WHY did The Star casino spend upwards of $600,000 to fly Leonardo DiCaprio and pals to Sydney for New Year's Eve?
The only good thing to come out of the exercise in celebrity pandering was it highlighted the absurdity of Sydney airport's archaic curfew, but more of that later.
As far as Leo's fleeting visit to Sydney went, the casino got almost zero kudos, with international news sites either not mentioning its expensive hosting role or simply identifying the Django Unchained star's digs as the "luxury Darling Hotel".
Newspapers did report the stars were celebrating New Year's Eve at The Star's nightclub Marquee, but even then the casino was tightlipped on details.
Leo and co-stars Jamie Foxx and Jonah Hill, and assorted hangers-on, were jetted in to Sydney and squired around town in luxury yachts and limos, no expense or carbon footprint spared. (For an ardent greenie constantly preaching eco restraint, Leo likes to burn up the carbon miles.)
Obviously it's the casino's business, but what was the point? Is it really worth so much to have your gambling den vaguely associated with an actor?
Leo didn't even seem particularly to enjoy himself. Considering he was flown out here simply because he is a celebrity and had lunch at one of the most high-profile restaurants in town, Icebergs Dining Room, at one of the most paparazzi-dense spots in Australia, Bondi Beach, why was he pulling his cap down and covering his face with his hands in an irritated way like some sort of Greta Garbo? He might be a great actor but he makes a crummy celebrity.
Nor did he seem particularly impressed by the bevy of bikini-clad, and not so clad, beauties aboard the 37m superyacht Masteka II assembled for his viewing pleasure on Saturday.
At least not compared to Jonah Hill, who looked positively gobsmacked by his good fortune.
"What most people would call the time of their life, Leonardo DiCaprio calls just another Saturday," E! Online reported.
It was publicity of a sort for Sydney, showcasing the beautiful harbour. But perhaps we don't want to be known as the destination for jaded Hollywood lotharios to pick out beautiful women from a line-up as if they were a set of cufflinks.
It's not as if Leo paid any respect to Sydney. As soon as the fireworks were over he couldn't wait to hightail it out of here to Las Vegas for another New Year's Eve.
By 1.20am yesterday he was at the ExecuJet centre at Mascot waiting for a small plane to take him on the first part of his journey back to Las Vegas, crossing the international date line so he would have about three hours left of partying left before midnight, Nevada time. Nice work if you can get it.
By 2.50am, Leo and his entourage were on the casino's private jet on the Canberra Airport tarmac, ready for the 15 hour-plus flight to Vegas.
Yes, you read that right.
Canberra.
The ridiculous kicker of this story is that celebrities or not, Sydney Airport's antiquated noise curfew meant Leo and friends had to fly a small plane from Sydney to Canberra to get aboard their chartered jet home.
Passenger jets are banned from take-off or landing at Mascot between 11pm and 6am, and aircraft movements are limited to 80 an hour. Thanks to people whining about noise from an airport that's been around longer than most of their houses, only small propeller planes and freight planes can fly overnight.
The curfew was put in place by the Howard government shortly after the 1996 election, as a result of complaints about noise from people living under the flight path of the new third runway.
The Keating government had previously launched a noise insulation program to double-glaze whingers' windows, which ended up costing almost half a billion dollars. In the almost two decades since, aeroplanes have become much quieter, and the curfews are strangling the city's potential, with one estimate putting the cost to the state economy at $600 million a year.
Rather than Joe Hockey's thought bubble this week about a new airport at Badgerys Creek, decades in the future (and since when did he get to announce Coalition policy on the hop?), we should be maximising the potential of Sydney Airport first, bringing it into line with any proper city in the world.
It is a jewel in the crown of Sydney. Instead of seeing it as a liability we should realise it is an asset to have an airport so close to the city. It will be easier for freeloaders like Leo to come to town. On second thoughts ...
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