radha mitchell

Do Not Leave Jonathan Rhys Meyers Alone With Your Puppy. He Will Eat It.

4:10AM Molly Friedman | Tudors star and full frontal nudity club member Jonathan Rhys Meyers seems to have followed that old dictum: when in China, do as the Chinese do. Even when it means eating a hearty meal of juicy dog meat. As Radha Mitchell, his co-star in The Children Of Huang Sui, bloopered to reporters: Jonathan did the dog’s meat. We were in some restaurant and there was dog meat on the menu and there was someone next to us just sitting there with their Chihuahua in a handbag. I was thinking, ‘That could’ve been dessert.’ And naturally, PETA has taken the opportunity to sharpen their celebrity-hating claws once again.

Greg Mclean Is A Caring, Sympathetic Director

1:00PM Clem Bastow | Wolf Creek director Greg McClean’s follow-up frightfest Rogue is hitting the cinemas today. The old-school-ish “nature peril” flick, features over-sized crocodiles gobbling up Northern Territory tourists while a cast of all-good Aussies give their best Mick Dundee impressions, so it should be another winner for the filmmaker. (Incidentally, the NT’s tourism commission must be delighted with all this great publicity McClean’s giving them; first psychotic rapists/murderers and now killer crocs! Sure beats Daryl Somers standing in front of Uluru and chuckling, “You’ll never, never know if you never, never go”!) This junket story has the usual “oh the laughs we had” fluff that comes with a movie premiere, but we couldn’t help but feel a lovely bit of schadenfreude at McClean’s obvious delight in putting US import and star Michael Vartan through his paces: “Michael had just come out from America and was scared of spiders, snakes – all animals really – so it was a new experience for him,” [Radha] Mitchell, 33, explains. McLean adds: “I realised very quickly he would be great for the character. “He is from LA, he’s never been to Australia and had no idea what the Outback was. When we arrived in the Northern Territory, that’s when he realised it was real. It was a huge shock for him, I mean here he was on a boat with real crocodiles and Radha Mitchell driving and she couldn’t drive a boat. It was very different to anything he has ever done in America.” That’s the spirit, Greg! Hopefully they also took Vartan to some only-accessible-by-road-train pub and made him shotgun a few Fosters, before telling him that “all Australians” eat kangaroo balls while threatening him with a sugarcane machete. More »

The Happy Little Hollywood Vegemites

10:39AM Clem Bastow | We like nothing more than a bit of jingoistic “Aussies made good overseas” reportage, so thanks to News Ltd for providing us with not one but two such pieces today. While most of us are content to sit on our arses and watch Home & Away, some Australians are kicking goals across the pond – namely, Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington; the former starring in The Code with Morgan Freeman and the latter in James Cameron’s sci-fi comeback, Avatar. Fittingly, the Sydney actor – who departed Australia in January for the plum role in Cameron’s $244 million budget sci-fi extravaganza Avatar – says working with the director who made Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio stars has been “epic”. A virtual unknown in the US, Worthington made headlines when he beat thousands of hopefuls who auditioned in Cameron’s worldwide screen tests, winning the lead part of wounded ex-marine Jack Sully. We’d like to send them a plate of celebratory lamingtons and pavlova care of the Australian Embassy, and declare the rest of today to be All Good Aussie Day – tinnies and shrimp for everyone! Avagoodweekend!! More »