TREMBLING POP MUSIC ICON PHIL SPECTOR FACES MURDER CHARGE [Reuters, Los Angeles, April 29, 2007] Pale, gaunt, his hands trembling, Phil Spector sits silently in a Los Angeles courtroom, a shrunken shadow of the man who revolutionized pop music 40 years ago. On trial for the murder of a woman he barely knew, Spector stares ahead, sometimes shaking his blond page-boy mop in despair, as the eccentricities once associated with musical genius become the prosecution backdrop to a heinous crime. With a three-month trial ahead of him, and the possibility of life imprisonment if convicted, Spector, 67, looks barely able to stay the course. "He looks terrible. I am very concerned about his appearance. He is shaking a lot. He may be a very sick man," said Stan Ross, the co-founder of Hollywood's famed Gold Star Recording Studios where Spector created his innovative 1960s "Wall of Sound" technique. "I don't like seeing him in this predicament. I don't think he can handle three months," Ross, who has known Spector for 50 years, told Reuters. Celebrated by the music industry as one of the greatest artists of all time for producing classics such as The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and The Beatles' "Let It Be" album, the reclusive Spector remains an enigma to the general public. Spector, who told British reporter Mick Brown in 2002 that he had a bipolar personality and was manic depressive, denies shooting dead B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, 40, in the hall of his mock castle in February 2003. "Spector looks pretty frail, but on the other hand he looks pretty weird," said Stan Goldman, criminal law professor at Loyola Law School. "He looks like someone who's walked out of Penny Lane. He is wearing these 3-inch Cuban heels, the long overcoat jackets with the very brightly colored shirt. He looks like someone the Beatles might have talked to in the 1970s," said Goldman. Spector's lawyers plan to use his frailty to bolster their argument that he did not pull the trigger on the gun that killed Clarkson. Lawyer Linda Kenney Baden told jurors last week that Spector's shaking hands were a side effect of medication he takes, and noted that he was only 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed a mere 130 pounds (59 kg). The trial, which resumes on Monday, is a far cry from the heady 1960s when Ross recalls a serious but insecure Spector at the start of his career in Gold Star Recording Studios. "They say genius runs strangely. He was a methodical person who had a fixation on creating sounds that he wanted and I, as the technician, was able to come up with those sounds. It was revolutionary because he used a big orchestra with rock and roll guitars. He used not just one piano player but three, not two guitars but four. That was what made his sound different -- it was big," Ross said. Ross last saw Spector about two years before his arrest, at the annual parties Spector threw for friends in Los Angeles. "He is not a sinister person. He does not have murder in his heart. He loved everybody he worked with. They were the only friends and family he knew. "He is talented. But when God gives someone talent sometimes he takes something away," Ross said.

CHINA TO PRODUCE TV SERIES ABOUT BRUCE LEE [Reuters, Beijing, April 11, 2007] China state television has started shooting a 40-part television series about U.S.-born kung-fu icon Bruce Lee, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. "The Legend of Bruce Lee," with a budget of just $6.4 million, started production at the weekend in the southern province of Guangdong. Lee made 46 kung-fu movies and brought Hong Kong movie making to the world's attention. He died at age 32 in 1973, while starring in and directing "Game of Death" in Hong Kong. Chan Kwok-kwan, who plays Lee in the TV series, said he had mixed feelings about playing the role of an icon. "I'm nervous and also excited, but I will do my best," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

24/7 SURVEILLANCE FOR NICOLE KIDMAN [The Sunday Telegraph, April 22, 2007] Nicole Kidman has turned the tables on the persistent paparazzi, planting a specialist surveillance team in an unmarked van outside her Sydney mansion 24 hours a day. In an effort to protect their leading lady, Fox Studios has ordered the security guards to gather evidence of the paparazzi's "stalking-like" behaviour, including taking photographs of individuals and obtaining voice recordings. The team lives in a solar-panelled mini-van with tinted windows parked outside the star's Darling Point mansion to monitor every move the paparazzi and media make. It is believed the stringent and costly measures are part of an attempt by Kidman and Fox Studios to ensure her protection from photographers who persistently stalk her. Sources say Kidman is not coping with the public scrutiny of her life, marriage and her husband's recent rehabilitation. Kidman has also confided that she fears she could be seriously injured in a car crash while being chased by the paparazzi. The increased security follows Kidman's court battle with celebrity photographer Jamie Fawcett, whom she accused of intimidating and harassing her. Fawcett was charged in 2005 with possessing a listening device, which was found in bushes across the road from Kidman's home. At the time, Kidman succeeded in placing an interim apprehended violence order on Fawcett for bugging her. But the order was revoked and the charge dropped after the Supreme Court ruled there was not enough evidence to prove Fawcett had broken electronic surveillance laws. It is believed this latest measure is aimed at ensuring the identities of people following her are known at all times, in case there is "an incident" or her house is bugged. Fox Studios is determined to protect its $120 million leading lady. The newly employed surveillance team occupies the van 24 hours a day. Two people are in the van at any one time, working in shifts. When photographers or reporters pull up on the street outside Kidman's mansion, a security officer emerges from the van, takes a photo of each person, and demands the individual say his or her name into a hand-held voice recorder. The van will remain there while Kidman is in Australia for her latest role in director Baz Luhrmann's film Australia. Production begins next week and Kidman is expected to remain in her home country for the rest of the year. While she is able to lead a relatively low-key life in the United States and does not need security, in Australia it is a different story. Kidman continues to have a running battle with Jamie Fawcett, which dates back to the days when she was married to Tom Cruise. In January, she was forced to cut short her holiday at her South Coast home after she and Urban were stalked by the persistent paparazzi.

