Tara Moss with "Wolfie", her walking stick.Credit: Berndt Sellheim
Three years after a hip injury left former-model-turned-crime-novelist Tara Moss using a walking stick, the leggy Canadian beauty is headed to the Supreme Court, where she is suing a Katoomba doctor she accuses of professional negligence.
PS can reveal Moss has lodged a statement of claim which names Katoomba doctor, Chris Coghill, as the defendant.
Since early 2016 Moss, who recently turned 46, has been using a walking stick and featured the walking aid in many of her social media posts in an effort to destigmatise their use in the broader community.
Moss has even given her walking stick a nickname, "Wolfie", and dedicated an account on Instagram to her walking aid.
"In early 2016 my right hip was injured and that has caused chronic nerve pain and mobility issues, but I am hopeful I am on the road to recovery and I am doing everything I can for this injury not to hold me back," Moss said.
Before that Moss had also been open about her scoliosis diagnosis, the curvature of her spine first discovered when she was a teen.
Moss says that by the time she was in her 20s a "respected Australian doctor" had "strongly suggested I have a rod inserted in my back. I said no".
Tara Moss is suing a Katoomba doctor she accuses of professional negligence.Credit: Berndt Sellheim
"I've managed my pain and back health in many ways over the decades, from osteopaths and Alexander Technique, to pain killers and yoga, even writing my books while reclining and surrounded by pillows," she said, before revealing she had found some comfort in wearing corsets.
Moss is being represented in the Supreme Court by Slater & Gordon. The law firm confirmed the litigation when PS enquired, a spokesman adding only: "Ms Moss is currently involved in legal proceedings. Given the current stage of the process, there can be no further comment.”
Moss swapped the catwalk for a keyboard while she was still in her 20s and her books have been published in 19 countries and in 13 different languages.
While she had been spending much of her time in the Blue Mountains, more recently she relocated to Vancouver with her daughter Sapphira and husband, photographer Berndt Sellheim. Moss is in Sydney on a promotional tour to launch her latest novel, a crime story set here during the 1940s called Dead Man Switch.
Cody and Miley unmasked
They certainly have the technology to build him: meet Cody Simpson, the 3.6 million-follower man.
Cody Simpson in Sydney this week.Credit: AAP
While most people over the age of 25 have little idea who Simpson is, rest assured he is the very definition of a Millennial, Insta-celebrity for the legions of teenagers who follow his every move on their smartphones.
A 22-year-old who originally hails from the Gold Coast, Simpson was revealed as the winner of The Masked Singer Australia this week, but that is probably the smallest feather in his cap at present.
Cody Simpson says he did not like the media attention his relationship with Gigi Hadid brought him.Credit: GC Images
Simpson, a singer, has also managed to notch up some impressive mileage in the Hollywood celebrity machine, though most of it has been due to the string of celebrity girlfriends he has had.
Cody Simpson and his new love interest, Miley Cyrus.Credit: Instagram
So far these have included no less than supermodel Gigi Hadid, whom he dated for two years, the pair breaking up in 2015.
Before that there was billionaire makeup mogul Kylie Jenner, she of the Kardashian conveyor belt of celebrities, whom Simpson dated way back in 2011, before anyone had actually heard of her.
Another name in the mix was Lindsay Lohan's kid sister Ali. In the midst of the Masked Singer revelations, Lohan claimed she had provided furniture for her sister's love nest with Simpson in Los Angeles last year and was demanding to know where the goods and chattels were.
Which brings us to Simpson's current girlfriend, the global pop superstar and former wife of Liam Hemsworth, Miley Cyrus. They have been dating for only a couple of weeks but have already managed to fill the social media sphere with a deluge of videos, photos and public affirmations of their devotion to each other.
Simpson is also a great mate of Justin Bieber, while another of his buddies has recently featured in PS somewhat prominently of late, Jake Thrupp, the handsome protege of radio talk-back king Alan Jones.
But apparently Simpson doesn't enjoy all the fanfare around his famous ex-girlfriends.
"I love my ex-girlfriend, I always will,” Cody previously told DuJour magazine of dating Gigi Hadid.
"It was an amicable, mutual decision, and we still talk every now and then, but the highly publicised thing made me uncomfortable. Going out to dinner and there being all this paparazzi and stuff ... as soon as we split, I had the realisation that I was straying away from who I was as a whole person. I want to keep it low-key and focus on my music.”
No doubt jumping into Miley Cyrus' bed and appearing on her racy Instagram feed in various states of undress, playing tonsil hockey and comparing tattoos, all for their millions of followers around the world, is just the sort of thing for him to keep focus on his, ahem, "art".
Bruno Bouchet, the mastermind of the biggest deal in Australian media history?Credit: Instagram
Kyle really is king
Believe it or not, but Kyle Sandilands is reportedly now the highest paid person in Australian media, having inked a $50 million deal to remain on KIIS with his sidekick Jackie "O" Henderson for at least an extra three years, keeping them on the airwaves until the end of 2024.
