'I want to be who I am. I hope people still want to listen to my music'

Hints of her sexuality … Beccy Cole says there are lyrics in some of her songs that people might go back and listen to and say ''Aaah …''. Photo: Nick Moir

Sacha Molitorisz, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

The archetypal country song laments a broken heart. Boy loses girl. Or, sometimes, girl loses boy. But rarely, if ever, is it girl loses girl.

That might be about to change, thanks to country star Beccy Cole. The seven-time Golden Guitar winner, who has a 13-year-old son, discovered she was gay in 1999, after the breakdown of her marriage. Ever since, she's kept her sexuality secret. She tells all on ABC TV's Australian Story, and isn't sure how her fans will respond.

"I'm pretty nervous," says Cole, who lives on the central coast. "That's something I have been worried about for quite some time.

''But outweighing that is the need to be myself and to provide that example for my son.

"Your sexuality is a huge part of your persona, of who you are, and I don't want him to feel he has to hide anything about himself."

Cole, 39, got her big break as a teenager. Invited to join Kasey Chambers and family on a tour with the Dead Ringer Band, Cole dropped out of high school. She dreamed of emulating her mum, '60s folk singer Carole Sturtzel.

In the '90s, she built a solo career and married Mick Albeck, a fiddler in her backing band. The marriage broke down shortly after the birth of their son, Ricky. Not long afterwards, while watching a TV show about a women's football team, she realised she was gay.

"My son has known this about me all his life," Cole says. "And I was sparked to do this [program] one day when he told me he had a mate coming over and he said, 'Don't worry, he doesn't know'. And I thought, gosh, he shouldn't feel like he has to hide anything.

"But it remains to be seen how people who like my music in regional Australia are going to accept it. But then I'm pretty proud of Australian society. I've watched the gay marriage debate very carefully and there's a lot of support."

Cole, who is single, is a strong supporter of gay marriage, much like the actor Magda Szubanski, who came out as gay in February.

Cole says astute fans may long have picked up hints from her lyrics: "There's always some cheeky, ambiguous stuff going on.

"I don't consider myself tightly closeted. People who have outwardly asked me, I've told. I've just never gone on stage and said it into a microphone, or referred to it in a love song. But there have been lyrics where people might go back and say 'Aaah …'.

"At the end of the day, I just want to be who I am and hope people still want to listen to my music. And if they don't, well, maybe they didn't like it that much in the first place."

Don Lane's son PJ is all grown up

PJ Lane in Channel 9's latest Underbelly installment. Source: Herald Sun

Luke Dennehy, The Sunday Herald Sun, reports

His father Don Lane was one of Australia's most-loved entertainers and now it's son PJ's turn to make an impact.

PJ Lane, 27, has had a dramatic transformation as one of the lead actors in the soon to be aired Underbelly: Badness series, putting on 18kg of muscle for the role.

It's a whole new look for Lane, who like his father is naturally tall and lean.

The role as muscle-bound security guard Michael Christiansen is Lane's most high-profile yet and he worked incredibly hard with hours in the gym and a protein diet.

"There was lots of weight training, supplements, eating lots of boiled chicken and broccoli, all the exciting stuff," Lane said.

"It was terrible, so much plain food for a long time.

"I was quite a boring person to be around."

Lane has been singing and doing shows for years but recently has focused on acting. The experience on Underbelly, alongside actors such as Jonathan LaPaglia and Matt Nable, was invaluable.

"To work with these guys was such a great experience," Lane said. "To even walk on set every day was such a great thing."

Underbelly: Badness is expected to air on Channel 9 after the Olympics.

The next Underbelly series will return to Melbourne where it all began. Underbelly: Squizzy Taylor will focus on 1915 and Victoria's infamous gangsters.

Russell Crowe to direct film about life of late US funny guy Bill Hicks

Russell Crowe will make his directorial debut with a biopic on US comedian Bill Hicks' life. Picture: INF Source: The Sunday Telegraph

J.Mo and Elle, The Sunday Telegraph, report

Russell Crowe has signed on to make his feature film directorial debut - a biopic about the life of the late US comedian Bill Hicks.

Hicks, who was known for his dark humour, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32 in 1994.

Currently in Iceland shooting biblical epic Noah, Crowe has teamed up with old schoolmate Mark Staufer who has written the script. Production is expected to start next year.

"Bill Hicks' life is tragically short, but spectacularly interesting," Staufer said. "The screenplay has gone through a number of drafts and we'll go into production early next year."

Crowe was tipped to play the film's lead but has signed on for directorial duties. His only directing jobs have been short films and video clips for wife Danielle Spencer.

The net has been cast wide to find an actor who can play Hicks.

"It is a huge role for someone, made all the more special, or downright scary, by the fact the director is an Oscar-winning actor like Russell," Staufer said.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley's secret cancer weapon

Kerri-Anne Kennerley, a Tree Day ambassador, invited us into her Woollahra home this week and told us how Sally Obermeder is helping her get through breast cancer. Picture: Bob Barker Source: The Daily Telegraph

Caroline Marcus, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

As she prepares for life-saving chemotherapy, Kerri-Anne Kennerley has struck a unique friendship with inspiring breast cancer survivor and reporter Sally Obermeder.

