· Music round-up: The Verses (new outfit for the Hoopers of Killing Heidi sans dreadlocks) in Victoria; Summer Vibes festival feat. Scooter at the RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane; Faker in NSW (This Heart Attack clip above).

· Don plaid and boots for the Groovin the Moo festival in Albury this Saturday, featuring Aussie faves Sneaky Sound System, Xavier Rudd, Grinspoon and heaps more.

· We're convinced you would not want to miss Anthony Callea AND Nikki Webster on stage at the same time in Rent the Musical! Sorry, for Perths' eyes only but Melbournites might consider Monty Python's Spamalot and Brisbanians the Burlesque Ball.

· Halloween, Rescue Dawn and The Heartbreak Kid opens in cinemas. Alternatively, catch cult classics Taxi Driver and Donnie Darko at the Rooftop Cinema.

· Heads up: Cat Empire (today), John Butler Trio & The Waifs (today) and Wilco (9am, Monday Nov. 26).

Honestly, just when you think things are on the up (Mum on your side, former teachers offering support, husband in jail), Winegums reminds us of the reasons why we began this lark in the first place, and brings us all back to square one.

In short: Amy Winehouse has been spotted with a nostril full of something suspicious, and it's not a Vicks Inhaler.

As she walked out to greet waiting fans, the 24-year-old had a suspicious white substance lodged in her nostril.

The singer, who has previously admitted to a heroin addiction and once collapsed after a drugs overdose, seemed oblivious to it.

But she provoked concern at the gig after she arrived 40 minutes late on stage, rambled incoherently and disappeared off-stage repeatedly.

One concert-goer said: "She was drinking on stage but disappeared about three times for up to five minutes each time.

What can you say to that?

We're inclined to think it's time for Janis to start using old fashioned mothering techniques: "Either you start behaving or I'm going to send all your heroin to a starving child in the Sudan who'd appreciate it!"

That'll do the trick.

This year's Australian Idol final two are a counfounding pair. You'd have to be blind and deaf not to get that Matt Corby and Natalie Gauci are excellent performers and good looking enough to shift records, it's just that they're so... boring.

Dicko said it, everyone has been thinking it, and now the final two themselves have more or less confirmed it by giving the most boring interviews possible in the lead up to the big bash at the Opera House on Sunday.

That's the nature of Idol. It's a plunge into the deep end without floaties.

"People see our family, see where we live, see our bedrooms. I'm sure we haven't seen Beyonce's bedroom or Missy Higgins' bedroom," Gauci says.

There was also controversy over the singers' religious beliefs, with speculation Corby's church, Assemblies Of God, allegedly encouraged its congregation to vote for him.

Both Corby and Gauci are adamant that people's religious beliefs should be allowed to be kept private.

"What we believe is up to us," Corby says on the subject. "It's not Religious Idol."

Offers Gauci: "It's one thing to judge you for your singing, another thing to judge you for your religion."

Guys, what is this? Australia's Next Top Diplomat? You're want to be the Australian Idol, not Miss Congeniality!

In fact, we thought we'd never say it, but we're starting to miss Tarisai.

Come back you crazy bitch, all is forgiven!

Despite some initial speculation as to whether Rove had lost the will to make the funnies after the death of wife Belinda Emmett and his head-shaving Iron John period in the Northern Territory, he has confirmed that his return season of Rove was a good idea and has told Ten he'll do another year of the show.

Also signing on (grumble grumble) is Natalie Bassingthwaighte, who is hosting the Australian series of So You Think You Can Dance. Ten head of programming David Mott was pleased with Rove's decision to continue.

"He didn't know if wanted to continue trying to make people laugh in the long term, but now he's in a great place and moving on with his life so was very happy to talk about a longer deal."

While Big Brother and Australian Idol will also return next year, Mott said there would be changes to both - especially the ailing BB franchise.

Surprisingly, he revealed he agrees with Idol judge Ian 'Dicko' Dickson, who described this year's contestants as "beautiful but boring."

