Cate Blanchett's powerhouse return in Woody Allen's new movie "Blue Jasmine"

Cate Blanchett at the New York premiere of her new Woody Allen movie Blue Jasmine with actor Michael Stuhlbarg, left, and comedian Andrew Dice Clay, right. Picture: Getty.

 
 

 The Daily Telegraph reports

When Cate Blanchett was last in New York, in between her nightly performances in the acclaimed touring production of "Uncle Vanya," she would slip uptown, to the East Side, to stealthily research her role in Woody Allen's latest, "Blue Jasmine."

In it, Blanchett plays Jasmine, a socialite in breakdown, a modern Blanche DuBois (a role Blanchett played a few years ago on stage, the "detritus" of which she says stays with her), distraught and destroyed by the betrayal of her Bernie Madoff-like financier husband (Alec Baldwin). On Jasmine's stomping ground, the Upper East Side in Manhattan, Blanchett bent her ear to the neighbourhood's accents of affluence.

"I drank way too much wine sitting in restaurants by myself," says Blanchett, sitting in a New York office in a sleeveless emerald green top and skirt.

The polished refinement, though, is only a small element - a surface that cracks - to Blanchett's enormously layered performance in Blue Jasmine. Her Jasmine is, as she says, "a fragile, combustible cocktail of rage and guilt and fear." Penniless in San Francisco, where she's forced to stay at the working class home of her sister (Sally Hawkins), Jasmine is a vodka-swilling, Xanax-popping mess of self-loathing, denial and panic - a woman in free fall who can't bear to face herself in the mirror.

Like many of the 44-year-old actress' best performances, including her Oscar-nominated turn as Elizabeth I in 1998's Elizabeth, Jasmine is a mix of ruthlessness (she's brutal to those she considers inferior) and quaking vulnerability. The performance has been called a lock for an Academy Award nomination, which would be her sixth.

The role's complexity is partly in the film's A Streetcar Named Desire structure, toggling back and forth between before the downfall (in New York and the Hamptons) and after (San Francisco). Blanchett carefully charted Jasmine's unraveling across the flashbacks: "You don't want to flat line," she says. Jasmine is thus many people, radiantly elegant for some (Peter Sarsgaard, as a moneyed suitor) and condescendingly bitter to others (Bobby Cannavale, as her sister's blue-collar boyfriend).

"People talk about actors pretending, but you watch people and a certain person walks into a room, that person who's speaking to you one minute completely changes," says Blanchett. "We're constantly morphing into different outward manifestations of ourselves. That's what I find curious about people. It's just that as Jasmine progress through the story and her situation becomes increasingly desperate, those social identities become increasingly fractured and they're not able to be a cohesive, functioning person."

While Woody Allen is known for giving his actors wide berth, that such a powerhouse performance comes in a late film of his - a period mostly defined by lightness and international settings - comes as a staggering surprise. Though Blanchett immediately committed after a brief phone call from Allen, she, too, wondered which direction the film might go.

"The challenge was one of tone, particularly when I began to hear what the casting was like," she says, noting that comedians Andrew Dice Clay and Louis C.K. ended up giving unexpected, natural performances. "I did think: Is this more in the line of Bananas or Interiors? Which way is it going to swing? He did say to me three weeks in, 'You know, this is a serious movie.'"

Allen had proclaimed his interest to work with Blanchett at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. She was the obvious choice, he says, for the part he had written based on a ruined New York family his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, told him about. (Allen says Madoff "never figured remotely" into his thinking.)

"I needed a great actress and when you think of great actresses in the world, Cate comes into mind immediately," Allen said in an e-mail from France, where he's shooting his next film. "Cate is one of those people that are great, she was great before she met me and she will be great after. I really have very little to say to her."

Blanchett knew not to expect a lot of feedback from Allen, "so I wanted to come in with enough to offer," she says. Of the details of her character, she says: "None of this was discussed or seemed to be of interest to Woody."

"I'm not particularly needy as an actor," says Blanchett. "I'm not doing it because I want to be told that I'm good."

Other directors and actors have confirmed that. Anthony Minghella, who directed her in The Talented Mr. Ripley, once swooned over her in an essay, calling her "a natural comedienne, a whole body actor." Geoffrey Rush has said she "has a constant amorphous physicality."

Many have rhapsodised over her phosphorescent skin (as Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings films she literally glows) which slights her fiercely observant eyes. Her shape-shifting, from Bob Dylan in I'm Not There to Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (which won her sole Oscar), is legendary.

"You have to find a point of connection, but I'm not interested in reducing the character to my set of experiences," says Blanchett. "That's the way, hopefully, you keep expanding as an actor, that you're constantly challenging your understanding of how people think and behave."

