Will Leonardo DiCaprio be at The Gatsby premiere?

Leonardo shooting scenes for The Great Gatsby. Source: Supplied

Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Baz Luhrmann's 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby was shot in Sydney, but it won't hit Australian cinemas a full two weeks after its US release.

The official line from the film's distributor, Roadshow Films, is that the lag will faciliate a proper, star-driven red-carpet premiere in the director's home country.

"We're delighted to welcome Baz home in style," said Joel Pearlman, managing director of Roadshow Films, announcing Gatsby's May 30 release.

"By opening the film after the US, it will provide an opportunity for the stars of the film to attend an Australian Premiere befitting a film like Gatsby.''

While Roadshow Film's comments suggest a celebrity-studded red-carpet premiere, there's no confirmation that Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan will be making the trip for the event.

Since Luhrmann's last outing, Australia, underperformed in the US, it makes sense for the filmmaker to make the US his primary focus.

And of course, Gatsby is actually set in 1920s New York.

Luhrmann will also be keen to make the sort of sparkling, attention-grabbing State-side debut that is likely to linger in the minds of Academy voters.

When Warner Bros pushed the film's release date back from December 25 to May 10, some industry commentators suggested this would harm Gatsby's Oscar chances.

Russell Crowe keeps busy as his world unravels

World falling apart ... Russell Crowe / Pic: Brett Costello Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

He has kept a relatively dignified silence in the wake of what can only be described as a taxing year, both personally and professionally, for Russell Crowe.

However, the Gladiator star showed his human side, taking time out from tweeting his exercise routine to vent about his increasingly hectic schedule and his desire to return to Sydney to visit his sons Charlie, 8, and Tennyson, 6.

Crowe, who recently wrapped Darren Aronofsky's bible epic Noah, is set to dive straight back into another film - his fourth for the year - when cameras start rolling today on his thriller Winter's Tale.

"Starting on another film set tomorrow. I need to go home & be with my children," Crowe wrote. He added: "Cannot believe how fkd (sic) up my schedule has become this year."

As Confidential reported this week, Crowe is set to cap one of the busiest years of his career with three major film projects already up his sleeve - the Superman remake Man Of Steel, Les Miserables and Noah.

The year has also seen his marriage to long-time partner Danielle Spencer - and his affiliation with the South Sydney Rabbitohs - unravel.

Beauty and The Geek star Adam Marshall gets job back

Beauty and the Geek... Colin, Jacelle, Adam and Gilbert. Pic: Channel 7 Source: The Daily Telegraph

Vanda Carson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

A Beauty and the Geek contestant who lasted just three episodes before he was voted off, has got his job back after he was sacked.

Adam Marshall was working as a weather observer for the Bureau of Meteorology in Ballarat, Victoria before he appeared on the show with paired a former Miss FHM Australia, Emma Ceolin.

He was sacked in July last year after he didn’t turn up to work.

His sacking came after he took three months sick leave claiming he was suffering from anxiety and fatigue caused by work stress from his colleagues and the prospect of moving to Brisbane in July to take up a posting with the weather bureau.

His doctor gave him medical certificates for the three months sick leave, claiming the isolation of working at a Brisbane weather observation station might make his anxiety worse.

His doctor also said taking part in filming of the ‘Beauty and the Geek’ might be good for his mental health.

The Federal Magistrates Court has ruled the bureau should give him his $75,000 a year job back, even though the bureau argued he might be made redundant.

Federal Magistrate, Dominica Whelan, said in her decision that she could see why Marshall “was considered to be a suitable candidate for ‘Beauty and the Geek’.”

He “impressed me as somewhat young for his age,” she noted.

Magistrate Whelan found that Marshal “clearly was not frank with the producers of ‘Beauty and the Geek’” in telling them about his anxiety and fatigue “because he was embarrassed by his condition and did not want to jeopardise his chances of being selected for the show”.

“That does not, however, mean that the symptoms he exhibited to Dr Thomson and Dr McEwan were a charade.”

The court heard allegations that Marshall had taken sick leave to travel interstate to watch a football match.

Dean Geyer reveals how he got the Glee gig

Dean Geyer plays Brody Weston in Glee. Picture: Supplied Source: National Features

Colin Vickery, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Dean Geyer has come a long way since Australian Idol. The 26-year-old came third, released an album the following year and it looked like he was set for a pop music career - until fate intervened.

Geyer was dropped by SonyBMG Australia, his relationship with Lisa Origliasso from The Veronicas faltered, and he was hired to play an aspiring musician on Neighbours. Geyer played Ty Harper throughout 2008 - and an acting career was born.

Now Geyer has hit it big in Hollywood - as Brody Weston in Glee. Weston is a new love interest for lead character Rachel Berry (Lea Michele).

* How did the Glee gig come about?

I've been back and forth (between Australia and Hollywood) for four years now. There was a long audition process (Geyer impressed Glee producer Ryan Murphy with an acoustic rendition of Justin Timberlake's 'Cry Me a River'). There were two other guys I was against. They told me I had the gig on the Monday and I started on the Wednesday.

