Gatto cans book, pulls his head in
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 31, 2010
WORD on the street is that the on-again, off-again book project involving Mick Gatto is off €” again. According to sources, the Underbelly figure was working on a tome on the lifestyle of the famous and frightening "mediation specialist" and a deal was almost signed and sealed but not delivered. Word is that the book was to be about tailoring, cigars, what and where to drink, where to eat, and may have even included a health section (how to avoid lead poisoning is an obvious inclusion). Sources say that Melbourne University Press was so impressed with the sales of I, Mick Gatto (which way outstripped sales of the Peter Costello autobiography) that it has ordered up the new book with the intention of cashing in. So, what does MUP say about the rumoured project? Well, nothing so far (that's about six weeks of so far). No denial, no confirmation. Just a strange silence. Meanwhile, Heckler believes that Tom Noble, the man most likely to co-author the book with Gatto, hasn't officially heard of the project. Word is that Gatto pulled the pin because he a) caught a sudden case of good taste; b) didn't want to be mocked; or c) just decided to pull his head in. Apparently Victory, MUP's crime imprint, is most disappointed.Real estate agent's nightmareONLY those with inside knowledge will be excited by the upcoming sale of a large home in Melbourne's north. The home, which is rather large, has alleged connections with an alleged Underbelly figure. It was seized not long ago under the Confiscation Act. But, for legal reasons, we can't tell you where it is, the name of the alleged owner or how much it will sell for.Truckin' hell, mateSOME might accuse truckies of having a certain sense of entitlement on the roads, perhaps related to being in charge of vehicles capable of turning hatchbacks into speed bumps. Now while that's clearly unfair to the majority, who are responsible, law-abiding and safety-conscious, it might well apply to the tow-truck driver who pulled out across three lanes of traffic in Rathdowne Street before hanging a right through a very red arrow. Or then again, it could have been a case of power by association €” perched on the back of his truck was a shiny new police car.Streets play shame gameSYDNEYSIDERS are getting a little (very little) miffed at the promotional blurb for the third Underbelly series The Golden Mile. Promo says the mini-series, set in Kings Cross during the late 1980s and early '90s, focuses on "the most exciting street in Australia until the Wood royal commission chose to rewrite the rules . . . then all hell broke loose". Sydney's golden mile has long been Oxford Street €” a moniker earned by its status as a haven for the city's more flamboyant citizens and not Underbelly's glorified crooks and hookers who call Darlinghurst Road home.The shipping newsJODHI Meares, the former Mrs Packer, was kayaking around Sydney Harbour on Tuesday (that's Australia Day) off Vaucluse when who should show up in a giant new $30 million super yacht but her ex-husband James Packer and his second wife, the heavily pregnant Erica. Meares paddled on, seemingly oblivious. Friends of Meares say she remains single and devotes much of her time to rigorous yoga workouts and a diet of seafood and various foliage which has resulted in her famous curves becoming slightly more angular in recent months.The truth is out thereNO opposition, or voter for that matter, has ever accused a state government of the crime of putting the truth in its advertising. The campaigns are usually the classics of the spin doctors. But Vic Roads and the State Government have broken the mould with signs for the Cranbourne-Frankston Road duplication project. Someone will lose their job.THE wife of which former leading Australian politician has a fascination with swords, especially shiny, old, long, sharp French ones that have lopped off heads? She likes to wave them about at the least opportunity, apparently. Email: heckler@theage.com.au Fax: (03) 8667 2299
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