Blanchett 'pitch perfect'

Cate Blanchett in Gross und Klein. Photo: Lisa Tomasetti

Karl Quinn, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Cate Blanchett has received one of the most glowing reviews in a career not short on praise for her performance in an absurdist German play on the London stage.

Euan Ferguson, theatre critic of The Observer Sunday newspaper, hailed Blanchett’s turn as Lotte in the Sydney Theatre Company's touring production of Gross und Klein (Big and Little), which opened at the Barbican on Saturday, as ''pitch perfect''.

''Cate Blanchett is beyond terrific. Whimperingly, blisteringly terrific. She is a revelation,'' the critic gushed.

Ferguson reported there were four ovations from the audience at the end of the three-hour production, ''which I think we can safely wager is the first time for a while that a London audience has felt that way about lengthy German surrealist drama''.

They weren't, he insisted, merely lauding a Hollywood star. ''They were applauding the realisation that sometimes, just sometimes, a person truly deserves to be a star.''

Ferguson's was the first review from the mainstream media, but website theartsdesk.com echoed his praise, if not his exuberance. ''Blanchett's performance has an inspiring quality that is constantly surprising and often moving,'' its critic wrote.

During its hometown season, the STC production drew similar plaudits for Blanchett, who is also with husband Andrew Upton, the outgoing artistic director of the company.

''Blanchett gives the performance of her career,'' opined the Sun Herald. ''This is a stunningly expressive performance ... her extraordinary vocal and physical skills as an actor have never been in doubt, but here she is magnificent,'' claimed The Australian. Hers was ''a performance of uncanny detail and riveting in its unpredictability'' said the Sydney Morning Herald.

The STC production of Gross und Klein is being staged in London as part of the city's cultural Olympiad. It has just come off a short season in Paris, where Blanchett received the Chevalier Medal, one of France's highest cultural awards, and will soon move on to Vienna and then to Recklinghausen in Germany.

In July, the STC will take its production of Uncle Vanya to New York (it took the play to Washington last year). If past form is any indicator, that could mean more plaudits for Blanchett: in 2011, The Washington Post’s theatre critic Peter Marks declared the company's staging of Chekhov's play the best production of the year.

Filming begins on fresh Underbelly chapter

Jonathan LaPaglia will star in Underbelly: Badness.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports

Filming on the fifth installment of the Underbelly series has begun in Sydney.

In marked contrast to Underbelly: Razor, which was set in the 1920s, the latest Nine Network mini-series is the most contemporary yet.

Set from 2001-2011, Underbelly: Badness tells the story of feared underworld figure Anthony Perish and the quest by a dedicated NSW team of police to bring him and his associates to justice.

Perish managed to maintain an almost non-existent public profile, which was only revealed when his connection to the murder of Terry Falconer, a former inmate from Silverwater jail, brought him to the attention of Strike Force Tuno, which was formed to find Falconer's killers.

Strike Force Tuno, led by Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, spent 10 years gathering the evidence that would finally see Perish brought to justice.

Jonathan LaPaglia, younger brother of well-known actor Anthony, has been cast as Perish and Matt Nable as Jubelin. The series will also star Aaron Jeffery and Jodi Gordon.

"Underbelly: Badness is a riveting and compelling story of a modern underworld figure that merged into the fabric of our community completely under the radar, and we are very proud to shine a light on this story and bring it to Australian audiences," said Nine's drama executive Jo Rooney.

The eight-part mini-series is being directed by Tony Tiles, David Caesar and Ian Watson.

The first ever Underbelly series went to air in 2008 and was based on the real-life events surrounding the Melbourne gangland killings between 1995 and 2004.

Ronan Keating keen on X Factor UK transfer

Ronan Keating wants to be closer to his kids in the UK. Picture: Channel 7 Source: Supplied

The Herald Sun reports

X Factor Australia judge Ronan Keating said he would quit the hit Channel 7 show, but only if he could get a job on the British version of the show.

"I would love it, I would be close to my kids. That would be an absolute dream. It's tough being so far from home."

Asked whether he would switch if offered a job on The Voice, the Boyzone star said: "It's a great show. But I'm loyal to X Factor, I do love it."

Keating walked the red carpet in London on the weekend for the Olivier Awards - his first public appearance since splitting with wife of 14 years, Yvonne.

David Hasselhoff dazzles on Celebrity Apprentice

David Hasselhoff poses for a photo with fans in Sydney Park, while offering dog grooming services to the public. Picture: Craig Greenhill Source: News Limited

Colin Vickery, The Herald Sun, reports

You’ve got to love David Hasselhoff. The former Knight Rider and Baywatch star has enough energy to light up a small city.

Hasselhoff, or The Hoff as he likes to be called, is the X factor that makes this year's Celebrity Apprentice Australia a treat.

The Hoff didn't come to Australia to slum it. He brings a passion to the Channel 9 reality show that is infectious.

Last night the men's Platinum team used the Hoff to win and raise $245,000 for charity in a dog pampering challenge.