* What has it been like romancing Lea Michele? That can't be too difficult.

Lea is fantastic. I've got to know her over the past couple of months and she is really down to earth, really energetic, and passionate about what she does. I genuinely like her as a person.

* Glee fans were so passionate about the romance between Rachel and Finn (Cory Monteith). How have they reacted to Brody?

Good and bad. There are always going to be fans that are never going to stand having anyone else (except Finn) for Rachel.

But there are also fans that have come on board "the Brochel train", as they call it, and have supported me. At the beginning Brody was perceived as this bad boy but he is not really a bad guy. He is just a normal dude putting his feelings out there - and she has to choose (whether to respond to his advances).

* You started out a singer and have ended up an actor. Was that always the plan?

Definitely not. After Australian Idol I still had a huge passion to become a pop star. Acting came out of nowhere for me. Neighbours offered me a one-year deal and I really have them to thank. That was where I learnt everything I've based my acting career on.

* You are a proud Christian. It sounds like you think God had other plans for you.

I totally agree. I've kept God very close to me. I take the lead from him. I give him all the credit for where I am right now.

--- Glee, Channel 10, Wednesday, 7.30pm

Dieter Brummer wanted producers to kill him off Home and Away to escape Melissa George

Dieter Brummer as Shane Parrish and Melissa George as Angel Parrish in Home and Away. Picture: Supplied Source: National Features

News.com.au reports

Former Home and Away star Dieter Brummer says he loathed Melissa George's diva-like demands so much that he begged producers to kill him off the show.

Brummer, who played George's lover in the family soap says the tension on set was so bad that he no longer wanted to star alongside her.

“We may have been love interests on the show but the chemistry was far from real!” Brummer told Woman's Day.

“Mel was incredibly ambitious right from the outset. I think she wanted to be the next Kylie Minogue. She was a big fan and she aspired to be a big star just like Kylie. I don’t think she had much time for the cast of Home And Away.”

The actor, who has since found fame in Channel Nine's Underbelly says he hasn't spoken to George in the 17 years since he left the show.

The actor's comments come in the wake of George's recent outburst in which she reportedly threatened to walk off the set of The Morning Show if they referenced her Home and Away character.

The mag says Brummer is still "rolling around laughing" after her rant.

“I think they were unnecessary and a bit ridiculous – but then that’s Mel,” he added.

Not your typical disaster movie: Tsunami drama The Impossible hits cinemas

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and Spanish film director Juan Antonio Bayona celebrate at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. Picture: AP Source: AP

The Daily Telegraph reports

Eight years after the 2004 tsunami, Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts star in a film recounting the tragedy.

They play a tourist family caught up in the tidal wave.

But the Spanish director of The Impossible insisted that the film - which starts with a spectacular recreation of the huge wall of water crashing onto a beachfront resort - is far from a typical "disaster movie."

"Even if the film tells the story in a very direct way, the conclusions it comes to are very complex, more complex than those usual with disaster movies," Juan Antonio Bayona told AFP.

The earthquake-triggered tsunami on December 26, 2004 killed about 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean, including large numbers of tourists caught in the resorts of Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations.

The movie is due out in the United States on December 21 and elsewhere over the next few months. It already opened in Spain and has screened at a number of film festivals, including in Los Angeles.

In the Spanish-financed movie, based on the real story of a Spanish family and filmed in the south of the country, McGregor and Watts play a couple on holiday with their children in Thailand, and separated when the tsunami hits.

"There was something immediately symbolic in the story of this family, which caught my attention when I heard about it for the first time," Bayona said after a November 4 screening at the American Film Institute festival in Hollywood.

After the tsunami crashes ashore and separates them, the seriously injured mother finds herself with her eldest son, while the father played by McGregor manages to save the two youngest children.

The movie portrays the battle for survival amid the havoc wreaked by the wave, from devastated hotels to an over-crowded hospital.

It opens with a family enjoying a luxury holiday in spectacular beach surroundings - before the wall of water hits.

"When we were looking for funding, the first thing we were told was, if we were going to make the film, we had to see" the catastrophe itself, Bayona said.

"In a film like this about the tsunami, you have to see the monster face to face, and plunge your camera inside it to make filmgoers really feel what it was like to be there."

The young director focused intensely on what the characters are thinking and feeling - notably the eldest son, played by Tom Holland - with techniques including unsparing close-ups and omnipresent music.

"The film starts with a shock, in a more documentary style, and as it progresses it takes on a more melodramatic tone... We want people watching to feel emotions as intensely as the characters themselves," Bayona said.

The movie also raises questions about "returning to normal... how do you come back to everyday reality after experiencing something like that?" he added.

But the director did not want to be didactic.

"There is no message, because they weren't given a message. We didn't want to be condescending. We followed them as closely as we could," he said.

Bayona made a name for himself with the unexpected success of his 2007 horror movie The Orphanage. His new film's US release in December will qualify it, just in time, for next year's Oscars in February.

