Television

Among the down-sides of the widely-available LCD or Plasma TV is the redundancy of the term ‘boob-tube’.

Whoever originally coined this expression, with its wonderful breastfeeding double-entendre, must surely have had either Freud or Andy Warhol in mind.

Few parents are immune to the pang of guilt that can be felt when seeing their kids ‘glued to the box’, jaws slack, eyes unblinking, shoulders slumped. All the facial muscles set to passive mode. All the action in the room comes from the flickering lights and jingle-jangle noises in front of the kids.

Continue reading "Why you should plonk your kids in front of the telly" »

Is Stephen Conroy a patsy? Or is he merely an innocent but accomplished networker who believes in spending time with all the key stakeholders, to borrow a flaccid phrase from modern management, across the communications portfolio?

I’ll leave those elements of the debate to others. I have no valuable insight into communications policy and am mindful that any opinion ventured would be viewed by cynics as the product of the Murdoch microchip we News Limited drones apparently have implanted in our brains. But I will try to examine the perception that has been created as a result of the $250 million rebate for free to air television, and the role of Conroy and the networks in creating it.

By way of ludicrous understatement, it’s worth noting that it is certainly a spirited debate, and one which underscores Kim Beazley’s conviction that his own tenure in the communications portfolio was time spent in hell.

Continue reading "Maaaate, can you believe they’re saying we’re suss?" »

They’re calling it Star Wars on the Water. The winged keel on Australia II looks about as innovative as furry dice on a Commodore against the designs of the two most technologically-advanced yachts ever built, expected to finally start racing tonight (Australian time) in the 33rd America’s Cup.

(Update: Racing was postponed again on Wednesday due to heavy seas. Next possible start is February 12.)

The open ended design rules for the match between defender Alinghi of Switzerland and challenger BMW Oracle of the USA have produced two stunning-looking craft which look more like they should be attacking a Death Star than bobbing about on the water.

A selection of pictures which hopefully capture the huge size and outrageous design of the boats follows, along with some trivia about the event. And perhaps most fun of all, the only thing bigger in yacht racing than the boats themselves is the egos at stake.

Continue reading "Forecast: Windy, with a fair chance of excellent TV (pics)" »

America’s late night talk show crisis is almost an end with Conan O’Brien set to get the sack from the Tonight Show at the end of this week for the sooky Jay Leno who has decided he wants his old job back, and apparenlty has some born right to host the Tonight Show.

The whole saga has been covered to the point of exhaustion in the US media, with Conan walking away with a cool $45 million and also likely to go to the FOX network for a brand new show. For his part David Letterman’s joy over NBC’s troubles has bubbled over in to outright self-indulgent schadenfreude in his opening monologues, largely because he was overlooked for the job himself more than a decade ago.

The upside is that someone as funny as Conan O’Brien, fresher and funnier than both Leno and Letterman for many years, has an entire week left to get back at the people giving him the sack. So what do you do? Spend all their money of course.

Continue reading "Conan gets the best ever revenge on a bad boss" »

Let me begin with a couple of disclaimers.

I’m the first to acknowledge that – unlike the creator of this column Leigh Sales – I don’t have red hair (or even muted tones of burgundy) although I’ve occasionally been a little daring at the hairdressers.

Just a little.

Continue reading "Well read-head: Births, Deaths and Marriages" »

UPDATE 10.30am: The author is in a panic following the release of a study this morning that showed watching television can result in early death. As a confessed hypochondriac who persistently frets about dying he is now considering his future and will discuss his position tomorrow on The Punch.

I love television. Absolutely, bloody love it. And I have a real distrust of people who say, “I don’t really watch television”. I’m convinced that I detect a smug sneer as they say it.

My Pavlovian reaction to anyone who says this is to immediately picture the person – and I swear this is true – in a wood-panelled drawing room, sat with their partner in high-backed leather arm chairs, either side of a big old-fashioned radiogram, smiling serenely at each other. Sometimes the female of the pair is engaged in some sort of embroidery.

