A brush with love for Asher Keddie

Melbourne artist Vincent Fantauzzo has painted his girlfriend actress Asher Keddie for the Archibald Prize / Pic: Jason Edwards Source: The Daily Telegraph

Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, reports

It’s a look of chaos but contentment - the ease of coming home from an awful day to the arms of the one you love.

After months of struggling for inspiration, Vincent Fantauzzo, the artist boyfriend of actress Asher Keddie, only needed to watch her walk in the door one night to realise how he would paint her for the Archibald Prize.

"It had been a fairly hectic day for Asher and she had this glazed-eye look but there were other looks of comfort and confidence and affection too," Fantauzzo told Confidential yesterday.

"We work so hard and life moves so quickly and then all of a sudden that chaos can just disappear (when we're together). We have moments like that quite a lot."

Fantauzzo, who is entering his ninth picture in the Archibalds, found infamy with a dark portrait of Heath Ledger showing three alter egos of the troubled actor, which became public just after Ledger's tragic death in 2008."A lot of my images have been quite dramatic and I guess this one (Asher) is about where we're at right now," he said.

"I wanted it to be honest and not over-complicated."

Offspring star Keddie, who met Fantauzzo about a year ago through mutual friend Matt Moran, admitted to being breathless when she saw the end result.

"It's a celebration for us, in a way," she said.

"There's a lot of loveliness in our lives at the moment and this was something we could enjoy doing together."

Fantauzzo, who took six weeks to complete the painting, said it was the easiest work he has done.

"I just loved doing it every day," he said.

While the Archibald finalists won't be announced until next Thursday, Fantauzzo knows what he could do with the $75,000 prize money.

"I would take Asher on a really good holiday," he said.

The Archibald winner will be revealed on March 22.

Home-grown talent attracts Hollywood backing

Guy Pearce in the Jack Irish telemovies.

Garry Maddox, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Boosted by The Great Gatsby and I, Frankenstein, the value of Australian film and TV drama production jumped 25 per cent last financial year.

According to Screen Australia's annual drama report, a sharp decline in foreign production was more than matched by an increase in big-budget films shot by Australian directors with Hollywood backing.

Drama production rose from $497 million in the previous financial year to $623 million, including 28 films worth $296 million. While a healthy output, it was below the record of $739 million in 2009-10.

On the basis they were driven by local creative teams, the report counts as Australian Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, shot in and around Sydney starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, and Stuart Beattie's I, Frankenstein, shot in Melbourne with Yvonne Strahovski, Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy.

Other smaller-scale films produced during the year included The Sapphires, Kath & Kimderella, Mental and the British co-production The Railway Man, starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth.

''It's been a strong year for feature production with a bigger slate overall, boosted by high-budget Australian titles,'' the chief executive of Screen Australia, Ruth Harley, said. She described the health of the sector as ''pretty robust''.

Luhrmann praised the country's producer offset, a 40 per cent tax rebate, for allowing him to shoot a movie here that was set in 1920s New York: ''To work with Australia's skilled film technicians and facilities and to bring large-scale projects like The Great Gatsby to Australia, we can't have our head in the sand about the fact that the country is a long way away.''

While the quality of recent Australian adult TV drama has been impressive, spending fell 13 per cent to $279 million. As hours also dipped, by 6 per cent, there was a shift from series and serials towards mini-series and telemovies.

The report counts House Husbands, Offspring and Puberty Blues as mini-series alongside Howzat! Kerry Packer's War, Underbelly: Badness and the coming British co-production Mrs Biggs - The Untold Story behind the Great Train Robbery.

There has also been a mini boom in telemovies - from five to 10 - including Underground: The Julian Assange Story, Beaconsfield and the Jack Irish films.

While Australia has often been a popular location for foreign movies, the high value of the dollar meant that only three started shooting last financial year.

And instead of huge Hollywood movies, they were lower-budget productions from Japan (Hayabusa, the Long Journey Home), India (From Sydney with Love) and Nepal (Destination Kathmandu).

But incentives brought Hollywood studios to Australia for post-production and digital effects work worth $38 million on such big movies as The Avengers, Ted, Prometheus, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Hunger Games.

