The All Blacks, the convicted drug dealer and the celebrity Facebook friends

Mercedes owned by drug dealer Robert Benjamin Haarhaus.

Should you be a little careful who you befriend on Facebook? Some of New Zealand's most famous faces may be feeling more cautious now that they've found themselves connected to a convicted drug dealer thanks to social networking site Facebook.

Robert Benjamin Haarhaus of St Heliers was sentenced to 12 years in prison at the High Court in Auckland on July 24 and convicted for supplying ecstasy, GHB and methamphetamine, with the latter haul alone holding a street value of $700,000.

Click here for some photos of his celebrity Facebook friends.

Haarhaus, who is widely regarded as a party boy about town, was living the high life, driving a $250,000 Mercedes and living in a house with sea views on millionaire mile Kohimarama Rd. All this, despite being adjudged bankrupt in 2002.

His Facebook page with 330 registered friends includes a variety of famous party girls like Michaiah Simmons and Lisa Lewis. But it is the high-profile A-list celebrity names that have drawn many raised eyebrows. All Blacks Jimmy Cowan and Ma'a Nonu are listed as friends on Haarhaus' Facebook page, as is Jerry Collins (who has moved to Welsh team Ospreys), TV3 stars Brooke Howard-Smith and Jaquie Brown, Aja Rock, porn king Steve Crow, kick boxer Ray Sefo, beauty queen Laurel Barrett, Remix publisher Tim Phin and DJ Karn Hall.

"No, I haven't brought drugs from him," Jaquie Brown told me. "I'm drug free. Boring." The TV3 star has become a Facebook friend through her television show The Jaquie Brown Diaries, using the site as a PR medium. "It's a publicity tool, so I add everyone, so no one feels left out."

Would she defriend Haarhaus now she knows he's a convicted drug dealer? "On principle, I can't really draw a moral line. I can't really strike off people for their bad deeds... I mean, if it was rape or murder, that would be different," she said.

When it comes to adding a friend on Facebook, it appears easier to say yes, than no. Aja Rock said she'd never heard of Haarhaus. "He must have asked me to be his friend. I reckon he's just one of those people who wants lots of Facebook friends."

Brooke Howard-Smith told me he'd never heard of Haarhaus too. "I think he's a wannabe East Auckland low life... the kind of person I don't want to see in my club [Pony]".

 

TV3 star in Facebook war

A few weeks ago we printed an email TV3 star Brooke Howard-Smith fired off to friends and patrons regarding new rules he's imposed on the standard of dress and behaviour at his nightclub Pony on Customs St.

The cyber missive drew many negative comments and a Facebook page called The Boycott Pony Club was set up. At the time of going to print, 639 members had signed up to the boycott page that features a digitally-altered image of Howard-Smith wearing a Nazi arm band and the words: "This is a breach of human rights."

It refers to the TV star's memo in which he states his preferred patrons to be: "No solo guys, or guys in groups, no matter who your friend is. Guys bring girls. No girls, no entry. Go hang in the kebab shop eat chicken and talk to the other guys about how hard it is to get a date these days".

The boycotters responded on their Facebook page: "Those rules aren't sweet. Pony's not classy enough for a gender code. I'd rather go to Showys. Suck it Brooke Howard-Smith."

But if you thought the Target presenter would take the moral high ground and ignore the taunts, you're wrong. He has set up his own Facebook page in retaliation. Called the Boycott The Boycott Pony Thing, Howard-Smith's site facetiously thanks "all those who tirelessly helped promote Pony with their angry groups."

He writes: "If you are receiving this you are on a list that will help you get in. Adam will have the list on the door. Despite my ranting Email the odd guy who arrives by himself will get in. BUT we will make him wear a flouro [sic] vest that says 'I arrived by myself at 1am'. Don't alarmed if it's not a wall to wall sweat box at first, we're going to be turning a lot of randoms away. I want the club to feel like it's yours again".

Methinks the feud won't be ending anytime soon.

 

UK celebs rent bach on Waiheke Island

British celebrity couple Dawn French and Lenny Henry are said to be having a private holiday on Waiheke Island following French's seven-gig sell-out tour with fellow British comedian Jennifer Saunders in Auckland last week.

Sources Spy-ed the unmistakable Henry (who is due to celebrate his 51st birthday at the end of the month) with the couple's 18-year-old adopted daughter Billie at Auckland Airport last Sunday. Saunders is said to have been joined on the trip by one of her three daughters.

Henry and French, who married in 1984, are no strangers to our shores. Last year Henry told a newspaper that he and his family would like to eventually retire in New Zealand "in about 10 years time." The couple, who call a £2.3 million cliff top mansion in Cornwall home, have visited New Zealand many times. For a period, Henry lived in Auckland, and it was on a trip to visit him that French discovered New Zealand "a dozen or so years ago," she told the UK Telegraph.

Earlier this year, French gave New Zealand a glowing report in her celebrity account in the Telegraph about travelling around the North Island. She described her love for our wine and revealed that they usually rent a house on Waiheke Island. "We generally prefer that to staying in a hotel - there are lots of lovely holiday homes to rent," said French.

 

On-trend orange jacket plays best supporting role on Lush's love story

Traditionally, nature documentaries are as dull as the attire of the host who can often be heard whispering his way through the undergrowth so as not to disturb the plants.

Marcus Lush has taken another approach. His new television series about Southland - imaginatively called South - is part travel story, part nature study, part personal yarn about why he escaped the clutches of Auckland to set up home in the remote region of Bluff. He may be a Southern Man now but he hasn't forgotten his inner fashionista. He zhushes up his TV series with an on-trend windbreaker jacket in Ohakune carrot orange which Spy's senior sartorial expert calls "an obvious shout out to his North Island roots".

By contrast, other nature lovers on the telly aren't quite so fashionably fabulous. Check out Sir David Attenborough (naturalist); David Bellamy OBE (botanist, environmentalist); Jeremy Wells (amateur ornithologist); and Ruud Kleinpaste (bug man).

Click here for pics.

Check out Lush's love story South. It screens on TV One from August 16.

 

Rachel Glucina

 

Photo: A Mercedes Benz worth $250,000 belonging to drug dealer Robert Haarhaus