I have no idea where this mental picture comes from, but I guess it may be some weird visualisation of my inverted snobbery trying to puncture their television condescension at the first whiff I get. (Not sure what this all means psychologically, but I’m sure Dr Phil would know).

Continue reading "Liking television doesn’t make me a vacuous idiot" »

The internet told me the date was February 10 1991. Which makes sense because I remember having just returned home from one of my first days of the fourth grade.

My knowing eldest brother had positioned himself in front of my mother’s tiny TV while the rest of my brothers and sisters stood around for a glimpse.

Standing silently transfixed in front of that first episode of The Simpsons we were like a group of peasants listening to the Emperor’s voice for the first time over the radio. From here it would all be different.

Continue reading "Happy 20th birthday to the greatest show ever made" »

Last fortnight, I posted my ten favourite links from the year’s Well-readhead.

This time, I’m going a step further with my Christmas holiday recommendations, posting my favourite fiction books of the year, along with my top five non fiction books and top five TV series on DVD.

If you’re looking for something to do over the holidays, let me simply say: my name is Leigh, I’m from Queensland and I’m here to help.

Continue reading "Well readhead: Summer holiday reading and viewing" »

I read today that those wacky zany kids at Channel Seven are rolling out something called “Pump TV”. I thought they’d gone all naughty and were setting up a new digital porn channel, but it turns out they’re wacking in TV screens into petrol pumps.

Well that’s a great leap for mankind. You need to get a bit of Mel and Kochie action while you’re filling up at the servo. Actually Beauty and The Geek will look a whole lot better while you’re topping up the brake fluid.

How’s it going to work? Are they abridged, five-minute episodes of everything – or the time it takes to do your business and screw the cap back on? Or will we be faced with oceans of Shell V90 flooding out over the concrete Zoolander style, as motorists are totally engrossed with the latest love tryst between Dr. Rachel, Alf and Hugo on Home and Away?

Continue reading "Pump it louder: the stupid rise of the servo television" »

Any day now researchers can be expected to conclude the best thing parents could do for children is to have none in the first place.

It wouldn’t be all that surprising amid the deluge of useless advice thrown at parents on how best to raise their kids.

The latest tip for mums and dads, in draft federal government guidelines reported this week, is that children should not watch television until they’re two years old.

Continue reading "Time to study the bad advice given to good parents" »

Aussies consider themselves as pretty funny but sadly Australian TV comedy is no laughing matter.

Perhaps that’s not true if you are satisfied, wit-wise, with a boy smearing vegemite all over himself on a Hey Hey It’s Saturday – The Exhumation special.

Still, such antics may have a lowest rung place on the spectrum of disposable panel/skit/stunt shows that Aussie TV throws and sometimes throws up at us.

Continue reading "Even the Americans are doing better comedy than us" »

Hello. Just got back from a solitary week in a fisherman’s cottage at Brindabella Station, west of Canberra, where I was working on a writing project.

A full week without phones, telly or the internet. And you know what? It was great.

The world is richer when you turn the electronic chatter off. Here’s a selection of stuff I noticed (or didn’t)…

Continue reading "Postcard from a wireless week" »

Once upon a time there was a woman who watched a new show on Channel 10 called Life on Mars. She enjoyed this show and looked forward to watching more episodes.

But one day, without any warning, Channel 10 decided to cancel this new show. The woman cursed Channel 10 and its near-sighted programming executives and vowed never to watch a new show again.

This sad tale can be retold, again and again, simply insert the name of any number of shows - Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, Torchwood, 90210 - the list goes on.

Channel 7 is heavily promoting two shows at the moment, FlashForward and Mercy and they look like shows I would enjoy. But I won’t be watching either of them because history tells me that their chances of lasting a season are about as good as Kyle Sandilands chances of being nominated for Australian of the Year.

Continue reading "I can’t watch because the networks keep axing shows" »

With the latest episode of Australian Idol still not hitting the 1 million viewer mark in the new 7.30pm time slot, it is time for Channel Ten to hit the panic button.

