"Bruno" on Rove

Sacha Baron Cohen ("Bruno") is currently in Australia promoting his new film and was tonight a guest on channel 10's Rove. Besides the fact that Rove always seems to make every interview about him - there was an interesting moment where the end of Cohen's sentence was silenced.

He was in character talking about Sacha Baron Cohen possibly being homosexual and made the statement: "I hear his wife gets less sex than Katie Holmes" - except that "Katie Holmes" was silenced out.

Why?? Because Holmes is on her way to Australia and we wouldn't want to upset a future guest would we? Too bad for Russell Crowe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jackson and every other celebrity that was bagged in the 20 minutes preceding it.

Besides that, has anyone noticed Rove seems to have trouble letting his celebrity guests talk about themselves or the projects they're spruiking? He'd much rather talk about himself.

He incessantly interrupted British comedian Russell Brand a few months ago, insisting the fact that he had inadvertently struck his own nose be acknowledged before letting Brand tell his story. In fact, most of his interviews involve a bit of the old 'enough about me, let's talk about you - what do you think of me?' schtick.

Case in point, the 'Bruno' interview tonight; let's see, we heard about Rove's pubic hair, Rove's outfit choice, we saw Rove get a makeover (which he playfully pretended to know nothing about) and ... ummm ... what was the movie being promoted and when is it released? - Couldn't tell you.

new SBS panel quiz show

SBS is currently filming its history quiz AD BC. It's a panel show hosted by Sam Pang - RRR broadcaster and recent co-host of SBS's Aussie coverage of Eurovision with Julia Zemiro. AD BC is a segment style show much like Rockwiz and Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation with two comedic guests and two academics. I managed to get to a taping last night with comedians Tony Martin and Angus Sampson among the panellists. The style of the show is very slick - the backdrops are retro and the graphics, as usual with SBS, are brilliant. I really enjoyed it and can't wait for it to pop up on our screens in August ... surprisingly, I even knew some of the answers ...

Farcical Today Show "News"

You can always count of Richard Wilkins to be a complete ignoramus in almost any circumstance. With the breaking news of Michael Jackson's death this morning he was also reporting the death of actor Jeff Goldblum - which wasn't true. It was an internet hoax that had actually gone round the traps in 1999 (the first time) when a rumour started about Goldblum having an accident whilst filming in New Zealand. Wilkinson was still reporting his death 30 minutes later - even though there was nothing about Goldblum on New Zealand Herald site nzherald.co.nz.

Then there was this (from Crikey twitter feed);
There was also the particularly classy moment where Richard pulled out the folded photo of he and Michael Jackson. The excuse was that Lisa had wanted to know how tall Michael was. There was a particularly awkward few moments where Wilkins was bumbling about comparative heights; "I'm six foot three with hair and heels ... so that should give you an idea" - priceless self-indulgence.
Of course there was also the faux 'gaining composure' moment where Wilkins cleared his throat and respectfully blinked for a moment longer than usual.

I'm sure we can look forward to a whole lot of wonderful reporting of MJ's death over the next few weeks *insert sarcasm here* - there's always the rush for an 'Aussie connection' - news.com.au was asking readers this morning "Did you meet Michael?" and had a story about an Australian family who were friends with him.

Let the chaos begin.

Afternoon News

Channel 9 is spruiking its new afternoon news program This Afternoon, starting next Monday, 4:30pm weekdays. Hosts Andrew Daddo and Katrina Blowers will be taking a look at news and current affairs with live interviews, news bulletins, and panel discussions. Channel 9's weekend news reporter Mark Ferguson will be in the mix too along with a team of reporters nationally. It's an hour-long program so it will be interesting to see how many stories are doubled-up with other channel 9 current affairs programs 60 Minutes and ACA.

Take Two

Seven has a new comedy sketch show called Double Take on the cards. It's a parody show and is supposedly going to send up TV shows, politicians and of course the Hollywood elite.

The cast consists of; Amanda Bishop, Darren Weller, Helen Dallimore, Robin Goldsworthy, Hollie Andrew, Guy Edmonds and Paul McCarthy.

- Not a whole lot of well-known names so I guess we'll have to wait and see. I can hardly see channel 7 coming up with biting political satire but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Look-a-Like 2 (The Sequel)!

A while ago I pointed out a remarkable similarity between ABC personality Adam Hills and the character of "Ace Rimmer" (and to a lesser extent "Rimmer")* from timeless sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf. (Here's the post).

Well I've done it again - I don't know what it is about ABC personalities and Red Dwarf but whilst watching The 7:30 Report last night, I noticed that reporter Michael Brissenden has a striking similarity to everyone's favourite neurotic robot;

I'll have to keep an eye out for Cat and Lister (and maybe even Kochansky).

* Geeky Red Dwarf in-joke.

Dali and Melbourne

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is currently hosting a retrospective of the work of Spanish surrealist artist, Salvador Dali - and it looks like it just may have brought some good luck to Melbourne film director Phillipe Mora who has just been funded to make a film of the eccentric artist's life.

Son of celebrated Australian artist, Mirka Mora, Phillipe has big plans for the project; from 3D hallucinations to filming in 6 different countries. Spanish flamenco dancer Rafael Amargo will play the young artist.


The NGV exhibition Salvador Dali: Liquid Desire is on now until October 4.