Ian Thorpe and his boyfriend, model Ryan Channing, will take on ambassadorial duties inside The Star's marquee for the Doncaster today at Royal Randwick, and while Thorpe and Channing's preparations revolve mostly around man-scaping and accessorising their pocket squares, you have to feel a little bit sorry for jockey Hugh Bowman who will be riding superstar mare Winx in the $3 million race. While Thorpe and Channing will be manning the champagne bar,  Bowman tells PS he intends to spend around two hours in the sauna today to drop around 2.5 kilograms before the big race, with the only thing set to pass his lips the occasional sip of water. "I'm used to it, it is how you prepare for a big race ... you just have to know when enough is enough and get out of the sauna".

BOLLYWOOD ROYALTY IN TOWN

She is billed as the "most beautiful woman in the world", and next week Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan​, will visit Sydney for the first time to launch a new watch for Longines. Along with visiting the Sydney Opera House, she is also in discussions with local designers Toni Maticevski​ and Nerida Winter to dress her while she is in town. In her wake is a sizeable Indian media contingent documenting her every move for the millions upon millions of fans across the sub-continent. It's the sort of entourage that makes Madonna's recent 50-strong crew, which included two personal beauticians, look positively meagre.

SELLING OFF AND MOVING UP

Moneybags property developer John Boyd and his young wife Marly​ managed to offload a sizeable chunk of household goods over Easter at their now redundant Bellevue Hill mansion. The couple, and their baby son Patrick, are trading up – quite literally – with their huge new three-level penthouse atop the shiny new 46-storeyANZ tower on Castlereagh Street. From art deco sofas, ornate sideboards, persian rugs to the horde of diamond, pearl and emerald jewels, it was certainly an impressive inventory. No less impressive was the art being sold, which included works from some of Australia's finest including John Olsen, John Perceval, Margaret Olley, Sydney Nolan and Norman Lindsay, along with three works from a rather less well known artist – the lady of the house, Marly Boyd. Sadly the pieces remain unsold and PS was unable to verify rumours that the paintings were in fact Marly's  HSC major work.