..."You only know so much about a particular person going in and I don't particularly disagree with Dicko's comments. But that's not to say they aren't outstanding performers - but they probably lacked the all-roundedness you need at times," Mott said.

We'd just like to take this opportunity to let Mr Mott know that if screening the Australian SYTYCD means they won't be picking up the next series of the American version, he might want to make sure his pillows are ScotchGuarded.

Because, you know, we've heard that horses' head blood is particularly difficult to get out.

Just sayin' is all.

*ominous glare*

We didn't watch much of BB07 (Note: this is the Associate Editor speaking; as you know Defamer Australia bosslady Jess McGuire is the queen of staying "in" with BB, and our water cooler capabilities thank her), but when we did tune in we were particularly taken with runner-up Zach Douglas and his man corset.

You may also recall that Zach was a "designer" who was particularly interested in the art of corsetry.

Well, it's taken some time, but now Zach's online corsetry emporium is finally up and running - and what a sumptuous embarrassment of riches it is.

Let's start with the copy:

Can't quite read it? Of particular enjoyment to us was the passage: "The period in which they where once produced where women worn them everyday."

Okay, so it's unfair of us to clutch at straws when it comes to reedin nad wryting gud, but the main problem with have is with the corsets themselves: they're... trashy!

We had high hopes for Zachy, but the stuff he's come up with looks like he was hoping to score a lucrative deal dressing Krystal BB for her Zoo columns. To wit, hop over the jump to experience "Victoria and Donna"...

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We can't say we were surprised that Dr. Jan Adams, the tele-friendly plastic surgeon who performed twin procedures on Donda West the night before she died, would grant his first interview to bony-shouldered broadcast legend Larry King. Wriggling free from the CNN interviewer's trademark softballs and tenuous grasp of the facts on any subject plopped before him, after all, is a damage-control rite of passage for celebrities who suddenly find them tumbling down shit-filled rapids without a life-vest or paddle.

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One night after Brad Womack made The Bachelor history by throwing his final rose into a blender with some ice chipped from his cold heart and whipping up a rejection smoothie for the two lovestruck finalists with whom he had no intention of pursuing a relationship, ABC lured him back before their cameras to further explain his controversial decision not to enter into the easily reversible, faux betrothal that's supposed to end each season of the series.

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MySpace's #1 publicity whore's ongoing search for bisexual love continues on A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila. (Word to the wise, Tila: You better pick at least something with genitals, lest you want to face unflattering comparisons to Brad "Brutishly Refuses to Fall in Love with One of the 25 Women He Met on a Dating Reality Show" Womack!) In this clip, Tila has her remaining suitors and suitettes coat themselves in a sinfully rich layer of chocolate, then squat over a bucket, into which they teasingly wring the soupy brown substance.

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In a bravura performance sure to catch the attention of producers and casting directors dining nearby, television superstar David Hasselhoff demonstrated the well-honed acting chops he hopes will land him gigs more artistically demanding than passing judgment on people who can play the accordion with their feet on America's Got Talent: "Spies at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel spotted Hasselhoff yelling and cursing at two companions at his lunch table Friday afternoon. One witness said Hasselhoff, after complaining about his career, stormed out as nearby patrons stared. Hasselhoff's publicist Judy Katz, who famously blamed his 2006 Heathrow meltdown on antibiotics, confirmed he had lunch there with his agent, but firmly denied that any unpleasantries were exchanged." [Page Six]

Apparently still suffering from a paralysing cognitive dissonance each time he tries to envision a Star Trek project that won't feature his name somewhere on the call sheet, William "They Can Have My Tricorder Back When They Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands" Shatner reached out to a sympathetic Extra camera crew as he signed copies of his new novel at Book Soup last night, baffled that director J.J. Abrams persists in denying him even the tiniest of pity-cameos:

"How could you not put one of the founding figures into a movie that was being resurrected? That doesn't make good business sense to me!" Shatner said at a signing for his book, "Star Trek Academy: Collision Course" in Hollywood.