NSW remained the dominant state for drama with production worth $315 million compared with $212 million in Victoria, $65 million in Queensland and $16 million in South Australia.

Asher's brush with love again

Asher Keddie and Vincent Vantauzzo. Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Almost one year since splitting from musician husband Jay Bowen, Offspring actress Asher Keddie has found love again with well-known painter and fellow Melbourne local Vincent Fantauzzo.

The much-loved actress made her first official appearance with Fantauzzo on Saturday night when he spoke at the Art Series Hotels Conversation Corner at Warehouse on Oxford St with fellow artists Stormie Mills, Paul Davies and Sarah Goffman.

But all eyes were on Keddie who, according to spies, "hung on Fantauzzo's every word" during his Q&A with the intimate crowd.

"They looked like a very sweet couple and were more than happy to be photographed together," said one partygoer. "He gave a speech and she watched from the front row, glowing"

The pair also enjoyed a romantic dinner at Chiswick on Friday night.

While not quite the household name in the entertainment industry like his new lady love, Fantauzzo is somewhat of a celebrity in the art world having painted Heath Ledger, Matt Moran, Australia star Brandon Walters and most recently Emma Hack for the Archibald Prize.

The Melbourne-based painter is also a two-time the Archibald Prize People's Choice Award winner - for his famous portrait of Ledger in 2008 and Walters in 2009 - and last year he won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for his portrait of Baz Luhrmann.

It's understood Fantauzzo recently separated from wife Michelle (they have a two-year-old son, Luca) while Keddie - who married Bowen in 2007 - split amicably with the rocker last December. A rep for the actress yesterday said, "I can confirm Vincent and Asher are dating," adding Keddie and Bowen, "remain great friends".

Offspring saves the best till last

Offspring stars Asher Keddie and Matt Le Nevez. Source: National Features

Ian Cuthbertson, The Advertiser, reports

Sadly, Wednesday's season-three finale could be the very last episode of Offspring.

There have been rumours of a fourth season, but nothing has been confirmed. It has been quite a ride for Asher Keddie, Eddie Perfect and the team. The recent bombshell that Keddie's character Nina Proudman might be pregnant continues to resonate tonight. It's also, in the wacky spirit of the show, her birthday. The problem with the pregnancy is that nothing is resolved in her relationship with the father Patrick (Matthew Le Nevez), and that it comes as something of a slap in the face to her sister Billie (Kat Stewart), who is working through infertility issues with her husband Mick (Perfect). It's great to see Mick and his pop duo co-star Rosanna (Clare Bowditch) singing together on television, even if it is the sort of thing that tends to make a Proudman girl hallucinate, feel inadequate, and sing incredibly badly for far too long in the bathroom. A great finale that will keep you guessing until the very last minute.

Offspring, Wednesday, 8.30pm, Ten

Acting with a spring in his step

Eddie Perfect enjoys the break from writing that his role in Offspring affords.

Paul Kalina, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Eddie Perfect will make a real man of Offspring's Mick yet.

For Eddie Perfect and his Offspring character Mick Holland, botch-ups have paid healthy dividends.

For his first scene in the pilot of the Melbourne-made dramedy, whose third season concludes on July 11, Mick and his on-again, off-again then girlfriend, now wife, Billie Proudman (Kat Stewart), stole an intimate moment in a stranger's house.

It was meant to be a steamy sex scene, but for the nervousness that the self-confessed novice actor was experiencing.

''I couldn't get her friggin' buttons undone and her accessories got caught on my clothes; it was awkward and we laughed our heads off through the entire scene,'' says Perfect, sipping mint tea in an East Brunswick cafe that could easily be a backdrop for the urbane drama. Indeed, when we leave one hour later, fellow cast member Richard Davies, who plays Billie's airhead brother, Jimmy, pulls up in his car and the two actors amicably hug in what feels like a scene from the show.

''But it turned into a quite comic, awkward moment, and from then on the writers have never attempted to do anything sexy like that for us again, which is great. We managed to shape these characters, who are a contrast to the more brooding doctors-and-nurses thing that's going on with Nina [Asher Keddie] and the others, which is fine with us.''

