Monday, September 29, 2008
Peace at Last! Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein Slate ‘Reader’ For ‘08
10:00PM STV | After a brief but concentrated period of friction over the release date for their Oscar-bait drama The Reader, Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin issued a joint statement late Sunday confirming the film would arrive in theatres Dec. 12, 2008. Thus anticlimactically ended Rudin/Weinstein Death Match II, their first since The Hours, another Stephen Daldry film that endured a litany of tweaks and torment coming down to the awards-season wire in 2002. While Defamer scorekeepers last week favoured Rudin in the tilt, a late flurry of Weinstein jabs sent the superproducer reeling to the canvas — or maybe not quite the canvas, but at least a sort of easy détente few saw coming when Harvey insisted on receiving Daldry’s first edit a week from today. Let alone Rudin’s congested awards roster also including Doubt and Revolutionary Road, the latter of which positions Reader star Kate Winslet in a potential race against herself for Best Actress.
Rene Rivkin Was One Hot Boss
5:40PM Jess McGuire | It feels kinda wrong to make fun of Rene Rivkin, you know, considering he’s no longer with us, but smh.com.au has revealed the delightfully cocky (and possibly delusional?) choice of words he used while talking to police about the Gordon Wood/Caroline Byrne case when describing his appeal as a boss. All the more interesting when one takes into account certain “rumours”.
Mr Rivkin’s interview was played to the NSW Supreme Court jury today.
In it, he agreed there had been jealousy between Wood and another employee, George Ferris.
“I’m aware that there is jealousy, even today, amongst my employees,” he said. “I’ve never understood why it is, but they just tell me I’m a very desirable boss.”
Sexy! Ish! And kinda wrong! More » Words Of Wisdom With Marcia Hines
4:19PM Jess McGuire | I’ll leave the incisive Australian Idol wrap ups to Clem, who did a marvellous job this morning (she was so close to her Bui dream!), but I did want to point out that there were a handful of absolutely spectacular Marcia Hines moments that had me both clapping like a spazz and shaking my head in disbelief.
Firstly, when someone referenced a contestant having gone for a little bit of a Britney Spears look, Marcia deadpanned the following nugget of brilliance.
“There’s sexy, and then there’s ho.”
Something we can all learn from.
Marcia also had some helpful tips for our young singers on how to get the most out of their voices.
“You need to get more air into your voice… and the air is sex…. and it’s sexy.”
But my absolute favourite piece of nonsensical advice, delivered in the style of an Anthony Robbins-esque life coach, was this:
“Just fly… fly… fly, darlin’…”
If she keeps this up, I am dedicating a small patch of Defamer Australia to collecting her Greatest One Liners, and at the end we can publish a Bradley Trevor Grieve-y kind of book full of pictures of cute animals with ridiculous quotes from The Marcia God underneath. More » 
Whoopi Goldberg, Master Of Eloquent Political Analysis
3:20PM Mark Graham | We don’t know how long that Whoopi Goldberg has been on The View —we suppose we could look it up, but it’s Monday night and we’re tired as shit— but nary a day goes by when we don’t think to ourselves, “How in tarnation is Whoopi qualified to be The View’s de facto leader?” The most recent evidence of her ineptitude involved her trenchant (and bipartisan!) insight that Barack Obama and John McCain have each “stuck their foot in the doo-doo and are walking around making dookie spots” in their dealings with the ol’ US of A’s cratering economy. Check please! [The View] Also on the election front: Sarah Palin is being encouraged to step aside from the presidential race by none other than leading conservative columnist Kathleen Parker. Who, we might add, is also a female. Try slapping a sexist tag on that! [National Review] Statler & Waldorf somehow snagged themselves an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times. Yes, the muppets. [NY Times] And lastly, for those of you who could give a rat’s arse about politics, we turn our attention back to the world of entertainment. Namely, exactly how much is Tina Fey worth? However much it is (hint: she’s made $US17 million in her career to date), we think she probably deserves more. [Portfolio] More »
News.com.au Celebrate Melissa George’s Career Renaissance With A Golden Gaytime
12:10PM Clem Bastow | Melissa George has long since joined the ranks of Aussies who’ve taken the twilight of their local soap career overseas and cashed in big time (fellow clubmembers: Isla Fisher, Julian McMahon, Kimberly Davies, Tammin Sursok – the list is actually rather long), so noting that she’s about to – potentially – nab a key role in Grey’s Anatomy almost feels pointless. But, it seems she could be brushing past McFlurry (or whoever) sooner rather than later:
But the one-time Summer Bay resident isn’t shaping up as McDreamy’s latest love interest – instead playing an intern who has a liaison with one of the series’ established female characters, The Daily Telegraph reports.
