Rita Ora and Taika Waititi found love during their stay in Sydney.Getty
Around March,hardly a day went by without a Bombardier Challenger landing in the harbour city as international celebrities fled pandemic-ridden countries for solitude,safety and sun Down Under. Sydney transformed into a mini Hollywood after the NSW government allowed international productions to film here. It started withZac EfronandMatt Damon- then Sacha Baron Cohen and wifeIsla Fisher jetted in,and dozens of other celebrities followed.Natalie Portman became a regular at Double Bay Woolies,while and Rita Ora andTaika Waititi found love together (and who could forget that balcony tryst withTessa Thompson?)
The jam-packed visitor book expanded to includeAwkwafina,Melissa McCarthy,Tilda Swinton,Tom Hanks and Liam Neeson. There were celeb sightings across the city from film sets,synagogues and even in the school yard as famous offspring were enrolled in private schools around the eastern suburbs. But not everyone was pleased - while some stars seemed to jet in and out at their leisure,thousands of Australians were stuck overseas as flight after flight was cancelled.
Of course,the celeb set made a mass exodus out of the country just as their respective projects began to wrap and Sydney was thrust into stricter lockdown. And it wasn’t just Hollywood stars bidding adieu:Emerald City was the first to reveal Atlassian bossMike Cannon-Brookes and his wifeAnnie were uprooting their family from Point Piper to the Southern Highlands - where the couple boast an extensive property portfolio including six homes totalling about $50 million.
Likewise,after years of speculation,Samantha Armytage threw in the towel from herSunrise presenting duties,opting for a quieter life in the bush with husbandRichard Lavender. The pair uprooted from the city to her hubby’s 40-hectare Bowral property.
Former Sunrise presenter Samantha Armytage quit her long-standing role and is now living in Bowral with her new husband Richard.Getty
Lockdown was tough for most of us but a party for some. Down in the bleakness of Melbourne,Nadia Bartel made headlines in September when footage of her sniffing what looked to be cocaine at a lockdown gathering was accidentally posted on social media by a friend. Things were made worse when the group of former and aspiring AFL WAGs were fined for breaching Victoria’s public health order.
Like Melburnians,Sydneysiders have something of an affinity for certain white powders,and who could forgetKristin Fisher’s spectacular fall from grace after being caught in the back of a Kia Rio with two bags of cocaine at her feet.
“I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing,that she was caught with drugs or seen in a Kia,” was the sentiment circulating among eastern suburbs snobs at the time.
A month later in August,Ray White Double Bay top agentWarren Ginsberg was charged with possessing a prohibited drug during lockdown after plain clothes police caught him red-handed buying cocaine in Bondi.
A video of Nadia Bartel snorting white powder was uploaded to Instagram.Supplied
Former Triple M radio hostLawrence Mooney also managed to get stung breaching public health orders. In July,Mooney was fined $1000 for after taking a Byron Bay holiday - but claims he didn’t know he was flouting the rules.
The radio star and comic lives in the Southern Highlands and works in Sydney’s CBD,and says he did not realise this prevented him from travelling to Byron Bay. Mooney has been quiet of late;last month Southern Cross Austereo announced Moonman wouldn’t return to the network,and Triple M’s Sydney breakfast show was swiftly rebrandedBreakfast with MG,Jess and Pagey.
And who could forget Australia’s most famous border breachers - Melbourne bar and restaurant ownerHayden Burbank and financial plannerMark Babbage,who were charged after entering Western Australia by falsely claiming to be Northern Territory residents and attending the AFL grand final.
The pair have traded their swish suits for prison greens after pleading guilty to three counts of failing to comply with a direction and one count of gaining benefit by fraud,and are seeing out the year at maximum security prison Hakea in Canning Vale.
Hayden Burbank (front left) and Mark Babbage (back left) at the AFL grand final.Supplied
It was a year of relationship makeups and breakups,specificallyPip Edwards andMichael Clarke who continued to flaunt their romance before calling it quits and later rekindling things.Efron’s Aussie-squeezeVanessa Valladares got a rude awakening after splitting from her international mega-star boyfriend. The aspiring model returned to the service industry where she was last seen working in retail - a far cry from her jet-setting Efron era.
Fund managerCharlie Aitken has kept gossip writers busy in recent months after the exposure of his extra-marital affair withHollie Nasser,wife of his then business partnerChris ‘CJ’ Nasser and former best friend of his ex-wifeEllie.
Phoebe Burgess has been a regular headline-maker in 2021 as she made thinly-veiled swipes at her rugby player ex Sam,who has busily embarked upon a reputation rebrand since details of their tumultuous marriage emerged.
While Instagram identity Celeb Spellcheck was busy cancelling tone-deaf influencers,Aussie NBA championPatty Mills had a year of highs between his Olympic and NBA campaigns and has been named the ACT’s Australian of the Year. The Canberra-raised sportsman is nominated for his sporting achievements and work as an Indigenous mentor.
Patty Mills celebrates Boomers bronze in Tokyo.AP
We managed to sneak in a few good parties after lockdown:notably the Moet Chandon soiree on Bennelong Lawn at the start of December. Refreshingly,the usual crowd of influencers didn’t get a look in - instead there was a much more salubrious mix of celebrities,models and fashionistas.
But now,just as the silly season gets into full swing,parties are being cancelled once again due to COVID-19 fears.Maurice Terzini has called off his famed New Year’s Day party at Bondi Icebergs,while Woollahra eatery Chiswick and the city’s hottest new venue Shell House has also closed just weeks after it opened its $14 million Sky Bar restaurant.