Three seasons in, Perfect is still making hay from part-time gardener and wannabe musician Mick's imperfections, even stealing scenes from his more experienced colleagues on the show. Mick and Billie continue to weather their share of storms: there's the ghost of Mick's impulsive one-night fling with Billie's sister, Nina; the ongoing problems of Mick's infertility, which in turn catalysed an uneasy reconciliation with his brother, Andrew (Dan Spielman); and Mick's evident attraction to fellow musician Rosanna (Clare Bowditch).

''He's not successful and he's scared,'' says Perfect of Mick. ''He's not ambitious and is unwilling to push himself. I find that an interesting place to be.

''His ambitions are really small. I know lots of people like that and it's complicated, because part of it is trying to draw a circle around your life and minimise the drive and desperation and be happy with what you have creatively. It's about creating a comfort zone that limits your ability to take things further. Mick's scared of success, really. He doesn't like to put himself out there.''

One of the key drivers of the Mick and Billie storyline this season has involved Mick's relationship with Rosanna - or, more specifically, his mishandling of their musical partnership, which threatens Billie to her core.

''A real relationship is measured by how you manage those things … and stay connected to your partner,'' Perfect says.

''There are feelings [for Rosanna] he's denying to protect Billie. He is confident he can handle it and feels he should have the trust and latitude to handle it on his own. That's what I like about the show. It's not black and white; it's not like, because you're attracted to this person you're inevitably going to sleep with them in a Days of our Lives scenario. Most people in a relationship have had to deal with a crush … and you can navigate that and keep your relationship intact.''

A prolific and versatile writer, Perfect says he doesn't harbour secret ambitions to join Offspring's writing team.

''The thing I enjoy about this job over 90 per cent of my other work, which is writing, is I don't have that control - I don't have that creative voice, I'm just an actor who turns up and acts my lines. I love that.''

Though he wonders whether his perspective would be in line with the female sensibility that drives Offspring's storylines, he offers a sharp insight to a key theme that underlines the show: redemption through humiliation.

''If anyone transgresses, a cataclysmic humiliation happens in public. It's like a public shaming that absolves them and they can move forward. It's quite cathartic … and great territory to explore.''

In real life, Perfect and Stewart separately became parents (Perfect for a second time four months ago) while, ironically, their onscreen characters were dealing with the realisation and aftermath of infertility.

The idea of having a baby is one that TV tends to romanticise, Perfect says.

Not on Offspring. In addition to Mick and Billie's inability to conceive, lurking in the margins is the breakdown of Patrick's (Matthew le Nevez) first marriage following the delivery of a stillborn child, the precarious fate of Jimmy and Zara's (Jane Harber) premature baby and, at the conclusion of last night's episode, Nina's anxiety about her late period after a moment of weakness with Patrick.

Conception affects a lot of people, Perfect says.

For Mick and Billie, the discovery they can't conceive a child together has been a lonely journey, which has stabbed at the weak point of their relationship.

''If you're in a relationship and the end point is having kids together and that's taken away, you're kind of free-falling until you can pinpoint what you're living for now, and I think that's where Mick and Billie are at now,'' he says.

His ownership of Mick not only involves standing up for him - ''Mick's a bit of a doormat and I always feel there are moments I need to stick up for him and represent his point of view'' - but ensuring that he isn't a blank canvas for Billie's explosive episodes.

''Both characters need to be in a scene and after something, wanting something. If there's a scene and you're in it so that the other person doesn't look crazy talking to themselves, then it can be a disappointing experience. Those are the moments you chime in.''

Though a fourth season of the show is yet to be confirmed, Offspring's consolidated audience of more than 1 million suggests it will return.

''I think the reason people like the show is because it shows there's a way through conflict, that things can be resolved, the importance of talking and communicating and accepting people's limitations.''

Offspring is on Wednesday at 8.30pm on Channel Ten.

Asher Keddie set to spread her wings

 

Asher Keddie and Matthew Le Nevez play Nina and Patrick on Offspring. Picture: Channel 10 / Source: Supplied

Colin Vickery, The Herald Sun, reports

Asher Keddie is ready to take on the world.