JACK THOMPSON PORTRAIT A FINALIST IN ARCHIBALD PRIZE

[The Australian, February 24, 2007] In a room full of familiar faces, most larger than life, actor Jack Thompson was looking quite pleased with himself. His portrait by Danelle Bergstrom won this year's $500 Packing Room Prize, the event that marks the start of the annual Archibald Prize exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney. Take two -- Jack Thompson was also chosen as one of 41 finalists in the exhibition, selected by the gallery's board of trustees. Head storeman Steve Peters, who has overseen 23 Archibalds, compared the Packing Room Prize to the Oscars. "The actual awards are chosen by the academy, but then there are all those other really popular films. There's a lot more popular people picked this year," Mr Peters said. Thompson said he became emotional when he first saw his portrait and he thanked Bergstrom for painting the real him, rather than his public persona. "It is something real -- you seldom get to see the emotional interior." Bergstrom said: "We are all many people. What was so wonderful with Jack was that he was very free, nothing pretentious about him. All his emotions show on the surface, his face expresses his feelings and thoughts so easily, and I was fascinated by that." The Australian's cartoonist Bill Leak made the final hang with a portrait of The Daily Telegraph's film writer Paul le Petit. The winner of the Archibald Prize will be announced next Friday. * In Melbourne, the $40,000 Metro5 Art Award went to Sydney-based painter Giles Alexander for His Master's Rose-Tinted Voice, a multi-media triptych. Alexander, 31, graduated from the National Art School in Sydney last year. He moved to Australia from England seven years ago. "I tried to work as an artist in London but it was too cold, too wet and too drab," he said. "I thought about moving to South America but I couldn't speak Spanish so Australia was my next option." VIEW THE ARCHIBALD FINALISTS

HIGH PRICE EXPECTED FOR BRETT WHITELY 'S "OPERA HOUSE" [SMH, February 15, 2007] It will be a case of iconic excess when Brett Whiteley's Opera House is offered for auction in May for the first time since 1982. One of 22 works selected for sale from the Qantas corporate collection, the painting is expected to sell for between $2 million and $3 million and is likely to break the Whiteley record of $2.04 million set last year for Frangipani and Humming Bird. An art market analyst, Michael Reid, believes the Sotheby's estimate for Opera House, the highest ever placed on an Australian painting before an auction, is ambitious, and that the painting's size, 213cm x 260cm, could deter buyers. "It's big, it's blowzy, it's very Whiteley," Mr Reid said. "It's confidently painted, but it's not one of Whiteley's seminal works." Although he does not believe the work will break the record for an Australian painting sold at auction, set in April last year when John Bracks's The Bar sold for $3.12 million, he is expecting a number of keen bidders. "There's so much money out there," he said, "and $1 million is the new $100,000." While the sale barely compares to the Foster's $14.6 million corporate art sell-off through Sotheby's in 2005, it is estimated the works will raise between $3 million and $4 million. They include Charles Blackman's Dream in a Cat's Garden and Leonard French's The Crossing, as well as works by Sidney Nolan, John Coburn and Tim Maguire. Qantas said the proceeds of the auction would fund state-based scholarships for Australian artists. With advice from the director of the Art Gallery of NSW, Edmund Capon, and the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann MacGregor, among others, Qantas chose works that would raise the most money. Qantas's events and sponsorship manager, Ken Groves, said the decision to sell the works was made more than 18 months ago and had nothing to do with the proposed sale of the company. He said the scholarships were likely to be annual and would involve air tickets and cash. The chairman of Sotheby's, Justin Miller, believes the painting will attract serious interest from private collectors and Whiteley enthusiasts. "It hasn't had huge exposure [in the market]," he said. "When something like this emerges there is interest. The market is very strong - Qantas picked a very opportune time to sell." Whiteley started painting Opera House in 1971, just after he returned from New York. At the time, he was living in Lavender Bay, where the view of the Opera House was prominent. The work was first exhibited in 1972 at the Bonython Gallery and was acquired by Qantas in 1982, after Whiteley made the finishing touches to the painting. It has been on display in the Qantas lounge at Sydney airport since it was bought, and was borrowed by the Art Gallery of NSW in 1995 for a Whiteley retrospective.

MIRREN AND "QUEEN" SCOOP MOVIE AWARDS IN BRITAIN [SMH, AFP, February 9, 2007] British actress Helen Mirren has won another award for starring in The Queen, a film about the monarchy's reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, ahead of the Oscars later this month. Mirren, 61, who has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category for portraying Queen Elisabeth II, was today named British Actress of the Year at the Awards of the London Film Critics' Circle. The Queen also featured prominently in the ceremonies, taking British Film of the Year, British Director of the Year for Stephen Frears and Screenwriter of the Year for Peter Morgan. Mirren has already won a Golden Globe for her performance in the film, a fictionalised version of royal life in the aftermath of the 1997 death of Diana in Paris. Also in the ceremony, United 93 was named Film of the Year for its account of the events of September 11, 2001 aboard one of the hijacked airlines. It also won Director of the Year for Paul Greengrass. American actor Forest Whitaker, who played Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, was named Actor of the Year, while Meryl Streep was named Actress of the Year for her performance in The Devil Wears Prada. Toby Jones, who plays Truman Capote in Infamous, won the British Actor of the Year award.