Her presence on screen, though, has been rarer in recent years. Five years ago, Blanchett and her playwright husband Andrew Upton, with whom she has three sons, began leading the Sydney Theatre Company. Their stewardship as artistic directors, which Upton will continue solo for several more seasons, has been roundly applauded, including those productions of Streetcar and Uncle Vanya. She recently finished a run of Jean Genet's The Maids before flying to the US to promote Blue Jasmine.

"I hope I've become a better actress through simply concentrating on theatre," she says. "I went to a theatre school with no hopes or particular aspirations to work in the cinema. It's a small industry and I'm a bit peculiar looking. I didn't think I was that girl."

Asked whether she missed the movies while focusing on work at the STC, she quickly answers, "No." She acknowledges she was "a bit burned out" from back-to-back film work before taking over the theatre: "I was so bored with myself, which is a frequent feeling I have."

Instead, she relished the chance to run the company where she started out after drama school: programming a year of plays, tackling major roles, giving young playwrights a showcase and being part of a country's cultural discourse.

"People talk about it like it's a great sacrifice," she says. "Are you kidding me?"

Blanchett does, though, have a number of films lined up. She's shot two Terrence Malick films, and stars in George Clooney's historical thriller The Monuments of Men, which does not have an Australian release date. She's also signed up for a movie with David Mamet and another with Todd Haynes.

"In a way, I've come back with renewed passion for it all," she says before insisting: "I never want to work. Even when you're presented with these great opportunities, I think, 'I really love being in my pajamas with the kids.'"

So why does she keep saying yes?

"The offers!" she exclaims. "Woody Allen picks up the phone, what am I going to say? I'm not going to be that schmuck who says, "Mmmm, maybe not.' I get out of my pyjamas and I go to work."

Guy Sebastian set for US move after signing deal with US label Cherry

 

Guy Sebastian pictured at his recording studios. Picture: Sam Ruttyn Source: News Limited

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

Guy Sebastian looks set for a career in the US, signing a record deal this week.

The Sydney based singer has signed a deal with a company called Cherry.

"I've just signed a deal so we will see how it goes, literally just two days ago," he told Confidential. "It's exciting."

Sebastian, 31, will soon travel to the US to begin working on his next album.

It is a decade since he won the very first Australian Idol, beating Shannon Noll to the title and instant national stardom.

It's been a good 10 years, he said.

"When I think about how much I've crammed into a decade, I've done seven albums, tonnes of tours, it's been full on," he said.

"We've (he and wife Jules) had a kid (son, Hudson) and gone through heaps of ups and downs. It feels like 10 years, it really does."

Out of all of the Australian Idol alumni, Sebastian has arguably enjoyed the most success here and overseas. The same can be said for original American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, who also became a huge international star.

But despite making an impression on the US market with his Lupe Fiasco collaboration, Battle Scars, Sebastian is yet to fully crack the hugely competitive but potentially highly lucrative American charts.

He's also had some success in the US with his songs Who's That Girl (featuring Eve) and Like It Like That. Signing with Cherry could well be his ticket to mainstream success there.

Meanwhile, Sebastian's wife is a stylist and has her own show on MTV called Style Me and was nominated for an ASTRA Award last week.

"Jules is a natural," he said.

"She is really funny, and it was shot really well. I'm a proud hubby, she is a good sort as well."

Josh Lawson casts brothers Jordan and Ben in new film The Little Death

Actors Jordan, Josh and Ben Lawson from the film The Little Death. Picture: Attila Szilvasi Source: DailyTelegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

It’s a united front of Lawson brothers. Actor Josh Lawson has cast brothers Jordan and Ben in his first directorial gig with all three to appear on the big screen in The Little Death which begins production in Sydney this week.

The full cast boasts a who's who of Aussie talent including Lisa McCune, Bojana Novakovic, Kate Mulvaney, Damon Herriman, Kim Gyngell, Alan Dukes and Lachy Hulme. "I can safely say I got everyone I wanted," said Josh Lawson, 32, who studied at NIDA.

The Little Death is produced by Ticket To Ride and will be distributed by Hopscotch/One Entertainment. It tells the story of five couples and the various sexual fetishes that make them different.

Shooting begins across Sydney today, including in Lane Cove, Artarmon, Parramatta and Redfern.

Ben Lawson, 33, is also a NIDA graduate while for Jordan, 28, it is his first acting job.

"I don't think I'm in any scene long enough to ruin anything so I think I will be fine," Jordan said.

To follow the progress of the film, the Lawson brothers and cast will Tweet throughout the production from @TheLittle-Death.

The best 100 Australian TV characters of all time

 

Georgie Parker, one of the heroines of our top 100 TV characters list. Source: News Limited

 

Debbie Schipp, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

They’ve touched our hearts in Australia's most popular and enduring dramas - and they've done it more than once.

Television screen queens Rebecca Gibney and Georgie Parker, both 48, have proved themselves the masters - or mistresses - of reinvention. Through characters on hit shows including A Country Practice, All Saints, The Flying Doctors and Packed to the Rafters, they have netted three Gold Logies, a swag of silver and outstanding actress awards, and shared in some of Australia's most treasured televised moments.