The most watched star in the world - according to the Guinness Book of Records - was unstoppable as he was mobbed by fans on Bondi Beach.

Male celebrities including Ian "Dicko" Dickson, Ben Dark and Vince Sorrenti were in awe of The Hoff.

Former AFL star Jason Akermanis was clearly jealous that The Hoff was getting so much attention.

Even the female Fortune celebrities got caught up in Hoff-mania. Tania Zaetta banged on endlessly about her short stint in Baywatch.

The Fortune females spent most of the dog challenge bitching about one another. The Platinum guys seem much more team spirited.

Things got emotional near the end when The Hoff handed over that monster cheque to the Starlight Foundation and explained how a young child had changed his life on the set of Knight Rider.

Celebrity Apprentice Australia is a winner. Long live The Hoff.

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.

Australian short film Yardbird makes Cannes cut

Australian director Michael Spiccia's short film Yardbird has been selected for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Picture: Dean Marzolla / Source: Supplied

The Herald Sun reports

Australian director Michael Spiccia's short film has been selected to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Spiccia's 13-minute production Yardbird was selected from more than 4500 global submissions, and will compete for the prestigious Palme d'Or du Court Metrage during the May Festival against nine other short films, including Night Shift, by New Zealand director Zia Mandivwalla.

Spiccia's film is written and executive produced by fellow Australian Julius Avery, who was the Jury Prize winner at Cannes in 2008 and won the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Short Film in the same year.

Festival organisers yesterday named the selections for two of the categories in 2012, ahead of tomorrow's unveiling of this year's feature film nominees.

In the short film category, Yardbird is up against productions from Germany, France, the US, Turkey, Syria, Canada, Belgium, Puerto Rico and New Zealand.

Fifteen films were selected from a pool of more than 1700 submissions from 320 film schools across the globe, in another category designed for up-and-coming filmmakers.

The category "covers fiction and animation and highlights films sharing the same film-making ambition and the expression of a very personal vision".

The 65th Cannes Film festival runs from May 16 to 27.

Financial strain takes its toll on the Inside Film Awards

Margaret Pomeranz, IF Living Legend, said the IF Awards were always the best party in town. Source: Herald Sun

The Herald Sun reports

The Australian film industry was dealt a blow yesterday when the Inside Film Awards were postponed due to lack of funding.

The IF Awards, which offer fans the opportunity to support the industry by viewing and rating Aussie films, documentaries, short animation and music videos, have run for 13 years.

Last year, Australian box office hit Red Dog dominated when it picked up seven gongs, including best feature film.

IF Awards group general manager Mark Kuban said there was still a market for the people's choice and now there was time to revamp the awards.

Margaret Pomeranz, IF Living Legend, said it was always the best party in town.

"The IF Awards disappearing off our film scene this year ... it's a tragedy," Pomeranz said.

"I hope this is a momentary glitch and that they will be back with all that energy and enthusiasm for our film culture."

The awards have been attended by leading lights such as Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown, Hugo Weaving and Baz Luhrmann, and have supported young filmmakers through their rising talent and independent spirit categories.

Shane Warne and Liz Hurley keep love alive online via Twitter

Shane Warne and Liz Hurley keep love alive online. Picture: AFP Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Where would Shane Warne and Elizabeth Hurley's relationship be without social media?

The celebrity couple say it's crucial as it lets Hurley watch clips of her Aussie beau online while Warne relies on Twitter for romantic gifts.

British actress/model Hurley and Aussie cricket ace Warne began dating in 2010 after spending weeks exchanging flirty messages on social networking site Twitter.

Their relationship often spans the globe as they jet between Australia, the UK and the US for work - so they use the internet to keep their love alive.

Hurley amuses herself by viewing YouTube clips of Warne during his sporting heyday, and he keeps a close eye on her Twitter page for a glimpse at her saucy photos and tips on gifts to buy her.

"Shane has always made me laugh, mostly when he's being either very Australian or when he looks bewildered. I often watch his old cricket clips on YouTube just to see his look of outrage and bewilderment if he disagreed with an umpire's decision,'' Hurley tells British magazine Hello!.

Warne adds: "I still find her tweets very humorous. I like to find out which books have tickled her fancy or what designer clothes she has seen and liked, so I can write it down in the diary for a present at birthdays or as a surprise.

"But, secretly, I like her tweets about her beachwear and the pics, so I know what I have to look forward to seeing on our next sunny holiday!'' said Warne.

As the couple plan their wedding celebrations in both Australia and Britain for next year, Hurley confirms that she briefly split from Warne before realising he is her perfect man.

Asked during an interview whether reports of a split were true, Hurley said, "Yes, but ultimately we decided we got on too well not to give it a shot.''

Warne adds, "As Elizabeth said, yes, we did briefly (split up), but we realised that what we had was special.''

Hayden Quinn wins Cleo Bachelor

Winner Hayden Quinn and Lisa Wilkinson at the Cleo Bachelor of the Year final. Picture: Tracee Lea Source: The Daily Telegraph

Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Be it his signature brownies recipe, his appetite for the ocean or the fact that he saves lives in his spare time, Hayden Quinn is officially Australia's most desirable single stud.

