Brett Debritz’s archive

“It doesn’t happen anywhere — I guess only in America.” So said Keynan Moses Bittok as he cashed in a US$1.8 million lottery prize he won with a ticket bought just hours after he took the oath to become a US citizen. If only they could guarantee the same outcome, there’d be a rush of applicants.

Don Adams, the star of television spy spoof Get Smart and the voice of Inspector Gadget, has died at the age of 82. See my Celebrity Deaths Archive and this AP obit at CNN.com for more details.

Is there anything Oprah Winfrey caan’t or won’t do? Now she’s planning to pump US$1 million into a Broadway musical based on the film The Color Purple. When it opens in december, the show will be called Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Color Purple just to remind the millions of faithful who watch her TV shows, buy her magazine and purchase books endorsed by their favourite daytime TV host why they must go and see it.

There’s no tying Rolf Harris down. He’s never far from the showbiz headlines in the UK, where he’s been recreating part of a Holbein the Younger mural featuring Henry VIII. The artist formerly known as Jake the Peg set up in London’s Trafalgar Square and coordinated 100 artists who each contributed a panel of the finished work. Read about it here.

It comes as no surprise that the FBI was keeping tabs on Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys during the 1960s, but they were also on to piano player Liberace. Why? Not because of what you’re probably thinking. Apparently he was doing business with a Brooklyn bookmaker. Also of concern to the Feds were Walt Disney, Lucille Ball, Jimmy Hoffa (no surprise there), Albert Einstein, Andy Warhol and Groucho Marx. And the real FBI had casting approval over the television series The FBI, knocking back Bette Davis (who they pegged as a communist sympathiser) and Robert Blake (who once said society was to blame for killings, not the actual killers). There’s more on CNN.com here.

Ashton Kutcher, 27, and Demi Moore, 42, have reportedly married in front of 100 friends, including Moore’s second husband Bruce Willis, actress Lucy Liu and Moore’s three daughters from her marriage to Willis. Or maybe it was just an elaborate stunt for Kutcher’s TV show Punk’d.

Jodie Foster is back at the top of the US box office with a film called Flightplan. Foster plays a mother whose child goes missing on a flight.
Tags: Cinema, Jodie Foster (I’m not responsible for content of other websites.)

“I had to do it. The Greens keep their promises”. So said New Zealand Green Party MP Keith Locke, who kept his pledge to stroll down the street naked if Act Party leader Rodney Hide won a seat at the nation’s general elections. Mr Locke chose “artistic nudity” – meaning he was covered in body paint – and was wearing underwear.

“Yes, this really is Brian Wilson.” That’s what you could be hearing down your telephone line if you donate US$100 or more to the Hurricane Katrina appeal via the Beach Boys founder’s website, brianwilson.com. Wilson will also match your donation. Read more about it here.
PS: Since posting this, I’ve noticed discussion on the site’s message board about how this all works. Following the link from his home page to the American Red Cross website will allow you to donate, but it may not ensure you get a phone call or that he’ll match your donation.

The Brisbane Powerhouse will be home to two significant pieces of South African theatre this week. Tshepang, from Tuesday to Saturday, is said to be a powerful work about the very disturbing subject of child abuse, while White Men with Weapons, from Tuesday until October 8, will see comedian Greig Coetzee assume 13 characters in a story set just before the release from prison of Nelson Mandela.
Tags: Brisbane, Theatre (I’m not responsible for content of other websites.)