Both feature in The Sunday Telegraph's list of TV's Top 100 characters - more than once.

Gibney and Parker agreed that making the cut wasn't just down to them. Their success was a combination of great writing, character resolution, and an audience love of Australian voices telling local stories.

Gibney said 30 years ago she would have scoffed at the idea that she'd still be working post 40. "The fact that I'm 48 and still kicking is great," she said.

The mum-of-one's big break came at the age of 19, when she was cast as the girl next door mechanic in The Flying Doctors - a role she played from 1986 to 1991 - and audiences loved her. She was a hit in All Together Now opposite Jon English and by 1994, as cool, Armani-clad Dr Jane Halifax in Halifax f.p. Gibney was a firm favourite with Australian audiences. Her most recent incarnation as Julie Rafter only reinforced that.

"Of all the characters Julie Rafter probably came the easiest because she felt like a combination of all of my sisters," she said.

And it's her role in Rafters that connects to Parker - they share Erik Thomson as a love interest. He plays Mr Rafter and Parker's boyfriend in All Saints. Parker, currently starring as Ruth "Roo" Stewart in Home And Away, first came to prominence as lovable nurse Lucy Gardiner in A Country Practice. She collected Gold Logie number two as All Saints former nun turned nurse with a heart of gold Terri Sullivan.

"It's the character, not the actor, people fall in love with," she says. "The characters are the stars. They captured imagination, they were in good shows and they hit a nerve, so that the audience wanted what was best for them."

Television screen queens Rebecca Gibney and Georgie Parker, both 48, have proved themselves the masters-or mistresses - of reinvention.

Ahead of Monday's Helpmanns we look at the stage shows inspired by film, from Legally Blonde to King Kong

MASSIVE: King Kong the musical. Source: Getty Images

 

 

Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports

How do you top a 6m-tall gorilla with massive stage presence?

Global Creatures, the company behind monster hit and eight-time Helpmann nominee King Kong, is too smart to even try.

After pulling off the technological feat of the decade, the folk who gave us Walking With Dinosaurs and the How To Train Your Dragon arena show are figuratively downsizing for their next project - Strictly Ballroom, the musical -which opens in Sydney in April.

The hotly-anticipated stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's breakthrough 1992 film marks a significant shift away from Global Creatures' animatronics-driven market niche, but as was the case with its chest-thumping, multi-million dollar predecessor, the producers are relying on the knock-on effect of some good, old fashioned movie magic to help them cast a spell over the box office.

And in that regard, the two productions are right on trend.

Almost all the major new musicals that have opened in Australia in the last few years, from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to Hairspray, Dr Zhivago to An Officer and A Gentleman, have been adapted from successful feature films.

"Audiences seem to want a level of comfort about what it is they are going to see,'' says Global Creatures chief executive Carmen Pavlovic.

"One of the benefits of having a well-known title, of course, is that you come to the market with a certain amount of branding in place and a certain amount of recognition.

"But that can also mean a huge amount of expectation. So it can be good and bad."

John Frost, who produced eight-time Helpmann nominee Legally Blonde, compares the familiarity phenomenon to the pleasure of eating at a favourite restaurant.

"On a Friday night, when you finish work, you say: let's go to the local Italian on the corner. I know that food. I can take my own bottle of red. I know I will have a good time."

Frost has three more film-to-musical adaptations - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The First Wives Club and The Bodyguard - on his current production slate. A fourth, based on the hit Australian film Red Dog, is currently in development.

Directors Simon Phillips (Priscilla) and Roger Hodgman (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) don't believe the current crop of film-to-musical productions is driven purely by commercial considerations.

Almost by their very nature, they say, film scripts lend themselves well to musical adaptation.

"If you look at the bones of the story, it happens in quite quick small grabs. And that allows the same kind of air for songs that a movie does for visuals,'' says Phillips.

Hodgman, currently in rehearsals for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Tony Sheldon, agrees.

"A lot of film is told by pictures. In a way, the music is replacing the pictures, and in some cases, that allows a much more emotional connection with the characters."

And the two directors point out that the recycling of storylines is a time-honoured theatrical practice.

My Fair Lady was based on a play (George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.) So was Oklahoma and the opera Madame Butterfly. Most of Shakespeare's plays were based on earlier works.

Nor is it a one-way street. Hit Australian movie The Sapphires, for instance, actually started out life on stage.

"Good, snappy, original stories are not as thick on the ground as we would like them to be,'' says Phillips.

"So you grab the essence of an idea from wherever you can and then make it into the art form that is your skill set."

Even so, says Hodgman, basing a musical on a movie is no guarantee of success.

For every Legally Blonde, there's an Addams Family, which ended prematurely, leaving the Capitol Theatre in the dark.