WARTS AND ALL ON HIGH DEFINITION PORN DVDs [SMH, Australian Foreign Press, January 15, 2007] A high-definition film revolution spilled from the world's largest consumer electronics show into the planet's biggest adult entertainment expo. Some sex stars [picture shows Jenna Jameson] at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo were titillated by innovations unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) while others dreaded the notion of digital movies so detailed they could display every blemish. Porn producers welcomed news that competition was driving down prices for digital high-definition gear and that Warner Brothers film studio and major electronics makers were trying to convert viewers to the new format. Warner unveiled a DVD that worked on rival Blu-ray and HD DVD players. LG Electronics introduced a DVD player that read both formats. Executives from Warner and LG said their moves were intended to get buyers off the sidelines and into investing in high-density DVDs and players. "This news is very exciting," adult film maker and peddler Michael Piehl told AFP at his SexyViewX2.com booth at the expo. "I filmed in HD before and it was fruitless because no one had the players. I'll definitely switch back." The dawn of a high-definition era in the multi-billion-dollar porn industry inspired Apple Computer to send a representative to the expo for the first time. Doug Cunningham of the California-based computer and iPod maker was part of a DV411 technical contingent demonstrating next-generation digital camera hardware and editing software. "The DVD revolution is huge for these guys and now, with HD, it's a whole new world," Cunningham told AFP as he showed off Motion and Final Cut Pro editing programs by Apple. "People in the porn industry have always been early adopters of new technology, but in this case they were held back by cost." High-density digital cameras that until recently cost $US60,000 or more can now be bought in a range of $US4,000 to $US15,000. "Absolutely it's being adopted," said Alexei Gerulaitis of DV411. "With the new TVs like those at CES we have big picture frames. Now, we need the detail to fill in the whole scene." Adult film makers will need to adapt to using cameras that can reveal sloppy lighting, pancake make-up on actors and even lint on furniture, Cunningham said. "They are going through the same struggle as the television industry," Cunningham said. "HD is that much cleaner, that much more detailed." Victor Tsai, who makes and distributes adult films at Lynn's Corporation of America, had high-definition titles at his booth and expected to see a strong shift to the format next year as expense sagged and consumer interest rose. The majority of the sex stars informally polled at the expo said a shift to high definition would not keep them out of the action."It doesn't even cross my mind," said Carly Parker. "I'd rather people were paying attention to my scene and not whether by (bottom) was fat." Teva Wray and Micah Moore, both 19-year-old starlets, embraced the realism high-definition delivered. "Imperfections are sexy too," Wray told AFP. "Guys don't want Barbie dolls." "It's awesome unless you get a zit," Moore added. "Maybe in a few years I might be worried. But I'm young -- I can handle it. Maybe I should stop smoking?" Porn industry veteran Larry Ross, 73, of Cinderella Distribution, contended that the business was likely to make streaming content to mobile devices a higher priority than producing movies in high definition. "I think HD is not really good for porn," sex star Aaralyn Barra said as she autographed pictures for fans at the expo. "You can see scars, stretch marks, rashes ... no to HD."

KYLIE MINOGUE "BEST DRESSED CELEBRITY" [SMH. January 8, 2007] Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue has topped UK Glamour magazine's annual list of best-dressed celebrities. Kylie won the award for her new and "more sophisticated" look on her re-emergence after a year-long battle with breast cancer. She knocked British supermodel Kate Moss down into fourth place. "We've seen a newer, softer-looking Kylie emerge this year," said Glamour magazine's editor Jo Elvin. "She's still sexy, but she's not flaunting that side of herself in gold hotpants any more. She's letting it shine through subtly, with a classic personal style that women really identify with." English footballer David Beckham won the award for best dressed male. Moss's sometime partner, rocker Pete Doherty, won worst dressed man, just ahead of Kevin Federline, Russell Brand and Australian singer Peter Andre.

"GODFATHER of SOUL," JAMES BROWN DIES AT AGE 73 [Associated Press, December 25, 2006] James Brown, the dynamic US singer known as the "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco, died early today in Atlanta, his agent said. He was 73. Brown was hospitalised yesterday at Emory Crawford Long Hospital with pneumonia and died around 1.45am local time (1745 AEDT), said his agent, Frank Copsidas, of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, Copsidas said. "We really don't know at this point what he died of." Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolised him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's 'Fame', Prince's 'Kiss', George Clinton's 'Atomic Dog' and 'Sly' and the Family Stone's 'Sing a Simple Song' were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style. If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator. "James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close." His hit singles include such classics as 'Out of Sight', ('Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine', 'I Got You (I Feel Good') and 'Say It Out Loud -- I'm Black and I'm Proud', a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride. "I clearly remember we were calling ourselves coloured, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 AP interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society." He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (best R&B recording) and for Living In America in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers. <>P He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown, who lived in Beech Island near the Georgia line, spent more than two years in a South Carolina prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police officer. After his release on in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to straighten out" rock music. From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, 'Please, Please, Please' in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business." With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince. Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 per cent of their music is me," he told the Associated Press in 2003. Born in poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina, in 1933, he was abandoned as a four-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets of Augusta, Georgia, in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he learned to wheel and deal. "I wanted to be somebody," Brown said. By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served three and a half years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Georgia, for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B. In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later 'Please, Please, Please' was in the R&B Top Ten. While most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter, he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne. In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom. Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tyres of his truck. Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state. Soon after his release, Brown was on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television viewers nationwide who watched the three hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said. More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr. Two years later, Brown spent a week in a private Columbia hospital, recovering from what his agent said was dependency on painkillers Brown's lawyer, Albert "Buddy'' Dallas, said the singer was exhausted from six years of road shows.