Kyle Sandilands may have presided over the death of Big Brother by being the host in its last year, but has he also contributed to Australian Idol’s demise by not being on the show?

Without a doubt this year Idol has had to overcome the challenge of standing down a judge the week the show premiered, the loss of co-host James Mathison, as well as other changes to try and keep a tiring concept fresh. Here is what I see the problems are:

Continue reading "What’s gone wrong with Australian Idol" »

Television ratings from the weekend’s big finals clashes will confirm for most that Australians love nothing more than large chaps smashing each other in pursuit of a football.

(Why would you watch sport when you can watch Antiques Roadshow, this is great)

But there is now evidence that we are not as sports-mad as we might think.

A new survey reveals that the number of TV viewers who think there is too much sport on their regular channels is greater than those who think there is not enough.

Continue reading "Enough with sport, we might not be that keen on it" »

This is what happens when a group of media are sent to cover an event but miss the “money shot”.

We’re going to take you behind the scenes. Our unedited video captures the moment some media crews faked an event not once but twice.

For the launch of author Dan Brown’s new thriller The Lost Symbol, various media assembled to shoot a group of speed readers. The idea was the fastest reader could give the book’s first-ever review. The trouble was, after two and a half hours of waiting for the keen readers to plough through 500 pages most of the media had their eyes off the ball.

Continue reading "Exposed: the fake world of “real” television news" »

As a child of the 1980’s I experienced a huge wave of nostalgia reading about Mike Leyland’s death this morning.

Only 68 Mike Leyland is believed to have died from complications arising from Parkinsons disease, a battle he had been fighting for about three years.

Parkinsons disease is a degenerative neurological condition that affects approximately 30, 000 Australians. Symptoms can include abnormalities of movement, such as tremor and muscular rigidity.

Continue reading "Mike Leyland inspired a generation" »

Alright I’m calling it now: Penny Wong will be a contestant on the next series of Dancing with the Stars.

Well actually that’s not true, but the scary thing is I bet you didn’t know whether that was a joke or not.

With news this morning that Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is going to be a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef this country has entered a bizarre dimension that has further blurred the line between politicians, network celebrities and reality tv stars.

Continue reading "Politics is not a gameshow" »

I have four children. That’s not an easy thing for me to admit in public. It’s not that I am ashamed of it, far from it, but it brings with it an expectation from people about how I should be/have that I don’t always live up to. Let’s just say it’s one of many well-worn-out stereotypes I don’t do well.

It bothers me though that I feel compelled to somewhat mask this side of my life, not out of privacy, but for fear that my own identity will be drowned out by the din of social constructs that requires one’s personality to drop out of your vagina when giving birth to your first child.

I can’t believe that “motherhood” is still in need of an image shake-up in 2009, or we at the very least we need to extend the parameters of how we expect mothers to behave.

Continue reading "Apprentice’s tale: mums don’t lose personality in birth" »

So long, farewell, and thanks for all the flab.

Goodbye “Dance Your Ass Off”. Goodbye to the lurid outfits and the ridiculous hats that Australian audiences for but one brief week got to sample. Goodbye to the prospect of a weekly side-serving of self-abasing, mortifying attempts at burlesque routines and swing-dancing in the name of farewelling the extra kilos.

Channel Nine in its estimable wisdom and impeccable taste broadcast the first episode of this part dance competition, part ritualistic humiliation of overweight wannabes for Australian audience’s viewing pleasure a couple of weeks ago.

Continue reading "Finally, modern TV masters the art of humiliating the fat" »

The Punch is about to become a TV show. The marketing people want us to tell you about it, but frankly we’re kind of nervous because we’re all unkempt and untrained print people who think a live feed is something involving a crayfish in Chinatown.

Anyway - Punch TV debuts on Sky News at 12.30pm AEST today (Thursday). Our special guest is Sports Minister and occasional Punch contributor Kate Ellis, and our panel for this week is Punch deputy editor Tory Maguire, Punch sports columnist Luke McIlveen, and myself.