And for every Priscilla, there's An Officer and A Gentleman, which flopped at the box office.

"I think people are getting to the point where they do want to see original stuff,'' says Frost, who produced the original musical based on the 1982 Richard Gere/Debra Winger romance.

"Whether An Officer and a Gentleman was good or bad, people didn't go. One of the reasons, I think, was that they thought: well, I saw that movie why do I want to go and see it on stage?"

So in the interests of creative and financial diversification, Frost is also developing a new musical, Dream Lover, based on the story of singer-songwriter Bobby Darin, who died at the age of 37.

* This year's Helpmann Awards winners will be announced at the Opera House on Monday. They screen on Foxtel's Arena channel on Monday night at 8.30pm and are then repeated at 10.30pm, and on Tuesday at 2.35pm and 4.35pm.

Tara Reid wants Sharknado sequel set in Australia

Tara Reid stars in the mockbuster television movie Sharknado screening on Foxtel’s Universal Channel on July 26 Source: Supplied

 

Kathy McCabe, The Daily Telegraph, reports

American Pie star Tara Reid wants the mooted Sharknado sequel to be set in Australia as she remains in "shock" at the way the cult mockbuster has put her back on the celebrity map.

The American Pie franchise may have kept Tara Reid on the big screen for the past decade but the schlock horror telemovie Sharknado has rapidly restored her Hollywood cred.

Reid said she remains "in shock" and flabbergasted by the social media feeding frenzy which erupted after Sharknado screened in the US last week.

It has now been rush released in Australia, with its premiere on Foxtel's Universal channel tomorrow.

We get a special shout-out at the 14 minute mark as Ian Ziering's aptly-named character Fin comforts his chomped Aussie mate on the beach saying "Sharks don't like Vegemite".

"I cannot believe I am doing interviews with you in Australia for Sharknado," Reid said this morning.

"Sharknado 2 could work in Australia because there are so many sharks there. It could be possible to set it there."

The movie, starring Reid and a scene-stealing lead performance from former 90201 jock Ziering, didn't set the ratings alight but generated delight among lovers of "so bad, it's good" cinema.

The plot? A hurricane racing up the American west coast floods Los Angeles streets, drains, houses and cars with shark-infested waters.

This "natural" disaster escalates when water spouts suck up thousands of sharks which rain down on unlucky pedestrians when the tornadoes strike land.

Reid said she thought the script was "ridiculous" when she first read it and signed on because she was certain no-one would watch it.

"I thought I would just do it for a laugh, take the money and run. The whole concept is absurd, sharks fly in the sky and eat people in Beverly Hills through the drains and jump in their pools while we shoot at them. It is absolutely ridiculous," Reid said, laughing.

Most of the cast shared her incredulity as they read the diabolical dialogue while pretending to be under siege by sharks.

"We were laughing so hard but I laughed even harder watching some of the actors take it seriously," she said.

Reid admits there were a couple of "diva" moments on the Sharknado set when she could no longer suspend her disbelief in the script.

One was the casting of her American Reunion co-star Chuck Hittinger as her son.

"What? I had him when I was two?" she said.

And the other was when she refused to kiss a blood-soaked Ziering, who plays her ex-husband, in the final scene after he has cut his way out from inside a giant shark which has swallowed him whole.

"I tried to get that taken out of the movie, telling them I am not going to kiss him," she explained.

"He was covered in blood and I have a boyfriend. But the studio insisted we film it for the romance.

"It's a dumbass kiss, just so stupid. They wanted me to really kiss him!"

Reid was on tour in Mexico with her boyfriend Erez Eisen of electronic duo Infected Mushroom when Sharknado premiered in America.

She said Eisen and his band mates and crew ribbed her mercilessly as they watched it on the tour bus after she was deluged by texts and messages from friends and fans.

"I was so embarrassed! But then I suggested he start playing the theme song in their set with a video of shark scenes behind him and he said no pretty fast," she said.

Reid confirmed she has been targeted with many more mockbuster offers post Sharknado involving zombies, ghosts and vampires.

"They get worse and worse. Zombies versus sharks. Or vampires," she said.

Film of the week: The Wolverine

Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen in The Wolverine. Source: Supplied

Leigh Paatsch, The Daily Telegraph, reports

FILM OF THE WEEK: Let's be frank here. With its Marvel franchise stablemate The Avengers breaking box-office records on a regular basis, the X-Men series feels a bit like yesterday's news.

Therefore another solo outing for that metal-clawed, mutton-chopped mutant Wolverine (aka Logan) is hardly the hottest ticket of the US summer blockbuster season.

Especially if Wolvie's dull origin-story movie in 2009 left you cold.

Well, it is a pleasure to report that The Wolverine is something of a return to form. Never absolutely essential, but never a waste of your precious time.

The tentative dithering of the last instalment is gone. The Wolverine means business from the get-go. The storyline has a whole new direction to navigate.