The Logie award winning actor has conquered Australia as Nina Proudman in Offspring and Ita Buttrose in Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo.

Now it is time for Keddie to spread her wings.

Producing her next TV project is one option. Taking on an overseas acting role - most likely in the UK or US - is another possibility.

Keddie has seen peers Claudia Karvan (Spirited) and Lisa McCune (Reef Doctors) kickstart their own TV projects.

She has also seen Aussie actors Jessica Marais, Brett Tucker and Jessica McNamee score major US TV roles in recent times - in Magic City, Mistresses and Scruples.

Up until now, Keddie has been content to stay local. Why wouldn't you when you have a string of top-notch credits that include Blanche d'Alpuget in Hawke and Julia Jackson in Love My Way.

Keddie reckons the time is ripe to take a chance, make a brave choice and challenge herself.

"I'm open to anything at the moment," Keddie says. "I'm just waiting for something to pique my interest which is different from Nina.

"I enjoy working here (in Australia) but if America or any other country comes into play and there is an opportunity to work overseas, I will heartily embrace it, if I feel the project is right and it excites me."

"Producing is something I'm thinking about, too. I'm interested in the whole filmmaking process. I've worked with such generous producers over the past few years who have valued my creative input."

Maybe life is imitating art. Making brave choices is the theme of the third series of Offspring.

Nina is rapturously in love with medico Dr Patrick Reid (Matthew Le Nevez). That is a landmark for a character well known for her roller-coaster romantic life.

Nina ended her relationship with paediatrician Chris Havel (Don Hany) at the end of series two. Keddie reveals that a third series of Offspring was no certainty until a discussion took place with executive producers John Edwards and Imogen Banks.

"We did speak after the second series," Keddie says. "I guess what we all felt was that if we were going into a third (series) it was important that Nina evolves.

"We knew we had to push ourselves harder otherwise let's not do it. I really wanted to see Nina stay in a relationship. That was a tricky thing because the series was developed on the basis of a woman who has a fabulously messy love life.

"That was the boldest thing to do as opposed to keeping her single and jumping from guy to guy.

"I'm thrilled they (Edwards and Banks) felt the same way. She can still have a fabulously messy love life if she stays put in a relationship and learns to trust someone, however complex that might be."

Dr Patrick Reid is no pushover. He is enigmatic, wry and moody and a former drug addict. The passionate relationship with Nina tests them both emotionally.

"Patrick was the difficult choice - one Nina really had to fight for," Keddie says.

"Dr Chris was a fantasy man and it was a fantasy relationship. Patrick is the complete opposite. He is very complex, difficult to be around, grates on her, and pushes every emotional and physical button she has. I felt it was a brave choice for her to settle into a relationship with him.

"Nina's also brave enough to acknowledge that she's no easy walk in the park either.

"They are mirroring each other. She is taking a deep breath and saying 'I want to grow with this person'."

In the series three debut, Nina also learns that Darcy Proudman (John Waters) isn't her biological father. That will have ramifications.

Offspring fans will be glad to know that Keddie won't abandon the show to pursue other projects. She believes they can work in tandem.

"I think the way series three has evolved has been really interesting," Keddie says.

"There is still plenty of material (for another series). I love this character (Nina)."

Offspring, Channel 10, Wednesday, 8.30pm



Want to know more about Asher Keddie? Keep reading

When Asher Keddie isn't producing award-winning TV performances you will find her on the back of a horse. The 37-year-old is more than happy to get away from the demands of stardom by escaping to the property in country Victoria she shares with actor/musician husband Jay Bowen.

Keddie loves the peace and quiet and the anonymity.

"It (country life) allows me to stop and still my mind," Keddie says. "It is important for all artistic people, particularly actors, to get out of their own bubbles once in a while.

"I have an amazing network of people in the country who couldn't care less what I do for a living.

"I'm just the girl who loves horses and a bonfire on a Saturday night."

Offspring's fiery start for season three

Will Nina's happy life come crashing down around her in season three of Offspring? Picture: Channel 10 Source: Supplied

Colin Vickery, The Herald Sun, reports

Asher Keddie's Nina Proudman is deliriously happy at the start of the third series of Offspring.