Yep, $50 million, which includes a base salary along with various bonuses and entitlements including revenue share, which the pair have each negotiated.
So who was the brain behind the big deal?
Who's carrying who? Bruno Bouchet gets a helping hand from his boss, Kyle Sandilands.Credit: Instagram
Enter Bruno Bouchet, the former executive producer who is now Sandilands' personal manager and managing director of the radio presenter's private company, King Kyle.
"Yep, that was me," Bouchet immodestly confirmed to PS this week.
So who is Bouchet exactly?
For many years he was the executive producer of the Kyle and Jackie O show, and is well versed in the black arts of creating controversy, which would appear to extend to his own Instagram account, and his regular #TheListKing updates, in which Bouchet, partially naked, ranks the best hamburgers and chocolate bars.
Hamburger connoisseur Bruno Bouchet.Credit: Instagram
"When I was in rehab it was suggested I find an outlet, and this is what it is ... just a bit of fun," he told PS.
Perhaps we should send him to Canberra?
Airport now party central
More than 700 VIPs will make their way to a glamorous black-tie extravaganza in a specially-built marquee on the tarmac at Sydney Airport on Thursday to mark the centenary of Kingsford Smith.
The Queen shakes Gough Whitlam's hand at Sydney Airport in 1970.Credit: National Archives of Australia
Guests will be flanked by a vintage DC3 flown in especially for the occasion, where a who's who of the Australian aviation industry is expected to roll up. Though it is unclear if Qantas boss Alan Joyce will be there, given he may well be on his honeymoon with his imminent but top secret marriage to Shane Lloyd taking place at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Some 44.4 million passengers travel through Sydney Airport terminals each year, with more than a billion passengers arriving throughout the past century.
And among them have been some of the most famous faces of the past century, many of them undertaking the gruelling flights from far-flung corners of the globe to get to Sydney.
It was a fateful arrival for Judy Garland when she touched down in 1964, her first two shows were a roaring success but she didn't fare so well with the Melbourne crowds, who booed her off stage.
Judy Garland arrives at Sydney Airport with Mark Herron in 1964.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
The Beatles caused pandemonium at the airport when they arrived for their Australian tour, minus Ringo Starr who was suffering from tonsilitis and had to catch up with his bandmates on a later flight.
It was the same riotous reception for Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones.
Queen Elizabeth II walked the tarmac in a glittering tiara and ball gown when she opened the International Passenger Terminal in 1970, and of course Princess Diana had the crowds eating out of her hands when she arrived as a new princess in 1983.
Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert said next week's gala evening would be a chance to celebrate "the many people who have contributed to Sydney Airport’s growth and evolution throughout its rich history”.
Crowd control: fans await the arrival of Ringo Starr in 1964 at Sydney Airport.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
Bulgari beauties
Sydney society just isn't what it once was. For years the annual Bulgari Art Award dinner was one of this town's social highlights, a glamorous black-tie soiree where a new art discovery was feted by the Italian jewellery house known for its spectacular and priceless creations.
PS has sat with everyone from Ros Packer to Cate Blanchett, but not this year.
Indeed it appeared the Art Gallery Of NSW had been filled with Instagram influencers (I know, so 2016) and models for the night, which has now morphed into a stand-up cocktail party, where the likes of a particularly animated chap named Fabio Mancini was holding court while the real star of the night, artist Nusra Latif Qureshi, was somewhat lost in the crowd.
International male model Fabio Mancini at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Fabio who? Well, Mr Mancini is apparently one of the top male models in the world and was discovered by none other than Giorgio Armani himself. He's in Sydney for two months and is great mates with Ian Thorpe (don't read anything into that).
And yes, with his chiselled good looks and searing gaze, the Italian could have easily been left on a pedestal (Bulgari had installed its own golden one for the influencers to do selfies from, it was a hit) in the sculpture gallery, though judging by how busy he was meeting several of Sydney's finest young fillies on Thursday night, he probably couldn't keep still for long.
A hunch about Hinch
Word was spreading like wildfire around the North Ryde corridors of Sky News on Friday that Derryn Hinch would soon be replaced by former 2GB shock jock Chris Smith with plans to makeover the Thursday night slot.
Derryn Hinch beating his own odds at Sky News.Credit: Stephen Lightfoot
Hinch told PS he had heard nothing, but said he "would not be surprised" given he initially had a sweep with his team that his show would last 15 weeks on Sky.
"It's been 17 weeks, so I'm ahead on that one," he joked, adding "my show is a hammock strung between two right wing shows, I know I'm out of place there but that's what appealed to me."
Smith said he continues to be in talks with various television networks about his future, but denied he would soon be in Hinch's timeslot, known as Sky After Dark, or as the network's many detractors prefer to refer to it as: SAD.