Neil McMahon's Daily Top 5 Picks: Monday
1. The glitz! The glamour! The grandiose hair! The glorious, happy, horror of it all. It could only be The Eurovision Song Contest, now well-established as one of SBS's biggest audience pullers of every year. As hosts, Julie Zemiro and Sam Pang have made the schlocky show their own, guiding Aussie audiences through proceedings with a nudge, a wink, lots of wit and an essential affection for this most curious of pop culture baubles. Last night's final, with Denmark crowned winner, was watched by around 600,000 in the capitals, and was again a hit on Twitter - perhaps because few other events so effortlessly lend themselves to communal viewing and extreme levels of social media snark.
2. Still with Eurovision: what perfect timing it was that the final was being held in ABBALand - aka Sweden- just as one of the band's alumni was showing the kind of superstar chart power that was the foursome's routine achievement in the 1970s. Agnetha's Faltskog's comeback album A soars into the ARIA album chart at No. 3 this week - off the back of a savvy global PR campaign that included an intimate profile on Seven's Sunday Night a fortnight ago. As an ABBA aficionado of some years standing, I can report that Faltskog's solo smash warrants the attention. It's a reminder that those ABBA girls could turn their vocal talents to anything - from ballads to disco, and all in a foreign language. In the ABBA tradition, the album does have a couple of duds - but overall, one of pop music's greatest voices delivers the goods. As ABBA's Aussie handmaiden Molly Meldrum used to say: do yourselves a favour.
3. Agnetha's perky chart debut saw it pip the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby by one spot on the ARIA ledger, but there's another 10 days to go to see what local moviegoers rather than music-buyers think of their compatriot's controversial re-imagining of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic. Whatever the merits of the film, you have to dip your lid to the Bazmachine - watching the man make and flog his movies has become a compulsive entertainment all on its own. Reviews of Lurhmann flicks are especially entertaining, given Baz's inclination to send some critics into paroxysms of delight, and many others to emerge from the cinema feeling as if they'd been locked inside a pinball machine for a couple of hours. This movie has had it's share of clunking notices, but Baz surely won't care much given the big business it's doing at the US box office.
4. The revolution continues: Melbourne's Herald Sun got some welcome News Limited company in its year-old canary-down-the-coalmine role of testing reader willingness to venture beyond a paywall. Sydney's Daily Telegraph is there now, too, with The Courier Mail (Brisbane) and The Advertiser (Adelaide) to follow soon. But the rules have changed: News has gone the metered route, meaning you get a certain number of stories for nix, before being asked to pony up a subscription fee. To coincide with the new paywall launch both papers were given an online overhaul as well last week. Will it work? Find out what Herald Sun editor Damon Johnstone has to say on his paper's prospects in my interview with him, in the next issue of Mediaweek.
5. Media moments don't come much bigger - or more weighted with TV industry history - than the retirement of American broadcast queen Barbara Walters, who at 83 has announced she is going at last. She will be missed - by everyone from female colleagues who hail her as the woman who led the way, to comedians who've made hay with her style of interviewing and her speech impediment (The late Gilda Radner's "Baba Wawa" skits on Saturday Night Live cemented Walters place in the culture, even if Walters herself didn't much like them at first.) I highly recommend Walters 2008 memoir, Audition. And for your classic Walters interview moments, try these two. Here is one she never lived down, asking of Katharine Hepburn: "What kind of a tree are you, if you think you're a tree?" And I've always had a soft spot for Walters' encounter with presidential paramour Monica Lewinsky - "A lot of people don't know what phone sex is."
Brian Watson's Daily Top 5 Picks: Friday
1. The Place Beyond The Pines stars Ryan Gosling as a stunt motorcyclist who turns to robbing banks to pay support for his illegitimate son and Bradley Cooper as the cop who becomes his deadly adversary. Fifteen years later their sons wind up at the same high school and the movie shapes up as an epic drama. Full marks to the teen actors Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen but especially to Eva Mendes and Rose Byrne as their mothers.
2. Remember Bon Iver, the indie group whose eponymous second album enjoyed worldwide success two years ago and won two Grammy Awards? Many of their fans still prefer their first album, For Emma, Forever Ago (2008), which included their original version of “Skinny Love”. Imagine my surprise to find one of its tracks, “The Wolves (Act I and II)”, plays right through the end credits of The Place Beyond The Pines. The music supervisor certainly had good taste.
3. Another surprise this week was the name of Bart the Bear in the end credits of this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”. Bart, an Alaskan Kodiak bear, appeared in many movies and TV shows before he died in 2000. This week’s Bart is another Alaskan Kodiak, born in 2000, raised by the same trainers, with a similarly long Hollywood career. If you haven’t already seen it, be prepared for his terrifying appearance in this week’s episode.