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A Thanksgiving mystery no less confounding than what exactly comprises the "giblets" portion of "giblets and gravy" appears to have finally been solved by none other than third-tier supermarket newsweekly In Touch magazine: After hiring "porn star-turned-P.I. Paul Barresi" to investigate the oft-scrutinised sexuality of an aggressively self-avowed heterosexual superstar (who, it may warrant mentioning, is game for dressing up like a hunky Nazi and a Feed the Bears background player when the part calls for it), the verdict is in: Tom Cruise loves women!

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· Not to be outdone by SNL colleague Fred "Roger Trevanti" Armisen's strike video, Will Forte and Kristen Wiig demonstrate the many exciting, non-writing uses for the pencils WGA members put down 17 days ago.
· We would've accepted "because that's what eventually happens when you give a trampy 17-year-old millions of dollars" as a reason for why Britney Spears' life has become such a mess, but Dr. Drew has a more detailed theory.

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Perhaps a little down that his latest labour of love is making a straight-to-iTunes debut instead of getting a run at the Sunset 5 or the Angelika, filmmaker Ed Burns is already tossing dirt on the fresh grave of art-house cinema: "'This is the year that art house cinema died,' he says. Referring to the box office disappointments that have been Rendition and Lions for Lambs, Burns continued, 'If they're not going to see Reese Witherspoon and Tom Cruise they're not coming out to see me and Patrick Wilson. The audience isn't there anymore.'" [MTV Movie Blog]

More on that uplifting story about a Heparin overdose administered by accident to Dennis Quaid's newborn twins at Cedars Sinai. (We thought that massive Star of David on top of the hospital was supposed to ward off such mishaps. Time to wrap the whole building in 60 kilometres of red string.) "Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace are in stable condition. But a well-placed source at Cedars tells us they are 'still very concerned because of the bleed out,' adding they won't know for another week if the mistake will cause 'longterm effects.'" [TMZ]

· In what may be the most brilliant (or deranged?) voiceover casting in the history of animated film, the following trio are on board for Disney's G-Force, the story of some fuzzy animals who try to thwart a crazy billionaire's dreams of world domination: "[Nic] Cage will play Speckles, a mole; [Steve] Buscemi will portray Bucky, a hamster; and [Tracy] Morgan will voice Blaster, a guinea pig." [THR]

· New Line is trying to stop the release of the documentary Beyond the Golden Compass: The Magic of Philip Pullman because the studio feels it will unfairly compete with its own efforts to profit from Pullman's armoured polar bears. [THR]

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The picketers (and, we suspect, pretty much everyone else who works in Hollywood) are off for the day and en route to wherever they're celebrating Thanksgiving, but we've still got enough links for one last pre-holiday round-up:

· At yesterday's Solidarity March of 4,000-plus WGA writers, sympathetic members of other unions, and various Hollywood Blvd. vagrants swept up in the spirit of protest, Guild negotiating committee chair John Bowman invited the studios to be more Santa Claus than Scrooge. (Cute!) Notes of cautious optimism officially have been struck: "We're entering the holiday season - a season of charity and of Scrooge. Please, AMPTP, don't be typecast. Let's get this done by Christmas." [Variety]

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Once alerted that there would be delicious scones (courtesy of the generous cater-agents of CAA) at yesterday's WGA Solidarity March on Hollywood Blvd., there was no way to keep Defamer videographer/sweet-toothed pastry-junkie Molly McAleer from rushing to the scene of the 4,000-protestor strong rally. And while she mercifully kept the throng's snacking activities off-camera (nobody wants to watch video of writers eating - anyone who's seen a sitcom staff attack the craft services table during a runthrough knows what we're talking about), she did entice a number of Guild picketers to share their favourite strike anthems, all of which exhibited a lyrical complexity that eclipsed the work of featured performer Alicia Keys.

Over at Postsecret, the leading online repository of anonymous confessions, a writer reveals that he or she welcomes the forced respite the strike provides from having to churn out crap that pays the bills. Of course, as discussed earlier, the conflicted scribe is probably also happy to have another excuse to put off filling up a blank Final Draft screen for a while. [Postsecret]