The NGV Gala opening event for its summer fashion blockbuster Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse was a fashion blockbuster to rival the exhibition itself.

About 1000 invitees partied hard on the cavernous National Gallery of Victoria ground floor on Saturday night for the glamour in the gallery event.

Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox.Credit:Eddie Jim.

Sponsor Mercedes-Benz got carried away and wrapped one of its signature EQS electric cars completely in tartan. Why? Fashion, of course.

As befitting a creative industry that relies on insecurity to drive retail spending, fashion loves a hierarchy and attendees were divided into two groups: those donors wealthy enough to attend the dinner in the upstairs galleries and everyone else.

During the feed there was modest drama. Real Housewives of Melbourne star Janet Roach, who attended with her partner Sam Gance, the billionaire co-founder of Chemist Warehouse, kept noticing her cutlery was disappearing. But things got even more bizarre when it turned up in her handbag.

There was a prankster on the loose and it turned out to be none other than $100 million NGV Contemporary donor Lindsay Fox. No doubt he got let off with a warning.

Among those spotted: former foreign minister Julie Bishop, Melbourne Fashion Festival chief executive Caroline Ralphsmith, and her husband Gandel Group boss, Dion Werbeloff.

Heartbreak High stars Ayesha Madon and James Majoos stood in the corner of the dance floor and threw confetti over each other.

A notable absentee was Premier Dan Andrews. Billy Joel at the MCG was much more his vibe. Just as well, the North Face doesn’t do tuxedos.

OH GARY

With silly season truly underway, we couldn’t imagine a more thrilling event than the Samuel Griffith Society’s Christmas drinks.

The thirty-year-old club for conservative-minded jurists will host its Melbourne event this week, headlined by controversial former Charities Commissioner, and CBD regular Gary Johns, and the Society’s vice-president, Howard-era Liberal Senator Nick Minchin.

BenkeCredit:Joe Benke

Johns, a former Labor minister who suffered a Damascene post-political conversion to the right, will use the event to launch his new tome called The Burden of Culture, a 500-page rant about “the Aboriginal industry”.

Among other things, Johns’ book calls for an end to Acknowledgements of Country, making it seem like the society has ditched the sober, nerdy Constitutional law discussions of old in favour of a little culture war.

It wasn’t always strictly this way. While the society has drawn serious conservative heavyweights in the past, including former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott and several Liberal attorneys-general, it also used to attract leading legal scholars and judges

Former High Court Justice John Dyson Heydon, Justice Geoffrey Nettle (now heading up the infamous Nicola Gobbo Inquiry in Victoria as Special Investigator), and progressive law icon Justice Michael Kirby have all presented, as well as former chiefs Murray Gleeson, Robert French, and present chief Susan Kiefel.

Under the new-ish leadership of Xavier Boffa, a former Liberal staffer recently acquitted of allegedly glassing a political rival, we can’t wait to see what direction the society takes from here.

OVERRATED

Being sent inscrutable and unjustified bills by your local council is one of the last remaining universal experiences in the Australian community. It seems even Victoria’s most prestigious university is not immune.

Now the University of Melbourne and the City of Melbourne sit at the precipice of a legal battle over a combined $1,226,083.21 levied by the council over three properties owned by the university, and which the university claims were levied unlawfully.

The parcels of land at issue are Melbourne Connect, on Grattan Street, the ‘Little Hall’ student accommodation at Lincoln Square South and their carpark on Berkeley Street in Carlton.

The university claims they are not subject to the land tax because they are a registered charity. And they’re not playing around. They’ve enlisted international heavy-hitter litigator Ashurst to represent them in the bid to get the bill tossed out.

Both refused to comment on whether their relationship has been impacted by the litigation.

It seems even our most illustrious university isn’t immune to squabbles with the council.

OLD WOUNDS

Last week Northcote MP Kat Theophanous just got over the line in her reelection bid against Greens candidate Campbell Gome.

It was one of the closer races in the state poll with Theophanous coming out on top by less than 200 votes.

It was so close that the Greens considered asking for a recount as the number of votes separating him from the incumbent Labor MP narrowed.

A feeling, it seemed, that Greens senator from Victoria Lidia Thorpe knew all too well.

Thorpe, who won the nasty byelection in 2017, took to Facebook to remind friends of her experience with the Theophanous political dynasty (Kat’s father Theo Theophanous was previously the member for Northcote and helps out her campaigns).

“Count will go on for days,” Thorpe commented under her personal Facebook account, “we are ahead of votes but Labor Kat and her father will recount and recount to try to claw their way back.”

Just a few weeks ago Theo admitted to this paper that he was handing out “alternative” Liberal how-to-vote cards that send preferences to Labor rather than the Greens.

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