Ricardo Simich shares the goss behind his biggest stories.
Ricardo Simich has been first on society, entertainment and pop culture news for 10 years. Spy’s man-about-town shares the secrets behind his biggest stories.
"Oh, you're that gossip columnist!" is a line rolled out by some at events, usually said, by gossipy well-heeled people about town, after downing a few, before lining up to get their photo taken.
My reply is simple, "Just delivering A-list news," I say with a smile.
My first day in the Spy chair was in January 2012, the same day as the raid on the Kim Dotcom mansion in Coatesville.
What I didn't tell the newsroom was, A, my neighbour was the ex-wife of Dotcom's head of security and B, I used to do marketing for the mansion's architect.
Musical chairs followed in the Spy editor's chair for months, until a permanent duo of me and former Remix editor Andy Pickering was announced.
Dotcom used Twitter for most of his news announcements. He and Pickering shared a love of the social platform, so much so that two years into Spy, Pickering left to head social media for Dotcom's foray into politics, the Internet Party.
Pebbles Hooper joined for a bit before I took the reins on my own.
The Dotcoms were perfect Spy fare - scandal, luxury cars and Mona's designer wardrobe - and their Coatesville mansion would go on to be just as infamous.
It was initially built for Chrisco multi-millionaire Richard Bradley in 2006 before being leased to the Dotcoms.
Spy was there in 2013 when the couple marked the first anniversary of the raid with a party reminiscent of a Hollywood action movie, complete with abseiling SAS and a speech by Dotcom to his followers. It was the first time Spy got word of the home's panic room.
Within two years, the Dotcoms had split. In 2017, with the couple's blessing, Spy revealed Mona's relationship with insurance adviser and former model Luke Wainui.
The mansion then went through a rebrand and is now affectionately known as the Toy Mansion in honour of new owner, Zuru founder Nick Mowbray.
Several massive parties have followed. There were plenty of shenanigans at Mowbray's Great Gatsby-themed party, which Spy attended on condition we keep any antics in the vault.
Things ramped up in 2019, with Mowbray and partner Jaimee Lupton treating guests to their very own Burning Man festival. The following year the couple threw their Out of This World bash which attracted A-Listers and monied folk dressed as aliens and other creatures.
This year, Spy can reveal early whispers there is a pirate theme - hopefully not an ode to the house's former owner's online piracy case. We might see the attendance of Taika Waititi, new wife, singer Rita Ora, and mates from Our Flag means Death, which will be filming in Auckland.
In 2014, a young couple were spotted getting deep and meaningful at Ponsonby's Golden Dawn Bar.
Spy couldn't have predicted that we were reporting on what would become the biggest hook up of the decade - New Zealand's future first couple Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford.
At the time, Gayford was working on radio and had recently split with long-time love, actress Shavaughn Ruakere. MP Ardern was soaring to new heights on Labour's list.
Asked for comment, Gayford told Spy they were just good mates, and Ardern said there was "nothing to report".
A few years later at another Ponsonby bar the couple were very open about dating. When Spy told Ardern she would make a great leader of the Labour Party and possible future PM, she brushed it off humbly.
In 2013, Spy reported a select group of young girls joined Justin Bieber on the balcony at Tyler St Garage in Britomart, following his Vector Arena show.
The bar tab was understood to have neared a whopping $20,000 including a massive amount of vodka, Red Bull, 20 bottles of champagne and several bottles of 21-year-old tequila.
Biebs took off his shirt, put on an impressive diamond chain and partied hard. Any attempts to photograph him were met with extreme hostility by his minders.
On a trip to Queenstown in 2017, Bieber, a year before he married Hailey Bieber, took off his shirt again at a bar in Arrowtown.
Seafarers Members' Private rooftop bar has had the most A-List parties, with most of the antics kept a secret. The mega stars like the private entrance and lift, away from the glare of cameras and adoring fans.
In 2016, post-show parties were held there by Prince and Coldplay. After playing at Mt Smart, Chris Martin threw a party on the rooftop and, in a not-so rockstar style, his parents out-partied their son.
The following year, after her three massive stadium tours, Adele celebrated the end of her one-month world tour at the bar, turning up with slip-on shoes and no make-up, with her then-husband Simon Konecki. She danced into the early hours with her favourite tunes played by Kiwi DJ duo Sweet Mix Kids.
Meanwhile, in 2016, after his The Hateful Eight premiere, Quentin Tarantino was left speechless by raunchy burlesque acts at a private party on Karangahape Rd's Las Vegas Strip Club.