4. I’m excited about an ad on TEN for their upcoming show The Americans. A dozen or so episodes have been shown on the US FX network and the premise is intriguing. Keri Russell from Felicity and Matthew Rhys, who played the gay brother in Brothers & Sisters, are highly trained Russian KGB agents posing as a American couple in suburban Washington DC in the early 80s. Also in the cast are Richard Thomas, who won an Emmy as John-Boy in The Waltons, and Margo Martindale, who won an Emmy as the villain in season two of Justified. Critics say it’s a gripping spy thriller.
5. The Music Is You is a newly released tribute to John Denver. Artists including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Amos Lee, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dave Matthews perform his songs and the most successful tracks tend to be the biggest hits – some of the others are pretty forgettable. My favourite is “Leaving on a Jet Plane” with My Morning Jacket breathing fresh life into Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit.
Hansika Bhagani's Daily Top 5 Picks: Thursday
1. PolitiFact has launched in Australia, and in the lead-up to September's Federal election, is sure to get a workout. So far the site proves interesting reading, with some media commentators claiming some of the fact-checking is being selective. Find ex-SMH editor Peter Fray's new venture here.
2. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has gone global and this weekend there will be events to celebrate the chef's Food Revolution Day. You can participate by cooking and sharing your fresh homemade food at the Love Real Food Picnic at Centennial Park this Saturday. As the food revolution is all about fresh, homemade tucker – and being equipped to prepare it yourself – the organisers are challenging people to home-make "absolutely everything for their picnic loot – crackers, dips, thermos soups, salads, meats, home-made lemonades. EVERYTHING!! No packets."
3. It's taken eight long years but How I Met Your Mother has revealed the identity of Ted Moseby's wife and the "mother" of the series. Cristin Milioti showed her face for a fleeting minute in the season finale, buying a train ticket to Barney and Robin’s wedding in “Farhampton,” the show’s fanciful, fictitious stand-in for the East Hampton. Milioti will appear regularly next season, the show’s last, beginning in September.
4. The John Singleton/Gai Waterhouse saga has been given ample coverage in Sydney's daily papers but Four Corners on Monday night will be worth watching for exclusive insights and historical background. Marian Wilkinson reports on Four Corners, Monday at 8.30pm on ABC.
5. Head On Photo Festival opens tomorrow as part of Vivid Sydney. Head On is Australia's largest photo festival and the world's second largest festival. With over 200 events at 100 venues, the 2012 festival was a resounding success for everyone who participated: galleries and other venues, photographers, Head On partners and the viewing public and the 2013 festival is already looking like being even bigger!
Lauren Barripp's Daily Top 5 Picks: Wednesday
1. One by one, stars are arriving in the south of France for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which is held from May 15-26. CEO of the invitation-only festival, Thierry Fremaux, describes the purpose of the event as a way to “draw attention to and raise the profile of films with the aim of contributing towards the development of cinema, boosting the film industry worldwide and celebrating cinema at an international level.” The president of the jury at this year’s event is director, Steven Spielberg.
2. Aussie comedian Rebel Wilson has landed herself her own TV series on the US Network ABC, called Super Fun Night. The series will revolve around three nerdy women friends on a "funcomfortable" quest to have "super fun" every Friday night. The show will be co-produced by Connan O’Brien.
3. Despite the predicted debut weekend sales of $US30 million, The Great Gatsby has outperformed expectations by taking $US51.1m on its opening weekend in more than 3500 cinemas across the United States. The movie, shot in Sydney, is directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan.
4. The British Academy of Television and Film Arts Awards (also known as The BAFTAs) were held in London on Sunday night. Sheridan Smith won best actress for her role in Mrs Biggs, and my guilty pleasure, Made In Chelsea, won best reality or constructed factual show. As per any awards ceremony, the fashion stakes were high and as glamorous as ever, despite the typical wet British weather.
5. Olympic gold medallists and Celebrity Splash judges Matthew Mitcham and Greg Louganis will get a chance to show off their credentials as the pair have a chance to dive together during tonight’s grand finale which will air at 8.45pm on Channel 7.
June 20, 2012 Melbourne’s king of talkback, Neil Mitchell, is set to become a key contributor to Channel Nine’s suite of news and current affairs programs.
Mitchell is heard by more than 500,000 Victorians every week on his top-rating 3AW morning program.
In his exclusive role with Nine, Mitchell will become a regular commentator on Today, A Current Affair and Nine News.