The TV veteran says she and the entertainment reporter bonded after her diagnosis last month, with Obermeder's positive attitude helping her tackle the illness.

"She's really a role model that I look up to," Kennerley told The Sunday Telegraph from her Woollahra home last week. "She was such a joy and a support for me.

"I've interviewed every politician and star that's been in this country for 20 years and I've never met somebody with that resilience and extreme fabulousness."

Obermeder was diagnosed with cancer the day before she gave birth to her first child, Annabelle, and has had a mastectomy. Kennerley is preparing for radiotherapy, after surgeons removed two lumps and four lymph nodes.But recovery hasn't meant slowing down. Kennerley is flying overseas this week to a secret location for Channel 7 and will be back on the weekend to participate in Planet Ark's National Tree Day as a Toyota ambassador.

More than 78,000 people from NSW are expected to plant more than 210,000 native plants at Schools Tree Day on Friday and National Tree Day next Sunday.

Rachel Griffiths on gun control and mental health in light of the Colorado massacre

Actress Rachel Griffiths believes more needs to be done about mental health. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Fiona Byrne, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Oscar-nominated Australian actress Rachel Griffiths believes mental health issues need to be focused on as much as gun control legislation in the aftermath of The Dark Knight Rises massacre in Colorado.

Griffiths, who has spent much of the past decade based in the US working on TV series such as Six Feet Under and Brothers and Sisters, told 774 ABC morning host Jon Faine she did not believe the situation of young men "tripping over" and becoming a danger to others was isolated to America.

"I think so much of the (US) gun lobby issue is so based in a constitutional fundamentalism I don't think Australians can ever grasp," Griffiths told Faine today.

"But I think what we have in common is we have young men that reach a certain critical point were they become a harm to themselves or others, and I don't think that happens more or less here than it does in the States.

"I just wanted to bring the discussion around to how do we identify these young men, that on this verge of tripping over and how do we as families and societies get them the help they need.

"........ If it is your brother, or your cousin, or your son, I think we have to do more to intervene and make sure that they see mental health professionals.

"Clearly this boy over some time has been moving away from people and going through some kind of depression and moving to a point where people observe some things but did not feel that they could interfere and say, 'Are you OK?'"

James Holmes, 24, allegedly opened fire during a packed midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Friday, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others.

If you, or someone you know suffers from mental health contact Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 22 46 36, or Salvo Care Line 1300 36 36 22.

Tim Draxl - Freeway - The Chet Baker Journey 2012

My partner Michael, Tim Draxl and I at tonight’s performance of Freeway – The Chet Baker Journey

Liveguide.com.au reports

Devised and written by Bryce Hallett and Tim Draxl, the intimate show intersperses fragments of Chet Baker's prodigious career and self-destructive life amid his musical jewels - the "blue diamonds of jazz" - that spoke of destiny, heartache, despair and love.

In his late teens and early 20s, Baker looked like an angel and sang and played trumpet with astonishing assurance and ease. His music had the power to conjure beauty out of ruin while the fragility of his voice, at any tempo, was both heart-breaking and true.

Chet Baker held a magical sway over people's souls. From his emergence in the 1950s - when the good-looking young man from Oklahoma became an overnight sensation as a jazz trumpeter and singer on America's West Coast - until his drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker's life has become the stuff of legend.

At once sexy and elusive, Baker was dubbed "the James Dean of Jazz" at the height of his success, his matinee idol looks and haunting sound seducing young and old alike in the conservative '50s.

FREEWAY - THE CHET BAKER JOURNEY is replete with poignant ballads and classic songs, including My Funny Valentine, My Buddy, Let's Get Lost, These Foolish Things, You Don't Know What Love Is, Look For the Silver Lining, Born to Be Blue, That Old Feeling and There Will Never Be Another You.

Jazz veteran Ray Alldridge brings his special brand of magic to the show as musical director and pianist. He is joined by rising trumpeter Eamon Dilworth, drummer Dave Goodman and the incomparable Dave Ellis on bass.

Tim Draxl, who recently featured in Stephan Elliott's romantic comedy A Few Best Men, co-starring Olivia Newton-John and Xavier Samuel, has a natural affinity with the Prince of Cool: the boyish charm and the sophisticated phrasing and rhythm. From the time the award-winning Australian singer/actor first heard Chet Baker's version of the Rodgers and Hart song, My Funny Valentine, he was hooked.

"The haunting, melancholic tone of his voice in that song resonated with me at a time in my life when I was discovering myself not only as an artist but who I was as a person," Draxl saïd. "When I started listening to Chet Baker I imagined him to be this idealistic '50s pin-up boy who was clean-cut and very together only to realise he was on heroin and deeply tormented . . . towards the end he was virtually shunned in his homeland and anything but the ideal posterboy."