Nina is passionately in love with anaesthetist Patrick Reid (Matthew Le Nevez), her career is going gangbusters and the sex is great.

Is it happy ever after?

Not once Nina's mind kicks into gear. She is worried that life is going too well.

"Does the adoring man have to be quite so lovely?" Nina ponders.

"My life is going too well. It means I'm inviting disaster."

Trouble is on its way.

Nina's apartment is destroyed by fire. A scented candle, lit for romance, is the culprit.

"It is just stuff. Fire can be a cleansing thing - burning away everything that doesn't matter," Nina says philosophically.

"Disaster has struck. Balance has been restored."

Unfortunately, there is a bigger blow coming.

Nina finds out that Darcy (John Waters) isn't her biological father.

Darcy's blood type is AB. Nina is type O. Nina's world is ripped apart.

The return of Offspring starts with Nina deliriously happy and ends with her homeless and realising she isn't a Proudman.

A lot of series can sink into complacency by series three, but not Offspring.

This is one Aussie drama, boosted by Keddie's wonderful performance, that gets better with age.

How all Asher Keddie's roles have turned to gold this year ahead of the Logies 2012

 

Asher Keddie with Kat Stewart from the tv show Offspring Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Debbie Schipp, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

Less than 24 hours after being nominated for a slew of Logie Awards this year, actor Asher Keddie is perched among cast and crew in a makeshift lunch area on location in Melbourne.

Clad in off-duty attire of faded slim jeans, low boots and T-shirt, Asher Keddie is casual and calm, ready to resume her role of neurotic Nina Proudman on hit drama Offspring for the day.

She modestly accepts congratulations for three personal Logie nominations - Gold and Silver for the most popular personality and actress categories, and another for most outstanding actress - voted by her industry peers.

Offspring's nomination for both most popular and most outstanding drama, and castmate Eddie Perfect's nomination for most popular actor, are the icing on the cake.

She wears not a trace of make-up, and shows not a trace of the "bolshie-ness" she confesses surfaces occasionally when she's working.

If she's cheering her nominations recognising a body of work that last year saw Offspring ratings soar and Keddie critically acclaimed for her portrayal of media maven Ita Buttrose in Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, it's happening largely on the inside.

"We are all so excited that we are popular and outstanding," she says with a satisfied chuckle.

Keddie may be striving for unruffled, but not so those around her.

Offspring set-up director Kate Dennis blazes in, sees Keddie and launches:

"We did it. Four nominations - four!" Dennis whoops, folding Keddie into a hug.

Keddie gives a low, burbling laugh.

"That's enough Logies talk from you," she says. But the intrusion has liberated Keddie.

"I used to think it was the industry peer-voted stuff that was most important, but having won most popular actress last year (the Silver Logie, she was also nominated for gold in 2011), I think I've changed my mind.

"I was thrilled to accept that. It was a great show of faith from our audience to embrace a show that is not always easy to digest.

"I assume that's why I was celebrated then, so I'm quite keen on the popular awards now."

This year, Logies voters have even more of Keddie to celebrate - her turn as Buttrose in Paper Giants won her a legion of new fans.

She's honoured to be in the company of this year's fellow Gold nominees - reigning Gold Logie holder and Today co-host Karl Stefanovic, funnymen Hamish Blake and Adam Hills, The Project's Carrie Bickmore and former Home and Away actor Jodi Gordon.

"I've never been quite sure what the Gold Logie means - and I'm not being facetious about that," Keddie says. "I hope it means people have been enjoying my work in the projects that I have been committed to in the past two years.

"I love Hamish Blake, I love Adam Hills - all the nominees have extraordinary talent to offer. And if I'm in that mix, I feel pretty special."

At 37, Keddie is one of Australia's most lauded and recognisable actors.

With a third season of Offspring hitting our screens on April 18, just days after the Logies ceremony, audiences will welcome her back as Nina Proudman. But it's Keddie's chameleon quality to absorb herself in any role that has earned her the accolades.

