Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Australian Idol Round-Up: Sophie Not Pop!Ular With Darren Hayes
3:35PM Clem Bastow | Idol contestant Sophie Paterson, aka the Final 12 member hand-picked from the show’s first expat auditions in London (the LA audition rounds were canned) with the help of celebrity judges Darren Hayes and Tina Arena, is slowly breaking the fragile heart of Hayes into a million tiny pieces. The ex-Savage Garden singer reckons Paterson is too easily letting herself be sucked into the Idol machine. Gee, you think?
“I can understand there’s a pressure to conform – you’re surrounded by a lovely wardrobe and stylists … you’ve got all these resources at your hands, you can be very slick, but I don’t think that’s what she is.”
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Melbourne Fringe Festival: Would You Like To See Die Roten Punkte?
2:39PM Jess McGuire | Screw the White Stripes! German brother and sister duo Astrid and Otto Rot from Die Roten Punkte are one of my favourite musical couples. A lot of this is due to the fact that they sent me a badge back in 2005 which says “I’m in a band!” and I still wear it to this day. But also, their last album was both hilarious and rockin’ – so I’m very excited to learn they’re playing during the Melbourne Fringe Festival!
Berliner’s Otto and Astrid Rot are back in town to celebrate the local release of their acclaimed “Super Musikant” CD – a ten-track high-energy feast of rock, studded with rich veins of roll. The Teutonic twosome are hungry to back up the hype by ripping through a brace of their sparkling pop-punk anthems live.
From “Rock n’ ‘Roll Monster” to “Ich Bin Nicht Ein Roboter (I Am A Lion)” to the chilling “The 4:15 To Spandau Will Not Run Today”, the Best Band In The World are in rare form and they want to push their rock in you. What are you waiting for? Rock Bang!
As I said, they’re touring in October for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. I asked them for some bloody good reasons Defamer Australia readers should bother handing over money to watch them do their “thang”, and here are their answers.
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Charlotte Dawson In Talks To Host ‘AusNTM’, If By “Talks” You Mean ‘Asking Producers Where She Signs’
2:25PM Clem Bastow | After news broke that Jodhi Meares would not be returning to her Australia’s Next Top Model clipboard full of notes, naturally thoughts turned to Charlotte Dawson (pictured at left enjoying a pie or twenty) stepping in and ably filling Ms Meares’ Jimmy Choos. And while Dawson – nor Foxtel – will give a concrete answer either way, I think we can safely assume the job will be (failing a guerilla casting call by Ian Thorpe) going to Dawson. “It would definitely be something that I would love to do,” the former model said, “but I don’t mind either way because I love what I am doing now as well.” More »
YouTube Clip Of The Day
12:36PM Jess McGuire | Well, at least this is better than Justin Timberlake.
Also: my head just exploded and my brains now stain the walls. More » When Road Rage Goes A Little Too Far…
11:29AM Jess McGuire | There’s no celebrity angle about the following tale from the UK’s Times Online website, but good god. It’s a riveting – if not traumatic – read. And quite a good lesson as to why, should you feel the urge to bust out into Hulk mode on the roads, you need to sit down, breathe deeply, and get a sense of perspective.
It was the ultimate expression of road rage. A furious woman driver died after ramming another vehicle and spinning her wheels so fast that her own car burst into flames.
Serena Sutton-Smith, 54, burnt to death after refusing to get out of her Vauxhall Nova as she sat with her foot flat on the accelerator.
She spun the wheels so fast that her tyres disintegrated and the metal rims sent a shower of sparks into the engine, igniting the brake fluid and setting the car on fire.
Horrible stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. But it’s the next bit which led to my jaw dropping to the floor… More » 
Fruit Juice Campaign/Advertisement Full Of Lies About Oz Still Wreaking Havoc In The UK
10:43AM Jess McGuire | You know what? At this point, it’s like “Okay, we get it. We don’t get it, but we get it. Let us drink the juice and soothe our frazzled minds.”
Yes, another video has been sent in to us showing a billboard being driven past a London landmark – this time, it’s Albert Hall – with a loud speaker instructing folk to move to “uninhabited Australia”.
Definitely a fruit juice of some description.
And then I went to the website, and drank their fruit juice. (slurps loudly) I DRANK IT UP!
Which means I signed up to the newsletter. God, I am so easily played. Still, eventually answers to this mystery must come… right? DEAR GOD, RIGHT?
(Maybe it’s something to do with the census? And they’ve left the work experience kid in charge?) More » 
Courtney Love Rethinks Her Earlier Attempt To Find A Housekeeper On MySpace
10:25AM Jess McGuire | Like most people who do anything rash on MySpace in the heat of the moment, Courtney Love has stepped away from the computer and, after some time to pause and reflect on the wisdom of trying to locate a “non-freaky” housekeeper via the magic of a MySpazz blog entry, has concluded it may not have been the wisest of moves.
ok thats just wierd that i went on here MYSPACE to get an assnt! im INSANE ,,,,
She continues. It is somewhat confusing unless you’ve got a Kookoo Bananas translation guide handy.
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Casting Call! Are You Australia’s Next Top Bully?
9:36AM Jess McGuire | Australia’s Next Top Model is looking for some fresh meat for the next series, and it could be any of us! Well, technically potential contestants are meant to be rather attractive, leggy, with the ability to move seamlessly between producing the Fashion and Editorial goods (I am, several seasons on, finally understanding these terms). But the ability to provide great television moments by acting like a heartless bitch toward quieter contestants appears to help things too.
Those wanting to be Demelza Reveley should practice their pouts.
And their aim when it comes to water balloons, one presumes. More » 
Is Nicholas Sparks The New Nora Ephron?
9:15AM Defamer Hollywood | As we eagerly await this weekend’s Nights in Rodanthe to see if Richard Gere and Diane Lane can continue to make old-people sex as hot as it was in Unfaithful, we got to thinking — Nicholas Sparks is a total baller. Sparks, who writes the standard romance novel fare that stocks airport bookstores, wrote Rodanthe and has successfully pandered his schlock to production companies who have turned a number of his books into best-selling films. The Notebook, arguably the biggest success of the adaptations, quickly became that movie girlfriends forced their boyfriends to watch in the hopes of emulating real-life lovebirds Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. But now comes the recent news that Sparks is no longer satisfied with hipster newcomers and wants to hit the big time, so he’s selling out and writing both a novel and a screenplay adaptation for a new film which are specifically designated for queen Miley Cyrus herself. Sparks is a smart cookie and he knows women love his shit. So is he the next Nora Ephron? More »
Girls Aloud’s Cheryl Cole Reveals The Secret To A Happy Marriage
9:09AM Jess McGuire | Earlier this year, Girls Aloud warbler (and current judge on the British version of The X Factor) Cheryl Cole was alerted – thanks to national tabloid coverage – to the fact her husband, footballer Ashley Cole, had cheated on her. She was expected to ditch the handsome sports star, but decided instead to stay and work things out.
And what has she learned from the whole experience? Don’t tie your man down, ladies.
Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole is determined to let her husband Ashley Cole remain a ‘free spirit’ despite recent reports claiming the Chelsea player had been unfaithful.
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