Monday, April 7, 2008
At Last, Some Happy Channel Nine-Related News: Peter Hitchener Comes Out!
4:40PM Clem Bastow | To be quite honest we were starting to think that with their recent (and by “recent” we mean “roughly the last 18 months”) run of bad luck and internal politics gone mental, we were never going to be able to write a positive piece on Channel Nine ever again.
We now have long-time Nine newsreader Peter Hitchener to thank for breaking that drought, with this happy bit of personal news hidden near the end of a weekend feature on Hitch from the Herald Sun:
“I am a single person and given that we are on private issues of private life, I am choosing to share with you today that part of my life that I have not spoken about before: that I am gay,” Hitchener said.
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Big Brother Producers To John Howard: Check Mate
4:17PM Jess McGuire | What’s the perfect way to get back at a former Prime Minister who insulted your television program and dared the network responsible for broadcasting it take it off the air?
Use footage of said Prime Minister making the aforementioned demands in your new promo!
Hahahahaha oh, you are a clever little scamp, Big Brother!
If you really wanted to torture him (and all the other Big Brother haters out there), you could hire two of the most annoying and unlikable personalities on earth and get them to appear on our television screens every single fucking night for the hideously long period the program is on air, and then – oh yeah. You’ve done that already. Well done, you.
(Three weeks to go until Big Brother returns. Will it be a surprising display of television awesomeness? Will Kyle and Jackie O win us over? Will we take to self-harming with the passionate enthusiasm of a teenaged Simple Plan fanatic? Time will tell…) More » 
YouTube Clip Of The Day
4:00PM Jess McGuire | Reader Emilie sent this in with a note saying “this is one of those clips you will never be able to ‘unsee’” and you know what? She’s absolutely right. It will haunt our dreams.
It is amazing, though. But is it art?
Yes. More » 
Do You Remember Juliana Hatfield?
3:26PM Jess McGuire | Oh, come on. You must! The woman is brilliant! You may be familiar with her work in Blake Babies, you may recall her contributions to The Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray record, or hell – you may, like us, fondly remember her solo career, especially the blistering track Universal Heartbeat.
Either way, we very much like her style. We thought we’d hit the limit with our Juliana Hatfield appreciation when, bam! We discovered she left the Blake Babies over a disagreement about Wilson Phillips (Juliana digs a sweet melodic pop tune, you see) and we adored her even more than we ever thought possible.
She’s just started writing a blog where she tells the story behind her songs, and it’s a great read. You can also download more of her music (and then send her some bucks) from this page – we like This Is What I Think Of You and I Can’t Kill Myself.
After the jump, let’s watch a couple of classic video clips from the lass! More » 
Todd McKenney Fought The Law – And The Law, Surprising Absolutely No One, Won
2:17PM Jess McGuire | The Gods (ie: a magistrate) have passed judgement on Todd McKenney following the Dancing With The Stars judge’s drink driving arrest last month, and have punished him thusly.
Dancing with the Stars judge Todd McKenney has lost his licence and been fined for drink driving in central Sydney. McKenney, 42, today pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court to one count of low range drink driving.
More » It’s Gold Logie Fever!
1:51PM Jess McGuire | Not only has Chris Lilley managed to hit the ARIA charts with his ‘Naughty Girl’ masterpiece – sure, down to #12 this week but we still suspect he’s got more of a chart future than the poor Young Divas these days – but he’s now one of the contenders for the coveted little gold man at the Australian showbiz glittering night of nights, the Logies!
It’s a battle of the golden girls and some of the small screen’s favourite hosts for this year’s Gold Logie, Australian television’s biggest award.
ABC Television’s Andrew Denton, Chris Lilley and Adam Hills, and Ten’s Rove McManus will vie against former winners Kate Ritchie and Lisa McCune for this year’s Gold Logie for Australia’s most popular television personality.
Neighbours star Natalie Blair and All Saints veteran John Howard round out the nominees.
Will he win it? The competition is indeed tough. The lovely Adam Hills is certainly adored by Spicks and Specks fans (and lord knows, the sell out live show the Spicks team toured around the country not that long ago proved there are huuuuuuuge numbers of folk who go weak at the knees for Adam’s affable charms) but are Spicks enthusiasts TV Week readers? Kate Ritchie has obviously won the nation’s heart after clocking in over 20 years at Home & Away, and she’s also now a radio star, so she’s a strong contender. But Rove McManus is an almost – almost – unstoppable Gold Logie winning force most years… although Lisa McCune may “bring it” once more. The John Howard it’s okay to like strikes us as John Wood v2.o (which means we don’t think he’s in with a chance), and we’d like to think Natalie Blair is an outsider for this award, but you never know, people are strange – especially those who vote for the Logies.
In short – we’d like to see Chris Lilley win, we’d be pleasantly surprised if Adam Hills pulled it off, we’d expect to see Kate Ritchie, Rove McManus or Lisa McCune delivering a thank you speech, and we’d fall over in shock if John Howard, Andrew Denton or Natalie Blair sauntered off stage clutching the Gold. More » 
Nic Cage Hangs Out With Special Friend In Melbourne
10:21AM Clem Bastow | To be honest, we tried to read this on-set account of the filming of Knowing – Alex Proyas’ new megabucks thriller starring Nicolas Cage and Our Rose Byrne, which has just begun filming in Melbourne – but we were laughing too hard at the picture that accompanied it:
Yes, that’s a thylacine; apparently Cage “requested his photo be taken in front of the Tasmanian tiger”.
We don’t know what’s best about it: Cage’s ultra serious expression and pose, or the “HI MOM!!” look on the face of the poor, stuffed thylacine. However we’re just excited at the possibility of further shots of this nature, given that Cage will be in town for quite a few weeks. Something with Phar Lap, perhaps? Make it happen, Age snappers. More » 
Aria Experienced: Weekly Singles Round-Up
10:08AM Clem Bastow | Last week some fellow called Flo Rida was making his mother proud at the #1 spot, Axle Whitehead showed the people his knob tunes, and Brian “Potato” McFadden was beginning to bother the pointy end of the singles charts. Who will reign supreme over the children with disposable income this week?
Read on to find out in Defamer Australia’s weekly singles charts round-up! More » 
Stuff Corey, We Want To Party With Australia’s Young Sports Stars!
9:58AM Clem Bastow | Not long after Swimming Australia told its young charges that they were not to post any more naughty snaps on their PERSONAL Facebook pages (evidently a bit of mind control a day helps swimmers work, rest, and play), the News Ltd trolls have been raiding the Facebook and MySpace galleries of just about every other young sporto in Australia – and the results are hilarious!
You can see the Tele’s gallery here, but head over the jump for a few of our favourites.
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Defamer Australia At ‘Guys & Dolls’ Opening Night
9:36AM Clem Bastow | Here at Defamer Australia we like nothing more than reliving our rapidly fading memories of high school musical stardom getting a bit of culture, so we were happy to accompany a Defamer Australia pal to the opening night of the Melbourne season of Guys & Dolls. Yes, the 1950 musical that is quickly becoming as dated as Bye, Bye Birdie and should probably be banished to the am-dram circuit is back, again, for no reason – really – other than an impressive bit of Australian musical theatre stunt casting: to wit, enough leading ladies to stun an ox! Magda Szubanski in drag! (Disturbing!) Lisa McCune’s Boston-Irish accent amongst sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the Bronx drawls of ’40s New York! Not much else!
However, Defamer Australia being the way we are, we were there as much to resist singing along to Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat as we were to assess the guest list – which we did, and how!
Read on for this round of red carpet “celebrity” spotto!
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