Rich farming family ends decades-long court battle

Hobhouse, who did not respond to PS’ inquiries this week, had attempted to appeal an earlier court ruling alleging her attempts to sell her brother’s estate on behalf of her family business, Mount Gilead Pty Ltd.

She had claimed that a $200 million sale of part of the Mount Gilead estate to developer Lendlease, orchestrated by Lee in 2015, was grossly undervalued by tens of millions of dollars. her late father Major-General Sir Denzil Macarthur-Onslowwho died in 1984, had farmed the land near Campbelltown since the 1940s.

Differences between the siblings first erupted over a similar deal in 2004, when another developer’s offer prompted their mother to remove Hobhouse as director of the family business, believing her behavior could jeopardize future negotiations.

The bad blood extended to another court case last year. But this time Lady Hobhouse triumphed over her late brother and considered his option on a $4.4 million condo in Darling Point.

In August, the herald reported the NSW Court of Appeal, which ruled in favor of Lady Hobhouse a year after her brother’s death.

But as early as 1998, Hobhouse was the subject of unwanted media scrutiny of her legal plight. She garnered international attention when she lost a $1.8 million divorce settlement offer from her wealthy, Eton-educated ex-husband. Sir Charles Hobhouse.

After marrying in Sydney in 1993, they moved to England and spent two “harmonious” years together in his Queen Anne home on the family estate in Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire, before enduring two years of “adversity and tension under the same roof”.

They separated and the British High Court awarded Lady Hobhouse a lump sum settlement of $475,000.

She refused to take it, and her husband, whose personal fortune was estimated at $25 million, offered her more than $1 million to settle out of court.

Lady Hobhouse fought on. The court heard she felt she needed $1.3 million to buy an English country house, $216,000 to furnish it, $72,000 for a car and $288,000 as “capital cushion” to start her own business found.

The court was unconvinced and ruled that she would receive no more than the original lump sum, which had been eroded by legal fees at the time.

She eventually returned to the land of Mount Gilead, where she still runs the farm to this day.

Logies back in town

After breaking out of Melbourne and giving the film to the Gold Coast, Sydney will host its first Logies in almost 40 years on July 30th.

The event will be broadcast on the Seven Network following their surprise departure from Nine, the owner of this masthead. However, the move, which has been partially handled by Destination NSW, is already causing some headaches for network bosses.

The big problem? As for how many people are expected to squeeze into The Star’s venue, PS says there will be around 600 for the Logies, much fewer than the 1000 who attended the Melbourne and Gold Coast venues.

Now the scissors are on the guest list. Talent and TV executives (not to mention tiresome gossip columnists) are on the chopping block for TV’s night of nights.

And what about the red carpet? Given The Star’s comparatively complicated Sydney layout, will it meander past the food court dumpling house and slot machines?

Then there are the after-parties, where rival networks compete for prime positions that PS says may be “off-site”. The sofa is starting to sound pretty good.

zest for life

Looks like they just got out of the house Harry Styles mosh pit, Bob Hawkewidow and author Blanche D’Alpuget, 79, and fashion designer Jenny Kee76, are the unexpected stars of next week’s issue InStyle Magazine promoting the hottest millennial fashion trend: “dopamine makeup”.

Of course, both Kee and D’Alpuget — who tells the mag, “Lust drives you mad, it’s wonderful and will eventually eat you up” — were there when a strikingly similar look was in fashion’s punk years 1970s, but let’s get to it don’t ruin it for today’s kids. Looking good ladies.

Blurred vision

Many participants in Sunday’s 50,000-strong WorldPride Equality March ended up partying on Oxford Street, the shutdown strip, which shone with its giant spinning disco ball, rainbow flags and pop-up bars and entertainment.

There was also a message across the bright blue sky, huge letters that read: “Jesus Is Lord” accompanied by a huge cross.

It was the work of Skywriting Australia. owner Rob Vance said it was a $4,000 commission from a church in Sydney, but declined to reveal which.

Vance has similarly written about the sky since the 1980s and says he uses “common sense” when it comes to checking what he’s going to write.

In 2017, Vance’s company wrote the word “TRUMP” on the day of the Sydney Women’s March. VOTE NO appeared ahead of the national referendum on marriage equality.

Vance turned down a later request to “VOTE YAAASS” after his company was criticized for the “VOTE NO” job.

During the debate on NSW abortion legislation in 2019, ‘SAVE UNBORN’ and ‘CHOOSE LIFE’ were scrawled in the sky.

On Sunday, however, high winds (divine intervention?) soon turned Vance’s assignment into a fleeting fog.

Rush joins the celebrations

A rare sighting of the actor Geoffrey Rush sent a shiver of intrigue through the crowd at the launch of Adelaide Writers’ Week on Sunday night.

Rush, who has been out of the spotlight for nearly four years since his high-profile slander win over the Daily Telegraphjoined people like Tom Ballard, Richard Fidler And Grace Tame at the celebrations, which included an appearance by an eminent British playwright, screenwriter and director Sir David Hase.

PS knows Rush was invited as a guest by his longtime friend, former director of the Adelaide Festival and Writers’ Week chairman, the theater director Neil Armfieldwho partially curated the 2023 festival Rachel Healy.

Armfield was one of Rush’s key witnesses during the defamation trial, which awarded Rush $850,000 in general damages and approximately $2 million in special damages to cover past and future economic losses.

It was recently revealed that Rush, 71, is returning to feature films to play the variety performer and comedian. Groucho Marx.

Paddo mourns the closing of the shop

It’s a nationally known story: the local family butcher closes shop after the arrival of a shiny new supermarket.

But for almost 40 years Bill Wilsons Farm Fresh Foods on Paddington’s bustling Oxford Street bucked the trend.

That was until Monday, when locals discovered the store had suddenly closed, sending the community’s Facebook pages panicking about where to order this year’s Christmas turkey and ham.

Wilson’s company Farm Fresh Foods Pty Ltd was placed under voluntary administration on March 1 as it owes “significant” debts to creditors, the largest of which is Australia’s Inland Revenue.

The business, which employed around 20 people, some in tears this week, has been a staple of the suburb for generations, attracting customers from all over Sydney.

Six months ago Wilson, the ex-husband of a famous foodie Donna HayHe had campaigned for the viability of his store, opposite Community Magazine Local Paddo: “I think we will see butcher shops come back in a big way”.

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