So don't go missing the first few minutes here, or you could find yourself playing catch-up for the rest of the movie.

An enjoyably over-the-top prologue finds Logan (Hugh Jackman) bracing himself for the drop of an atomic bomb at Nagasaki in 1945.

Just before the fateful moment of impact, Logan uses his self-healing superpowers to save the life of a Japanese soldier.

One mushroom cloud and many decades later, and that soldier has become the richest man in Japan. On his deathbed, the elderly industrialist Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) wants to do one last deal.

Only Logan can deliver the goods Yashida wants to acquire. So the businessman sends a scarlet-haired, schoolgirl-outfitted emissary named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) to retrieve Logan from a self-imposed exile in the Canadian wilderness.

Freaky story, huh? Well, The Wolverine is only getting started with its weird departures from the norm.

Yashida wishes to purchase and extract Logan's immortality. Tired of the burden of everlasting life, and pining for his dead true love Jean Grey (Famke Janssen in flashback mode), Logan is tempted by the offer.

Nevertheless, he turns it down, and the old man dies. However, if Logan thinks he can leave Japan and go back to hanging out with bears in the Rockies, he is sorely mistaken.

The rest of The Wolverine? Pretty much Logan versus the Yakuza, Logan versus a gang of black-clad ninja archers, and Logan versus every freelance hitman in Japan.

Yep, it is mostly a fight movie, occasionally a chase movie, and that it is all.

Set-piece action sequences range from quite good to truly great. Though a few of the combat sequences are slightly unwieldy in their construction, a ripping five-minute scrap on the roof of a bullet train is one of the great stand-alone scenes of 2013.

--

THE WOLVERINE [M]
Rating: 3/5
Director: James Mangold (Walk the Line)
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Hal Yamanouchi, Rila Fukushima, Famke Janssen
"Hell hath no furry than a Wolverine returned"

Wolf Creek 2 secures world premiere at Venice Film Festival

Actor John Jarratt channelling Mick Taylor in Wolf Creek 2. Source: News Limited

 

Neala Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

One of the classiest and oldest film festivals in the world, Venice, will this year get a good old-fashioned dose of Aussie splatter.

Horror movie Wolf Creek 2 will have its world premiere at the Italian festival, which runs from August 28-September 7.

The film revives John Jarratt's iconic role as sadistic pig-shooter Mick Taylor, letting him loose on unsuspecting backpackers for another outback killing spree.

Director Greg Mclean today called the premiere a "great way to experience how this very Australian movie plays to a global audience. My hope is it will be embraced for being every bit as entertaining, controversial and compelling as the first movie".

In a statement, Jarratt added, "It's very rare for a film festival to accept a sequel, unless it's exceptionally high quality. This is a wonderful endorsement of our great film."

Wolf Creek 2 will be shown in Venice's Midnight program, which has previously played host to the likes of Robert Rodriguez's shoot-'em-up slasher Machete.

It will not be alone in showing a darker side at Venice. Festival director Alberto Barbera has said this year's program "reflects the crises we are going through ... sexual abuse, violence against women, the break-down of family ties, inadequate parents, the crisis of values ... filmmakers are not giving any signs of optimism or a way out''.

Venice will play host to three other Australian films. Tracks (about a journey across the centre of Australia, starring Mia Wasikowska), will screen in competition. Low-budget drama Ruin will feature in a competition for rising talents and documentary Ukraine is Not a Brothel will screen out of competition.

Another Australian film set to premiere overseas is Felony, a crime drama written by and starring Joel Edgerton. Co-starring Jai Courtney and Melissa George, it will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 5-15.

Wolf Creek 2 opens in Australia on February 20.

Kylie's gone back to baring her most famous asset, 13 years after THOSE golden hotpants!

Ready to go ... into the blue Picture: Kylie Minogue on Instagram Source: Supplied

 

 

 
The Daily Telegraph reports

It's been 13 years since Kylie Minogue shimmied her derrière in a now infamous pair of gold hotpants, but time has most definitely been kind to her most famous asset.

In fact, Kylie's behind looked more pert than ever, in several photographs she shared on her Instagram page while on holiday this week.

Despite the fact the 45-year-old singer was standing in front of a picturesque ocean view, it's not hard to guess what aspect of the shot caught her fans' attention the most.

Alongside the picture, in which she was seen wearing a cutaway leopard-print swimsuit, Kylie wrote: 'Ready to go ... into the blue'.

But it was another photo that she later shared that would have raised the most eyebrows as her derrière looked more perfect than ever.

Kylie shared another image of herself jumping into the sea with a perfect posture which showed off her toned physique.

She first of all teased her fans with a picture of the water and asking; 'Wanna wanna see me jump into this??'

Minogue then posted the image which glorified her most famous asset for all to see while still wearing the flattering leopard print swimsuit.