CAN CANADIAN MUSLIMS LAUGH AT THEMSELVES?

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE [New York Times, December 7, 2006] The handsome, clean-cut young man of evidently Pakistani or Indian origin is standing in an airport line, gesticulating emphatically as he says into his cellphone, “If Dad thinks that’s suicide, so be it,” adding after a pause, “This is Allah’s plan for me.” As might be expected, a cop materializes almost instantly and drags the man off, telling him that his appointment in paradise will have to wait, even though the suicide he is referring to is of the career kind; he’s giving up the law to pursue a more spiritual occupation. The scene unrolls early in the pilot of a new Canadian comedy series called “Little Mosque on the Prairie.” Yet that fictional moment is an all-too-possible occurrence, as witnessed when six imams were hauled off a US Airways plane in Minnesota in November after apparently spooking at least one fellow passenger by murmuring prayers that included the word Allah. “Little Mosque on the Prairie” ventures into new and perhaps treacherous terrain: trying to explore the funny side of being a Muslim and adapting to life in post 9/11 North America. Its creators admit to uneasiness as to whether Canadians and Americans can laugh about the daily travails of those who many consider a looming menace. “It’s a question we ask ourselves all the time,” said Mary Darling, one of the show’s three executive producers and an American who has lived in Canada for the last decade. “If 9/11 is still too raw, it might not work,” she said. There is the other side of that coin too — what will Muslims think? — which the show’s creators usually summarize in one long sentence that mentions the uproar prompted by Salman Rushdie as well as the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad. This concern stems from the almost automatic presumption that “to look at Muslims in an entertaining way is going to be controversial because they will riot in the streets,” said Al Rae, one of the show’s writers, who noted that he does research by bouncing potential scenarios off cab drivers here. Or as Amaar, the young man detained in the opening airport scene, puts it sardonically, “Muslims all over the world are known for their sense of humor.” The strongest insurance against outrage from the faithful is that “Little Mosque” is the brainchild of Zarqa Nawaz, [pictured] a Canadian Muslim of Pakistani origin whose own assimilation, particularly after she left Toronto for Regina, Saskatchewan, 10 years ago, provides much of the comic fodder. “It rests on my shoulders to get the balance right between entertainment and representing the community in a reasonable way,” Ms. Nawaz, a 39-year-old mother of four, said in an interview here. “You have to push the boundaries so you can grow and evolve as a community.” During one recent episode being filmed at a neighborhood swimming pool, two Muslim characters who are normally veiled leave the changing room to discover that a man has replaced their usual female instructor. The horrified women lunge for bath towels to use as temporary hijabs, or veils, to cover their hair. Ms. Nawaz, veiled since she was in ninth grade, coached both actresses to be less relaxed. “I didn’t feel that they were panicked enough,” she said. “It’s a big deal for a hijab-wearing woman to be seen without one.” Ultimately the solution is found when, as the script describes, “Fatima comes out dressed in the Haz-Mat Islamic swimsuit.” The costume designer unearthed a swimsuit on the Internet from Jordan that covers her from scalp to ankle and had it shipped to Canada. The struggle over what constitutes modest dress is central to the show. When a Muslim girl flounces into her immigrant father’s presence with her navel showing, he recoils in horror, saying, “You look like a Protestant.” She counters, “Dad, you mean a prostitute?” He responds, “No, I meant a Protestant.” Ms. Nawaz’s humor also emerges in the pool episode. Johnny, the male water aerobics instructor, is gay, and he pointedly says that the sight of the women’s hair would not be the least bit arousing. “I always try to start these debates in my community like: Does gay count? Do you have to cover your hair in front of a gay man?” Ms. Nawaz said with a chuckle. (It is not the kind of question that arises in Muslim countries, where being openly gay is virtually out of the question; such behavior is punishable by a death sentence in some places.) Fellow Muslims often dismiss her thoughts and questions as too outrageous, she admitted. “But now I have a whole series to express them.” Amaar, for example, is abandoning a law career to become the new imam, or prayer leader, in the small town of Mercy. His predecessor as imam preaches sermons like, “First there was ‘American Idol,’ and now there is ‘Canadian Idol.’ All idols must be smashed.” Ms. Nawaz wanted the show to look at how a native-born imam, exceedingly rare at the moment, might deal with issues differently from the standard imported imams. The actor who plays the young imam, Zaib Shaikh, is the only Muslim in the cast, although the creators said they had hoped more would audition. Another episode focuses on the anguished debate among strict Muslim families about allowing their children to dress up and collect candy on Halloween, a Christian affair built atop a pagan festival. Most North American Muslims eventually compromise because the day has been drained of religion. “Little Mosque on the Prairie” turns it into “Halal-oween,” halal being the Arabic word for anything religiously permissible. The sitcom grew out of the battle in Ms. Nawaz’s mosque in Regina over whether women had to pray behind a partition, a heated controversy across the United States and Canada. She vehemently opposed the idea, ultimately making a documentary released this year called “Me and the Mosque” about the tug-of-war with her own imam as well as similar segregation battles in Chicago and West Virginia. The documentary sparked her idea that all manner of tension between moderate and conservative Muslims — one episode focuses on the partition issue — would make both Muslims and non-Muslims laugh. There were 600,000 Muslims in Canada in the 2001 census, with the number now estimated around 800,000. Estimates for the American population are around six million. In an earnest manner not atypical of Canadians, one goal of the show is to explain Muslim behavior, or at least make Muslims seem less peculiar, much as humor about Jews, Italians or gays helped those groups assimilate. “On the news all you ever hear are voices from the extreme end of the spectrum,” Ms. Darling said. “This gives voice to ordinary people who look just like other ordinary people.” With its small-town setting and affable cast of characters — even a talk radio host who labels Muslims as terrorists comes across as rather lighthearted — the show unrolls a bit like “Mary Tyler Moore” or some other 1970s sitcom. It is scheduled to start on CBC on Jan. 9, with eight episodes. More are under negotiation. Pitches will be made to networks in the United States in December, so at first only Americans in border states will be likeley to have access to it. Test audiences have been somewhat divided, the producers said. Younger viewers, especially Muslims, tend to laugh openly with recognition. Others, particularly the older generation — whether Muslim or not — hesitate. “Nobody has done a comedy about Muslims before, so they are not sure how to take it,” Ms. Nawaz said. “Some non-Muslims wonder, ‘Are we allowed to laugh?’ ”