In keeping with the conversational spirit of the website, we’re asking readers to tell us what they’d like us to discuss on the show. We’ll obviously be talking to Kate about her piece below about yobbo sports stars, as well as her recent post on whether successful athletes should repay the AIS for the cost of their training, but any other ideas, please email us below.

There’s a simple reason why some three million Australians watched the Masterchef final last night - instead of making heroes out of people you would do anything to avoid, it celebrated people you’d be happy to have as friends, or proud to have as part of your family.

On paper it was merely the latest phase in the reality television format, another game-based cooking program, similar in theory to so many others which now infect the Lifestyle Food channel, not even an original idea but the re-heated antipodean version of the British program of the same name.

As such, many Australians were slow to respond to the program, assuming it was formulaic fluff, cooked up by the marketing people in a cynical bid for ratings and targeted advertising.

Continue reading "Australia’s best TV show of all time?" »

Julie Goodwin was crowned the winner of the first series of the highly popular MasterChef Australia. She comprehensively beat South Australian artist Poh Ling Yeow after completing the three challenges they had been set.

It was a slightly controversial win of the ‘home cook’ beating the more inventive Poh who was prepared to take risks to produce some unusual and well plated dishes mainly based on her Malaysian heritage. However Julie’s cooking would probably appeal more to the masses, as she was renowned for her roast lamb and comfort food style.
MasterChef Australia has been massively successful for Channel Ten, who will be following it with a Celebrity version in October, and applications are already open for series two which will be screened next year. So what did we learn from this show?

Continue reading "Six things I learnt watching MasterChef" »

It’s a complicated formula, how much a TV network is prepared to pay for ratings.

60 Minutes has just sealed a rumoured $200,000 deal with British back packer Jamie Neale, to do an interview to air this Sunday night, up against the Masterchef final.

Someone at Willougby obviously thinks its worth paying that much for Jamie’s version of how he survived lost in the Blue Mountains for 12 days.

Continue reading "Will you watch 60 Minutes on Sunday? Me neither." »

“You girls are in the final of Australia’s first Masterchef,” exclaimed Judge George. Hooray! It was an unexpected result as Julie’s unfinished offerings didn’t look a chance against the polished presentation of Chris and Poh.

Of course, the problem with a Chris / Poh playoff was that their cooking joie de vivre appeals to a niche market – a fabulous, colourful, creative and sometimes crazy place – but still a niche market.

Two million viewers probably won’t cook stinky century eggs or glutinous pigs trotters. It’s a bit like chicken feet, which while delicious, are usually left on the yum cha trolley, at least by most non-Asian diners.

Continue reading "Masterchef: I told you the girls were going to win" »

I saw an advertisement last night for a lip gloss that not only offered more shine but “more nutrition.”

Now I like a good lip gloss as much as the next woman, but nutrition?

Admittedly the commercial was on during Packed to the Rafters, which from now on should be known as Packed with the Products, so deliberately are the labels on the beer bottles in the hands of the Rafter men at the kitchen table aimed at the camera.

Continue reading "Harder, longer lasting, more virile eyelashes" »

The Australia’s Next Top Model final was on Foxtel last night and producers of other “reality” shows that are based on US formula were hopefully watching.

Unlike other perennials such as Australian Idol, Australia’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance, which are clones of their American parents, just with Australian accents and a smaller talent pool, ANTM could not have felt more Aussie.

Especially when they left the 17-year-old winner Tahnee sitting on stage with a bleeding nose for a good five minutes without cutting to an ad break. “Can you bear with us?” host Sarah Murdoch cajoled as Tahnee sat there clutching her ever reddening face. What were they thinking?

Continue reading "How to rip off an American reality TV show properly" »

My husband and I have a running gag about trying to find our ‘peeps’ (as in people).  We’re from Queensland so Sydney’s segregation has always bemused us.  When you meet somebody from Brisbane, and you’re also from Brisbane, the opening question is always the same: ‘North side or south side?’  And really, there’s not that much difference.

