Wilson / Pic: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

They not only read the news together, Jim Wilson and Chris Bath fundraise together.

And when they raise money for cancer, they do it with one person on their mind - Jim Wilson's son Sam, who passed away from brain cancer more than three years ago.

His youngest son continues to be a daily inspiration to Wilson, who is passionate about raising awareness and funds to research the disease.

"Sam was an inspiration and way beyond his years and it is terribly, terribly sad he was taken so early," Wilson said.

"He lived life at a million miles an hour and Sam to this day would want me to be passionate about these sorts of charities."

Wilson credits his wife Bath with helping him through the tough time.

"She was a rock during the whole thing and she got me thought it," he said. "Chris and I have worked together for 14 years and we obviously do the news together as Mr and Mrs News. But as far as the whole thing goes with charities, the one we do really passionately together is cancer research."

Wilson and Bath are Cancer Council NSW ambassadors and are this week taking part in the 20th anniversary of Australia's Biggest Morning Tea.

Meanwhile, Bath has revealed she has been caring for her father after he was left crippled by a stroke.

Bath opened up about her family’s battle with strokes on 2GB following her grandmother’s funeral this week, who also passed away from the same cardiovascular disease.

Her father, 71, is still reduced to a “child-like state” from a stroke four years ago and recently moved from the Central Coast into her home.

“(My grandmother) was more concerned about (my father’s) welfare than her own,” Bath said. “She was worried he wasn’t going to get the care he needed.

“Mum doesn’t get a break,” she said. “(I told her) you have to come and move in with me. She didn’t feel like his wife anymore, she felt like his nurse.

Bath criticised the lack of funding for stroke research during last week’s federal budget.

“I was outraged to see there was no money for strokes,” she said. “Stroke is something that falls into the category of a non-sexy illness.

“(It’s) the second biggest killer in Australia.”

Delta Goodrem and Michael Bolton perform on Ellen DeGeneres Show

Delta Goodrem and Michael Bolton are performing a song together on The Ellen Show tomorrow. Source: Supplied

Briana Domjen, The Daily Telegraph, reports

It pays to have one of the world’s greatest musicians as your mentor when you’re trying to crack Hollywood.

Michael Bolton is helping Delta Goodrem make it big in the States.

Thanks to the Grammy Award winning artist, Goodrem is set to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres show tomorrow afternoon.

The Australian singer wrote a song titled 'I'm Not Ready' that was recorded as a duet for Michael Bolton's DUETS album released in 2011 which saw her perform for US audiences on Dancing with the Stars and the Today Show.

So impressed with The Voice judge, Bolton has again invited her to record 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' - which she will perform with Bolton on DeGeneres’s show at 12pm tomorrow.

"It is always such fun working with Michael and recording 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' in LA together gave me so much joy,” Goodrem said.

"Michael has such an incredible voice and I am really proud to have made his Australian release of his album.

"I loved meeting Ellen and was so proud of the profile that Ellen's visit to Australia gave our country internationally. She is an inspiring woman".

Stateside nuptials rumoured for Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall

Jennifer Hawkins modelling Cozi on location in South Africa for Myer Spring Summer campaign 2012/13. The shoot took place in Palace of the Lost City, Sun City, a few hours from Johannesburg. Jen wears Blue Leopard Bikini Top ($59.95), and Blue Leopard Bikini Top ($59.95). Pic. Alex Coppel Pic. Alex Coppel

The Daily Telegraph reports

With her hens party done and dusted, Jennifer Hawkins is not expected to be one of the long list of brides who opts for a wedding in beautiful Bali, or possibly even Thailand - no matter how sublime such a setting would be.

In fact the latest rumour is that Hawkins plans to wed Jake Wall in the US at the beginning of next month.

Could that be just over a week away, with a date of June 8 suggested?

The former Miss Universe must be feeling very, very nervous and excited.

Sadly for all of those who were still wishing and hoping for an invite to the Australian wedding of the year, it looks like the intimate guest list is definitely closed.

