Wherever he ends up next year, Daniel Ricciardo is going to keep on smiling.
The most famous pearly whites in Formula One reappeared on Monday as the Australian driver posted on Instagram for the first time since it was reported he was being replaced at McLaren by Oscar Piastri in 2023.
Enjoying his mid-season break in what appeared to be his sunny California base, Ricciardo kept it short and sweet.
“Hello,” he said, adding a sun emoji as he stood in a swimming pool.
Ricciardo has been hailed for his dignity and classy response to constant speculation about his future in the sport during a rocky 2022 season.
The Aussie F1 veteran became the story of the F1 mid-year break when it was reported he was being moved on for his 21-year-old countryman Piastri.
The news erupted last week after Fernando Alonso blindsided the F1 world when he jumped into Sebastian Vettel’s vacated seat at Aston Martin for 2023.
Alpine then announced Piastri would be the man to replace Alonso, only for the Melburnian to reject the seat, a bold move for a man who’s never driven an F1 car in anger.
But the news leaked over the weekend that it was Ricciardo’s seat Piastri was set to take, while McLaren were set to cut the eight-time race winner loose for the prodigious youngster — a move which would reportedly cost McLaren $21m in a payout for Ricciardo .
It leaves Ricciardo’s career at a crossroads after two largely miserable seasons in papaya, outside of the 2021 win at Monza.
Ricciardo had been regularly beaten by teammate Lando Norris and struggled to get his head around the car.
The 32-year-old left Renault for McLaren, but could return to the Enstone unit now branded Alpine, who are open to the move.
Alpine still believes it has an iron-clad deal with Piastri and are still planning for the young Aussie to take the seat, despite reports the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board had cleared Piastri’s move.
At almost 85, actress and activist Jane Fonda says it took her 70-something years to “become young”, and that feeling as good as she does now is something of a miracle.
Ahead of her new role in an animated movie, Fonda speaks exclusively with Stellar about what her late, lauded father taught her about life and regret on his deathbed, why she has never truly felt like a classic Hollywood icon, and her rubber-band trick for treating heartbreak.
You recently said, “I am younger now [at age 84] than I was in my 20s”. How do you stay young?
I don’t think that it’s true of everyone, frankly. How we are in our 20s – at least in the first part of our lives, before we understand that we can actually put an oar in the water and steer our life in a different direction, if we so choose… until I got to that point in my life, I was lost, I didn’t know what to do or who I wanted to be. I was very unhappy and I felt old and didn’t feel like I would live for very long. So to be almost 85 years old and to feel like I do now is a miracle to me. I have been very intentional in trying to … make myself a better person, make my life have more meaning. [The artist] Picasso once said, “It takes a long time to become young” and that’s sure true for me. It took 70-something years for me to become young.
When you say “become young”, what do you mean?
Young, [as in] light, not feeling a great burden on my shoulders. Learning how to be present, learning how to accept what comes, learning that we don’t have any control… something bad will happen, been there, done that and I survived. It’s much easier being older than it is being younger. It’s so hard to be young! There’s nothing but questions: “What am I supposed to do? Who am I supposed to know? Don’t give up, keep going and try to learn from all this, so when you get a little older, you can get more agency over your life.
You’ve spoken previously about not living a life of regrets. How have you influenced your decisions in Hollywood – and your life?
when my father [the late actor, Henry Fonda] was ill, it took him a long time to die. I would sit by his bedside of him. He didn’t speak much when he was young and healthy, and you don’t change when you’re on your deathbed. What I realized [was] he was going to die with regrets, when it was too late to do anything about it. It’s not the dying that I am scared of, it’s the coming to the end of life with a lot of regrets when it’s too late to do anything.
And that came to me at about the age of 60, so I thought, “All right, that means you have to live now until the end of your life in a way that will minimize the regrets and to go out feeling pretty OK about what you’ve done.” Regrets are usually about what you didn’t do … rather than the things you did. I am trying to do what I feel needs to be done before the end, right now, in my life.
You’ve been married three times and previously stated: “Part of the reason I get into a relationship with a man is that I feel he can take me down a new path”. How do you reflect on the defining relationships of your life?
Well, all of my three husbands definitely took me down paths that I probably would not have gone down had I not married them. And then, in between the marriages, I have had boyfriends that didn’t take me down any new paths, that really had nothing to teach me, and I got bored pretty fast. I feel like I needed to always be learning and growing and expanding, and my husbands have all helped me do that.
What is your advice for dealing with heartbreak?
Put a rubber band around your wrist and when you get really angry or sad, snap it. That sudden pain, it changes the neural pathways in your brain, and will help you kind of come out of it for a minute. Then, write him a letter, pour your thoughts out – but don’t send it.
Years from now, you’ll read it and be amazed at how different you are when you read it, than the time you wrote it.
Between projects, such as the 1968 movie Barbarella and Netflix series Grace and Frankie, and now your voice role in new animated film Luck, on Apple TV+, you’ve had incredible longevity and diversity in your acting career, and you’ve won two Oscars for Best Actress. What has your experience been as a woman working in Hollywood?
I’ve never felt part of Hollywood, really. I mean, I know it sounds strange to say that because my father was a movie star, Henry Fonda, but he was not really part of Hollywood. I didn’t go to Hollywood parties much. I mean he did, sometimes. It was not a life that was totally focused on glamor and Hollywood. My life has never been, either. Most of my friends are activists and not involved in Hollywood. I have plowed ahead, even when it looked like my career would be over. I just try to stay relevant, I guess.
You’re the voice of Babe, The Dragon, in Luck. What drew you to the role?
She is the president of the Kingdom of Luck, where they create luck. Human beings are not allowed there because it’s thought they’ll bring bad luck with them. It’s a story about a young girl named Sam, who is in the foster care system and who has nothing but bad luck. With the help of some of the creatures in the kingdom, she manages to get in and teaches the dragon that bad luck is really the other side of the coin of good luck, that the two go together. That good luck doesn’t mean anything without bad luck, and vice versa. It’s like, life doesn’t have meaning without death.
The climate crisis is the main subject of your activism, as founder of the Jane Fonda Climate PAC (Political Action Committee). What is your message to lawmakers – in the US and globally – about the state of the environment?
I have to say, the people of Australia understand the climate crisis better than most. I mean, boy, you just can’t catch a break with the fires and flooding. We have to look at what the scientists say. We have to cut our fossil fuel emissions – the pollution that happens when we
burn coal and gas – in half by 2030. In the US, that’s four election cycles. That’s a very short period of time. It’s a massive challenge that requires not just laws and policies to be passed, but a new way of thinking. Think about nature differently, think about our responsibility – this is particularly true in the United States, stop thinking about me, me, me. It’s pretty scary and we don’t have a lot of time. We have to do everything we can, all of us.
Grease star Eddie Deezen has been branded a danger to society and been put in the care of health officials as his sad spiral continues.
Deezen, 65, was on Monday found incompetent after allegedly burglarizing a nursing home in April.
A commitment order obtained by TMZ deemed the actor who played Rydell High nerd Eugene Felsnic in the iconic film is unable to stand trial because of an unspecified mental disorder.
He has been transferred to the Maryland Department of Health for treatment.
The document reportedly states that the actor, who played Felsnic in the 1978 movie musical and its 1982 sequel, poses a “danger to himself and others around him.” He will stay in the health department’s care until the court believes he is no longer a threat.
Deezen was arrested in Maryland on April 9 for burglary, two counts of trespassing and disturbing the peace, his inmate record, seen by Page Six, showed at the time.
However, prosecutors reportedly changed the charges to assault and disorderly conduct.
Police alleged to TMZ that Deezen had forced his way into a privately owned nursing facility and refused to leave. He also allegedly tried to break into a patient’s room before being kicked out and arrested on the property.
Deezen was previously arrested in September 2021 at a Maryland restaurant after allegedly throwing plates and food at police officers.
He was charged with second-degree assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing for that rampage.
Before that, Deezen found himself involved in another incident at an eatery where he was accused of harassing a waitress after detailing his infatuation with her via Facebook.
“Eddie Deezen is af***ing CREEP who comes into my work at least once a week, calls and asks other servers for my schedule, and if he comes in and I’m not wearing makeup HE LEAVES,” the waitress, Kara Lashbaugh, wrote on Twitter in June 2021 with screenshots of Deezen’s all-caps posts about her. “And this grown-ass old man has the balls to post this on Facebook about me I’m losing my mind.”
Deezen played several other nerd character roles in a handful of films in the late 1970s and early 1980s before launching a successful second phase of his career as a voice actor.
His notable characters include the Know-It-All Kid in The Polar Express, Snipes the Magpie in Rock-a-Doodle and Ned in Kim Possible.
This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission
Ashton Kutcher has revealed that an auto-immune disorder left him without the ability to see, hear or walk.
“Like two years ago, I had this weird, super rare form of vasculitis that, like, knocked out my vision, it knocked out my hearing, it knocked out, like, all my equilibrium,” Kutcher, 44, said in a sneak peek of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge obtained by Access Hollywood.
The That ’70s Show alum said it took him about a year to build each sense back up again, Page Six reported.
Vasculitis is a very rare auto-immune disorder that can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, resulting in restricted blood flow. There are many types of vasculitis, but most affect at least one organ.
“You don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone,” Kutcher shared.
“Until you go, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to see again, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to hear again, I don’t know if I’ I’m ever going to be able to walk again.’
“[I’m] lucky to be alive,” he added.
Now fully recovered from his terrifying health scare, the No Strings Attached actor said he does not let any challenge stand in his way of success.
“The minute you start seeing your obstacles as things that are made for you, to give you what you need, then life starts to get fun, right?” said Kutcher, who shares two children with his wife Mila Kunis.
“You start surfing on top of your problems instead of living underneath them.”
This story was originally published by Page Six and has been reproduced with permission
The 39-year-old British actor has taken on his boldest role yet in HBO’s upcoming House of the Dragonthe much-anticipated prequel to game of Thrones debuting locally on Binge and Foxtel August 22.
Smith, who is best known for becoming the youngest actor to helm Doctor Who from 2010,-2014 as well as his Emmy-nominated performance as Prince Philip in Netflix’s The Crownenter the thrones-sphere as Prince Daemon Targaryen.
The main antagonist – Daemon is the impulsive, power-hungry brother of King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) in a world set around 200 years before the events of GoT.
While joining a franchise as universally lauded as thrones was reason enough to jump on-board, it was the complexities of this character that enticed Smith most.
“I thought he was really interesting and unknown. And I thought I could add something to him,” Smith says.
“I think you always feel an element of nerves going into every part, it felt sort of slightly outside of anything I’d done before, which is which is why I was attracted to do it.”
That’s not to say I loved every minute of it.
Smith says the nature of this production took an extreme physical and emotional toll on him. From sitting in the makeup chair for two hours to having the iconic Targaryen silver-haired wig fitted, to waiting around in hot, heavy armor.
“It was a great privilege to be apart of something like this, but it was grievous as well. It was a tough shoot. And it was a year over Covid and it wasn’t easy. It’s not like it was just bells and whistles,” he says.
“And this type of show, there’s so many characters in it. There’s a lot of hanging about on the set.”
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Admittedly, Smith feels overwhelmed on every set, saying his roles become his “sole focus.”
So, how does he stay sane?
“A pint of Guinness, watch some football. Go to the gym, do the normal stuff, walk my dog, you know, [I would] just go and do something that had nothing to do with blonde wigs and swords,” he says.
Few sets are as dynamic as this one. game of Thrones won Emmys for its immense fight scenes. Season 6’s ‘Battle of the Bastards’ (which was directed by HotD director Miguel Sapochnik) is as edge-of-your-seat-viewing as it gets.
Though, rehearsing such battles to the point of perfection can be risky.
French actor Fabien Frankel, who plays Sir Christen Cole in the prequel, reveals he almost damaged the money-maker – Smith’s pin-up face.
“I hit Matt in the face in our first rehearsal,” Frankel says. “My sword cut him in the head. We didn’t even really know each other.
Smith interjects, “It was your shield (which) hit my sword.”
While they laugh about it now, Frankel genuinely feared he was “going to get fired.”
“It was like, you know, you don’t want to insult Matt Smith,” he says.
Smith was one of the millions of diehard thrones fans, having watched the entirety of its eight season run.
He says he feels privileged to be welcomed into the world of Westeros for a new era, but of course, that sort of legacy warrants high stakes.
“But ultimately, it’s a good pressure,” Smith says.
“That had its own cultural footprint. And its success will never be repeated.
“There’s a huge fan base there. They love it. And we’re going to try and deliver something that’s original and entertaining and move the story forward, even though we’re moving the story backwards.”
House of the Dragon premieres express from the US on Binge and Foxtel August 22
The prospect of the 2023 Formula 1 grid not featuring Daniel Ricciardo is difficult to fathom.
Fortunately it’s not just a hard sell of the average F1 fan; several teams are also sure the eight-time race winner has more to give to motorsport’s premier series.
In the wake of persistent rumors that Mark Webber was lining up Oscar Piastri to snatch Ricciardo’s seat from underneath him in 2023, rival teams have been probing the availability of the affable 33-year-old for his next chapter.
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As many as four rival constructors have sounded out Ricciardo, per ESPN, in the weeks leading up to McLaren reportedly issuing him his intention to break his contract.
Deducing which teams ought to be a simple case of arithmetic.
Before Fernando Alonso’s bombshell move there were six teams with possible vacancies: Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Haas, AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and Williams.
Alpine assumed it wouldn’t be going to market given it thought it had Piastri on the books as a fallback for Alonso, reducing the list to five.
AlphaTauri is also moving closer to re-signing Yuki Tsunoda, who Franz Tost wants to give a third season to establish himself. Anyway, signing 33-year-old Ricciardo also doesn’t click with what’s supposed to be Red Bull’s development team. Four teams remaining.
Aston Martin has also removed itself from the list, but with Alpine seemingly sure to need new blood, the group possible suitors is stable at four, including Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams.
So which is most likely to be seriously pitching for Ricciardo’s services, and which has the best chance of attracting his attention.
Ricciardo set to be replaced by Piastri | 00:32
ALPINE: THE CLEAR FRONTRUNNER
Alpine is unlikely to have been among the teams to have reached out to Ricciardo before the Hungarian Grand Prix given it was certain to the point of complacency that Alonso would re-sign, and it assumed in the unlikely event the Spaniard left, Oscar Piastri would be aligned to replace him.
But you can guarantee that the French team has reached out in the week since the driver market kicked into gear, and it’s the obvious frontrunner for Ricciardo’s services.
why it makes sense
Alpine is the highest placed team in the constructors standings with an availability — in fact it’s a place ahead of McLaren, occupying fourth with a four-point margin, so it would represent a step forwards on the grid, even if that step would be almost imperceptibly small.
The team is also on a hiring spree to match the workforce size of the frontrunners, and having undertaken some capital works to upgrade its factory, it’s well placed to maximize its budget cap allocation in the coming seasons.
Alpine also has a weak bargaining hand given it’s now 35 races deep into a 100-race plan to be a regular podium-getter. Esteban Ocon is credible enough but really the team needs a high-caliber spearhead, and there’s no-one on the market who comes close to Ricciardo’s potential or brand value.
And then there’s a certain unquantifiable appeal for both sides—one that neither would admit to, although stranger things have happened—that they’d be united by a common adversary. Both would surely be keen to defeat McLaren in a straight fight, and they’re each other’s best chance of doing so.
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Why it doesn’t
The only thing that would prevent Ricciardo and Alpine from renewing the relationship that ended in 2020 is pride. Ricciardo would be returning to a team he’d previously ditched, and Alpine would be taking back a driver who decided to walk out after only a year of racing.
But it’s debatable that this would be a strong disincentive to join.
For one, Alpine has been through a management clean-out since Ricciardo left, meaning there could be only so much bad blood to influence decision-making.
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer was even receptive to Ricciardo as a possible re-hire as early as last week, when he was still trying to project an air of confidence about keeping Piastri.
“I mean, if you look at Fernando, for example, he comes and goes, and I think that happens to other drivers too,” he said, per autosport. “I don’t think that’s an issue [with Ricciardo] at all.”
As for Ricciardo, he’s proved during his McLaren tenure that he isn’t afraid about claiming responsibility for his actions. He’s been upfront about his underperformance, and returning to Alpine, where he had one of the best seasons of his career in 2020, would just be an extension of that.
Alpine may not have been among the early suitors of Ricciardo’s services, but it’s certainly at the head of the pack.
Piastri backflip as he denies Alpine F1 | 01:07
HAAS: TRYING ITS LUCK
Haas is the next team in the constructors standings without an obvious solution to its driver line-up if it parts ways with Mick Schumacher, whether on its own motion or because the German switches teams given the pathway to Ferrari is closed for the foreseeable future.
why it makes sense
Daniel Ricciardo is box office in the United States partly thanks to Drive to Survivepartly thanks to his love for the US and partly thanks to his personal team’s efforts to get his personality out there.
For a Haas team that’s on the up but in need of some brand cut-through, Ricciardo would be a great get — and maybe even enough to convince Gene Haas to increase his commitment to funding the team, at least for purposes of snagging a star. driver.
Ricciardo would also enjoy the relaxed and apolitical atmosphere at the midfield team, perhaps enough to sway a decision.
Why it doesn’t
While the morass of the midfield is a bit of a minefield in terms of their prospects in the next few years — Alonso clearly doesn’t think ninth-placed Aston Martin has dimmer prospects than fourth-placed Alpine — Haas has been particularly inconsistent this season . It would be a difficult sell to Ricciardo to take a punt on things moving forwards rather than backwards.
Haas might also question whether it’s ready for a driver of Ricciardo’s ambition at this stage of its rebuild.
There’s also a lack of clarity around whether Ferrari has finally said over Haas’s second seat as part of its technical agreement with the team, which would presumably rule Ricciardo out of the running.
Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFPSource: AFP
WILLIAMS: WITHOUT AN OBVIOUS SUCCESSOR
Williams was set to be a major player in the driver market when it was tied to Alpine’s decision-making around Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso, but that power was stripped from Grove when both drivers sensationally abandoned the French team.
It’s also left Williams without an obvious candidate for its second seat, currently occupied by Nicholas Latifi, who’s likely to be shown the door at the end of the year.
why it makes sense
Williams has fielded mostly rookies for the last five seasons, with the only exceptions being Robert Kubica in 2019, who was making his comeback an eight-year injury hiatus, and Alex Albon, who had two disrupted years in the Red Bull system before sitting out last year.
It means the team is without a proven, established bar with which to measure its car’s ultimate performance. Ricciardo would give the team a chance to know just how much more might be in the car or whether what we’re seeing today is the best the team’s got.
If Ricciardo were desperate to continue his Formula 1 career but unable to secure a contract at a better placed team, Williams would surely be happy to accept him.
Why it doesn’t
Much like Haas, Williams may not feel ready for a heavy hitter of Ricciardo’s stature. It’s also seriously debatable whether Daniel, with a point to prove about his last 18 months and eager to restore his reputation, would see value in a contract that would struggle to guarantee him more than lower midfield levels of performance.
Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
ALFA ROMEO: NOT IN NEED OF A LEADER
Alfa Romeo has been one of the sport’s great improvers this year and is on track for the best points haul of its independent history. It also has Zhou Guanyu out of contract this season, and though the Chinese rookie has acquired himself well, the team is yet to re-sign him.
why it makes sense
The Sauber-run Alfa Romeo team’s biggest card is that it’s reportedly in negotiations to be bought by Audi. Sauber would then become the German marque’s works constructor, complete with a power unit program.
If the best route to a championship is to race for a fully fledged manufacturer, getting in on the ground floor before Audi potentially buys in — and presumably spends big to accelerate progress where it can — might be the best shortcut to the front.
Why it doesn’t
Valtteri Bottas’s strong performances and long-term contract mean Alfa Romeo doesn’t need a team leader, no matter your opinion of the abilities of the Finn relative to the Australian.
Further, the team has an eye to promoting its development driver, Théo Pourchaire, from Formula 2. Pourchaire is only 21 points off the title lead, and if he wins the series this year, he won’t be able to enter again — and even if he missed out, another strong campaign would likely be enough to get him into F1 by 2024.
Wedging Ricciardo into Zhou Guanyu’s seat makes no sense when it’s already earmarked for one of Sauber’s own drivers.
Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
WHAT ABOUT THE LONG GAME?
There’s one other criterion that might be on Ricciardo’s mind aside from getting himself into the most competitive seat available next season: ensuring he’s available to take part in driver market movements among the frontrunners in the coming seasons.
Out of contract next year are both Lewis Hamilton, who is inching closer to retirement, and George Russell at Mercedes, and team boss Toto Wolff has previously described himself as an admirer of the Australian. A Mercedes-powered team might therefore enjoy a small boost in bargaining power.
The 2024 season is Sergio Perez’s last under his current contract, while Charles Leclerc will also be up for renewal. Fernando Alonso is understood to have signed a two-plus-one deal at Aston Martin that could also see his seat made available.
But before leaping at any such hypotheticals — if indeed they’re on his mind at all — Ricciardo will need to nail down a contract to keep him in F1 next season.
A new crash test has highlighted the dangers posed by utes and SUVs to sedans and hatchbacks.
America’s Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has developed a new side-impact test with a heavier and faster impact to better reflect real-world hazards.
The IIHS, which says motorists face a “much greater risk of head injury from impacts with taller vehicles”, has introduced a tougher side-impact test that should result in safer cars in the future.
IIHS president David Harkey said vehicles that sat lower to the ground took side impacts higher on the door panel in the revised T-bone test.
“That potentially puts sedans and wagons at a disadvantage in this evaluation but reflects what happens in a real-world crash when these vehicles are struck by a higher-riding pick-up or SUV,” he said.
Crash experts increased the weight of their side impact barrier from 3300 to 4200 pounds (1497 to 1905kg) and ramped up speeds from 31 to 37 miles per hour (50 to 60km/h).
The resulting test has 82 per cent more energy than before.
Cars tested in the new program receive one of four scores – good, acceptable, marginal or poor.
Re-testing of cars that received full marks in the old test format returned alarming results.
The Toyota Camry received a “poor” rating, joining mid-sized sedans from Nissan and Chevrolet on the bottom tier for side-impact safety.
Toyota’s sedan was the only vehicle in the test that recorded a “poor” safety outcome for rear passenger injuries, though it did a better job protecting drivers than the Chevy Malibu and Nissan Altima.
Side airbags in the Camry, Malibu and Altima failed to stop the heads of crash test dummies from colliding with the cars’ window sills.
Honda’s Accord received a “marginal” overall score, falling behind “acceptable” results for the Hyundai Sonata and Volkswagen Jetta.
The only car worthy of a “good” score in the latest batch of testing was Subaru’s Outback, a car that benefits – in this test – from additional ground clearance more akin to an SUV than a conventional sedan.
But 10 out of 18 family SUVs earned good ratings, with larger and higher-riding cars such as the Mazda CX-9, Nissan Pathfinder and Toyota Kluger performing much better than conventional sedans.
No family SUV received a poor rating, though smaller SUVs were hit harder by the test.
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Only one – Mazda’s CX-5 – received a “good” rating, while popular models such as the Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Nissan X-Trail were deemed “acceptable”.
The Hyundai Tucson, Ford Escape, Kia Sportage and others received “marginal” ratings, while the Honda HR-V and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross were deemed “poor”.
Honda’s HR-V – a model that has since been updated – came under fire for a pillar between the driver and passenger doors that “began to tear away from the frame, allowing the side of the vehicle to crush inward almost to the center of the drivers seat”.
IIHS research shows side-impact crashes account for 23 per cent of fatal smashes in the US.
A tourist has described her horror after she was charged $A800 for four drinks and a snack at a notorious Mykonos beach restaurant.
US lawyer Theodora McCormick was holidaying on the Greek island with her husband when the couple stopped at DK Oyster Bar to grab a drink.
After ordering two beers, two cocktails and some seafood, the pair were stunned to be handed the exorbitant bill, The Sun reports.
When they tried to complain, they said they were squared up to by hulking waiters.
DK Oyster Bar has previously been at the center of similar controversy and has a reputation for staggering prices.
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It has been accused of scamming tourists – allegations it always furiously denies as it defends its high prices.
Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Theodora, 50, said they had been in the beachside resort of Platis Gialos last month when they stopped at DK Oyster.
They were looking to order a taxi back to their hotel when they saw the sign outside DK Oyster which said that taxis could be ordered from inside.
“I told my husband, ‘Oh, why don’t we call a taxi and grab a drink,’” she said.
“That was my big mistake.”
When the waiter came over, Theodora said she asked for a cocktail menu, but instead of bringing one over, he rattled off a list of options.
They ordered two martinis and two beers, which they were stunned to see arrived in giant glass boots – estimated to be around three pints.
The waiter also pestered them to order some seafood and so the couple ordered a dozen oysters.
Before ordering the bill, Theodora and her husband were bracing themselves for a hefty tab – but when they received it their jaws dropped.
“It was Mykonos, we knew it was going to be ridiculous,” she said, but she expected a bill around “250-odd euros – that’s what we were thinking”.
“But when we got the bill… it was around €500 ($A800).
“My husband was like, ‘There’s got to be a mistake.”
When they tried to complain about the bill, Theodora said they were immediately surrounded by the waiters, “a group of big, hulking men.”
She went on: “They have no female waiters.”
As it was a day before they were scheduled to fly home, they felt they had no choice but to back down and pay.
She said: “I told my husband, ‘We’re in a foreign country. It’s ridiculous, but it’s obviously some sort of scam. We’ll pay up and try to deal with our credit card company later.’”
Describing the “weird experience,” Theodora said it was only when they got back to their hotel and looked at the DK Oyster Bar’s hundreds of negative reviews on TripAdvisor that they realized they weren’t alone.
“I feel foolish,” she said. “It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. We weren’t planning on eating there, but we saw the sign.”
She added: “They’re never going to have any repeat business, but I suppose they get enough people from around the world that there’s always a supply of fresh meat.”
Theodora said that they had visited a number of the Greek islands as well as Mykonos, and that most of their meals were “extremely reasonable,” and that they were often able to enjoy great meals for just €40 ($A60).
Her experience is echoed by hundreds of other customers, with DK Oyster having a 2.5 star rating on TripAdvisor from 1532 reviews as of publication.
The bar has 635 one-star, 33 two-star, 19 three-star, 52 four-star, and 339 five-star reviews.
Furious customers blasted the restaurant as the “worst experience ever”.
However, other customers were more positive, praising the restaurant’s setting and saying “prices are good for the high class restaurant it is”.
DK Oyster has a reputation for high prices and was recently fined $A43,000 after an audit by Cyclades Regional Tourism Agency, reports Prototheme and the Greek City Times.
The investigation was sparked by two Americans who claimed they were charged more than $800 for a pair of mojitos and some crab legs.
And this week, the bar’s owner Dimitrios Kalamaras issued a direct response to his critics and denied customers’ claims they don’t know the prices before they step inside.
He accused many of his reviewers on TripAdvisor of lying, and said following “dozens” of similar “false” claims, he had installed three blackboards at the entrance to the restaurant displaying his prices.
Mr Kalamaras also said that “no adult in their right mind” would order a drink without seeing how much it costs first and told customers to discuss the price with the manager before they order.
Justifying his higher-than-average prices, he said that DK Oyster’s “concept” was completely different to other restaurants.
And he accused critics of being “influencers” who were looking for a free meal.
“Unfortunately, all of us who work in the hospitality sector have been approached by notorious ‘influencers’ who instead of making their living by advertising products and services to their audience, they put pressure on certain businesses for exorbitant fees and free meals,” he said.
“In DK Oyster, we have advertised in the ways we consider suitable for our restaurant and we will not succumb to the influencers who have been attracted to the beautiful island of Mykonos.”
Previously, a British tourist revealed how he was charged £360 ($A600) for four drinks and a snack at the restaurant.
Londoner Jak Kypri was visiting the Greek island – and thought that he wouldn’t be ripped off because he spoke Greek.
“I thought if they try to scam me I’ll tell them to p**s off and give me the real price.”
But when he walked in, Jak said that waiters didn’t offer him a menu, instead telling him what they had.
Jak ordered two tequilas, two beers, and some shrimp which, when it arrived, was just “six prawns.”
To his horror, when the bill arrived, Jak was handed a receipt for an eye-watering €425 ($A600).
Meanwhile another UK tourist claimed she was charged £50 ($A90) for lemonade that she said was so bitter it was undrinkable.
And a dad lashed out at the restaurant after his daughter was allegedly charged nearly £300 ($A500) for a single meal.
The Sun Online has approached DK Oyster Bar for comment.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission
If you were to name Australia’s “scariest” bird, the good old magpie would likely top your list for its notorious swooping.
In fact, September, which is fast-approaching, is the height of the “swooping season”.
But one US expat has shared her traumatizing encounter with – not a magpie – but a beloved kookaburra.
The TikTok user, who goes by the name of Jaylee Promise on the platform, has clocked 1.3 million ‘likes’ on clips mainly about her culture shock since moving to Australia earlier this year.
In her latest video, the Californian woman explained she was at a cafe with friends sitting in a grassy, outdoor area when a kookaburra flew straight past her.
“This is going to sound like a fake story but it’s not,” she began the clip.
They [Australians] they have these birds here called, I think, Cock-ah, Cook-ah-berra, or something,” Jaylee continued as she struggled to pronounce kookaburra.
“These birds are creepy. I have had incidents with these types of birds before. They are not scared, they will swoop right past your face, in your business.”
She said as she was enjoying her long black coffee while chatting to friends, a kookaburra swooped right past her face carrying a snake.
“A live snake in its beak,” she said with a stunned look on her face. “I seemed to be the only one shocked by this.
“Everyone was just like ‘anyway’. I was freaking out, about to fall off my chair.”
She said she didn’t know whether to “scream or cry” about what she was witnessing.
“This bird goes up into the tree and it is whacking the snake against the tree to kill it.”
Kookaburras do indeed eat snakes. They are almost exclusively carnivorous, also eating mice, yabbies, insects, small reptiles and the young of other birds, according to the Nature Conservancy Australia.
Wildlife rescuer William Watson told the ABC that kookaburras hit larger prey items such as snakes against trees and rocks to kill, soften or break them into smaller pieces before they swallow them.
In her clip, Jaylee continued. “Meanwhile I am meant to be paying attention to what my friends are saying and they’re not even looking over there.
“What if that bird dropped the snake on us? Anyway I think the bird ate it.”
In suburban parks and gardens, kookaburras are known to become quite brazen and will happily snatch a sausage or two off barbecues, so it’s best to keep a close eye on your meat.
Jaylee’s clip, titled “Another day in Australia”, unsurprisingly garnered hundreds of comments from Aussies unphased by the kookaburra’s act.
“Bit confused mate, what’s the issue?” one Aussie man asked.
“STRAYA!!!!” another commenter simply said, helpfully summing up the situation.
One person told Jaylee she had nothing to worry about.
“He won’t drop it on ya mate. It’s his dinner from him – he ai n’t letting it go for anything, ”he said, while another person pointed out the“ the only bird Australians fear is the magpie ”.
“I live on a farm. Kookaburras and blue-tongued lizards are always welcome because they keep snakes away. Fantastic animals,” yet another poster added.
Others described the native kookaburra as the “coolest Australian bird”.
“They might steal your food but they won’t hurt you and they’re easy to befriend,” one person told the US expat.
“Yeah be careful if you go camping, they literally will take a sausage or meat from your mouth if you ain’t careful,” another said.
“Aussies won’t flinch for a kookaburra, except to say ‘hi’ to it. Now… magpies are another matter,” a third person added.
One TikTok user said she witnessed a kookaburra steal a little boy’s chip right out of his hand.
“And this poor kid’s looking at his hand where the chip used to be,” she said.
However, while many reassured the US woman she had nothing to fear, others couldn’t but correct her pronunciation.
“Every Australian in the comments screaming ‘IT’S KOOKABURRA’ myself included,” one woman wrote.
One of the richest men alive has seen his company suffer a whopping $US43.76 billion ($A63.3 billion) loss as a result of the bloodbath on the share market.
The billionaire Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time and has a net worth of $US102 billion ($A147 billion).
But there owner of Berkshire Hathaway was forced to reveal the brutal loss after its three biggest investments – shares in Apple, American Express and Bank of America – plummeted in the second quarter amid rising interest rates and runaway inflation.
But Mr Buffett isn’t a fan of relying on investments gains and losses, which can swing wildly from quarter to quarter.
Instead, he said the company’s operating earnings better reflect its performance.
Berkshire’s earning painted a far rosier picture skyrocketing to $US9.28 billion ($A14 billion), from last year’s $US6.69 billion ($A9.7 billion).
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Among the 90 companies operated under Berkshire, including insurance, utility, manufacturing and service companies as well as a railway firm, a $US487 million ($A703 million) loss was reported at insurance company Geico, due to the soaring value of cars and ongoing shortages of car parts.
Berkshire is believed to give an insight into how the broader US economy is faring given the broad scope of companies across industries, amid fears the US could be headed into a recession.
“This is a business that has its tentacles in all different parts of the economy. To show such broad revenue and earnings strength throughout the franchise, it gives me a lot of confidence that the broader economy is performing pretty well,” said Jim Shanaham, analyst at investment firm Edward Jones reported the Australian Financial Review.
The company revealed its revenue grew by more than 10 per cent to $US76.2 billion ($A110 billion) in the quarter as many of its businesses increased prices.
Earlier this year, the billionaire had to backflip on his staunch stance against cryptocurrency in an embarrassing concession.
The businessman was a well-known proponent against blockchains and compared bitcoin – the most popular cryptocurrency – to “rat poison” in 2018.
But in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from Mr Buffettt’s company Berkshire revealed that he had spent a whopping US$1 billion (A$1.4 billion) on cryptocurrency.