In late 2017, Mike Hosking and Toni Street left TVNZ's Seven Sharp and Breakfast host Hilary Barry was being touted as Street's possible replacement.
For a speculation piece, the Herald entertainment editor asked for ideas on who should replace Hosking. Spy suggested Radio Hauraki's Jeremy Wells, famous for being Newsboy on the TV show Havoc in the 90s and then had his own, more mature show, Eating Media Lunch.
With that jawline and charm, how could audiences not be drawn to him? He'd just need to tone down his shock-jock humour. He even had a puppet of Hosking on his radio show.
In early 2018 it was announced Wells would take the role alongside Barry. Spy often wonders where our agent fee is. It's a story regaled often, even after a few drinks and laughs with Wells himself, who doesn't seem to think our suggestion merits any credit at all.
In January 2018, former deputy PM Paula Bennett wanted me to tell her gastric bypass surgery story - a subject Spy got burned on when we asked two very famous women about such surgery in the early days.
Then 48, she had undergone the weight-loss operation at a private hospital before Christmas. Her reasons included arthritis issues and said she hoped it would encourage other Kiwis in their respective weight battles.
We caught up at a recent party for the launch of her new Rich Listers show and, now also a columnist for the Herald on Sunday, it appears her life after politics has only just begun.
The decade started out all about one family. Babies, breakups, hookups - after more than two decades in the spotlight, former couple Matthew and Sally Ridge still had it.
But it's their daughter Jaime who shares the title of most-featured Spy cover girl, with supermodel Georgia Fowler. The Mowbrays and Watiti are slowly taking that crown off her.
Ten years ago, Sally and Jaime bonded with Spy over dinner at The Grove, ahead of their reality show, The Ridges, coming out.
At the time Jaime was doing a law degree, being linked to Sonny Bill Williams and doing a celebrity boxing match.
Sally was two years out of her relationship with Adam Parore. Splitting their business and property assets would take years. She'd bought an impressive piece of real estate in Herne Bay - Auckland's version of the Kardashian's Calabasas - which became the base of their TV show. The breakout star was a mouse.
Jaime is now firmly ensconced in Los Angeles, married to social media guru Tommy Bates - ex of TV3's Samantha Hayes - and mum to son Porter. Spy revealed last week Sally is now dating AA Smartfuel's Scott Fitchett.
Ten years ago, three All Blacks in particular made these pages sing.
I knew Dan Carter and Ali Williams through NZ Fashion Week in the late noughties, where I was front-of-house, juggling the celebrities on who got to sit in the coveted front row.
We went fan crazy when we met captain fantastic Richie McCaw at a party at Rich Listers Paula and Simon Herbert's Remuera mansion in 2013.
The Carters and Wlliams families' sabbaticals to Paris, the loss of NZ's greatest bachelor McCaw to hockey star Gemma Flynn and their wedding of the decade all made great news.
Spy shared the sad news of the split of Williams and wife Casey Green in 2019 and revealed his new relationship with toy billionaire Anna Mowbray and Green's with Rich List son Antony Wyborn.
The NZ Music Awards "after after" parties were once the wildest. Those come after the music companies' after parties. The ones from where you see the sun come up, and ones which Spy has promised were off the record.
Bubbles indeed brings out the glamour. Moet & Chandon, Mumm and Veuve Clicquot all used to hit it out of the park. The former yearly Clicquot in the Snow, held over several days in Queenstown, were the best. But when you are on tour with a bunch of celebrities, drinking morning, lunch and evening and Spy's antics were equal, if not worse, than the packs, it is a good thing to use the "off the record" line.
It was at a glamorous Moet & Chandon party that I met All Black power couple Beauden Barrett and Hannah Laity before they ended back at my apartment for chit-chat into the early hours.
But the budding friendship didn't help calm my editor's nerves, when my dud tip of a Waiheke wedding sent reporters to the island, only to have a more savvy reporter successfully redirect attention to where the nuptials were actually happening, Rakino Island.
The public's fascination with former Prime Minister John Key and his family meant they were constant Spy fodder.
He gave Spy possibly its best cover, agreeing to pose for us with Chrystal Chenery - a contestant on Art Green's season of The Bachelor - at a charity gala. It had John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe vibes and you could tell Key loved it.
We were the first to share photos of Key's daughter Stephie's art installations through her alter ego Cherry Lazar, which included her naked body covered in sushi.