Nikki Webster marries long-term beau in dream wedding

 

Nikki and Matt cut the cake in front of loved ones at their reception. Picture: Cliff Kent / Woman's Day Source: Supplied

 

News.com.au reports

We all remember her as the carrot-topped sweetheart who won our hearts as the face of the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony. Now, Nikki Webster is a princess bride.

The 25-year-old dance teacher wed her 32-year-old beau, Matthew McMah, in front of family and close friends in Annandale, Sydney last Saturday.

While the former child star is used to being in the public eye, Nikki admits that she couldn't have been more nervous about walking down the aisle.

"Put me in front of 1000 people to perform, and I’m fine. Make me say vows and a speech and I’m a wreck," Nikki tells Woman’s Day.

"I’m also the clumsiest girl ever. I said to Dad, ‘You better hold me up in case I trip over my dress!'"

Nikki wore a princess-inspired Arushie gown designed by herself and arrived at the church in a bronze-coloured Rolls Royce.

"I felt beautiful in the dress," says Nikki. "Like a princess. I couldn’t wait for Matt to see me in it."

Matt - who works in the aviation industry - surprised his fiance with a fairytale grand entrance of a horse and carriage - just as her mother and grandmother did for their weddings - but a technical hitch on the roads meant she couldn't travel to the church in it.

The pair met on a blind date on Australia Day in 2010 and Matt popped the question in Fiji last January.

Nikki’s grandparents flew in from the UK to be there for the special day.

See pics from Nikki's wedding exclusively in this week's Woman’s Day on sale today.

 

 

Remember this face? The darling of the 2000 Olympics is on cloud nine after tying the knot in Sydney. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Third time unlucky for Rachael Taylor as 666 Park Avenue is canned after seven episodes

Rachel Taylor starred in 666 Park Avenue. Source: National Features

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report

Third time has certainly not turned out a charm for Rachael Taylor, whose latest show 666 Park Avenue has been cancelled in the US after seven episodes.

The dumping comes after the frightful reboot of Charlie's Angels last year and would-be 2009 political drama Washingtonienne which, despite being produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, failed to get picked up by a network after pilots season.

666 Park Avenue went from about seven million viewers to under four million during its two-month stint on air.

Busy Russell Crowe never sleeps

Hard at work: Russell Crowe has five films in the pipeline. Picture: Mark Evans Source: The Daily Telegraph

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report

He has hit the headlines after walking away from his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs but Sydney-based actor Russell Crowe is set for one of his busiest years.

He has no fewer than five films in the pipeline and a hectic Oscar campaign season ahead.

The Gladiator star, who recently completed the filming for Darren Aronofsky's Noah, is soon to begin shooting the fantasy thriller Winter's Tale in New York after Hurricane Sandy delayed the flick.

Crowe will then turn his hand to directing Sydney Unplugged - a series of short films paying homage to the Harbour City - before taking on the lead role of Dracula in Eli Roth's anticipated Harker.

Crowe is also being linked with sci-fi horror flick The Dark Tower, directed by Ron Howard and produced by Stephen King.

The string of projects comes after one of the actor's busiest years, in which he shot three films. This year has also seen Crowe announce his separation from Danielle Spencer, his wife of nine years.

On the bright side, Crowe has returned to major awards consideration after somewhat of a sabbatical.

He is being touted as a serious Oscar contender on the back of his performance as Javert in the upcoming Tom Hooper musical Les Miserables.

If that turns out to be true, it would mark Crowe's first Oscar nomination since he was recognised for his leading man performance in the hit film A Beautiful Mind back in 2002.

Twilight star Robert Pattinson back in Australia soon to star in a western

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson at the premiere of Summit Entertainment's "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Robert "everywhere at once" Pattinson is set to begin intensive training for a role he has described as his most exciting to date - and he will soon return to Australia to begin shooting.

The world's most sought-after vampire is travelling the globe promoting The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, which took an astonishing $12.4 million at the Australian box office alone on its opening at the weekend.

But, come January, the 26-year-old British actor will return Down Under to work on The Rover, a futuristic western being filmed in the South Australian desert by Animal Kingdom director David Michod.

Yesterday, Pattinson said the movie would be one of the most important he had done.

"It's one of the best (scripts) I've read," he said.

"It's one of my top five favourite scripts that I've read since I started doing this.

"It's really nerve-racking. Everything ... is very physical. Because I feel like I've done quite a few things where I'm quite still, I'm trying to find people that are doing things that feel dangerous."

Pattinson had to endure two three-hour auditions with Michod before landing the part.

The film, co-starring Aussie leading lad Guy Pearce, is Mad Max-esque. A loner (Pearce) is robbed on the side of the road by a gang and forces a wounded gang member (Pattinson) to help him track down his hunters.

Pattinson, who said The Rover's plot was twisted and dangerous, said: "It's the type of part I was afraid I wouldn't get after being in a franchise (like, Twilight)."

The Rover is on a budget of $12.5 million - loose change compared to Twilight's earnings.