Hawkins and her fiance have kept details of their impending nuptials a secret, having signed a lucrative deal with a women's magazine for the exclusive - believed to be more than $100,000 and brokered by manager Sean Anderson, who also manages Jodi Anasta and was behind her magazine deal when she married football star Braith Anasta in Bali.

Of her upcoming wedding, Hawkins has said: "There are rumours about the location and what dress I'll wear, but the only people that know are my family."

She's also hired a wedding planner to ensure her big day runs smoothly.

"You don't hire a planner for your life, but you hire a wedding planner to handle all the stressful moments for that," Hawkins said. "Everyone keeps asking me, like in the street, 'are you really stressed?', but all I keep thinking is bringing all the family together and being with Jake on the honeymoon."

Hawkins, 29, celebrated her hens party in Sydney recently.

"This is such a busy period," she said. "I've had my hens night, Jake's 30th and my best friend's birthday party, so it's been hard. For my hens, my friends organised cocktails and a few cheeky male dancers. It was crazy fun and I had the time of my life."

Great Gatsby stars at celebratory dinner at Rockpool in Sydney

Carey Mulligan, pictured at the Australian premiere of The Great Gatsby film in Sydney, is expected at a celebratory dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill tonight. Picture: Craig Greenhill

Elle Halliwell, The Daily Telegraph, reports

The Great Gatsby celebrations are set to continue tonight, with the film’s stars attending a dinner hosted by Tiffany & Co and Vogue Australia.

Elizabeth Debicki, Carey Mulligan, Baz Luhrmann, Joel Edgerton and Catherine Martin will again walk the red carpet at Rockpool Bar & Grill.

They will be joined by local identities Gracie Otto, Krew Boylan and Emma Lung at the dinner, for which chef Neil Perry has created a 1920s-style menu inspired by New York’s Waldorf Astoria.

A 12-piece big band will perform for guests, as will Brendan Maclean’s Klipspringer character from the film.

Winslet lands major role in film adaptation of Australian novel The Dressmaker

British actress Kate Winslet seen here with partner Ned Rocknroll, will star in the film adaptation of the Australian novel The Dressmaker. Picture: AFP PHOTO / ANTONY DICKSON Source: AFP

Vicky Roach, News Limited Network, reports

Kate Winslet is to star in The Dressmaker, a gothic tale of love, hate and haute couture set in Outback Australia in the 1950s and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (Proof).

The Oscar-winning actress will play Tilly, an avenging angel who returns to the country town where she grew up to care for her mad mother.

No other cast members have been confirmed.

Produced by Sue Maslin (Japanese Story), the bitter-sweet tragi-comedy will employ a top local crew including director of photography Don McAlpine (X-Men: Wolverine), costume designer Janet Patterson (Bright Star) and editor Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge).

According to Variety, which broke the news of Winslet’s casting from Cannes, pre-production will start in spring.

The Dressmaker is based on the novel by Melbourne-based author Rosalie Ham and is set in the fictional golden wheatbelt town of Dungatar. Location scouting has included the Wimmera region of north-west Victoria.

The Dressmaker will be Moorhouse's first film since her ill-fated 2005 adaptation of the Murray Bail novel Ecalyptus, starring Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, which imploded three days before filming was scheduled to start.

"Creative disagreements" was the official line at the time.

According to industry insiders, the project was scuttled by an irreconcilable breakdown between Crowe and Moorhouse. Complicating the situation was Crowe's position as executive producer.

Moorhouse, who recently directed her first play, Sex With Strangers, for the Sydney Theatre Company, had previously worked with the Oscar-winning actor on Proof.

Thematically, The Dressmaker finds Moorhouse on familiar turf.

In 1997, she directed Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange in a film adaptation of Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres, described as "King Lear in Iowa."

Prior to that, she pulled together an illustrious female cast, including Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn and Anne Bancroft, for the film version of Whitney Otto's novel How To Make An American Quilt.

Most recently, she produced husband PJ Hogan's film Mental, starring Toni Collette.

Winslet's last worked in Australia in the late 1990s, on Jane Campion's film Holy Smoke, which filmed in outback South Australia.