Meanwhile, Key's former DJ son Max's relationship with it-girl Amelia Finlayson and his 21st at his parent's former mansion in Parnell all made good news stories. He then revamped his image after turning to property development.
I see plenty more Spy headlines to come with father and son announcing this year they would be forming property finance company Stonewood Key Capital with former brothel owners, brothers John and Michael Chow.
In 2018, we were first to report then 52-year-old Mike McRoberts was in a relationship with Robyn Holdaway, who was in her 20s.
Meanwhile, Sam Watson, son of rich-lister Eric Watson, provided headlines when he was romantically linked to Swedish model Frida Andersson-Lourie, the best friend of his stepmother, fellow model Lisa Henrekson. Henrekson is the mother of Sam's three half-brothers. The pair have since split.
It's hard to find contestants on talent or reality shows who stand out years later and who were there not just to make a living out of the free stuff that comes with a heightened profile afterwards.
But New Zealand's first MasterChef winner Nadia Lim has lasted the distance after turning her win into a brand, co-founding My Food Bag and banking millions. She went full circle this year after becoming a judge on the show.
Time has shown that Art and Matilda Green, who were on the first season of The Bachelor, were there for the right reasons. Now married with two children, the couple make a living off the companies they own and their brand deals through social media.
Season one's Heartbreak Island star Harry Jowsey, got a massive online following which was boosted ten-fold when he went on to star in a couple of US-based reality shows. His Australian agent claims Jowsey is now worth millions.
Where once stories with no-names highlighted the shenanigans and mega-spending of the rich, today the new generation of family wealth or newly rich, live their lives out loud through social media.
In recent years, son of Graeme Hart- NZ's richest man - Harry has reignited interest in the family by dating Australian heiress Cartier Lee. Lee, a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts in New York, like a long list of her contemporaries, likes to share her life to the fullest on social media.
Friends of the Harts, Mowbray and Jaimee Lupton, are the model couple for striking a perfect balance in sharing their business achievements and the rewards that come with them, through to their various charities.
The list of famous Kiwis who have escaped Aotearoa is long and most have achieved big things including Sam Neill, Taika Waititi, Thomasin McKenzie, KJ Apa, Rose McIver, Martin Henderson, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Karl Urban, Anna Hutchison, Antony Starr, Melanie Lynskey, Kimberley Crossman, and in recent years Beulah Koale and Aggy Tarrant in Hawaii on Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: Hawaii.
Neill's career just keeps on growing and we celebrate it at every turn, like the fine vintage it is.
Spy broke news of Boston Ridge's best King's College mate KJ Apa landing a role on Shortland Street in late 2013. His career soared, starting with A Dog's Purpose, a string of movies and seven seasons of Riverdale.
Waititi's success comes after numerous projects, two of which are about to be filmed in NZ, have blossomed into Taika 2.0.
Hutchison is not only queen of the rom-com, but she has also filled the pages with happy news with two babies and marriage.
Crossman is racking up the air miles back and forth from LA to NZ.
Castle-Hughes married DJ Jonathan Morrison on Valentine's Day 2013, but the couple called it quits in 2016. The Whale Rider actress found her happily ever after, marrying Donny Grahamer in New York last year, welcoming a second child not long after.
Henderson has had two great runs in the past 10 years, Grey's Anatomy and the massive success of his Netflix show Virgin River. His love life is the source of much speculation at present - watch this space.
Favourite celebrity Rachel Hunter - the former supermodel knows the fame game and keeps it real and current, now teaching wellness.
Best-performing Spy story online Amazingly, it was: Meet the new Bachelorette Lexie Brown
Favourite reality star/TV chef Josh Emett. He might not still be on TV, but his brand, good looks and hospo establishments, not to mention his cooking demos on Instagram, make him the gold standard when it comes to attracting sponsorship and advertising deals.
The one that got away
Spy first heard of Lorde well before any headlines came but failed to convince editors why 15-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor may be of interest.
Which couple were Spy constantly approached about with rumours they had an open relationship?
Which half of a power couple told Spy there was more than meets the eye over their break-up?
Which All Black left his girlfriend's father so disappointed, the father was on the verge of tears with Spy.
What international supermodel didn't take to kindly to her Kiwi business associate?
Which two rich-listers, who - with scandal over different ends of a decade - have stood by each other both financially and quietly?
Timothée Chalamet had long been interested in playing Bob Dylan.