Business of Media
Bruce Lehrmann to ask appeals court to set aside $2m costs order for failed defamation suit
Bruce Lehrmann will ask the appeals court to put aside Justice Michael Lee’s order that he pay $2m in legal fees for his failed defamation suit against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, reports The Guardian’s Amanda Meade.
The former Liberal staffer was going to represent himself in the appeal but has retained criminal solicitor Zali Burrows at the 11th hour, according to court documents.
Burrows appeared for Lehrmann on Thursday at the first case management hearing before Justice Wendy Abraham.
Bruce Lehrmann’s new lawyer is not used to defamation cases
There is another act in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation circus, with colourful lawyer Zali Burrows now representing the former political adviser in his appeal against findings that he raped colleague Brittany Higgins, reports Nine Publishing’s Michael Pelly.
Burrows, who is better known as a criminal defence solicitor for bikies and assorted Sydney identities, appeared for Lehrmann in a directions hearing in the Federal Court on Thursday before Justice Wendy Abraham.
Rupert Murdoch plan to give control to son Lachlan triggers family legal battle
Rupert Murdoch is engaged in a legal fight with some of his children, as he tries to hand control of his media empire to his eldest son, Lachlan, a battle with major ramifications for the future of the mogul’s two companies, report The Wall Street Journal’s Amol Sharma, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, and Jessica Toonkel.
Murdoch, 93 years old, controls a trust that holds the family’s substantial stakes in News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News parent Fox Corp. Under its terms, when Murdoch dies, voting control would pass to four children – Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence.
Recently, the elder Murdoch sought to amend the trust to consolidate power in Lachlan Murdoch’s hands, according to people familiar with the situation. He encountered stiff resistance from the three other children who were slated to inherit some control of the trust.
Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to rule from the grave is stranger than fiction
Family patriarch, media mogul, nonagenarian and serial groom Rupert Murdoch has been famed for his remarks that he will live forever. He now appears to be aiming for the next best thing – the right to rule from the grave, reports Nine Publishing’s Elizabeth Knight.
For the past nine months, he has been tied up in an (until now) secret legal battle with three of his children aimed at securing his eldest son, Lachlan, as successor to the corporate throne of his media empire.
Yet again, the Murdoch clan is demonstrating that truth can be stranger than fiction. The HBO television series Succession, which is loosely based on the machinations of this dynasty, doesn’t do justice to reality.
Hollywood actors to go on strike against video game companies
The SAG-AFTRA actors’ union on Thursday called a strike against video game companies that use actors’ images or voices in games, echoing its broader strike against television and movie studios last year. The strike will start at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on Friday, after more than a year and a half of negotiations, reports The New York Times’ Brooks Barnes and Kellen Browning.
Until the latest strike is resolved, members of the 160,000-person union will no longer “act” in video games produced by Activision Blizzard, WB Games, Electronic Arts and seven other companies covered by an interactive-media agreement. The agreement expired in November 2022, and last summer the union terminated an extension.
‘Bunnings of music’: why Matt Gudinski remade Mushroom
Most roads in the Australian music business used to lead to the Mushroom Group – and a restructure announced on Thursday seeks a return to those glory days, reports Nine Publishing’s Michael Bailey.
The record label started by Michael Gudinski in Melbourne in 1972 had, by the 1990s, expanded to include powerful divisions for publishing, domestic gig booking, international tour promotion, merchandise sales and artist management.
The joke went that, whenever Jimmy Barnes’ record deal with Mushroom was up for renewal, his manager – Gudinski – would sit down at the boardroom table in Dundas Lane and negotiate with himself.
Radio
Kyle and Jackie O to face off against Jase and Lauren at 2024 ACRAs
Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips have the chance to pull off one of the great comebacks at this year’s radio awards, reports News Corp’s Andrew Bucklow.
The Nova 100 hosts have just been nominated for the coveted Best On Air Team award, radio’s equivalent of the Gold Logie, at the 2024 ACRAs.
Jase and Lauren are up against WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda, Gold FM’s Christian O’Connell, the Hit Network’s Carrie and Tommy, Nova 96.9’s Fitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchie and their arch rivals, KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O.
Who is filling in for Ali Clarke on Mix 102.3
After saying she would never return to breakfast radio, Hayley Pearson is making a comeback to fill-in for Mix 102.3’s Ali Clarke while she battles breast cancer, reports News Corp’s Anna Vlach.
On Tuesday, Clarke revealed on-air that she had been diagnosed with the disease that affects one in seven Australian women in their lifetime.
Television
Channel 10’s Lachlan Kennedy labels Wiki attack ‘malicious and offensive’
It is the Wikipedia scandal that has Sydney newsrooms in a tizz, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
Channel 10 political reporter Lachlan Kennedy has split from his wife of 10 years, naturopath Cassie Davenport, with his dating life the subject of a Wiki attack.
An unknown person made false allegations about Kennedy on the site earlier this month.