Since sporting the gold hotpants, which her stylist famously picked up for 50p in a charity shop, in her 2000 Spinning Around video, Kylie has well and truly cemented her status as having the celebrity world's best bottom.

But speaking previously about the attention her behind attracts, Kylie mused: 'I don't know how it happened. Okay, so yes, I put them in gold hot pants, but really I don't know.'

Kylie is currently on holiday in Portofino, Italy, and was seen out on Wednesday looking stunning in silk a red-and-white striped silk T-shirt and black pencil skirt.

The singer has been something of a social butterfly of late as, just days before, Kylie enjoyed a night out at London's Hakkasan Hanway Place restaurant on Saturday night, wearing a cream negligee dress.

And a day earlier the award-winning popster had paid a visit to Rihanna's hotel, where she stayed for over an hour, sparking speculation the two singing divas may team up for a new single.

Now that they are Roc Nation label buddies, that suggestion isn't too far fetched, especially as Kylie's new album shows a more urban influence thanks to collaborations with the likes of rapper Brooke Candy and legendary R&B producer Darkchild.

While the album is still unnamed, Kylie did tease a sample of the debut single from the new LP called Skirt.

But despite being part of the Roc family, Minogue is adamant her musical DNA is fundamentally still present in the record.

'[The album] would have some sparkle, some sex, some insouciance,' Kylie told E! Online. 'And joy - that's what I would hope. That's what people tell me.

'There's a lot to be said for making people feel good. That's, like, the most rewarding part of what I do.'

Singer Kylie Minogue in her Famous Gold Hotpants 67342 for Spinning Around video. Source: Supplied

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neighbours star Kym Valentine sues over alleged sex and disability discrimination

Kym Valentine is suing producers of Neighbours for sex and disability discrimination Source: News Limited

 

 News.com.au reports

One-time Neighbours star Kym Valentine is suing producers of the show for compensation, claiming they subjected her to sex and disability discrimination.

Valentine, who played Libby Kennedy in the long-running series, alleges FremantleMedia Australia failed to provide a safe working environment.

She is asking to be rehired in the role which she played for more than 15 years.

According to documents obtained by Fairfax, Valentine wants compensation for "pain, hurt, suffering and humiliation" and lost wages.

Valentine has been unwell in recent years after first suffering pneumonia and then a collapsed lung in 2008. She was in ill health again in 2010 and has been on sick leave for the last two years.

Her contract with the show is believed to have expired in 2011.

The production company and Valentine would not comment.

Space-age Hawko's stellar night at 11th annual Astra awards

Jennifer Hawkins at the 11th Annual ASTRA Awards. Picture: Richard Dobson Source: DailyTelegraph

 

Jonathon Moran, The Daily Telegraph, reports

For someone with a history of wardrobe malfunctions, Jennifer Hawkins chose a daring design for the ASTRA awards last night.

The newlywed wore an exceptionally low cut white cutaway Galanni dress with a Barbarella-style clear and black plastic arrangement to protect her modesty.

She completed the look with white heels and a gold bracelet to match her Givenchy clutch and looked simply dazzling on the red carpet.

The star of Australia’s Next Top Model was joined by a number of her catwalk hopefuls and the pick of subscription TV stars at the Sydney Theatre, in Walsh Bay.

"This is my first ASTRA's," she said. "I have heard they are a lot of fun."

Megan Gale wore a pale pink Alex Perry creation the designer "whipped up in just two days".

"He has killed it," she said. "He always does. It is going to be a great night. I missed the after party last year but I heard it was a blast."

Of the dress, Perry said: "It is not hard, you could wrap Megan Gale up in a plastic bag and she would look amazing. It is the ultimate job dressing her."

As for the actual awards, it was a strong night for local production Tangle,  which scooped the pool with three major ASTRAs.

As well as being named most outstanding drama, up against big budget international productions The Walking Dead, Justified and Dripping In Chocolate, the show scored two other awards.

Catherine McClements won most outstanding actress for her portrayal of Christine Williams on the critically acclaimed show.

And 21-year-old Lincoln Younes beat industry veterans David Wenham and Dan Wyllie to win his first major award, named most outstanding actor for his performance on the show.

"It was the first ever job and the first audition I did so I obviously have a lot of good memories with this," Younes said. "To just be nominated in that class of actors is an honour so I'm very happy."

Working with the likes of Justine Clarke, Kat Stewart, Matt Day, Don Hany and Ben Mendelsohn on the show was a daunting prospect for the young actor, who is now a regular cast member on soap, Home and Away.

"It was intimidating but it made me step up quicker," Younes said. "I learnt fast but I also learnt from the best. I'm very grateful for having been around such amazing actors."

Tangle ran over three seasons and 22 episodes on Foxtel's Showcase channel and is now being repeated on Soho. Unfortunately for fans, the show has run its course.

