Last year,this column that Seven West Media had been paying for Lehrmann to live in a multimillion-dollar Balgowlah pad. The owner of that home,Gaenor Meakes,has launched an action against Lehrmann in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal,claiming $13,250 over alleged property damage and $6000 in unpaid rent.
But it’s the mysterious identity of Lehrmann’s latest,very private legal adversary,represented by her paralegal daughter at last week’s hearing,that has CBD intrigued.
The owner of the home,the former partner of famed sailorMark Richards,was referred to initially in media reports as “Lady Gaenor Meakes”. But that aristocratic angle to the Lehrmann story might be just a little too good to be true.
This masthead dropped the “Lady” after hearing from sceptical sources close to Meakes,who suggested that the title was little more than an Instagram in-joke among friends.
Meakes,an Australian,still goes by @ladygaenor on the app,but the only additional references to her title appear in several articles in the yachting trade press documenting the time she “christened” cruise shipCrystal Espritback in 2015,by smashing a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut,2004 (a tipple that retails for about $700) against the hull. This,apparently,is standard practice in the rarefied world of yacht owners.
“Few are so passionately devoted to the world of yachting as Lady Gaenor,” Crystal Cruises chief executiveEdie Rodrigueztold the trade press at the time.
But a thorough search of peerage lists,both in Britain and in Australia,where the last knighthood was given out back in the day,doesn’t turn up anything that could explain the “Lady”. Gaenor took her last name from her ex-husband,barristerTim Meakes,who was publicly reprimanded for “gross overcharging” back in the 2000s. He ain’t a Lord either.
Only one person could sort this out for us. But her ostensible ladyship didn’t return CBD’s calls or texts. Still,we’re not the only ones getting sceptical. Last Thursday,The Guardianalso removed “Lady” from its report on the recent NCAT hearing. As far as the News Corp publications are concerned,Meakes is still “Her Ladyship”.
TINKED OFF
You’ve almost got to feel sorry forKylea Tink.The teal independent MP wrestled North Sydney from Liberal hands in the 2022 teal wave and,despite a few early hiccups such as owning fossil fuel shares,would probably have a decent chance of defending the seat at next year’s election.
Then along came the Australian Electoral Commission,with a draft redistribution that effectively eliminated Tink’s seat from the map. Most of the former division of North Sydney,including Willoughby,where Tink recently bought a new $3.3 million home,is set to be swallowed up by the electorate of Bradfield,currently held by LiberalPaul Fletcher.
And Tink’s hopes of running that seat would come up against the ambitions of another Climate 200-backed teal inNicolette Boele,who is already calling herself the shadow member for Bradfield,and who was out doorknocking on the weekend after the draft AEC ruling came out.
Boele,who ran Fletcher very close in 2022,has styled herself as the challenger apparent,yet Tink has a profile after spending two years in parliament. She spent only $1.3 million of the $1.8 million her campaign raised to win North Sydney at the last election,meaning she might have a bit of cash left in reserve.
Still,CBD reckons there’s only one way to sort this out – our first community independent preselection contest,a US-primaries style showdown that would have the North Shore’s resident Auspol geeks salivating.
SATURDAY SCARIES
The Saturday Paper,the publication of choice for progressive inner city terrace owners,isn’t usually where one goes to read diverging views.
But the paper appears to have ticked off some of the darlings of its readership. A profile of the ABC’s director of newsJustin Stevens,published last week,clearly hit a nerve.
The piece,written by freelance reporter (and an occasionalAge scribe)Gabriella Coslovich,included analysis of anonymous former staffers,plus some criticism from media veteranQuentin Dempster.
Since then,some of Aunty’s biggest stars have weighed in to defend Stevens. Former7.30 hostLeigh Saleskicked offThe Saturday Paper’sletters page last weekend to “correct incorrect slurs made anonymously” in the piece.
“The idea that Justin is merely a ‘visual thinker’ lacking an appetite for hard news and investigations is laughable,” Sales wrote.
Sales’ podcast collaboratorAnnabel Crabbwas up next,writing that the profile was “in urgent need of additional perspectives”.
“I do not entertain doubts about the hard-work,bona fides and emotional intelligence of Stevens,” who she described as “one of the good guys”.
The paper didn’t run a more scathing letter from News Breakfast hostLisa Millar,who aired her grievances on Instagram instead. She questioned whether the intent of the piece was to “take cheap shots from critics too gutless to put their names to their backgrounding”. Ouch.
So while Stevens might’ve lost the salty backgrounders,he can rest assured that the broadcaster’s biggest stars are well and truly onside.