Evidently Kylie's fans in hometown Melbourne just can't get enough - or rather, are assuming they just won't be able to get enough - of her X2008 tour, and so Frontier Touring and Mushroom have announced a third helping of the singing budgie for the M-Town leg of her December tour (Sydney and Auckland lag with two shows each).

From the presser that was just sent out:

After selling out her first Melbourne show in just minutes, it didn't take long for Kylie's second concert in Melbourne to follow suit.

With demand for tickets still high promoter Michael Gudinski was on the phone to Kylie's management in the hope of securing a third show for Melbourne.

It's with great delight that The Frontier Touring Company confirm that a third concert has now been announced for Melbourne on Monday 22 December at Rod Laver Arena with tickets going on sale on Friday 12 September at 9am.

Never let it be said that the extended Defamer Australia reader community isn't a caring, sharing bunch. Earlier in the week we put out the call for anyone who might be able to help us/James Blunt KEEP UP THE CATS at his live gig, and look what - wait for it - the cat dragged in (ohh, I kill me!):

There he is, on stage at Rod Laver, keeping up the cats! Frances M Benz would be so happy!

Thanks to incredible Defamer reader Mel for her exemplary efforts above. You keep up those cats, Mel, you keep them way up!

We thought those of you who were entertained by the slow and sensual strip show protest staged by Melbourne's taxi drivers yesterday would like to know that their bare-chested protestations didn't go unnoticed, and all but two of their demands will be met by the State Government.

Maybe the teachers' unions should start looking into massed nudity?

Pre-payment of fares between 10pm and 5am -- a key demand from drivers to deal with the frequent problem of passengers who "do a runner" without paying -- will be introduced in the next few months.

Drivers will estimate the amount of the fare before the journey and then the difference, if there is one, will be paid by either the driver or passenger.

The State Government will pay 50% of the cost of introducing safety screens, with the balance to be paid by taxi operators.

The screens, worth $1000 to $1200, will be removable, allowing drivers who do not want them to store them in the boot. At first the installation will cover about 75% of Melbourne's 3800-strong taxi fleet.

Now, if they could just work on the taxi drivers who, upon one's entering the cab and requesting one's destination, turn around looking slightly frightened and as, "Do you know how to get there?" we'll all be laughing.

We should preface this piece by making it clear we support the Melbourne cabbies' protest and think that taxi drivers really get a bum deal these days (excluding the ones who actually don't know where anything is/have the heater on 43 degrees and windows up/smell like Don Skinless Franks).

However, we couldn't help but laugh in a somewhat bemused fashion at the following highlights from this morning's reportage of the cabbie strike in Melbourne's CBD. We've underlined the best bits, just in case you miss them in your first scan:

Taxi drivers blockading a major intersection in Melbourne's CBD have started to remove their clothing and have released their demands, saying they will not move until authorities meet with them.

Several hundred drivers are sitting and standing in a circle around the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets in central Melbourne, holding up placards and protesting against violence and abuse of taxi drivers.

The protest started yesterday evening and has continued overnight. One of the organisers, Indian-born taxi driver Jazz Randyboy, said the protest had been peaceful.

Seriously, is this a hack? Why are they stripping? Are they protesting by unleashing such a torrent of taxi-bound sensuality that the CBD grinds to an orgasmic halt, thereby greatly reducing productivity and sending the economy into a tailspin?

For god's sake someone tell us what is going on!

UPDATE!!

Are you ready for this jelly? The Age has a photo of the bare-chested cabbies' protest. Over the jump for all the righteous sexy you can handle!

Read More »

Even though we write this stuff in our underwear and ugg boots you may not realise it, we are basically fashion oracles here at Defamer Australia. So we felt it only fair that we bring you all the news and gossip from the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which is currently underway, to share with you our fashion nous.

We'll be bringing you daily fashion diaries throughout the Festival; it will be like The Devil Wears Prada meets He Died With A Felafel In His Hand and will be totally compelling.

Read on for the runway reports and all the front-row celebrity spotto you can handle!

Read More »

Defamer Australia was fortunate to attend the massed gathering at Melbourne's Federation Square this morning, where around 8000 people watched Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deliver a moving, intelligent, compassionate and, yes, long overdue apology to the members of the Stolen Generation and for the damage and hurt that it caused Australia's Indigenous people.

Unfortunately for just about everyone there, we also watched opposition leader Brendan Nelson deliver his "apology", which was about as sincere as Jonah saying "Sorry, ranga!" and went a little something like this (and we're paraphrasing, so no quoting us in your school projects): "My mum said I had to apologise to you, but you lot should take a long, hard look at yourselves and get your hand off the bottle and the petrol can, after all, our grandfathers died in the war for you, or something, and no one wants to be born in a remote Indigenous community, anyway, so we did the right thing - it's not our fault you're having a cry about it now."

As one increasingly incensed young professional type next to us shouted, "You're demeaning the whole f--king country with your words."

And while we were moved to tears by Kevin's speech and by the faces of the members of the Stolen Generation who attended Parliament as distinguished guests, we were equally moved - in a slightly different way - when Melbourne decided en masse to tell Brendan what we thought of his speech. This was the view from where we were standing:

Yes, Melbourne turned their backs on Nelson (not before one memorable skater dude in front of us stood for a good two minutes with double flipped birds aimed at the screen), a fact that was duly noted by the ABC's Tony Jones the moment he returned to the telecast following the adjournment.

The Age has footage of the moment here, and we were proud of both parts of Melbourne's reaction to this wonderful day - proud to be a part of saying "sorry", and proud to tell Brendan Nelson he is, in fact, a dickhead.

Jason Schwartzman, star of the indie movie circuit and drummer for Phantom "Best Known For Being Those Guys What Done The O.C.'s Theme" Planet, is currently in Australia to promote his new flick The Darjeeling Ltd., and already he's taken to popping up, Zelig-like, all over town.

Naturally, once we realised he was out and about, we dispatched a team of sleuths to follow him around while wearing trench coats and talking into their shoes and watches.

Our spies spotted him:

* Looking much hotter in real life!
* Having dinner at Fitzroy institution The Vegie Bar! While wearing sunglasses!
* Walking out of Vegie Bar while wearing sunglasses (but, you know, not walking out, just leaving. After his lackeys paid!)
* Being hit upon by Defamer spies at the preview screening of The Darjeeling Ltd.!
* Calling said Defamer spy "baby doll"!

And that's about it for this particular piece of world-shaking news.

Have YOU seen Jason Schwartzman? Did he call YOU baby doll, too? Get in touch!

Defamer Australia was out and about in Melbourne, having a drink and chat at riverside bar and noshery Riverlands, when what hot-pink-headed naif did we see emerging from a neighbouring table but Patrick Wolf himself!

Knowing how much of a fan our fearless Editor is, we naturally whipped out the camera phone and grabbed a shot to prove our brush with theatrical, Kate Bush-esque fame.

(Note: that's him on the left. Honest injuns.)

As you can see, our quick fingers and sharp-shooting style will have the members of the Black Star Agency quaking in their boots.

Clearly, the next Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism is going to us.