"Everyone in the cast wished there was a fourth season and a lot of the audience did as well but I think it is done and dusted now so tonight is like the last hurrah," Younes said, wearing a loaned Burberry suit he said made him "feel like a fraud because I've never worn anything that expensive or cool before".

The popularity of home renovation shows was also confirmed by a bumper haul last night as Selling Houses Australia trumped its rivals to take home three major gongs.

It won favourite Australian program, as well as scoring best male and female presenter nods respectively for Andrew Winter and Shaynna Blaze.

"It wasn't that long ago that a lot of the property shows were being cut back," Winter told The Daily Telegraph.

"The Block disappeared and came back. They've bounced back now (to better ratings) than they ever were."

The 46-year-old real estate agent was up against some fairly high-profile competition in subscription television's annual night-of-nights, including Rove McManus, Paul Murray, Matty Johns, Peter Maddison and Danny Clayton.

After the UK version of Selling Houses was axed, Foxtel commissioned the Australian series, which is now in production for its seventh season.

"The passion people have for these shows is increasing, especially in the tough times for property," said Blaze, an interior designer and also a judge on The Block, who beat the likes of Deborah Hutton, Megan Gale and Carissa Walford in the category.

"People don't want to make mistakes so they are looking at these shows to give them guidance and to see you can add value to your property."

Grand Designs, presented by designer and writer Kevin McCloud, rounded out the home renovation whitewash by nabbing Favourite International Program. The result comes at a time when Seven's House Rules and Nine's The Block: Sky High have been ratings winners on free TV.

Veteran film critic and television presenter Bill Collins was honoured with the inaugural ASTRA lifetime achievement award.

 

 

 

True Blood's Joe Manganiello with Bridget Peters at the 11th Annual ASTRA Awards. Picture: Richard Dobson Source: DailyTelegraph

Andrew Gunsberg follows in the steps of P Diddy and Snoop Dogg in multiple name game

Osher, or Andrew, Gunsberg is an enthusiastic player of the what's-in-a-name-game. Picture: Glen McCurtayne/Coleman-Rayner Source: Supplied

 

 

Kerry Parnell, The Daily Telegraph, reports

What’s with all this name-changing business? Once upon a time, the rules were clear. If you wanted to be a celebrity you would ditch your duff name and pick something more glamorous, like Norma Jeane Mortenson to Marilyn Monroe, Reginald Dwight to Elton John or Archibald Leach to Cary Grant.

Simple. And if you happened to be the hapless offspring of overenthusiastic celebrity parents, you'd reverse the process - binning off your absurd name and going for something much more sensible, such as Zowie Bowie to Duncan Jones. Expect Apple Martin to be Edna any day now.

But now there's a whole new disturbing trend, to keep changing your name, over and over like some kind of warp-speed Twitter feed.

Well that's just greedy.

Andrew Gunsberg is one. He's on his fourth name now - first we knew him as Andy G, a nice Aussie-sounding name just made for the blonde hunky host of Australian Idol in 2003. Then he became Andrew G, followed a few years later with his Umlaut Period, when presumably we were all multicultural enough to cope with his surname Andrew Gunsberg.

And now, folks, we've gone full circle and brought back the very name he was born with - Osher Gunsberg.

Well, make your mind up, mate. What's that all about?

Perhaps he's taking inspiration from other such luminaries as Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, Diddy, Puffy or whatever the Puff you call him now. I can't keep up. Do you think he ever met Ken Dodd? I suspect not.

He in turn infected Snoop Dogg, aka, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr no less, who has upgraded his own ferocity and would now like to be known as Snoop Lion. Must have run out of canine puns.

I do think expecting the general public to embrace the newly-named you is taking yourself a little seriously. I mean, who does that in real life?

There are very few occasions where you can just rename yourself and not look like a total knob. A few people try it, usually at university, introducing themselves by their exotic new name and ridding themselves of their past.

But it rarely works, as there's that little problem of all those friends and relatives who keep popping up from the past and insisting on addressing you as Karen, not Karin, Amanda, or Portia.

I once worked on a magazine with a woman who had a fabulous-sounding name - let's call her Persephone Brown - much to the envy of her colleagues who had far less byline-worthy monikers. That is until her mum kept calling up and asking to speak to Tracey.

It's one thing to have a tremendous name worthy of a film star or author - my nephew is called Rocco Rivetti which is all kinds of marvellous - but not if you gave it to yourself.

And certainly not if you decide to keep changing it. No, no, you only get one chance at being poncy, not 10. Anyway, it didn't work for Prince, did it? As soon as he changed his name to squiggle, a symbol no one could pronounce, we all stopped talking about him. And he's spent the rest of his days ignored, weeping over his billions. Probably.

Back to happy haunting grounds for director James Wan

The Conjuring director James Wan says his fear of the supernatural helps him tackle his films. Source: Supplied

 

 

James Wigney, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Aussie Saw director James Wan is at home with the horror in his new movie The Conjuring, writes James Wigney.

