Australian actor Mark Priestley has died at the age of 32. The All Saints star jumped from a hotel building in Sydney. A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), he worked on stage with companies including Bell Shakespeare and SYdney Theatre Company. It's a sad loss to the performing arts industry and a tragedy that one so young should take such action.
Link: Beyond Blue

What would Woody Allen have to say to Jennifer Aniston? The eccentric filmmaker reportedly had dinner with the former Friends star (and famous Brad Pitt ex) in West Hollywood - which is news in itself, since New Yorker Allen usually shies away from he glittering lights of LA. Perhaps Allen, who has been making films in Europe recently, is looking for some Hollywood money for a project starring Aniston.

It increasingly looks like the US version of Kath and Kim will be a flop - if research into audience reactions to the promo ads shown by NBC during the Olympics are any guide. Of course, the show hasn't even gone to air yet, so it may defy the naysayers I didn't like the original version, but I wish producers Jane Turner and Gina Riley well.

Thanks to Kuttsywood for pointing out this story saying the Queensland government is considering a ban on junk-food advertising during children's television programming. I think it's the wrong approach. Instead, the government should be actively targetting the parents who buy the stuff, not the kids who try to pester them into doing it - which is what banning the ads would do. Perhaps the junk food companies who want to advertise in kids' TV time should also be forced to subsidise prime-time ads telling couch-potato parents about healthy eating.

Retired ABC director Ron Brunton has criticised the national broadcaster, claiming the board was lied to by staff to preserve the ABC culture. Obviously I can't comment on the substance of those claims, but I do agree with him on one point - that it is ridiculous for the ABC to refuse to name the commercial sponsors of sporting events while often giving free plugs to authors, publishers and film distributors. It's stupid and confusing to refer to the "domestic cricket series" when all the punters know it as the Pura Cup. Public broadcasting is about informing people, not confusing them.

There are young children where I am staying, so we've been watching a DVD of the same two episodes of the British claymation series Postman Pat on high rotation. And I've noticed that the lyric for the theme song goes, in part:

Pat feels he's a really happy man

This, of course, raises a serious philosophical question. Is Pat really happy doing such a menial and low-paid job, or does he just think he's happy? Are the upper middle-class, no-doubt pig-tailed producers of the show suggesting that Pat is delusional? Or are they praising Pat for knowing his place? I think this warrants further investigation.

British free-to-air TV channels already are, or are planning for, simulcasting on the internet. What are Australian networks doing? Waiting for an invitation to extend their survival?

I can hear the guffawing in the Channel 9 AFL Footy Show locker room now. "Bewdy Sam," they are saying to Sam Newman, "you're off the hook mate." Oh no he isn't. Just because Tasmanian MP Paula Wriedt's problems are not directly connected to Newman's crude remark about "coming" on her it doesn't mean his behaviour is acceptable, nor does it let Channel 9 off the hook for continuing to employ this neanderthal. I've read comments on other web forums suggesting that Sam is "just being Sam" and we should all just leave him alone. To me, that's just a little bit like saying, "Oh that Adolf, he's so naughty, but boys will be boys." OK, the scale is vastly different but the principle is the same. The issue here is also broader than Channel 9, which should have already shown him the door, because the AFL (like the NRL) has a problem attracting female audiences who are sick of this kind of boorish behaviour from players and ex-players. If they think they can fill the grounds and their coffers solely with Sam Newman clones, then good luck to them. But Nine, as a business that holds one of just three commercial free-to-air TV licenses issued by the government in each major market, has a duty to its audiences and to the Australian public in general to clean up its act. To paraphrase the late Kerry Packer, who was speaking about another bad-taste program, "Get this s--t off the air!"
PS: Read what Jessica Rowe thinks about Newman here.

As the now-grown-up kid who used to watch Reg Lindsay's Country Homestead on television (and, I admit, finding it just a little daggy), I was sad to hear of Lindsay's passing. There's more here.

Paula Wriedt, the Tasmanian MP who was the subject of a crude remark by The Footy Show's Sam Newman, has been rushed to hospital. Nobody is making any comment about the nature of her medical emergency and we should all respect her right to privacy. However, it should re-focus attention on Newman and the fact that he must be sacked not just for what he said about her but for his obvious refusal to understand that it's simply not OK to be so crudely sexist. If I were an AFL fan, I'd be boycotting not just the Channel 9 show but the game itself until footballers, ex-footballers and the people in charge of the code actually get it.