Kiwi equestrian glamour couple Luke Dee and Amelia Clark; Taika Waititi and Brad Pitt's secret Queenstown project is revealed; rich-listers Simon and Paula Herbert are getting ready to welcome a new arrival. Photo / Herald composite
Man about town Ricardo Simich brings you Society Insider. This week, Taika Waititi has two surprise collaborations; rich-listers Paula and Simon Herbert’s baby shower; the Kiwi equestrian couple taking on Europe
Brad Pitt’s first professional collaboration with Kiwi director Taika Waititi has been revealed: a coffee commercial filmed in Queenstown this year.
The secret shoot in February was for Italian brand De’Longhi and took place at the spectacular Drift Bay Villa on the shores of Lake Whakatipu.
Society Insider reported in March that while he was filming the action and adventure movie Heart of the Beast, Pitt was expected to film a television commercial for a De’Longhi Global Campaign.
The commercial will debut globally at the Venice Film Festival, which starts tonight, before rolling out around the world.
The film features Pitt, who is an ambassador for De’Longhi, enjoying a coffee while practising his Italian. It’s said to be infused with Waititi’s signature sense of humour.
Sources close to both productions tell Society Insider that some of the New Zealand crew worked on both the movie and the commercial.
“Kiwi crews are used to filming with A-list stars, and Brad Pitt was a delight,” says the source.
“For the South Island crew, having an A-list actor and an international brand filming a commercial down south was the icing on the cake.
“With the ad being seen around the world, it’s hoped we don’t just attract movies, but more big-budget international brands.”
In 2021, Pitt became a global ambassador for the Italian kitchen appliance company that makes espresso machines and coffee makers.
In past De’Longhi commercials, he has ridden a motorbike on the California coast and driven a retro convertible in the Italian countryside.
Drift Bay is set on 4ha of waterfront land with magnificent views of the Remarkables and Cecil Peak.
A month before Pitt and Waititi’s shoot, Society Insider reported that New York-based top model Maia Cotton’s lavish wedding reception was at Drift Bay, which costs up to $10,000 a night to rent.
Australian-based head De’Longhi barista Cheryl Giles was flown over to make Pitt’s brews.
“I had no idea why I was heading to Queenstown until I was on the way,” Giles says.
“Everything was super top-secret; there was nothing on email in case it leaked.
“Then suddenly I was in the most beautiful place on Earth, making coffee for Brad Pitt and Taika Waititi. It was totally surreal.”
Giles says the shoot was huge, with more than 90 people on set.
“To see that many people come together to make it work was pretty incredible,” she says.
“At the end of the shoot, Brad came up to me and said, ‘So you’re the one who’s been caffeinating me all day’.
“I admitted that I slipped him a decaf one now and then, so I didn’t send him completely over the edge – we both laughed about that.”
Giles says the commercial features the voice of iconic Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio, but during filming, Waititi took it upon himself to be the stand-in voiceover, to keep Pitt on track and cracking everyone up in the process. She says she made Waititi a cold brew coffee, and he hugged her.
“He said it was the best one he’d ever had, and I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Investors Simon and Paula Herbert of Empire Capital had a party on the Mediterranean last week to announce they will soon be welcoming a baby girl to their family.
Simon, 62, has four adult children from a previous marriage, but it will be the couple’s first child together – something they have wanted for quite some time. They met in 2006 and married at Taupō luxury accommodation Huka Lodge in 2008.
The couple, who own Auckland’s Bayswater, Hobsonville, and Pine Harbour marinas, New Zealand data centres, and substantial interests in publicly listed companies, had the celebrations off the coast of Monaco on their Azimut Grande luxury super yacht H, which was decked out in pink.
They now have an apartment in Monaco and have spent most of the European summer in and around the French Riviera.
When in New Zealand, the Herberts base themselves at one of Auckland’s most expensive houses, their palatial white waterfront home in Herne Bay, valued at $50 million, and their waterfront Bay of Islands compound. They are a fixture on the New Zealand business and social scene and have worked together on many design and business projects.
Paula, 46, decorated the yacht and its chase boat with pink and cream striped cushions and a matching sun awning, bouquets of pink and white flowers, which she put together, and even the Veuve Clicquot Champagne was pink. Another touch was the large tennis ball-sized ice cubes she made, with flowers inside.
Pink and white balloons and baby onesies were hung from the deck, and pink fans, emblazoned with their daughter’s name, were supplied throughout the boat for the Herberts’ more than 20 guests. A coat of arms in pink was emblazoned on both boats and dock mats.
The colour scheme was honoured by guests, who mostly dressed in shades of pink and white.
They included a mix of the Herberts’ European friends and fellow Kiwi rich-listers, including their close friend, Steve Owen, who delivered the afternoon’s toast.
On behalf of all of their friends and family, Owen wished Paula and Simon all the very best for their exciting new chapter.
The Herberts gave their guests luxurious party favours – Christian Dior bags containing pink Dior bracelets.
To close the evening, cannons shot pink smoke off the stern of the superyacht into the air over Port Hercule in Monaco.
Kiwi equestrian glamour couple Luke Dee, 31, and Amelia Clark, 32, have been making their mark on the European show jumping season.
The couple, who live in Hawke’s Bay, have been based in the small German town of Goch.
Clark, a successful competitor in the Amateur Rider series, is operations manager at Mana Stables in Hawke’s Bay. She has been cheering on Dee as he has been riding Gangster, the 9-year-old gelding he co-owns with Mana Stables owner Fiona Hall.
