Thursday, November 8, 2007
To Do: Cut Copy, Comedy, Classics
12:30PM Anna King | Music Roundup: Sneaky Sound System in Brisbane and Melbourne; You Am I along the East Coast; Cut Copy in Brissy and NSW (playing Hearts On Fire live, above).
Standups Season: Arj Barker in Victoria; Wil Anderson at the Powerhouse, Brisbane; Merrick & Rosso at the Roxy, Parramatta; Greg Fleet and co. at the Sydney Comedy Store, Moore Park.
Rogue, 30 Days of Night and Conversations With My Gardener (limited release) opens in cinemas.
Highlights of the Festival of Jewish Cinema in Melbourne include a rare screening of classic 1920s silent film, The Golem, with live score and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Sweet Mud. To Nov. 25, ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square.
Vintage clothing and accessory lovers can scour the Sydney Vintage Clothing, Jewellery and Textiles Show this weekend at Canterbury Park Racecourse. More » 
Amy Winehouse Round-Up: Back In The US(S)A
11:59AM Clem Bastow | After some speculation that her alleged drug bust in Norway would cause problems with US immigration officials, Amy Winehouse has been granted a visa in order to do some recording and gigging in the USA.
That’s all well and good, but this being Winegums, you know that something will come along to upset everything going so well, and of course that something has a name starting with “Blake” and ending with “Fielder-Civil”.
That’s what husbands are for!
After a formal interview it looks like she’s finally off to start work on her third album.
However, the 24-year-old will be flying back to support hubby Blake who appears in court on an assault charge on Monday.
Great. Just great.
Do we have any connections who could possibly send Blake a “Get Well” novelty balloon full of SARS or something? More » 
Boyzone’s Comeback Party Spoiled By Indian-Giver Mika
11:50AM Clem Bastow | Imagine for a moment that you’re a member of Boyzone: you’ve never really been that well regarded, despite cracking covers of Father And Son and Baby Can I Hold You Tonight. You were never the cutest nor the youngest, and there probably aren’t that many people who would be genuinely excited if you got back together – at least, not as excited as they got about Take That.
Imagine, then, that you managed to nab a killer comeback track, written by one of the current buzz kids, and that it all seemed to be falling into place.
Now imagine that said buzz kid is Mika and, being a sooky sooky la la, he decided you couldn’t record the song he’d offered for anyone to record after all. Spare a thought for the Oirish lads, because it’s all true.
Mika penned the song, called I Gave It All Away, for other acts to buy and release.
But after Boyzone recorded it the Grace Kelly star decided they were “too cheesy” — and BANNED their version.
An industry insider told me: “Mika wrote the song and made it available for other artists. Boyzone loved it. They thought it was perfect to launch their comeback so they recorded it and it sounded great — a certain No1.
…Boyzone — who had a No1 single with When The Going Gets Tough in 1999 — have been left gutted. A spokesman for the band said: “It’s a real shame because it’s an incredible song and we all loved it.”
Doesn’t that last little quote just kill you?
Can’t you see Boyzone crying into their Guinness and brown bread in a dank Dublin pub, Ronan putting a fatherly arm around Stephen Gately and saying, “Don’t cry, little one. We’ll get us a comeback single if it’s the last thing I do!”
Mika should be ashamed of himself and may the leprechauns haunt his dreams. More » 
Rhys’ “Unique” Proposal Gives Sienna A Lot To Think About
11:40AM Clem Bastow | Poor Rhys Ifans. Apparently he’s completely smitten with Sienna Miller and has been seeing her for some time, only to suffer the indignity of her refusal to acknowledge him as anything other than a “good friend” until very recently.
Well, as if that wasn’t bad enough, now his apparent marriage proposal (which sounds like, er, a lot of work went into it, delivered as it was, set to music, rhyming, and partly in Welsh) was met with laughter from his starlet beloved.
Not only that, but the Welsh actor sang his ditty – titled Marry This Misfit (that’s “Priodi’r dyn anweddus hwn” in his native tongue) – while strumming a guitar. Oh, and his ode contains the bizarre exclamation: “I bleed for you.”
Charming! Someone call an ambulance… In fact, it was such an odd proposal that, at first, it went right over Sienna’s head.