TOM CRUISE TO PRODUCE SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE [BANG Showbiz, December 19, 2006] VICTORIA Beckham is reportedly set to star in Tom Cruise's new Scientology film. The ex-Spice Girl has apparently been lined up to play an alien bride in The Thetan - based on the religion, which believes in alien life forms. Victoria is said to be "thrilled" about getting her big Hollywood break. A source told Britain's Daily Star newspaper: "Victoria is really hoping to make a go of it in Hollywood. "This could be the perfect start for her, with good pal Tom Cruise in charge." The 32-year-old -- who made her first attempt at acting in the 1997 Spice Girls movie Spice World -- will play the bride of an alien leader called a thetan, which Scientologists claim is an immortal spiritual being, present in all humans. Cruise -- who is bankrolling the project himself after it was rejected by all the major film studios -- is said to have picked Victoria for the role after being impressed by her "comic genius." Victoria -- who is married to soccer superstar David Beckham -- is currently looking to buy a property in Los Angeles after recently landing a presenting role on a new US fashion programme.

CARTOONIST RIGBY DIES AT AGE 82 [AAP, November 16, 2006] WORLD-renowned Australian cartoonist Paul Rigby has died in hospital after suffering a suspected heart attack. It is believed 82-year-old Mr Rigby suffered a heart attack yesterday morning at his home in Margaret River, in Western Australia's southwest. He died last night at Busselton Hospital. He is survived by his wife Marlene and five children. Mr Rigby was born in Melbourne but grew up in Perth, establishing himself with Perth's Daily News. He won Australian journalism's prestigious Walkley award five times in the 1960s. Mr Rigby later spent time in London where he worked with the Sun and the News of the World. He moved to the US in 1977 where he worked for the New York Post and the New York Daily News and won many more prestigious awards. In 1999, Mr Rigby was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the newspaper industry as an editorial cartoonist.

RECORD PRICE FOR NAMATJIRA [The Australian, November 01, 2006] One of Albert Namatjira's earliest paintings in his mature style sold for a record $96,000 at the 10th annual Sotheby's auction of Aboriginal art in Melbourne last night. The surprising sale price is a record for Aboriginal art on paper, and beats the previous highest price for a Namatjira watercolour of $58,000. Hermannsburg Mission with Mt Hermannsburg in the Background [pictured] which was expected to sell for up to $60,000, went to a private buyer. Among the lots in the Melbourne auction were rare paintings of social and historical value. The main draw was the Wallent Collection, including 38 watercolours from the Hermannsburg Mission in central Australia, as well as ephemera charting the start of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. Oswald Wallent worked at Hermannsburg in the 1940s and supported emerging indigenous artists by buying works, arranging exhibitions and protecting the artists' rights. The Wallent Collection includes early major watercolours by Namatjira, particularly Hermannsburg, painted in 1936 or 1937. Aboriginal art expert Wally Caruana, who advised Sotheby's for the auction, said it was the first time a collection of watercolours of this importance had come on to the market at one time. "Namatjira's work is important on many levels," he said. "He was the first publicly known Aboriginal artist, known by name, and for a long time, until the explosion in interest in Aboriginal art over the past 20 years, he was an incredibly significant figure. Namatjira was a technically gifted artist, and he seemed to paint in a traditionally Western style. "In fact he subverted or at least undermined it in very subtle ways. He was a role model for indigenous artists right across the country, particularly among urban artists. The fact that Albert achieved so much inspired a number of artists in successive generations."

