home and away
Small Screen
4:02PM Jess McGuire | How Melissa George manages to remember her lines while appearing in Hollywood productions is beyond me, because she’s clearly slipping up in the brain department. She claims she recently forgot her Home & Away character’s name! I find that hard to believe. If I can remember it – and the band playing when she met Shane, and the way she walked down the aisle, and what she named the baby, and EVERYTHING ELSE – then I can’t see why she’s unable to recall the reason she’s famous in the first place. More »
Melissa George Is Having Some Memory Issues
4:02PM Jess McGuire | How Melissa George manages to remember her lines while appearing in Hollywood productions is beyond me, because she’s clearly slipping up in the brain department. She claims she recently forgot her Home & Away character’s name! I find that hard to believe. If I can remember it – and the band playing when she met Shane, and the way she walked down the aisle, and what she named the baby, and EVERYTHING ELSE – then I can’t see why she’s unable to recall the reason she’s famous in the first place. More » 
Indiana Evans Leaves Summer Bay For Her Own Postmodern Mermaid Fantasy
9:32AM Clem Bastow | Indiana Evans – aka Matilda from Home & Away – is one of my favourite young soap stars. Unlike many soapie starlets, she can actually act – so it’s a shame to hear she’s leaving Summer Bay (incidentally, did anyone watch the “after the Olympics” return last night? Intense!), although where she’s going is possibly even more amazingly camp: she’s joining the cast of H2O: Just Add Water. Yes, the afternoon tweeny mermaid show! Splashtastic!
While it doesn’t command huge ratings in Australia, H2O: Just Add Water is a mammoth hit around the world, seen in more than 100 countries with a worldwide audience of more than 200 million viewers.
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Okay, Who Let Michael Bay Into The ‘Home & Away’ Editing Suite?
3:15PM Clem Bastow | If there’s one thing you’ll notice about Channel Seven at the moment – you know, apart from some small sporting event they seem to be covering – it’s the intensity with which they are promoting all their post-Olympics programming (which they have rather dramatically titled “After The Olympics”, which sounds a little “post-9/11″ for my liking), whether it be Packed To The Rafters, Make Me A Supermodel or, most notably, Home & Away. Now, I’ve long since switched from Ramsay Street to Summer Bay, but it seems that in the past fortnight since I last saw an episode, my favourite “drama serial” has turned from a mildly melodramatic soap to an all aerial-tracking, all dramatic-orchestral-bursting megaplex epic that gives Highlander a run for its money. Come over the jump to see the promo that, if you watch with your eyes closed, you could be forgiven for mistaking as the trailer for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. More » 
After Crash, Soap Star May Regret Having Discussed His ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ Aspirations
10:41AM Clem Bastow | Readers of Dolly and TV Week magazines will have been shocked to hear that Home & Away star Todd Lasance (who plays the one with the alcoholic dad and was touched up by his war hero granddad when he was a kid and consequently likes to punch on, except when he’s moonily looking into the eyes of Belle aka Savings Brand Mischa Barton) was in a serious car accident on the weekend that required him to be taken to hospital via ambulance. However, fear not! His valuable face is unscathed, but I’m guessing both he and the Home & Away family will probably wince when they recall a particular interview snippet he gave last year – and it looks like Seven is already on the defensive.
A spokesman for the Seven network was keen to play down the accident.
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Latest Season Of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ May Not Suck, May Actually Contain Stars
8:37AM Clem Bastow | Of course, that all depends on your definition of “star”, but a totally gorgeous and currently employed Home & Away castmember (who, doubly excitingly, used to regularly appear in the Dolly magazines of the Defamer Australia team’s youth) probably fits the bill: welcome aboard the good ship “I Thought This Might Revive My Career”, Jodi Gordon!
Jodi joins other rumoured Dancing stars as, er, Tara Reid. And that’s about it so far. So she really IS the star!
While Channel 7 would not officially confirm Gordon’s reality TV spin yesterday, Confidential can reveal the Home and Away star has agreed to take part in the popular dance-off when it airs post-Olympics.
While her boyfriend, Seven heir Ryan Stokes, will be hoping Gordon leaves more than just her hat on during her ballroom blitz, the stunning brunette will no doubt be positioned as the eye candy offering of the eighth series.
Well, until Channel Seven themselves decide to “reveal” the official line-up for this year, we’re sticking with illustrating this piece with the glorious visage of one Miss Tina Sparkle, aka Sonia Kruger, Dancing co-host and general goddess. More » Kate Ritchie Announces Departure From Summer Bay
9:18AM Jess McGuire | We knew it had to happen sooner or later – Kate Ritchie has revealed she will be leaving Home and Away at the end of the year.
After playing Sally Fletcher for 20 years on Channel Seven’s hit serial drama, Kate Ritchie will farewell Home And Away in mid-December when she films her final scene.
Kate has been a permanent cast member since its pilot aired 20 years ago, in 1987.
“I have been blessed with a job that I have loved for the past 20 years and I wouldn’t take back one moment of my time on Home And Away but I feel that it is time for change.” said Kate today.
Ritchie managed to achieve the dream of every Australian actor by winning the TV Week Gold Logie earlier this year for her role on the program, and we must commend her for her bravery in leaving the soap at the height of her fame rather than run the risk of being typecast as Sally Fletcher for the rest of her life, a disastrous turn of events which would have undoubtedly occured had she chosen to pursue more than twenty years with the program.
We congratulate Kate Ritchie on a sterling career so far, and look forward to seeing where life takes her (the UK panto scene, the pop charts, a second shot at grainy video infamy, etc)
After the jump, some classic Sally moments from history!
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