Debritz.net

My friend, Michael Burns Kennedy, has written a series of sketches under the title "Radio Spin" and, although I'm not an actor, I've helped him record them. The link to the first episode and an explanation of what it's all about are here.

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The big Channel 9 announcement for this week is that newsreader Mark Ferguson is leaving the network. According to Nine, Ferguson "declined to sign a new contract with the network". A statement added: "Nine is very disappointed Mark has turned down the generous offer that was made to re-new his contract." And, of course, more disappointed that he is, in fact, going to Channel Seven - and had made his decision just one week into his new role of reading news on Nine's new 4.30pm show, This Afternoon, which had had a low-rated debut. Ferguson will have to serve out his time at Nine in a less starring role. And, in Brisbane, that decision to axe Extra isn't looking all that clever ..

"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."

David McKenzie of Federal Way, Washington, won the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with that opening sentence. The award is named after Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose novel Paul Clifford famously began with the lines "It was a dark and stormy night ..."

I'm not the first to ask this question and I won't be the last: Is Nicole Kidman worth all the money she makes? According to this report, Kidman was the eighth-highest-earning film actress last year, earning $15 million largely on the back of that non-blockbuster Australia which, according to Box Office Mojo, cost US$130 million* to make - not including its extensive marketing budget (it was advertised in prime inner-city positions in the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic and France to my first-hand knowledge) - and has taken in just over US$211 million to date. Here are the figures for some other recent Kidman films (cost to make first, global takings second, in brackets):
The Invasion $80,000,000 ($40,170,558)
Bewitched $85,000,000 ($131,426,169)
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus N/A ($2,305,841)
The Golden Compass $180,000,000 ($372,234,864)
Really, there's just one hit among them, and one incredible disaster. Adding in other expenses, I think her account over the past cople of years would be well and truly in the red.
* news.com.au is reporting that Australia's production budget "ballooned" beyond £130 million.

Just in case you missed hearing me on 612ABC with Kelly Higgins-Devine (filling in for Spencer Howson), I have ruled myself out of contention for the top job at Brisbane Major Festivals, replacing the excellent Lyndon Teracinni. Please, no more phone calls or emails; the decision is final.

I was bemused that free commuter newspaper MX gave so much room to a story saying that baby boomers will soon far outnumber the agegroup MX (is actively targetting. When will the boomers get their own free paper, then?

PS: Oh, and then there's the irony that so many newspapers (free and paid-for) are targetted at people who don't buy newspapers and never will, while there is so little in newspapers actually targetted at the people who have bought them for decades (because they are taken for granted).

Mollie Sugden, who played Mrs Slocombe in Are You Being Served?, has died at the age of 86. More at my Celebrity Deaths Archive.

He starred in On The Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, but for my generation he was best known as the rugged cop on Streets of San Francisco. Karl Malden has died at the grand age of 97. More here.

Channel Ten's radio commercials for its hour-long 5pm news are now offering "something extra", a nice reference to the axing of Nine's 5.30pm show Extra. Will the fans of that show really make the switch to Ten? Time, and the ratings figures, will tell.

I guess a financial plan reliant on winning Oz Lotto was always doomed to failure ...

If Australia were to become a republic would Queensland be called Presidentsland? Presidentsland, on at City Hall on July 29 as part of the Queensland Music Festival "explores in music and words, the often-contemplated and always contentious subject of what our future might smell, taste, feel, look and of course sound like", according to artistic director Deborah Conway. On stage will be composer and jazz muso Paul Grabowsky with former Paul Keating speechwriter and author Don Watson; painist and composer Erik Griswold with poet and novelist Rodney Hall; and former Saints member Ed Kuepper with novelist and academic Venero Armanno. Details of this and other QMP events here.
PS: On the subject of the Queen, it's been revealed that maintaining the British royal family costs $85 million a year. Perhaps that's what monarchist David Flint will do if he wins Oz Lotto.

Congratulations to Lyndon Terracini, the boss of Major Brisbane Festivals who has just been named artistic director of the Australian Opera. I guess there will now be a scramble for his job running the Brisbane Festival.

Simon Owens, whose Bloggasm blog focuses on online media, writes:

I remember reading your post mentioning the fact that TMZ beat both CNN and the LA Times in reporting on Jackson's death. I recently spoke to an editor at the LA Times that pointed out that even though TMZ was the first to report the story, Google Trends suggests that most people trusted the LA Times to confirm it [link here.] Anyway, I thought this was something you and your readers would find interesting.

It was bound to end in tears. As I wrote here, the Daily Record in Scotland billed columnist Frankie Boyle as "the comic who can't be gagged" yet, from the outset, censored what he wrote. Now Boyle has quit the paper because it refused to run his jokes about Michael Jackson. Boyle wrote to members of his mailing list: "Oh dear. Had to quit my Daily Record column over a moral disagreement. We disagreed over whether it was ok to make jokes about a dead child molestor."
PS: Meanwhile, in Australia, Newtork Ten censored a Bruno joke about Katie Holmes on Rove - apparently over concerns that she would get the huff and refuse to appear on the show. Fearless broadcasting at its best, folks!

A colleague rang to make an appointment at a medical centre, and the receptionist asked him whether he had any cold and flu symptoms or diarrohea and, if so, could he not come in "as Doctor's immune system is down". In other words, Doctor will only be seeing well people today.

A friend in Bangkok writes about spotting a T-shirt with this slogan:

"It's not who you know, it's whom you know."

I pondered on Facebook about how long Michael Jackson's death would be leading the news. Here's a reply from a former colleague:

"Toxicology report, second autopsy and a funeral gives it a couple more weeks. But a potential custody battle for the 3 children could drag it out for months. And then there are the reports of a library of 100 songs he left for his kids. Years perhaps if there are that many songs (if they're good) and they are released slowly."

The death of Michael Jackson was a huge scoop for TMZ.com, which was reporting the news a full half hour before mainstream American media such as CNN and Fox News, which could only say that Jackson had been rushed to hospital. It means TMZ has good sources and/or it's not afraid to have a punt. But, of course, what if TMZ was wrong? Well, I guess it wins there, too, because it doesn't have so much "credibility" at stake. The internet and people's desire to know the news now really presents a challenge to tradtional media. I just hope they don't throw out the golden rule of verification in the rush to be first.
PS: CNN briefly found the compromise of saying that Jackson's death had been reported online, but CNN was unable to verify it. Perhaps they should have gone that way sooner.
Update: This story, in Media Guardian, explains what TMZ is and how it works.

I know good toys never grow out of fashion, but somethings should perhaps be withdrawn from the shelves for other reasons. The toy department at K-mart, Westfield Chermside (and presumably elsewhere) is still selling jigsaw puzzles featuring a New York skyline including the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

Is it appropriate to make jokes about the recently departed? No, but it's inevitable when fame is involved. Popbitch relays these, among others:

Reports of Michael Jackson having a heart attack are incorrect. He was found in the children's ward having a stroke.

Michael Jackson died of shock after finding out Boyz II Men was a band not a delivery service.