When she adopted the lisp, mannerisms and walk of Buttrose for Paper Giants, she stunned even Buttrose, who recalls hearing Keddie's Ita speak and thinking, "gosh, I know that voice".

Keddie's magic was spotted early by powerful producer John Edwards, who cast her in her "breakthrough" role of neurotic new mum Julia in Love My Way. The pair's projects have included The Secret Life of Us, Offspring and Paper Giants.

Edwards describes her as "thorough, meticulous" and "the hardest-working actor, in terms of preparation, that I've ever worked with".

Off camera, Keddie is intensely private. She cherishes her weekend and between-shoot escapes to the property she shares with musician and actor husband Jay Bowen and her horses in country Victoria. It gives her the mind space she needs.

"There's no balance when we're shooting. I dive in, tear it apart. Then I can go and re-find myself," she says.

"As soon as I get home I'm straight out to the horses. They don't allow you to think about anything else, because they pick it up and react to it."

That sometimes means consciously leaving her characters at the paddock gate. "If I take Nina to the paddock, she has to keep her neuroses in check. She's anxious and that works against any relationship with a horse," she says. "I took Ita to the paddock, though. She was fine."

Keddie is "mildly nervous" about topping her big 2011.

"I want to keep disappearing into other characters," she says.

"I don't want to make too much of a fuss about everything at the moment because it's so important I be able to have a choice about what kind of roles I take on in the future. That means being able to disappear."

Keddie warns Offspring fans "don't get too excited and comfortable with Nina" early in the upcoming third season. "She's shifted, she's digging her heels in to try and grow up and evolve in a relationship that she very much wants, but challenges her to breaking point," she says.

With Offspring wrapped, and the Logies a week away, Keddie is ready for a break.

There are roles in the offing, but first she wants "to see some Europe and see some New York and swim, sleep, eat and read on a beach.

"I'm craving a little more life experience, and to get out of my bubble," she says.

A gap year for Nina of sorts?

"A gap couple of months. I just want to go and live a bit," she says.

"I tend to get consumed by roles. But I don't know how to do it any other way."

Channel Nine will screen the 54th Annual TV Week Logies on April 15 at 7.30pm. Offspring airs on Channel Ten on April 18 at 8.30pm

Lachy Hulme to play Kerry Packer in Nine Network's Howzat: The Kerry Packer Story

Fluctuating weight for TV roles ... In-demand actor Lachy Hulme will play Kerry Packer in Nine's 'Howzat: The Kerry Packer Story'. Source: The Daily Telegraph

 

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

He gained 25kg to play Beaconsfield miner Todd Russell and now, after shedding the weight, Lachy Hulme will have to do it all over again to fill Kerry Packer's shoes.

The actor is hot property on the Australian television and film scene.

Currently appearing in the Aussie feature flick Any Questions For Ben?, Hulme will soon appear in the highly anticipated Channel 9 mini-series Beaconsfield before taking on Nine's former media mogul in its upcoming series Howzat: The Kerry Packer Story.

It was a role which had been widely rumoured to have been Rob Carlton's following his widely commended turn as Packer in the ABC's Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo but Hulme was reported to have recently bagged the gig.

Meanwhile the favourite of uber-Aussie producer John Edwards admits that there are downsides to being in demand.

"I gained 25kg to play Todd," Hulme said.

"Then I lost 20 (kg) to resume my role playing Dr Clegg in Offspring this year ... and now Packer. I'm just hoping he was a bit different in size back then because you know I'm 40 now and can't keep doing it to myself."

With tongue firmly in cheek and a vodka martini in hand at the Any Questions For Ben? premiere on Sunday night, Hulme stood firmly by the "vodka diet" as his recommended plan to fight the body flab.

"And some heavy weights and gym time," he conceded.

Hulme also said that despite recent reports suggesting he had stolen Carlton's gig as Packer in the "follow-up" to ABC's Paper Giants, in which Carlton gave life to the media boss, Hulme in fact was offered the role in the ABC drama ahead of Carlton but had to knock it back because of a conflict with filming Any Questions For Ben?.

However, the timing was right this time around, with filming on the much-hyped Packer mini-series due to begin in Melbourne in April.