Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Amy Winehouse Round-Up: The Doobie Sisters
2:13PM Clem Bastow | Have you felt like something vital has been missing from your lives lately, dear Defamer Readers? Have you found yourself experiencing bizarre cravings for impetigo, incarceration, drugs, alcohol, and 4am runs to the servo to get a packet of ice-lollies?
So have we – and then we realised WE’D FORGOTTEN ABOUT WINEGUMS WATCH!
And it goes without saying that Ms Winehouse has been keeping up to her old tricks in our time off, so we might as well pick today as much as any other to storm back in: Winegums has been blazing up in public!
Amy Winehouse has long struggled to keep her drug habit under control, but now it appears she’s not even attempting to hide it.
The troubled singer – who earlier today was nominated for three prestigious Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting – was smoking what appeared to be a joint as she arrived back at her Camden home after an evening of partying.
Her eyes were blood-shot and she looked dishevelled – a sight unlikely to impress her record company bosses, who reportedly threatened to stop her releasing any new material until she cleans up her act.
Ahh… it’s just like old times! Moral guardianship from the Daily Mail and her record label, drugs, unfortunate paparazzi photos, hilarious facial expressions – AMY, LET’S NEVER FIGHT AGAIN! More » 
Short But Pointless: The Cassi McKay & Daniel Radcliffe Story
11:47AM Clem Bastow | Yesterday we told you that Daniel Radcliffe has been moaning into his bat’s tail soup (or whatever wizards drink; probably more like large ales) about some Australian chick he made eyes at/with but never got a number for.
Well! A handful of potential moony-eyed ladies were narrowed down, and the Daily Telegraph decided that pretty blonde Cassi McKay is the most likely candidate – just don’t tell Dan she’s taken, or he might have an asthma attack!
“He was looking at me a bit and I guess I was batting my eyelids back,” Ms McKay, a trumpet player who has performed at the AFIs, told The Advertiser. “We did make a lot of eye contact with each other. David Campbell introduced us and I got to talk to him briefly.”
Although she is committed to her current relationship, Ms McKay said she would be keen to organise a second audience with Radcliffe while she was in the UK.
“I’ve told my boyfriend about him and I’d be keen to meet up,” she said.
The actor, who lamented his inability to get the mystery girl’s phone number on the night, has also not ruled out re-establishing contact.
A trumpet player, eh, eh? Know what we mean?!
Er, neither do we.
In any case, McKay goes on to say that she’s not looking to become famous, just that her mum read Radcliffe’s lonely heart interview and told her daughter it sounded like he was talking about her. Aww, thanks Mum! More » 
The Age Celebrates 100 Years Of Photography With A Nude Upskirt Oops
10:39AM Clem Bastow | Did you know The Age was celebrating a centenary of photojournalism? They are; three cheers, hip hip hip etc. This is, of course, a chance to upload a big, shiny multimedia special full of stirring shots from the past 100 years including incredible images of war, peace, sport, everyday life in Australia and just about everything including the kitchen sink.
The gallery and presentation can be found here, and there are some stunning shots held within.
So you can imagine our amusement when we saw the photo they’d chosen to sum up 100 years of photojournalistic greatness on the front page of TheAge.com.au:
It’s true, it’s a brilliant photo – in its original incarnation, at least, as taken by Angela Wyllie in 2005, the year the Melbourne Cup Carnival was whipped by strong winds – but two things are troubling us about its use on the front page.
Firstly, the fact that we scoured each of the “Century Of Pictures” galleries and failed to find it, and secondly, does TheAge.com.au really have such low expectations of its readership’s intelligence that they need to resort to tits’n'arse blasts to get hits on an otherwise thoughtfully-composed and fascinating photo special?
More » 
So You Think You Can Dance Australia Round-Up: Rhys Renovates The House That Jack Built
9:53AM Clem Bastow | It’s the pointy end of So You Think You Can Dance Australia and that means we’re close to finding out who is Australia’s Favourite Dancer™, out of a choice of Jack, Rhys, Demi and Kate. We’d actually be pretty happy about any of those four winning, though the odds are on Jack, with Rhys steadily gaining in second place, and Demi and Kate coming third and fourth in the betting respectively.
Assuming SYTYCDAus is following the US model, we should be able to look forward to a ‘greatest hits’ package for the finale – the only problem is, we can’t think of more than a handful of routines we’d care to see again.
Are we the only ones having this problem? As we draw to the close, what is your take on this inaugural season of the local version? Personally, we can’t wait for – and hope Channel Ten bloody well show – the next round of “the real thing”. More » 
K.d.’s Constant Cravings For Police Escorts Leave Vic Police In The Naughty Corner
9:32AM Clem Bastow | When you use the phrase “police escort” in the same context as a term like, say, “recording artist”, you generally think of artists like Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Whitney Houston, non?