PRETEND WEAPONS ONLY IN NEW RAMBO FILM IN THAILAND [Reuters, October 31, 2006] Thailand's film chiefs have told the makers of the next Rambo movie due to start filming in the south-east Asian nation early next year to avoid excessive violence for fear of corrupting youth or damaging the environment. [Picture shows Sylvester Stallone in First Blood.] "We have warned them that any violence has to be reasonable because we care about young people," said Wanasiri Morakul, a director at the Thailand Film Office. In the planned movie “Rambo IV: In the Serpent's Eye,” the renegade Vietnam veteran played by Sylvester Stallone comes out of retirement in Bangkok to track down missionary aid workers who disappear in the jungles of military-ruled Burma. Much of the movie will be filmed in national parks and Wanasiri said officials would be keeping a close eye on the movie-makers to ensure they did not damage their surroundings. "We have told them that no real guns or bombs are allowed in the national park where they will be filming. Thailand has a law banning that and they've told us they will just imitate it," she told Reuters. Wanasiri said portrayal of the muscle-bound warrior as a retiree repairing military motorboats in Bangkok might even help a government drive to promote the country as a top spot for wealthy Westerners to live out their final years. "I think it will help boost the country's image as a relaxing and nice place to stay," she said.

MIDNIGHT OIL TO BE INDUCTED INTO ARIA HALL OF FAME [AAP, October 15, 2006] Legendary Australian rockers Midnight Oil are to be recognised for a long career that combined worldwide musical success with strident political activism. The five-piece group will be inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in Sydney later this month. Midnight Oil sold more than 12 million copies of their 14 albums worldwide, using their fame to bring global attention to issues such as Aboriginal rights and the plight of impoverished workers. ARIA Awards committee chairman Ed St John said Midnight Oil "is one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands this country has ever produced. They were incredibly successful all over the world, but much more importantly, they made music that mattered," he said today. "They covered subjects that had rarely been addressed in a rock song before: land rights, the environment, social justice, war, human rights and Australian history. The sound of their music, created by five supremely talented singers and musicians, evoked the very essence of Australia." The band's lead singer, Peter Garrett, now a federal Labor MP, said being chosen for the Hall of Fame was a "mighty honour." Midnight Oil are the final musicians to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame this year, joining Divinyls, Icehouse, Daddy Cool, Lobby Loyde, Rose Tattoo and Helen Reddy. Previous inductees include Dame Joan Sutherland, AC/DC, Men At Work, The Bee Gees, INXS, Olivia Newton John and Split Enz. Midnight Oil's induction will take place at the 2006 ARIA Awards event at Sydney's Acer Arena on October 29.

BOB DYLAN ALBUM TOPS CHARTS AFTER 30 YEARS [Reuters, September 7, 2006] Bob Dylan has reached the top of the US albums chart for the first time in 30 years, and only the fourth time in his career. The rock poet's latest album, Modern Times, sold 192,000 copies in the week ended September 3, his best sales week since tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan started using its point-of-sales data to collate the charts in 1991. Dylan, 65, last reached No. 1 in 1976 with his album Desire, which led the field for five weeks. At the time he was on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour and winning publicity for his protest tune Hurricane. His other chart-toppers were the 1975 classic Blood on the Tracks and 1974's Planet Waves. Dylan has been on a creative and commercial roll since 1997, when he released Time Out of Mind, a comical look at death. It opened at No. 10, selling 101,600 copies, and went on to win the Grammy for album of the year. His 2001 follow-up, Love and Theft, opened at No. 5 with 133,760 copies. Rolling Stone magazine said the three albums "stand alongside the accomplishments of his wild youth".

BERESFORD TO WRITE AND DIRECT FILM ON "BATTLE OF LONG TAN" IN VIETNAM [AAP, August 20, 2006] Bruce Beresford has signed up to write and direct a big-budget Australian film based on the Vietnam war's Battle of Long Tan. Long Tan, to be produced by Martin Walsh, will have a budget of up to $42 million, depending on casting and production specifications. Beresford is currently researching and writing the script with production likely to begin early next year. "All of the ingredients are there -- a gripping true story, young and diverse characters filled with hope and resolve in the face of overwhelming odds, stunning visual opportunities, epic action sequences, and the opportunity to showcase a high-profile ensemble cast," said Beresford, who recently finished shooting The Contract with Morgan Freeman in the lead role. "There's this incredible mix of drama, tragedy and heroism tempered with laconic Australian humour in the heat of battle." The announcement comes just a couple of days after commemorative services were held around the country to mark the 40th anniversary of the battle of Long Tan, Australia's bloodiest engagement in Vietnam. Eighteen soldiers died on August 18, 1966, as a tiny force of just 108 men fought off some 2500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops in a rubber plantation, inflicting hundreds of enemy casualties. "This is a film that is long overdue, and will see us put one of Australia's most heroic battles on the world stage for the first time," said Walsh. Beresford was first choice to direct the project, he said. His film credits include such Australian classics as Puberty Blues, Breaker Morant, and The Fringe Dwellers. "It has been decades since Australia made a feature film remotely like this," said Walsh. "Action films are rare, largely due to their cost -- and the majority of our film export product falls into either the drama or comedy category." Walsh was also involved in Foxtel's History Channel documentary, The Battle of Long Tan, which premiered last week. For the film, Walsh has enlisted the help of Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith, officer commanding D Company, 6RAR, at Long Tan, and six other former commanders. "The commanders have entrusted an important legacy to Martin Walsh and Bruce Beresford but we are confident the story of Long Tan will be told in the most accurate, but ultimately in the most widely appealing, way," Smith said. The film will feature a strong Australian cast with actors such as Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Sam Worthington and Eric Bana believed to have been approached. The film is likely to be shot in Sydney and north Queensland and is slated to be released around Anzac Day 2008.