[*] How did you come across this extraordinary story of real-life spook hunters Leslie and Ed Warren that forms the basis of The Conjuring?

It's hard to not have heard of these guys when you have made as many movies as I have in this genre - their names just kept coming up. After the first Insidious movie I didn't really want to make another ghost story or haunted house film but the idea of doing a film that is 'based on true life characters' - that was what intrigued me. After Insidious I knew that I wanted to get back into studio filmmaking and the way to do that is to do something that you have been successful in, but at a studio level. They weren't going to give me a romantic comedy after Insidious so I knew I had to do something in that world or with that kind of flavour.

[*] What did you make of the Warrens - did they make you believe in the supernatural through this haunted house story? Or were you already a believer?

I wanted to have a movie that was subjective - through their point of view and that of the family in the film. The Warrens come in and help this family going through these really bad supernatural experiences and I wanted to hear their stories and tell it from their perspective. I'm not here to make a documentary but I wanted to bring my approach to how I see this world.

[*] It sounds like you have a pretty open mind on things that go bump in the night though?

Definitely. I was raised with a pretty strict Christian upbringing but coming from an Asian background as well I grew up with a lot of ghost stories and superstition. So from a very young age I was subjected to this world and very much fascinated by it.

[*] Have you ever had an experience you couldn't explain?

One time I woke up in a hotel room and I thought I saw something - but I suppressed that and tell myself I did not see a ghost. If I believed that I saw a ghost I would be terrified beyond belief and I would not be able to make these films. People say to me that because I make a lot of these films I must not be afraid of ghosts. Quite the contrary - I am a real chickens---t when it comes to the supernatural and I believe my fear of that is what allows me to tackle these films.

[*] People have been watching and loving haunted house movies for years - is that familiarity a help or a hindrance when it comes to making something like The Conjuring or Insidious?

It's both. People have been sitting around the campfire and telling ghost stories since the dawn of time so that means as human beings we love to be scared and love the roller-coaster ride these movies take us to. But the flip side of that is that people are so used to seeing these stories and it takes a lot to scare a modern audience. Trying to stay one step ahead of that is quite a challenge but that's what I strive to do with all my films.

[*] Why do horror movies do so much better in America than Australia - is there something dark in the American psyche?

There is just a real genuine love for the genre that is just built in. I think a big part of that is that the second biggest commercial holiday in the US is Halloween and they love to dress up and scare each other. So I think it's very much entrenched in their pop culture. Insidious didn't do as strongly in Australia as it did in the US and other parts of the world and yet the first Saw did crazy good in Australia. I don't know why some things work and some things don't.

[*] And yet you had to go to the US to actually get Saw made - could you do what you do here in Australia?

We really gave it a shot - we spent a year to two years trying to get financing for Saw in Australia and we just couldn't get it off the ground.

[*] Would you like to make a film in Australia?

I have been wanting to for a while. I would love to take a project back to Melbourne. All my family is in Perth so they have been wanting me to shoot something in Western Australia. I have been talking to Vin Diesel quite a bit recently and we were talking about Coober Pedy where he shot Pitch Black. I have been trying to hint that future Fast and Furious films should take place in Australia.

[*] How far down the track are you with directing Fast and Furious 7?

I am knee-deep in pre-production and it's a pretty crazy world but I have been wanting to make a big-budget action film forever. Growing up, that's the sort of stuff I loved and ten years after I made Saw I finally get to do it so I am really excited.

[*] Fast and Furious is literally a billion-dollar business - are you feeling the weight of expectation that comes with that?

Definitely. Especially given how well the last two have done, not just financially but critically as well. It's funny, if you hang in there long enough the critics eventually turn around and say 'oh, you're not too bad'. The filmmakers, the studio, the cast and crew have done such a great job in letting people know it's a fun franchise and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. People really appreciate that and go along for the ride.

[*] Vin Diesel said he thought you had a darkness that would suit where the story is at the moment - what are you hoping to bring to the franchise?

I love what Justin Lin has done in revitalising the franchise and I want to honour the world they have created but at the same time I want to bring my own style to it. I want it to be a bit more gritty and grounded and I want my action scenes to feel more realistic. Number seven is at its core a classic revenge thriller and I feel that's a world I can really sink my teeth into and do it justice.

[*] And with Jason Statham as well.

Exactly - that's where the revenge comes from. Statham's character is so single-minded in what he wants to achieve and that is basically to get at the people who hurt his loved one. But he is not just a bad guy - he is a bad guy with a code. He doesn't want to hurt innocent people, he just wants to go after the people that hurt his family and you had better not get in his way. He's more like a classic, '70s antihero who straddles that grey area of a bad guy with a good guy's code. My approach to Fast 7 is the Seven Samurai - it even has the word seven in the title so I just see that as a good omen.

SEE THE CONJURING OPENS 18 JULY.