In Sydney, the options are endless.  You can be a beach person, but there’s a difference between an eastern suburbs beach person and a northern beaches person.  You can live at Newtown and be urban grunge.  You can live at Paddington and be urban sophisticate.  The North shore is foreign to the Inner West.  The Inner West bears little relationship to greater Western Sydney.  Balmain, Chatswood and Double Bay are all affluent but they’re as varied as espresso, green tea and French champagne. 

Somebody who lives at Kings Cross is not the same as somebody who lives at Potts Point, even though they can probably spy on each other through their curtains.  It’s overwhelming.  Finding your peeps in Sydney takes a lot of searching.

Continue reading "Well read-head: my peeps are pensioners in ponchos" »

It seems that our obsession with having a bet has even reached the rat community.  If, however, rats can have a punt while considering the odds and make a decision based on reason, as the article suggests, it probably puts them a step ahead of most of us.  As Kent Brockman may have said in response to this: “I, for one, welcome our new Rat Overlords.”

This news of course comes at a time when the ongoing practice of everyone’s favourite network, Channel 9, of giving live betting updates during sporting events, continues apace.  During the summer it was Betfair odds during the cricket and now it’s TAB Sportbet during the rugby league season.  Many people, including me, find the practice appalling, but Nine have never really been known for giving two hoots about what the ethical among us think, as long as there’s a dollar in it for them.

The League calls feature renowned punters Ray “Rabbits” Warren and Peter “Sterlo” Sterling giving live updates on the current Sportbet odds as the match they commentate on progresses, accompanied by a rather feeble-sounding closing rider about betting responsibly.  Older readers in non-NRL states probably know Rabbits, aka Rabs, from his previous life as a horse racing caller.  Younger ones may know him from his swimming commentary, which sounds much like his horse racing commentary.

Continue reading "Forget footy - give us odds on being sent to the doghouse" »

You can just never tell where the next hit is going to come from. And I’m not talking about Tuppence Moran either. Although, now that you mention it, do you think Nine arranged that? For Underbelly reasons?

Just kidding! Nine hasn’t got that kind of money anymore!

No, I mean Random Acts of Kindness. What an emotional show. Understandably. I’m pretty sure I’d cry too if somebody gave me a horse float.

Continue reading "Random invasive medical procedures, and kindness" »

It would appear the knives are starting to come out in the MasterChef Australia household as the $100,000 prize gets closer, with allegations of game playing and possible sabotage. And you thought it was just a cooking show - no, it is an extremely entertaining reality TV show.

With the ratings of MasterChef Australia nudging the two million mark it would appear that people who do not usually partake in reality TV are watching this show. To the horror of MasterChef UK fans the Australian version uses a different format, and has cherry picked the best bits from other reality TV shows.

So if you are a fan of MasterChef and this is your first foray into reality TV, here are some other shows you may enjoy. Key elements of each of these have been cleverly pinched by Masterchef Australia’s producers.

Continue reading "And you thought Masterchef was a cooking competition" »

Whatever. I want to see him do it with chopsticks like the Karate Kid.

Continue reading "Video: Obama swats, kills fly" »

Why is it that some people obviously consider reading to be “doing nothing”?  Many a time I’ve been on a plane or a train, reading, and the person next to me will strike up a conversation as if I were doing nothing.  It happens in my own home too. 

When I open a book in the living room, it’s apparently a signal to members of my family to sit down and start chatting.  In fact, so often am I pestered while reading that I’ve built up an arsenal of manoeuvres to deflect interrupters.

The first step is to ignore.  The interrupter will usually assume you’ve not heard them because you’re so absorbed in what you’re reading.  While this is often enough to deter a stranger, it won’t stop a family member.  Relatives – and the bold - will certainly blunder forward.