BIRTHPLACE OF ELVIS PRESLEY NOW A MUSEUM [The Sunday Telegraph, August 11, 2006] Nina Holcomb has been working at the birthplace of Elvis Presley at Tupelo, Mississippi for a year. The two-bedroom house hasn't changed much since 1934 when it was built by Elvis's father, Vernon, who borrowed $US180 ($A235) for materials, on land he sharecropped. Elvis was born to Gladys on January 8, 1935; an identical twin brother, Jessie Garon, was stillborn. "Elvis was part Cherokee, wasn't he?" I ask. "Oh yeah, he was half and his mother was three-quarters," Holcomb says. I try to do the maths. "So that's maybe why he was so good-looking?" I ask. "The Presley men are all good-looking." Then she whispers: "And they're all womanisers." Not everybody is that irreverent about The King, with the story wall in the house covered in tributes from his friends, many referring to his religious upbringing. One by Annie Presley, cousin by marriage and a dear friend of Gladys, says: "Elvis never forgot his raisin'." Another tells of Elvis sneaking away to the black Baptist church to listen to gospel music. The family had to move out of the house when Elvis was three when Vernon couldn't repay the $180 loan. The home was repossessed. Then, in 1948, Vernon moved the family to Memphis, about 160km to the north, to look for work. What they couldn't load in their 1939 Plymouth (a replica of which is also on the site) they left behind. In 1956 and '57, Elvis returned to Tupelo to perform benefit concerts at the fairgrounds; the money was used to buy back his birthplace and build a park – and later a magnificent museum, which is visited now by around 100,000 people a year. But it's Graceland, his home in Memphis, where he lived from the age of 22 until his death on August 17, 1977, at the age of 42, which is the most visited private residence in the world – with nearly 700,000 sightseers a year. Earlier this year it was made a National Historic Landmark. Elvis bought the property for $US103,000 ($A145,182) in 1957 with earnings from his first hit record, Heartbreak Hotel. His former wife, Priscilla Presley, opened Graceland's doors to the public in 1980, but it is his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, who is its sole owner, and it's her voice that is heard the most on the audio tour through the house. Graceland is much smaller than I expected, more a large colonial-style house than a mansion. At 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard, it's about 14km south of central Memphis. It took us a few goes to find the exit to the former Bellevue Boulevard – an ugly highway to Mississippi full of chain stores, gas stations and car sales yards. An adjacent shopping mall has been turned into a virtual theme park with restaurants, a theatre and two museums. You can pay just to see the Graceland mansion across the road ($30), or spend another $11 for the Platinum Tour, which includes the Sincerely Elvis museum ($9.60) and several rooms of personal items; the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum ($16.45) has cars and motorcycles; or tour the King's two jets ($11) and the Elvis After Dark exhibit themed around him being a "night person". Then there's the $75.25 VIP tour (with discounts if you've already been to Tupelo). Everything about the set-up is corny (particularly the souvenirs). We stuck to guitar picks and postcards, and decided to forgo the Elvis recipe books, although I ordered Elvis's favourite sandwich – toasted peanut butter and banana – at the diner. After a short minibus ride across the road to the mansion, the audio tour informs us that the upstairs floor of Graceland, where Elvis died, remains private. But the downstairs rooms which are open (and roped), are the ones that he would have shown his friends. We're told the kitchen was like Grand Central and the TV was always on. Elvis liked TVs. There are three televisions in the TV room, an idea Elvis copied after he heard President Lyndon B. Johnson liked to watch all three major networks' news simultaneously. The poolroom's ceilings and walls are covered in 400m of multicoloured fabric. The pool table's felt is torn – a friend apparently tried a trick shot which didn't work out. The famous so-called jungle room has an indoor waterfall, green shag carpet and fake fur upholstery, from its '74 redecoration. It was to remind Elvis of Hawaii and was simply known as the den. Tacky, yes, but this was the '70s. In his office we're told he liked reading books of a spiritual nature, and he would underline and write "Amen" next to the pertinent passages. His hobbies included his gun collection and karate. Elvis re-decorated the house several times and added outbuildings, but he left the main house largely alone. On the last morning of his life, Elvis was in the racquetball building, playing the piano and singing songs including Unchained Melody for friends. Then he went to bed and was found dead hours later, having suffered heart failure. Flowers and tributes arrive almost daily at the graves in the meditation ground where he, his parents and grandmother Minnie Mae Presley are buried. There's also a marker for his dead twin, Jessie. Back across the road, we found the automobile museum more interesting, with motorised toys and cars including Gladys's pink Cadillac. The Lisa Marie, a Convair 880 jet bought in 1975, is more a series of narrow rooms with a guest bathroom featuring a gold-plated sink. Fifteen different types of soft drinks were available for passengers as Elvis "didn't care for the taste of alcohol". And we're told his favourite on-board viewing was Blazing Saddles and episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. There's a shuttle to Sun Studios 15 minutes away, where Sam Phillips first recorded The King. We're told the music heritage of Memphis played a large role in forming his combination of black rhythm and blues, and white country music which became rock 'n' roll. Matt Lewis, who has been performing Elvis as part of the Legends in Music show at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas (known as the "best of the best of impersonation shows") for the past four years, says Elvis's mystique is still so strong that the crowd goes wild, even for an impersonator. "He was the coolest guy in rock 'n' roll history – with a tragic end," Lewis declares.

