Sam Wood, Antony Catalano and the real estate puzzle that has Brighton talking

Real estate intrigue is practically sport in Melbourne so it is little wonder that the emergence of a link between troubled former Bachelor star Sam Wood and controversial businessman Antony Catalano has Bayside abuzz.

Chats with two locals, a trip to the address and official documents have helped CBD piece together the puzzle.

Wood and wife Snezana own two homes in Greater Melbourne, a Brighton house they paid $7.15m for in an off-market deal and settled in January, and a Mount Martha property they forked out $2.7 million for in October 2020.

But it seems the family aren’t living in either of them.

Instead, Wood’s luxury car, complete with distinctive number plates, has been parked in the driveway of a third Bayside property which CBD visited on Wednesday, spotting members family and their friends coming and going.

In yet another example of how small a state of more than 5 million can be, that five-bedroom, three-bathroom home is owned by a former significant acquaintance of charged media mogul Catalano.

CBD attempted to contact the owner of the property as well as Snezana, without success.

Word on the leafy streets is the Woods’ never moved into the $7 million Brighton enclave they settled earlier this year and that spruce-up works have been going on at the property. We were even told a real estate agent had paid the property a visit.

The founder of the online 28 fitness platform remains in custody in Queensland after being arrested in Noosa on the weekend and charged with domestic violence related offences.

A bail application is listed for Thursday and Wood’s lawyer, Mathew Cuskelly, has said that the charges against the 46-year-old will be defended.

The Noosa fallout continued on Tuesday when Wood was sacked by DBG Health, the company that bought his 28 by Sam Wood business in 2022, in a deal that valued the fitness platform at $71 million.

DBG Health severed all commercial ties with Wood “effective immediately”.

“DBG Health does not tolerate domestic violence in any form, and our thoughts are with anyone affected by it,” the company said in a statement.

Catalano, meanwhile, is expected to return to court later this month charged with assaulting a woman at his St Kilda home.

Victoria Police allege that he swung a clothes iron at his wife Stefanie’s head, unlawfully imprisoned her in the luxury apartment, threatened to stab her to death and choked or strangled her. She was admitted to hospital with a broken tailbone.

Pencil conspiracy theory rubbed out

This is one for the tin-foil hat wearers.

There’s a conspiracy theory that pretty reliably gets a run at this time in the electoral cycle.

According to the theory, the electoral commission hands out pencils at the polling booth so that “they” can rub out your vote and replace it with whatever result “they” want.

The “they” in the above sentence is the all-purpose conspiracy theory “they” – the global elites, the swamp, the people who really run things …

Well, on Wednesday, the person who really does run things – Victorian Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel – was squarely asked about the whole pencil issue at a Melbourne Press Club/Melbourne University event.

And do you know the real reason they issue pencils, not pens?

Because, said Sven, pencils don’t dry out between elections. That’s it. It’s so they can be re-used.

Not only that, but you, dear voter, are perfectly free to bring your own pen and use it. Any colour will do as long as your scratchings are legible.

You could have blown us over with a quill.

So, truthers. Stop whingeing about the lizards changing your vote and pack a biro. Or a sharpie if you’re sufficiently Trump-minded. Job done.

Brethren chief Bruce Hales prepares for a rare public grilling

Later this month, the grand poobah of the Exclusive Brethren, the man known as the Man of God, is due to appear before a joint parliamentary committee to explain his church’s secretive frolic with democracy at the last federal election.

Parliamentary committees have the power to subpoena, and have threatened to use it if Bruce Hales does not come voluntarily. Even so, Brethren watchers have been waiting for some clever tactic – legal or geographical – to allow him to escape the call.

Over the weekend, in letters read to his assemblies worldwide, he appears to have capitulated. He would give evidence, the “saints” were told, but was under “immense pressure”, and they should pray for him.

Brethren watchers are salivating at the prospect – but still sceptical that he’ll show.

The last time Hales appeared in a public hearing was 1992, when he pleaded to a Senate committee for special treatment by the Family Court. Children should always be brought up in the church, and barred from seeing the excommunicated parent, Hales argued, no matter what the law said.

Reflecting on the experience later, Hales said of the earlier crop of senators, “what amazed me was their patience”.

Having dealt with a wall of denial and obfuscation of the election issue, this committee is likely to be far less friendly.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.