You're probably aware by now that one of Defamer Australia's collective biggest bugbears is when the local press wets itself because someone overseas has said that our actors/musicians/sportspeople are pretty good, so we can all pat ourselves on the back, having confirmed our greatness via outsourcing.

However, there are times when we're happy to wet ourselves along with the rest of our media, and today is one of those days: the boys from PNAU have picked themselves up a new fan in the form of one Reginald Kenneth Dwight!

Elton John has proved to be more than a vocal champion for Sydney dance pop duo PNAU, earning his Rocket Man tag by blasting into action and signing the band to the London management company which oversees the superstar.

Sir Elton hasn't been able to stop singing PNAU's praises since actress Toni Collette - who shares an Australian agent with the band - suggested he check them out while on tour here last December.

He bought dozens of copies of their self-titled third album and has since kept in close contact, reports music editor Kathy McCabe.

Back home briefly for the Splendour In The Grass festival this weekend and their own tour next week, Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes said Sir Elton wasn't personally managing their affairs but has been an invaluable adviser.

"We talk more about art than business and hopefully introducing us to that part of London, artists like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Sam Taylor-Wood," Littlemore said.

Well done, lads! May the good queen Elton smile upon your glittering careers. It seems Defamer Australia and PNAU think alike, too; when I saw the piece I thought, they should record with him - a thought that has crossed their minds as well:

"The first time he called me, the only thing I wanted him to do was play some piano for us and he still hasn't!" Littlemore said.

Now now, Elton, don't leave them hanging by the telephone!

Post-9/11, aircraft passenger demands to see the pilot would probably be met with a nice pair of handcuffs, but "back in the day" Elton John was free to speak to whomever he damn well wanted, even if his urge to banter occurred midflight.

To honour this innocent cocaine-fuelled time in music - and continuing our celebration of Forgotten Pop Gems Of Yesteryear - let's revel in the bouncy goodness that is Elton John's 'Take Me To The Pilot'. I can't find an official clip to save my life, so here's Reg performing it live in 1992.

A new book claiming to unveil "fun, fascinating facts" about celebrities and their drug habits may just be a collection of ancient quotes and anecdotes. As the NY Post reports today, The Curious World Of Drugs And Their Friends promises sordid tales involving Lindsay Lohan and details from her substance-fuelled evenings before cokepants and trees put them on the back burner, but the story they cite from a "friend" sounds eerily familiar to one of our favourite classic Lohanisms from over a year ago. And the celebrities quoted as being "unable to talk to anyone without a nose full of cocaine," and having "spent the first 35 years of my life in a fog" due to drugs have either kicked their habits long ago or already (endlessly) confirmed to the world that they were once big league nose candy fans. The stars "featured," and exactly how dusty these quips are, after the jump.

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We love Elton John - we love him for his music, his lovely relationship, his frequent bitch fights, and more often than not, his willingness to dress up like a total idiot and throw a crazy costume party.

More than once the Defamer Australia team has arrived at a "dress up" party as giant ants/Michelle & Ferret/drag queens, only to find everyone else in smart casual. In other words, Elton's our people!

Well, imagine our distress to see Sir Elt' is thinking it might be time to stop dressing up now that he's getting on a bit. Say it ain't so, O Lord Of Over-The-Top costuming!

He said: "As you get older, you change the way you think, the way you dress."

Some of Elton's most famous costumes include dressing up as Donald Duck at a Central Park, New York concert in 1980 and another huge feathered creation at a 1976 gig.

Eleven years ago, Elton dressed up as French monarch Louis XIV - a rumoured £40,000 costume - at his fancy dress 50th birthday party at the famed Hammersmith Palais.

For his 60th last year, Elton and 'husband' David Furnish dressed as a Russian general and a U.S. Marine captain for the 1940s-themed bash.

Elton told CNN host Larry King: "Well, I mean I couldn't wear some of my giant chicken outfits to the Oscar party, A, because I wouldn't fit in them anymore, and B, because, you know, I'm 61 years of age next month and I don't dress as flamboyant as I used to.

"I always liked to dress a little differently from other people but I'm nowhere near the fashion victim that I was a long time ago."

God, if there's one thing we thought we could always rely on, it was Elton dressing like a tit with too much cash to splash at his lavish costume parties.

If we can't say that's a constant in this fickle, fickle world, what can we say?

Even though Hollywood's A-List was deprived of a chance to eat and drink on Vanity Fair's dime last night, two fiestas proved that celebrities will not let a little thing like tradition get in the way of a night of free booze and swag. Elton John's Annual AIDS Foundation Oscar Party usually has a strong turnout of power players, but the star wattage at the 16th incarnation of the bash last night was a few standard deviations past the norm, thanks mainly to the absence of Graydon Carter's soiree. Highlights included Tilda Swinton kissing her Oscar in some sort of Buddhist mating ritual, as well as the public debut of Hollywood's newest power couple, Sean Penn and Petra Nemcova. We've got pictures after the jump.

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