After Dee and Gangster took out the Taupō Christmas Classic World Cup last November, plans for the couple’s European campaign were sped up by six months when Dee was invited to be the New Zealand representative at the FEI World Cup Final in Basel, Switzerland, in April.
“That show really put our names on the map and set us up for things to be a bit easier going forward on our campaign,” says Dee.
He has since competed and placed in a five-star show in St Gallen, Switzerland; finished fifth and third in three-star Grand Prix events in the Netherlands; claimed second at a four-star in Germany; and, more recently, taken fourth in a four-star Grand Prix in Belgium.
Over the next few days, the couple will be at the Brussels Stephex Masters competing for the Belgian Rolex Grand Prix, hosted on the prestigious Stephex grass arena.
“Stephex Masters is truly one of those bucket list five-star shows you always dream to be in attendance as a spectator, but to have the opportunity to compete there is something extra special,” says Dee.
“I try not to put too much expectation on my performance before a show, especially one of this calibre, when competing against 75 of the world’s best riders.
“However, I truly believe Gangster is a once-in-a-lifetime horse, and although still young, he is right up there with the best in the world.”
Clark, meanwhile, will be putting on the Mana Stables Show Jumping Masters, an annual boutique ring one competition held over Waitangi weekend.
“At any event in Europe, there is a real emphasis on hospitality and creating not just a show jumping event but a real spectacle with other non-horse events and performances, with lavish events and black-tie galas,” she says.
There are hopes Dee will be invited on to the Global Champions Tour, which has been dubbed the Formula One of equestrian, in locations such as Monaco, St Tropez, London, Paris and New York.
But before the glitz and glamour comes the sport, and the goal is to compete in the FEI World Equestrian Games in a year in Aachen, Germany, followed by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Gangster will have a break after Brussels, and the trio will return home before plotting their next move – the circuit in either Mexico or Spain.
Seven years ago, Fiona Hall and Clark were equestrian-loving Auckland city slickers and met at a friend’s livery stables, where they both kept their horses.
The two became very close, and when Hall purchased her property in Hawke’s Bay in 2021, now known as Mana Stables, Clark said she would set up the equestrian facility, overseeing the extensive redevelopment, creating the well-known Mana Stables of today.
Since leaving Napier Boys’ High School in 2011, Dee spent much of the next decade travelling Europe and the United States, competing at the highest level of show jumping and representing New Zealand.
He and Clark met and became friends in their mid-20s at a horse show when he was back in New Zealand.
“After a long time of being friends, I finally plucked up enough courage to ask Amelia out,” says Dee.
“Since then, our life has been nothing short of exciting, and with the huge support from Fiona also, I truly believe the best is yet to come.”
This month Clark, Dee and Hall made horse media headlines when Mana Stables purchased Cooney, the most popular young horse at Horse Auction Belgium.
“Cooney is a 4-year-old gelding; I loved his athleticism, blood, type, and with the brain and breeding to match,” says Clark.
It’s hoped the team can have Cooney ready to compete in their own event in Hawke’s Bay, followed by the Takapoto Classic in Cambridge in February.
New Zealand Fashion Week Housewarming
New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria, presented by Giltrap Group, marked its return on Monday night with an invitation-only opening party at Shed 10. The evening honoured the event’s past while celebrating its future.
The housewarming at Fashion Week’s new waterfront home began with welcomes and mingling before an outdoor runway show that traced the designs and moments shaping New Zealand’s fashion identity over the decades.
Invited guests got to see the show Into the Archives: Two Decades of New Zealand Style, curated by the former fashion director of the Herald’s Viva magazine, New Zealand Fashion Week creative adviser Dan Ahwa. Nostalgia was celebrated and themes emerged, such as a national obsession with black, the irreverent, and the industry’s unapologetic embrace of colour, print and embellishment, shoulder pads and streetwear.
Models included New York-based, Kiwi star of the runway Jordan Daniels, former Miss Universe Lorraine Downes, Kiwi director Taika Waititi, restaurateur Albert Cho and singer Bic Runga.
New Zealand Fashion Week owner Ali Feroz was accompanied by his daughter Saliha. He and the new-look Fashion Week team, including board director Liam Taylor, board member Murray Bevan and communications co-ordinator Tatum Savage, were thrilled that the new waterfront venue was a hit with guests.
Former NZ Fashion Week owner Dame Pieter Stewart was in attendance, as were Minister for Arts and Culture Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Defence Judith Collins, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson, rich-lister and sponsor Richard Giltrap – Giltrap Group’s co-executive director – and his motor-racing son Marco.
A who’s who of fashion designers included Australian Ksubi creative director Pip Edwards, Juliette Hogan, who had a successful show on Tuesday evening, Elizabeth Findlay of Zambesi, Liz Mitchell, and Francis Hooper of World.
Among the fashion lovers in the front row were journalists from exclusive media partner Viva – Stephanie Holmes, Madeleine Crutchley, Tyson Beckett and Kim Knight – as well as leading Australian fashion journalists such as WWD’s Patty Huntington and Jonah Waterhouse from Vogue Australia. Other famous faces in the crowd included broadcaster Petra Bagust, fashion stylist Sammy Salsa and entrepreneur Iyia Liu.
Ricardo Simich has been with the Herald since 2008 where he contributed to The Business Insider. In 2012 he took over Spy at the Herald on Sunday, which has since evolved into Society Insider. The weekly column gives a glimpse into the worlds of the rich and famous.