Continue reading "Well read-head: back off or I’ll throw the book at you" »

Why are they still referred to as the Chaser “boys”? They’re grown men, and they probably have a few more grey hairs after the events of the past week.

Perhaps the idiom has something to do with the phrase “jobs for the boys”? It certainly seems like it. They’ve kept theirs. The person hit hardest by their Make A Realistic Wish sketch, which the ABC says should not have been broadcast, is a woman named Amanda Duthie.

As The Australian reports today:

Before yesterday, Ms Duthie was one of the ABC’s most powerful executives—today her once dazzling career prospects are in limbo.

ABC managing director Mark Scott announced Ms Duthie had been removed as the head of ABC TV comedy following the airing last week of the sketch on The Chaser’s War on Everything that satirised the granting of wishes to terminally ill children through the “Make-a-Realistic-Wish Foundation”.

There’s nothing quite like the British press when they smell blood. When a star’s foibles move from bite-size skitty spreads in the tabloids to full-on denunciations in the broadsheets, it’s only a matter of time before the sackcloth and ashes come out. Gordon Ramsay apologised this morning - through a spokesman - for calling Tracy Grimshaw a pig.

Yesterday he was belligerent, talking about lawyers, and angry at Grimshaw for bringing up his wife when she denounced him on Monday. (That clip on YouTube has become a minor sensation and you can see last night’s follow-up here.) But Ramsay has copped a bucketing over the past 24 hours, with a columnist in London’s Daily Telegraph declaring she’s convinced he “has a death wish” and that he’s “blown it – certainly as far as female fans are concerned”. It ran on the home page of the Daily Mail website - right beside the latest coverage of the political crisis that is threatening to up-end public life in Britain:

More highlights from the global coverage below, including video of some of Ramsay’s actual comments on stage in Melbourne. (Winner for most obscure angle of the Ramsay stories around today goes to this post, which somehow manages to link the Ramsay incident to LG and the Cronulla Sharks.)

But where does this leave Ramsay now? Share your verdict in the comments.

Continue reading "Gutless Ramsay rolls as the British press tuck in" »

There are two types of people in the world: people who think there are two types of people in the world, and those of us who think it’s even dumber than the zodiac to divide people arbitrarily into just two irreconcilable camps.

However, the one issue which fits this never-the-twain-shall-meet division is swearing.

People either dislike swearing to the point of loathing it - hello Mum - or are perfectly comfortable with it, swear frequently themselves, find it amusing or edifying when other people use swear words to make their point.

Continue reading "Robert Hughes and the dying art of swearing" »

UPDATE 12.15pm: Gordon Ramsay said this morning his response was “to say silent” - apart from the following series of points: video.

***

Parliaments are no strangers to the absurd, but for sheer incongruity it’s hard to match a report by the Senate last year on Gordon Ramsay’s swearing.

A submission (pdf here) from the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide states in its introduction:

The revelation that the ‘F word’ was used 80 times in a one hour program raises many questions.

Indeed. You can picture a monsignor penning that line in the dim study of a parish house and muttering: “... So I’m f***ed if I know where to start.”

Continue reading "The curse of Gordon Ramsay: How he ruined the f-bomb" »

UPDATE 6.50pm: Grimshaw kicked off ACA with a massive spray at Ramsay, saying she was having a go because “bullies thrive when no-one takes them on”, calling him an “arrogant narcissist”, and denying they have any “great relationship”. She added:

Truly I wonder how many people would laugh if they were effectively described as an old, ugly pig. How is that funny exactly? And worse, it’s not even witty.

... Gordon Ramsay made me promise not to ask on Friday about his private life. He then got on stage on Saturday, and made some very clear and uninformed insinuations about mine. Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn’t find him attractive must be gay. For the record, I don’t; and I’m not.

I still think she could have used the approach in the video below though.

**

It’ll be a pity if, as is being reported , Tracy Grimshaw doesn’t confront Gordon Ramsay tonight on ACA over his insults towards her.

