The Pap Hyatt

paparazzo guy finlay/sonny vandevelde


Hilarious scenes at the harbour-hugging Park Hyatt Hotel this afternoon, as Sonny Vandevelde and I trekked down to chat to Calvin Klein pres/ceo Tom Murry and ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Jeans creative director Kevin Carrigan. Walked through the front door and smack bang into Abbie Cornish and Ryan Phillippe - who is quite surprisingly petite in person. They were being briefed by the company's head PR Malcolm Carfrae as to where to best slot in a quick bit of sight-seeing. Carfrae, a New York-based Australian, evidently had not counted on Sydney's resourceful pap posse and directed them to the boardwalk outside the hotel. Five minutes later, as we were seated inside one of the restaurants, Cornish and Phillippe were back in the bosom of the CK entourage, looking for safe haven. Their problem? The boardwalk was crawling with paps.

Too busy talking to Murry and Carrigan to notice where the high profile duo headed after that. Somehow frockwriter doubts it was outside.

As Sonny and I later emerged from the hotel, yet more paparazzi were staking out the front of the hotel.

Included among them, Guy Finlay (^), on a large motorbike - and the infamous Jamie Fawcett in a silver SUV.

Fawcett was the chief protagonist in a high profile defamation suit last year against the Fairfax newspaper group.

Nicole Kidman was the star witness, claiming Fawcett planted a listening device outside her Darling Point home in January 2005 and basically made her life hell, recklessly pursuing her by car on repeated occasions across Sydney.

Although a court initially found Fawcett had been defamed by The Sun Herald newspaper - which described him as "Sydney's most disliked freelance photographer" - earlier this year the NSW Supreme Court dismissed Fawcett's bid for compensation, ordering that Fairfax had proven the claims and that the coverage had been in the public interest. Fawcett was ordered to pay Fairfax's substantial legal costs.

Apparently it's not only Nicole Kidman who has issues with Fawcett.

"We call him The Dark Side" quipped one rival outside The Hyatt.

Promises to be interesting tonight.

Access to Cockatoo Island may be exclusively by water, however Calvin Klein doesn't own the harbour.

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