It’s been a big week for our nation’s leading diplomatic powerhouses.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been in New York with his wife Lucy, addressing the UN General Assembly, partaking in summits on the refugee crisis and, um, hanging out with hip hop luminary and star of the most important film franchise in the history of cinema – Fast & Furious, of course – Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges.
This is a real thing that happened. Ludacris even wore a very fetching purple sweater. The meeting was all in aid of Ludacris’ wife’s charity Unspoken Angels and the Pratt Foundation, led by cardboard magnate Anthony Pratt who issues the golden invitation to our Prime Minister.
We wonder what they talked about. Ludacris is, after all, a man of many surprises. The rapper rose to prominence in Atlanta, writing songs for the city’s famous strip clubs. His favourite movie is The Devil Wears Prada. He has his own brand of Cognac – Conjure – for which he travelled to France to learn the tricks of the trade. He’s also an only child who says he is incredibly close to his mother and to his teenage daughter. A family man: him and our PM have that in common, then.
Then there’s Julia Gillard, who is Twitter BFFs with none other than Rihanna, after the Barbados-born singer was announced as the face of Global Partnership, a charity funding education for children in developing countries.
Our former Prime Minister is chair of the organisation, and she met with Rihanna to formally announce her ambassadorship. The corresponding Twitter conversation had the whole Internet spiralling into meltdown mode.
Rihanna is taking this whole charity thing very seriously. She’s spent the last few days lobbying politicians on Twitter to commit to Global Partnership. Everyone from Francoise Hollande to Justin Trudeau have been on the receiving end of one of badgalriri’s Tweets. We’re sure Julia would be proud.
Who’s next? Bill Shorten and A$AP Rocky? Julie Bishop and M.I.A? Scott Morrison and Wiz Khalifa? Stay tuned.