PROLIFIC TV PRODUCER AARON SPELLING DIES AT 83 [Associated Press, June 24, 2006] Aaron Spelling, a onetime movie bit player who turned to television production to create a massive number of hit series from the vintage Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, Love Boat and Fantasy Island to Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place, has died, his publicist said. He was 83. Spelling died on Friday at his mansion near Beverly Hills after suffering a stroke on June 18, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki. Spelling's other hit series included Burke's Law, The Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, Matt Houston, Hart to Hart and Hotel. He kept his hand in 21st-century TV with series including 7th Heaven and Summerland. He also produced more than 140 television movies. Among the most notable: Death Sentence (1974), Nick Nolte's first starring role; The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), John Travolta's first dramatic role, as a boy born without immunities whose life is spent in isolation; The Best Little Girl in the World (1981), which starred Jennifer Jason Leigh as a teenage anorexic. During the 1970s and 1980s, Spelling provided series and movies exclusively for ABC and is credited for the network's rise to major status. Jokesters referred to it as The Aaron Broadcasting Company. Success was not without its thorns. TV critics denounced Spelling for fostering fluff and nighttime soap operas. He called his shows "mind candy;" critics referred to them as "mindless candy." Charlie's Angels ushered in a genre known as "jiggle TV" for its gratuitous focus on the female form. "The knocks by the critics bother you," he admitted in a 1986 interview. "But you have a choice of proving yourself to 300 critics or 30 million fans. You have to make a choice. I think you're also categorised by the critics. If you do something good they almost don't want to like it." He liked to cite some of his more creditable achievements, like Family (1976-80), a drama about a middle-class family, and The Best Little Girl in the World. Among his prestige films for TV: Day One (1988), about an atomic blast in middle America; And the Band Played On (1992), based on Randy Shilts' book about the AIDS crisis. Spelling had arrived in Hollywood virtually penniless in the early 1950s. By the 1980s, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $US300 million ($409 million). He enjoyed his status, working in a Hollywood office larger than those of golden-era moguls ("I'm slightly claustrophobiac," he explained.) He gifted his second wife, Candy, with a 40-carat diamond ring. The Spellings' most publicised extravagance was their 5,085-square-metre French chateau in Holmby Hills. The couple bought the former Bing Crosby estate for $US10 million ($13.65 million). It was levelled to the ground, along with two other houses. Construction cost was estimated at $US12 million ($16.38 million). Born on April 22, 1923, Spelling grew up in a small frame house on Browder Street in Dallas "on the wrong side of the tracks," he wrote in his 1996 autobiography. He was the fourth son of immigrant Jews, his father from Poland, mother from Russia. The father's name, Spurling, was simplified to Spelling by an Ellis Island official. Spelling enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1942. "I grew up thinking 'Jew boy' was one word," the producer wrote in his memoir, Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life. He was considered strange by his Dallas schoolmates because his parents spoke Yiddish. He was subjected to anti-Semitic taunts and beatings on his way home from school. At 8, the boy suffered what he termed a nervous breakdown, and he spent a year in bed. He later considered that period the birth of his creative urge. He fell in love with great storytellers, especially O. Henry. Of his early TV series he said, "They are all O. Henry short stories." After combat and organising entertainment in Europe during the war, Spelling returned to Texas and enrolled at Southern Methodist University, where he wrote and directed plays. He continued working in local theatrics after graduating. Finding no work in New York, Spelling moved to Los Angeles, where he staged plays and acted in more than 40 TV shows and 12 movies. His skinny frame suited him for the role of a ragged beggar in the MGM musical Kismet. He worked for three weeks, repeating his one line: "Alms for the love of Allah." The Kismet experience resulted in two decisions: he abandoned acting for the typewriter; he married a young actress he had been courting, Carolyn Jones. She became well-known, especially as Morticia in The Addams Family series. They divorced after 13 years, and she died of cancer in 1983. Spelling's friendship with such actor-producers as Dick Powell, Jack Webb and Alan Ladd led to his rapid rise as a prolific writer and later producer of TV series. In 1960, Powell, head of Four Star Productions, hired him to produce shows for Powell himself, his wife June Allyson and Lloyd Bridges. Burke's Law, with Gene Barry as a millionaire detective, became the first hit series Spelling created. After Powell's death, Spelling teamed with Danny Thomas in a production company, scoring a huge success with The Mod Squad, about a trio of youthful undercover cops. In 1969, Spelling began an exclusive contract with ABC, helping the network to rise from a low third place to the top of the network ratings. Former ABC programming chief Leonard Goldberg joined him as partner in 1972. After ABC cancelled Dynasty in 1989 and his contract with the network had ended, Spelling found himself without a show on the air for the first time since 1960. "I was so depressed, I would have quit, but I like TV too much," Spelling wrote in his memoir. Besides, his company had started issuing stock in 1986, and he had an obligation to his investors. After a year's respite, he returned with Beverly Hills 90210, which helped launch the fledgling Fox Network into the bigtime. Melrose Place gave Fox another hit. Spelling set a record of producing more than 3,000 TV shows. Besides the TV movies, he produced 10 theatrical films including California Split, Mr. Mom. 'night, Mother, Loose Cannons and Soapdish.