Bindi and the Bottle

Comedian Fiona O'Loughlin is in the small paper today after a throwaway comment on Wednesday night's Spicks & Specks (8:30pm ABC1). 

Page 7 of the Herald Sun ran a banner "Fellow stars, viewers slam boozy comedian for 'slap' remark". The article even had a breakout box with a blow-by-blow account of the events on screen - excessive? Yes.

The first line of the article read;

Alcoholic comedian Fiona O'Loughlin has sunk to a new low, calling Bindi Irwin a creep who needs a slap in the face.

But by midday the online article had removed the terms "boozy" and "alcoholic" with the only reference to O'Loughlin's former alcohol dependency in italics at the end;

O'Loughlin discusses her battle with the booze in an interview to be published in Saturday's Herald Sun.

Well, well, well. How convenient for the Herald Sun that they should stumble across this "public outcry" just days before their very own feature on O'Loughlin.

The article claims that the ABC's online message board was "awash" with criticism. Really? At midday there were just 22 comments on the thread regarding Wednesday's episode of S&S - hardly a public outcry.

Mind you, there are over 400 comments on the HS website in response to the article. Many of them are along the lines of "how is this news?" and many more along the lines of "it's called comedy, get over it". Sure there are the "who will think of the CHILDREN" lot but I'm pretty sure they all come from the same church-group and flood the comments section en masse whenever the 'moral panic' bells ring out and they are called to action.

Cheap self-promotion from the Herald Sun - not entirely shocking.

Perhaps O'Loughlin can sue for defamation seeing as she is not, in fact, a boozy alcoholic at this time. Whereas Bindi Irwin is, in fact, slightly creepy.  

Foggy Future for Pete and Myf

The latest Neilson radio stats have shown Melbourne's Triple M losing major ground. It dropped a whole point to 3.2 percent and the audience share is its worst ever.

Unfortunately Triple M breakfast hosts Pete Helliar and Myf Warhurst look set to get the shove after getting constant bad results - though some would say they've lasted a lot longer than expected. Triple M certainly wanted them to be successful, carrying out a mulit-million dollar advertising campaign that saw the pairs faces on almost every billboard and bus-stop in Melbourne.

It's really unfortunate for Myf who was becoming well-known on a national level through Triple J and Spicks and Specks before taking on the role as Melbourne breakfast host. If the morning duo are boned, hopefully she gets a gig where she can share her love of music rather than play pre-selected crap on a commercial station.

Head honcho at Triple M, Ben Amarfio hasn't alleviated fears with the statement; "We can't sit back and watch (the ratings) continue to fall".

Needless to say, Hamish and Andy on Fox are reigning Kings of Drive in all states, and 3AW has done very well with its talk-back king-pins improving their share on the last survey.