Writer and journalist Bryce Hallett was equally intrigued by Baker's contradictions and the lyrical beauty and world-weariness that shines through his music. "When we set about creating FREEWAY, Tim and I purposefully chose not to dwell unnecessarily on Chet Baker's demons. Instead we wanted to reveal his power to enchant even when his life was at its craziest and spinning out of control. The show partly aims to draw audiences back to the romance and yearning of the '50s but there's no escaping the fact that Chet Baker was the ultimate paradox."

The show is currently playing at the Sydney Opera House until 22 July 2012.

Actor Tottie Goldsmith goes from Chantoozie to celebrant

Tottie Goldsmith is proud of her years and experience. Picture: Tess Follett Source: Herald Sun

Fiona Byrne, The Herald Sun, reports

She is a confessed romantic and now versatile actor Tottie Goldsmith is getting ready to spread the love.

Goldsmith has her heart set on becoming a marriage celebrant and will begin a course next week.

It could take up to seven months to be officially granted her celebrant's licence, but for Goldsmith the wait will be well worthwhile.

"I would love to be the celebrant that officiates at my dad's wedding," Goldsmith said.

Her father is Melbourne nightclub legend Brian Goldsmith. "I said 'why don't I marry you and Lorraine (Dennerstein), you have been engaged for five years?'.

"So I am going to do that, but it won't be for a while."

She will also do a course allowing her to officiate at commitment ceremonies.

"Same-sex marriage is something I really embrace," Goldsmith said.

"To me, if it is love that is all that matters."

As she approaches 50, Goldsmith is coming into her own. She is not scared of growing older, but rather is proud of her years and experiences.

"It is a double-sided coin; yes, there is a fear part, of 'wow, I am almost 50, I am getting into the old thing', but the flip side is I think I represent women at 50 really well," she said.

"I think I am a good role model in that I still feel 35. I look after myself (and) I embrace life."

Kidman toasts Emmy nod with 'popsicle'

Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen in a scene from the HBO film, Hemingway & Gellhorn, which has earned Kidman an Emmy nomination. Picture: HBO Source: The Sunday Telegraph

News.com.au reports

Nicole Kidman plans to celebrate her Emmy nomination with "popsicles after school".

The Aussie actress was nominated for best actress in a miniseries or movie for Hemingway & Gellhorn, about the tumultuous romance of Ernest Hemingway and journalist Martha Gellhorn.

"I'll toast the Emmy nomination with a chocolate Popsicle. I know it doesn't sound great, but they're amazing," she said.

Fellow Australian Judy Davis received a nod for best supporting actress in a miniseries or movie for Page Eight.

However, it was Mad Men that was the real story of the day, landing a leading 17 bids and the chance to set a new record as the most-honoured drama in television history.

The series, which has won four best drama series trophies and is tied with Hill Street Blues, LA Law and The West Wing, received a fifth nomination in the category.

"It's insane. I can't believe it," said Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner.

Miniseries, American Horror Story, a nightmarish saga about a haunted house, matched Mad Men with 17 nominations, including an acting nod for star Connie Britton.

Other leading nominees include the British soap opera, Downton Abbey, which earned 16 bids, and two miniseries, Hatfields & McCoys, with 16, and Hemingway & Gellhorn with 15.

Modern Family, honoured as best comedy series for the past two years, was the sitcom leader with 14 bids and practically ran the table in supporting actor nods.

The 64th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be hosted by Kimmel and will air live on September 23 from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

Hugh Jackman in Sydney filming The Wolverine described Kings Cross as sad after Thomas Kelly was killed

In Sydney filming The Wolverine ... Actor Hugh Jackman in a scene from the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Kings Cross is fast losing fans as a social destination. Yesterday Hugh Jackman was added to that list, with the actor describing the Golden Mile as "sad".

Talking to Triple M yesterday 43-year-old Jackman, who is in town filming The Wolverine, said he spent a lot of time in the Cross while filming X-Men Origins: Wolverine and trained at a gym overlooking the strip.

"When I was here for the last Wolverine I trained up there at Kings Cross. I was up at six in the morning and I've got to tell you, the sights you see at six is just sad," Jackman said.

"I think one of the big problems is crystal meth, it makes people really angry it's a destructive drug."

Justin Bieber shuts Nike's Sydney CBD store to buy two pairs of shoes but does not pay as Selena Gomez shops at Senso

Has time for his fans ... Singer Justin Bieber signs autographs outside the Darling Hotel. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Justin Bieber had some time to kill during his Sydney visit yesterday and the prince of pop did it in style - shutting down the Nike store in the CBD to load up on new kicks.

"We closed the store for him for about 20 minutes to let him have a shop. He was really nice. really chilled. He sounded like he was really enjoying his time in Australia," a staffer told Confidential.

For the record, the Biebster added two pairs to his sneaker collection - a pair of Air Jordan VII's (in white and navy) and a navy pair of Jordan IV's - both in a size 8 1/2. And no - in case you were wondering - he didn't pay for them.

His girlfriend Selena Gomez, meanwhile, also got her retail groove on, swooping on several pairs of heels at Senso.