The entrepreneurial brains behind a vast,widely adored women’s media network,is set to get the small screen treatment,with Foxtel-owned streaming service Binge turning her 2017 memoir into anAsher Keddie-led dramedy calledStrife – something we’re sure the resident of a $12.75 million Point Piper home knows a thing or two about!
This is your life:Mia Freedman and Steve Hutensky.Supplied
Freedman is a co-executive producer on the project,which started filming this week,along with Keddie,andSteve Hutensky,a former entertainment lawyer who helpedHarvey Weinstein with women he’d allegedly sexually harassed.
Hutensky is co-founder and chief operating officer of production company Made Up Stories,along with his wifeBruna Papandrea (also producingStrife),which prides itself on producing stories with “intelligent,multifaceted female characters” and is the recipient of millions in Screen Australia grants.
But in a past life,he spent decades as a Miramax lawyer,and his work for Weinstein earned him the “the cleaner-upper”. While Hutensky’s work with Weinstein was well documented in American reporting,it’s rarely discussed in a domestic film industry where Made Up Stories is a very big player.
While we’re not suggesting Hutensky was involved in any illegal acts,or knew the extent of the allegations against Weinstein (who is now sentenced to 39 years in prison for sexual assault),the whole connection just doesn’t sit well with Freedman’s pop feminist girlboss schtick.
Neither Freedman,nor Hutensky responded to CBD’s comment requests.
Murdered on the dancefloor
It’s fair to sayJohn Barilaro isn’t taking the Coalition’s weekend election loss too badly,even if he probably wishes he was in New York by now.
On Sunday,while many of his former colleagues were off wound-licking,Barra was spotted boogie-ing away toSophie Ellis-Bextor’sMurder on the Dancefloor at lobbyist Michael Kauter’s Mosman pad.
Kauter,who bought the $9.5 million home with his kidney doctor husbandDavid Gracey last year,has been a generous past donor to Barilaro’s Nationals. Now he’s better known as the face behind Strategic Political Counsel,the firm helping another Nats donor,British American Tobacco,in its fight to keep the government away from your vapes.
Kauter’s also quite the socialite. Joining Barilaro at the shindig was a rather motley crew,which included conservative pundit and anti-Voice campaignerWarren Mundine,heiress Ros Oatley andJames Flynn,a self-described innovator who worked as a campaign advisor to anti-trans crusaderKatherine Deves during her run in Warringah last year.
Obama no sell-out
When we brought word in November that former US presidentBarack Obamawas coming to town for a couple of speaking engagements,we thought the events would be sell-outs,not least because tickets toJulia Gillard’sshows a month earlier were gone within minutes.
We want you:Tickets are still selling for Barack Obama’s appearance with Julie Bishop.John Shakespeare
Back then,it looked like former progressive national leaders were a sure-fire hit for event promoters. Now we’re not so sure.
For Obama,it looks like a tale of two cities,with plenty of tickets left for Wednesday night’s show at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena,MC’d by former foreign ministerJulie Bishop,where you can still get in for just $195.
Things are a little tighter for Tuesday night’s show in Sydney,where there were still plenty of spots available on Monday but mostly at the pricier end of the room,costing upward of $345.
Either way,there are plenty of empty seats – and we reckon making your cheapest tickets nearly $200 might have something to do with it.
We asked the show’s publicists how they thought things were going. We haven’t heard back.
Home truths
For a field that is utterly mystifying to the average punter,guys in private equity manage to rake in eye-watering sums of money.
This being Sydney,a fair bit of that money winds up in harbourside property. In 2018,Quadrant private equity managing partner Jonathon Pearce and wifeZoe Pearce spent $8.8 million on Kharkov House in Bellevue Hill.
For another $7.9 million,the couple planned to raze the residence and put up a new five-storey mansion complete with pool and underground garage. All that stood in their way was those meddlers at Woollahra Council,who last year rejected the Pearces’ development application.
The couple silked up,and with the help ofIan Hemmings SC,took matters to the Land and Environment Court,which happily resolved things in their favour this week.
A court-supervised conciliation session between the parties this month clearly proved fruitful,with Pearce and the council reaching an agreement whereby the renovations will go ahead.
Clearly,it sometimes doesn’t hurt getting the lawyers in – if you can afford it.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley..