Socialites Roxy Jacenko and Jess Ingham give each other the silent treatment

They once shared Christmases, family birthdays and holidays, and Ingham even played the role of devoted aunt to Jacenko’s children, but the pair are no longer on speaking terms, causing considerable anguish for both women’s broader families.

Jacenko and Ingham were both guests at Crown Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, but PS understands it was selfies at 20 paces as they deftly avoided each other.

Jacenko and Ingham had been friends since they were teenagers, and at one point were both dating members of the notorious Macris family. Jacenko was a former lover of slain underworld figure John Macris and remained close with his brother, Alex Macris, the former husband of Ingham.

In 2018 PS revealed Ingham and Macris had quietly parted ways following their lavish wedding in 2013, when the couple blew $500,000 on the celebrations that featured 45 crystal chandeliers strung up over Bennelong Lawn near the Opera House and a fireworks display on the harbour that rivalled New Year’s Eve.

At the time Jacenko described the wedding in her usual, restrained prose as “by far one of Sydney’s best weddings … by far!”

More recently Jacenko and Ingham had gone into business together, launching a range of “stunt” candles designed to create social media moments, though as Jacenko has previously told buyers, they look better unlit. Ingham confirmed to PS she was no longer in business with her former friend.

Jacenko has parted company with a long line of former confidantes over the years. Most recently the likes of heiress Francesca Packer Barham, iron woman Candice Warner and socialites Grace Garrick and Holly Asser have all fallen out of favour with the high-profile publicist.

And it appears Jacenko does not mend bridges easily, judging by the long-standing feud and estrangement from her own sister Ruby and father Nick Jacenko.

Actors descend on Sydney

Lockdowns and quarantine are wreaking havoc on keeping tabs on the influx of famous faces who have descended on Sydney lately. Well, almost.

PS hears actor, rapper and DJ Idris Elba has been a welcome addition to the neighbourhood around Hunters Hill where he has been living for the past few weeks while in town for the three-month shoot of George Miller’s fantasy-romance drama Three Thousand Years Of Longing.

Elba and his family turned up at a neighbourhood Christmas drinks party proffering a bottle of vino just before Christmas and are said to have slotted in comfortably.

There’s been little sign of his co-star Tilda Swinton, who is also in Sydney for the shoot.

Nicole Kidman managed to squeeze a mad dash to Northern Ireland for a two-week shoot for a production in which she is playing a Viking queen. Leaving husband Keith Urban and the kids back at her Southern Highlands estate, the actor managed to get back to Australia and into quarantine at home in time to emerge on Christmas morning to share the day with her family and mother, Janelle.

Kidman and her brood are due to stay in Australia for the next three months as she completes post-production on series Nine Perfect Strangers, with daughters Sunday Rose and Faith both enrolled in school here and said to be enjoying their extended stay in their parents’ ancestral home. Their parents are keen to immerse them in Australian culture, making trips to the National Gallery and War Memorial in Canberra last week.

While Natalie Portman was shooting glamorous perfume ads in Potts Point for Dior, the actor is also keeping it real in Sydney with her family. Here to make the latest Thor instalment with Chris Hemsworth, Portman has been spotted doing the groceries at Woolworths Double Bay, while her family has also been catching up with Isla Fisher and her husband Sasha Baron Cohen, who are also in town.

Russell Crowe and his new squeeze, actress Brittany Theriot, have been enjoying the seclusion of Crowe’s north coast farm at Nana Glen, while American heartthrob Zac Efron and his Australian girlfriend Vanessa Valladares have been taking in the sights around Paddington this week.

On the Central Coast Toni Collette has been enjoying downtime over the holidays with her family, having spent much of the past year focusing on her husband Dave Galafassi’s recovery after he was injured in a “devastating” motorcycle accident.

McLachlan’s tell-all interview

Actor Craig McLachlan promised he had “a lot” more to say in the new year after he was found not guilty of assault and indecent assault charges dating back to 2014, but exactly where and how he will say it remains a mystery.

PS hears McLachlan’s media manager Grant Vandenberg has been in discussion with various media outlets about an exclusive tell-all, with the likely broadcaster shaping up to be the Seven Network, though Vandenberg informed PS this week there was “no shortage” of TV offers on the table.

However, given McLachlan’s pending defamation action against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, which is now part of the Nine Entertainment Group, and the ABC, there are those who suspect his TV options are somewhat limited.

Delivering her verdict in the criminal trial last year Magistrate Belinda Wallington said that while she accepted some of the complainants’ evidence, it did not meet the high criminal standards required to prove the charges.

“The four complainants were brave and honest witnesses,” she said. “I was not persuaded that there was evidence of collusion between the complainants. I was not persuaded that there was evidence of motive or that the complaints were made for reasons for career ambition or for any other such reason.”

Among the allegations, McLachlan was accused of inappropriately tickling the inner-thigh of a woman on stage, known as CC.

“I’m unable to exclude the possibility that an egotistical, self-entitled sense of humour led the accused to genuinely think that … CC was consenting to his actions,” Magistrate Wallington said, adding the “result may have been different” if current consent laws were applied in the case.

“The law requires me to apply the law as it stood at the time of the alleged offending,” she said.

Dennis calls time on lifestyle show

After months of upheaval behind the scenes at Better Homes & Gardens that resulted in a viewer backlash over the axing of popular landscaper Jason Hodges, another of the show’s long-serving personalities, craft queen Tara Dennis, has decided to leave Seven’s lifestyle show.

Apparently there is only so much one can do with Paddle Pop sticks and a hot glue gun.

PS hears the decision has been all Dennis’s, who wants to focus her attention on two homewares stores she has in Balmain and Wahroonga, though she will remain on screens for the next few months, leaving a vacancy on the show for a crafty type to fill.

‘No Princess Di’

To be fair, PS had to Google her name to work out who she was, and by her own admission she is “no Princess Di”, but I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here star Abbie Chatfield posted an extraordinary account on Instagram of her dealings with a Brisbane paparazzo this week, claiming she was being stalked and accusing the snapper of opening her car door while she was in the vehicle and demanding she pose for photos.

Not that Chatfield is completely innocent in all this, also admitting in the video that she too had pocketed money from set-up “pap” shots sold to trashy magazines and websites and that she had willingly “played the game”. It doesn’t sound like a terribly lucrative game, given her photos were only fetching a few hundred dollars.

A merry opening

The opening night of The Merry Widow at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday drew global attraction, given it is believed to be the only opera currently playing in front of a live audience on a major stage in the world, with so many of Europe and America’s productions stalled because of the pandemic.

Donning masks for the big night were Ros Packer, Arts Minister Don Harwin, vitamin mogul Marcus Blackmore, federal MP Trent Zimmerman, NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, television personalities Lisa Wilkinson and Tim Davies, cabaret queen Trevor Ashley, Opera Australia chairman David Mortimer and philanthropist John Kaldor.

As for the show, The Merry Widow is a witty and lavish production with fabulous costumes and dance sequences – it’s well worth it.

Jack Ma’s Newcastle connection

Could Chinese billionaire Jack Ma be hiding out in Australia? Ma’s great friend Maggie Zhou, who studied English with him during their student days in China, runs Ma’s Alibaba Australia and New Zealand operations, while Ma himself is no stranger to Australia.

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Many of Ma’s wealthy Chinese friends and associates also have homes in Australia, having bought up in the great Chinese billionaire property boom of the past five years.

But Ma’s connections to Australia run much deeper thanks to his friendship with the late Ken Morley, a Newcastle electrical engineer, who helped Ma on his journey from a poor youth to e-commerce tycoon.

The pair met while Morley was on a trip to China in 1980. Morley brought young Ma to Australia in 1985 for his first overseas trip, when he spent nearly a month in Newcastle, an experience which the Chinese businessman told the ABC a few years ago had “totally changed my future”.

In February 2017, Ma returned to Australia to give the University of Newcastle $US20 million to fund 30 scholarships as a tribute to his late Australian friend.

“I am very thankful for Australia and the time I spent there in my youth,” Ma said during his visit.

“The culture, the landscape and most importantly its people had a profound positive impact on my view of the world at that time.”