Because here’s one way she could deal with him. I particularly like that Ramsay looks shocked after being force-fed a leg-ham-sized portion of his own medicine:

Continue reading "What Tracy Grimshaw could say to Gordon Ramsay" »

As a youngster I used to catch the bus to North Sydney Oval on a Saturday to watch my local team get flogged.

It was like confession for a Catholic – you knew you had to go and you knew what the outcome would be, but somehow you also knew that it was good for you.

Rugby League was always the working man’s sport.

Continue reading "Bring back the Bears and rugby league’s lost soul" »

Some people are obsessive about cleanliness.  Others can’t leave the house without checking the stove twenty eight times. 

My compulsion is reading.  Lost pet posters, religious tracts, magazines, junk mail, children’s books, fashion websites, coffee shop noticeboards, blogs: if it has words on it, I can’t help myself reading it.

The extent of my addiction struck me once when I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.

Continue reading "Well read-head: Three cheers for the world wide web" »

A couple of months ago, no-one had heard of the plump, bushy-browed lady who lived alone with her cat, Pebbles, and volunteered at the local church. A woman who not only dared to dream of a different life, but sing about it as well. Initially hostile, audiences and judges were swept off their feet, including the millions that watched her performance on YouTube.

Susan Boyle has experienced 15 hellish minutes and then some. Now she’s paying the price. So many long for the patina of stardom, but the cost is high – public adoration, humiliation and desecration – and they must do it without the attendant minders, spin doctors, psychologists and personal trainers to boost the flailed ego that Hollywood stars know is essential.

Continue reading "Is anyone surprised that Susan Boyle cracked?" »

Let me see if I’ve got this straight: a group of children resembling the cast of Oliver! win the final of Britain’s Got Talent and the cash money prize of 100,000 pounds to share among themselves, Susan Boyle comes second and gets a trip to a luxury celebrity hang-out.

Even converting it to the much larger sounding amount of $202, 439 Australian dollars, those kids are in line to walk away with an estimated $27.50 each.

Meanwhile, Susan Boyle, who has either reached Boyle-ing Point or had a Boyle-Over,  is ensconced, possibly with notorious loser Rafael Nadal, in the exceedingly glamorous Priory Clinic in London, the first port of call for “exhausted” stars.

Continue reading "Stage-managed Boyle-over" »

UPDATE: Susan Boyle has been admitted to The Priory after suffering a nervous collapse, Britain’s Daily Mail reports.

Susan Boyle’s life has changed for ever. It is now rumoured that she will obtain a recording contract, a book and movie deal. Her days of unemployment and living in public housing in a small village in Scotland have come to an end. But is she at risk of exploitation and will she be able to handle to the pressures of fame? Should the producers of Britain’s Got Talent have a duty of care because they ‘created her‘?

Continue reading "Should reality TV producers have a legal duty of care?" »

Check her out. You know who I’m talking about! Blake Lively (the golden girl, far right) has taken over our small screens with one dramatic sweep of those blonde locks, a soft ka-boom of her hips, and now seems to be intent on taking over her cast members if that outfit is anything to go by.

The show, in case you’ve been living under a rock, is Gossip Girl. 2009’s answer for women experiencing Sex and the City withdrawals. Even though the majority of the cast are in high school and are impossibly beautiful, rich, impeccably dressed in designer duds, and not relatable whatsoever, it’s completely addictive viewing. What started out as an internet series is now a worldwide phenomenon and Blake Lively, who plays most popular girl in school, Serena van der Woodsen, rocketed to instant pin-up girl stardom.

Continue reading "Gossip on Gossip Girl is even hotter than the show" »

What is there not to love about Eurovision? This year we had breakdancing Albanian midgets cavorting with a man in a sequinned aquamarine bodysuit and the winner was a fiddle-wielding Norwegian boy-singer. Plus, the Warsaw Pact still seems to be in force but nobody cares.

What is there not to love about it?

Oh yeah, the music.

Continue reading "10 reasons why Australia needs its own Eurovision" »