Having missed out on the MasterChef title last year, the budding young cook and Warringah lifeguard last night walked away with the eligible honour of being the Cleo Bachelor of the Year for 2012.

Beating out big-chested competition from the likes of rugby hottie James O'Connor, Dancing With The Stars newbie Johnny Ruffo and model Nathan Jolliffe, Quinn said he was "stoked" to command a majority of the 1.9 million votes lodged by the magazine's readers.

"I am looking for a good relationship so hopefully this helps with that," said Quinn, who has a bachelor in marine science.

The Cleo competition, which celebrated its 25th year with a gala party at The Star's new nightclub Marquee last night, has helped adorn plenty of Aussie blokes with "hunk" status, with Geoff Huegill, Andy Lee and Firass Dirani all previous winners of the title.

There have been exceptions though, with Kyle Sandilands taking the crown in 1997.

TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson - the former Cleo editor who conceptualised and launched the bachelor competition - said the title stood for much more than just a pretty face.

"You have to be the whole package I think. I'm all about manners," she said.

Enjoying life on 'the list'

"It's all happening so quickly and so weirdly" ... Joel Edgerton.

Giles Hardie, The Age, reports

Joel Edgerton is rapt yet philosophical about his 'overnight' success.

In the past year, Joel Edgerton has gone from Animal Kingdom, via Warrior and The Thing, to The Great Gatsby, becoming the next big thing in Hollywood on the way. But far from being an overnight sensation as some in the industry might perceive him to be, the actor, writer and director from Blacktown has worked diligently at his craft for decades in Australia.

''By the time I got any kind of real momentum in the States, I'd done a tonne of work here,'' he says. ''Now I feel equipped and I feel ready and yet at the same time people over there are saying this guy's a relatively new person.''

Instead of focusing all his energy on Hollywood, the 37-year-old will continue making films in Australia, too. In his latest, Wish You Were Here, Edgerton plays Dave Flannery, a family man whose holiday with his wife (Felicity Price) goes horribly wrong. Shifting back and forth in time, the film gradually reveals the details of a fateful night in Cambodia alongside the consequences back home in Australia. The story also reveals more about Edgerton than he is entirely comfortable with.

Despite being single, Edgerton says his character ''is a lot of me. So the tricky thing becomes: Do you know yourself well enough to then portray that on screen? And for me, I find that really hard. I'd rather hide behind accents and funny walks.''

Far from an inflated ego, success has given Edgerton a fresh sense of responsibility. ''There's the pressure of being a No. 1 on the call sheet, being a lead actor,'' he explains. ''There's almost this feeling like being captain of the team. You want to put a bit of energy into actually setting a good example. If you're an idiot, if you're behaving badly, then forget rumours and gossip, just think about the examples you set for young children who are working on movies.''

As well as displaying this on-set maturity, Edgerton has developed a good nose for choosing worthy projects and characters that resonate, which is important now with big money offers flooding in. ''It's tricky,'' he says. ''I've never been standing at the top of the tree with tonnes of money thrown at me. I've never really had a profile. So in a way I have this 'nothing to lose' attitude. I don't want to blow it all now by suddenly taking the money and running, having a gun in my hand in every project and spitting out cheesy lines.''

In addition to on-camera success Edgerton has ''been writing a tonne of stuff for years and now it's all starting to come together. He has written One Night Stand for Fox, another unnamed script that will bring him home again to perform later this year, as well as planning to direct a third in the US early next year. ''It's a disturbing suburban Hitchcock-style thriller,'' he says.

Before that, Edgerton heads to the Middle East for a couple of months to work on Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's film about the Navy Seal team that caught Osama bin Laden, a topic he enjoys teasing journalists about: ''I could tell you loads … but I'm not allowed to.''

In high demand, Edgerton is now linked seemingly to every major Hollywood project announced, although big-name roles aren't his ambition. ''I'm on the list that I thought I'd never be on,'' he says. ''I'm not sitting here thinking, 'God, I might get this part' or 'is it too late for me to play Hamlet?' It's really about: who do I get to work with? There's so many people on that list.''

The schoolyard dreamer can be seen lurking within Edgerton as he considers the opportunities that now seem possible. ''I got sent something the other day that Clint Eastwood's directing. I've sent a few audition tapes for Clint's movies in the past but now it feels like maybe I could actually work with him.

''It's all happening so quickly and so weirdly, and it's all shifted so dramatically,'' Edgerton says. ''I don't want to get too bogged down in the seriousness of it all, I want to have the gratitude for it all, because it's kind of awesome.''

WISH YOU WERE HERE

GENRE Drama.
CRITICAL BUZZ Great slow-burn thriller that twists with every new revelation about an ecstasy-fuelled night in Cambodia and its impact on life back in suburban Australia.
STARS Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price, Teresa Palmer.
DIRECTORS Kieran Darcy-Smith.
RATED MA15+.
RELEASE April 25.