Well, you can add the bane of sub-editors and style-guides everywhere, k.d. lang, to that list – the Canadian chanteuse apparently required an escort to the Rove studios on the weekend (why? Er, the plane was running late… or something), and it seems Victoria Police are not happy about the indulgence.
Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services Andrew McIntosh said overworked police would be disappointed to hear of the “waste of resources”.
“Whether it was paid for or otherwise I would be questioning the value to the community of getting a singer to an interview on time,” he said.
“Providing these resources is jeopardising public safety, when there are stations like Werribee and Sunshine where the resources just don’t exist.”
Well, Mr McIntosh, how do you know, like, that her car, um, might have had to drive through Sunshine and Werribee on the way? Yeah! Maybe she came from Avalon or some shit!
Honestly, this is all pretty stupid, particularly considering the buck-passing that’s going on between her people, Roving Enterprises and Channel Ten. Who cares if she’s late, it’s live TV, make a gag out of it! Put on another of those hilarious stand-up comedians that Rove likes to feature! More » 
Adam Hills Giggles While Delivering News Of His Gold Logie Odds’ Shortening
9:10AM Clem Bastow | Adam Hills, he of the perpetually amused demeanour and Spicks & Specks hosting duties, was one of the few surprise – in a good way – nominees for this year’s Gold Logie. And when we say “surprise”, naturally we meant it in a “probably won’t win and is lucky just to get a table at the Logies” kind of way. No disrespect or nuffin’, it’s just that Gold Logie land is generally the realm of the Colgate-smiling soapie star.
That could all be about to change, however, with the news that Hills’ Logies odds have shortened considerably, according to one bookmaker, to second favourite!
A mystery punter has sent Hills’s odds plummeting from $41 to $8 with Lasseters Sportsbook.
While Hills suspects that Melbourne comedy duo Hamish Blake and Andy Lee are behind the plunge, he said he would be over the moon if the backer was a fan.
Hills said he was bemused by the punter’s show of faith and would not do anything to dim his chances.
“My number one aim is to try not to disgrace myself in the media between now and the awards,” he said. “I think I’ll be shaking a lot of hands and kissing a lot of babies.”
Go Adam! Go ABC! Hooray for semi-intelligent programming getting a Logies nod in the first place!
It remains to be seen whether Hills will actually cash in these odds, but the Logies is close to Defamer Australia’s favourite annual awards ceremony, so we look forward to tuning in with a glass or fifteen of Passion Pop and cheering the night away. More » 
Updated: Emma Watson Continues Bad Girl Streak By Flashing Her Britney
9:05AM Molly Friedman | Another day, another star parties in London and lets their hair down. Or in Emma Watson’s case, flashes her Britney to the paparazzi. Joining the very exclusive peek-a-boo sorority helmed by Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, recently legal Hermione Granger celebrated her 18th birthday by partying across the pond with co-stars in a very demure little black dress, but made the all-too-common mistake of failing to exit her chauffeured car in the proper manner. Though it appears the potential bad girl was wearing some kind of thong-ish type thing, her lacey underwear left little to the imagination. And though it’s not our place, we do recommend Watson consider heading to the nearest waxer before flashing her nether regions again. A closer look after the jump. More »
The Beckhams Are Back On Tom Cruise’s Approved Friend List
8:45AM Molly Friedman | Last week, Victoria Beckham celebrated her 34th birthday alongside new friends Eva Longoria and Kate Beckinsale, but supposed close friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were nowhere to be seen. Naturally, we presumed that this was either a result of Tom’s edict for Katie to stop spending so much time with Posh or an early warning sign that Team Cruise’s controlling ways were too much for the Beckhams to handle. But at last night’s star-studded birthday party for Posh, not only were Tom and Katie in attendance, but her Katie’s choice of gown left us wondering if her curious absence earlier in the week was simply a means to hide the fact that Suri Jr. could possibly be on the way. More »
The Sight Of Waitresses In Bikinis Puts An End To Lindsay Lohan’s Sober Streak
8:45AM Molly Friedman | Hearing that Lindsay Lohan has fallen off the wagon before her one-year anniversary as a sober young lady is far less surprising than the venue in which she decided to publicly rebel against her new good girl image this past weekend: the Hawaiian Tropic tourist trap in Manhattan’s Times Square. But apparently, after trying so hard to avoid temptations, banning bad influences from her life and even signing up for (albeit questionable acting roles), all the female shimmy-shaking and bar wenches must have inspired her to let loose. And speaking of bosom buddies, People is reporting that Lohan spent the Scores-like evening alongside none other than helpful healer/new roommate Sam Ronson: “Lohan started dancing to Britney Spears…Drinking Grey Goose and Red Bull cocktails…Lohan really got into the music, tossing her hair around and doing full body rolls…She also sang along and pumped her chest to Soulja Boy.” And as you’ll see from the pictures after the jump, Lindsay’s re-entry into the party scene left her passed out in an eerily similar way to her last fateful outing with Ronson… More »