George is believed to be in the midst of final negotiations to sign on the dotted line for the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning program, which revolves around Dr Meredith Grey – played by Ellen Pompeo – and the team at Seattle Grace Hospital in Washington.
This is all well and good, but what I’d like to draw your attention to is the remarkably mature way in which news.com.au handled this piece of news: More » When The Post-Opening Buzz Wore Off, Post-Knob-Showing Traumatic Stress Set In
11:30AM Clem Bastow | As you no doubt will have heard, Daniel “Harry Potter” Radcliffe has taken his Equus role (i.e. the one in which he gets his gear out, and makes out with a pantomime horse, or something) to Broadway after a successful West End showing earlier in the year. Pre-show buzz has been remarkably positive (there has even been Tony Award chatter) and the play opened at the end of last week. As the Guardian proudly notes:
Ben Brantley, writing in the New York Times, praises the boy wizard’s sensitive and intelligent portrayal of the disturbed stable boy, Alan Strang, focusing on his “Alsatian-blue gaze” which “snags your attention with an extra, possibly dangerous gleam of intensity”. He has less praise for the “arid” and “dated” psychodrama, however.
Hip, hip for Radcliffe. But this is beside the point; the point being this remarkable photo snapped of Radcliffe at the stage door just after the performance: More » 
Australian Idol Round-Up: Final 10 Week
10:00AM Clem Bastow | Another week, another round of Australian Idol, this time with bonus Darren Hayes goodness and a bunch of “Aussie hits” (except when they were from New Zealand). What did the Final 10 sing? What did they wear? What did James Mathison have to say? What of Andrew G’s hair? For all this and more, let’s jump together into our traditional Monday discussion session. More » 
Briefly In Axings Nobody Noticed
9:45AM Clem Bastow | As was noted in the arse end of Ros Reines’ Next Top Model-related piece, Channel Seven’s big Jennifer Hawkins (and Tyrese) hosted “After The Olympics”™ hope, Make Me A Supermodel was quietly axed last week – and now, Channel Ten’s oddly-timed dating show (”Why, Scooter, you’re a genius! Of course people will switch across from the Channel Nine news to watch derros trying to date each other!”) Taken Out has been, well, taken off:
The Channel 10 dating show was launched at the start of the month but never really took off. Speculation it was soon to get the chop mounted after it was bumped from the 7pm timeslot to 6pm.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that. Back to the party cab, Kerley? More » 
Australia’s Next Top Unsubstantiated Host-Related Rumour
8:51AM Clem Bastow | After the whole ‘oh moy gourd, you guise, Jodhi Meares has totally quit Australia’s Next Top Model, this is soy upsetting’ fiasco, industry tattle talk has turned to discussing which leggy stunner will take over from the Tigerlilly designer in the show’s host/mentor role. So, while Foxtel remain tight-lipped and watercoolers at Portmans stores the country over are deep in considered conversation on the topic, the Tele’s Ros Reines offered her own theories on the topic:
It is believed that the stunning Tozzi would fit the bill in hosting the model quest and bring so much to the small screen.
More » 
