Brett Debritz’s archive

Let me get this story straight … Oprah Winfrey arrives 15 minutes after closing time, isn’t allowed in to fancy Paris department store Hermes, and now she says she’s been discriminated against because of her skin colour. Seems to me that it’s plain and simple arrogance on the part of any person, regardless of race, creed or colour, that they should expect to be allowed entry to a store that’s closed simply because they’re rich and famous.

Premier Peter Beattie has become the first Australian politician to meet Pope Benedict. Mr Beattie sat in the front row at a papal audience at the Vatican, no doubt providing a great thrill for the pontiff.
PS. On the subject of media tarts, yes that was me on Extra again last night, despite the spelling mistake in the caption.

Looks like Rodney’s finally going to get some respect. The folks who made the biopic Ray are now planning to film the life story of comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The ABC has the story here.

I was wrong. I predicted that Nova 106.9 would debut in the Brisbane radio ratings survey with a share between 7 and 10. It scored an 11.7, second only to recent market leader Triple M, but ahead of long-time leader B105. Survey 4 spread the joy aoround, with Triple M still on top in breakfast and overall, ARN shoring up the key demographics for 4KQ (40-plus listeners) and 97.3FM (young women), and Nova having a strong launch. Interestingly, Nova rated better in the music shifts than it did in breakfast. Maybe old listeners’ habits die hard or perhaps Nova fans prefer the music to the talk. Meanwhile in Sydney, former Brisbane “shock jock” Kyle Sandilands and on-air partner Jackie O are looking very ordinary. Despite a strong marketing campain (anyone who’s been in Sydney lately will have seen ads for their show everywhere), they dropped to a 7.9 share, against Alan Jones’s 15.6 on 2GB, Angela Catterns’s 12.2 on the ABC and Merrick and Rosso’s 11.5 on Nova. Kyle and Jackie O were also beaten by 2UE’s Mike Carlton and the Triple M Cage team. I wonder how the Network Ten folks are feeling now about their choice of Sandilands as a judge on the upcoming series of Australian Idol?
PS: RIP Paul Bodington. The 612ABC tribute is here.

OK, so plenty of Hollywood stars hit the bottle. Here’s one – Leo DiCaprio _ who got hit with a bottle. (This CNN news also reveals the interesting information that DiCaprio’s spokesman rejoices in the name of Ken Sunshine.)

Just three months after The Goodies’ sell-out Australian tour, Bill Oddie is again being feted in the UK. His Springwatch nature program has out-rated Big Brother and he’s been called Britain’s latest cult hero. The BBC has a feature story here.

Debritz.com is continuing to grow. The theatre reviews sub-site now includes all of my Brisbane News reviews from mid-2002 to the present, and there have been new entries to the Celebrity Deaths Archive.

It’s not quite dead yet, but sales figures from the UK prove the cassette tape is certainly on the way out. Read the BBC’s slightly premature obituary here.

” … this indestructible comedy survives anything these dragged-up pranksters can throw at it, and the whole improbable evening is blessed with a dotty sincerity that proves strangely touching.” So says London’s Daily Telegraph about Ridiculusmus’s productionn of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest at the Barbican. But, of course, we know how wonderful it is – because the two-man play premiered here in Brisbane at the Powerhouse.

More than 700,000 people have downloaded Beethoven symphonies in a week-long trial conducted by the BBC. The most popular of the first five symphonies, which were available for free, was No. 1. The remaining four symphonies will be available later this month from the Radio 3 website.