Our source reveals: “She fell about laughing, but soon realised Rhys was serious. While she didn’t give him an answer straight away, she’s since been thinking about it more and more.”
Maybe Sienna just can’t speak Welsh, and thought that he was singing Agadoo or something? More » 
Outlook For Great Outdoors Team Not Looking So Great, Actually
11:20AM Clem Bastow | The perma-sunny demeanour of Seven’s Great Outdoors team appears to be a front, with inner rumblings making the gossip pages as host (and, let’s face it, pretty much the best thing they’ve got going for them) Shelley Craft leaves the show, and a whole lot of worry in her wake.
With only Jennifer Hawkins, and possibly Tom Williams, safe within an actual contract with the network, co-hosts Andrew Daddo and Ernie Dingo are apparently sweating.
Sources claimed management have been avoiding the calls of Dingo and Daddo, anxious over the axings – a suggestion vehemently denied by the station’s spokeswoman.
“Contract negotiations are private things, but that is absolutely not true,” the publicist said.
It wouldn’t be the first time Seven has left its talent in the dark; as that story goes on to note, last year Laura Csortan and Di Smith caught a case of the Minnie Drivers when they realised Seven had neglected to tell them to show up to a publicity call.
Rumours that Kerry Stokes once dumped a girl by sending her an invite to his wedding to someone else could not be confirmed at time of press. More » 
Pete Doherty Apologises For Shooting Up Again; Can We Also Arrange Apology For Having Been Born?
11:11AM Clem Bastow | Oh, honestly. Did anyone actually think Pete Doherty would be able to hold it together once he finished rehab?
Yes, in news about as surprising as Jennifer Lopez’ recent confirmation of her pregnancy, Doherty has been filmed shooting up heroin – and, consequently, he’s apologised.
Well, that makes it all better, widdle Petey; let’s all have some strawberry ice cream!
“Doherty would like to apologise to the medical staff, fans and wellwishers who have helped and encouraged his progress in fighting his addiction to heroin,” his record label EMI said.
“His ongoing rehabilitation was a source of such pride to him that Peter and those closest to him thought that he was close to winning his personal battle with the drug.
“However, Peter sadly relapsed last week and is now looking to check himself back into a rehab clinic so that he can try to continue the hitherto excellent attempts he had made to break free of heroin.”
He called his latest relapse “a stupid, stupid action for which I feel only shame.”
No he doesn’t! We’d like it if he’d be truthful for a moment and just say “Look, I just wanted a hit, junkie 4 lyf” or something.
Somewhere, Kate Moss is rolling her eyes. More » 
Short Ends: Nick Counter Is A Weiner, Declares ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Heigl
8:45AM Defamer Hollywood | A striker on the Grey’s Anatomy-boosted Prospect Studios picket line sent in this photo of Katherine Heigl proudly decrying AMPTP president Nick Counter’s weinderdom. This is the picket sign by which all subsequent efforts will be judged. More »
George Vs. Fabio: The Bird-Flipping Evidence
8:30AM Defamer Hollywood | As a follow-up to this morning’s post about a scuffle at Madeo between reigning hunks of two widely differing showbiz arenas – George Clooney and Fabio – we pass along this photo evidence, obtained by TMZ. In the pictures, the famed Lake Como resident is clearly seen delivering a middle-fingered salute in the direction of the male model, as annoyed that his extremely recognisable face might wind up on Fabio’s Flickr page as he was that his nemesis’s spoken-word album, “Fabio After Dark,” had outsold his own, “A Few of George Clooney’s Favorite Things,” by a ratio of nearly two-to-one. Fabio to Clooney: I Can’t Believe It’s Your Finger [TMZ] More »Remembering A Happier, Shorter Britney Spears
8:15AM Defamer Hollywood | Unseated from the highest position of the Top 200 album charts because of a lousy, 11th hour reversal of Billboard’s “no retail-giant exclusives” policy that instead gave the spot to the Eagles’ “Long Road Out of Wal-Mart,” Britney Spears will have to settle with the knowledge that her new album came out a solid number two. However, even 11 bajillion “Blackout” units sold wouldn’t reverse what has by every account been a nightmare year for the singer, with Us Weekly taking one look at her potbellied David Lee Roth Halloween costume and declaring her on its cover not merely an outrageously incompetent parent, but mentally “SICK!” More »
