The View
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday July 27, 2009
TAUGHT BY AN EXPERT Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner will deliver the keynote address at the annual producers' SPAA conference in November. SCHOOL'S IN Former Neighbours star Sweeney Young is filming a guest role in the Ten police drama Rush, playing a troubled private school student. HIATUS INTERRUPTEDSeven's lifestyle and travel series The Great Outdoors returns next month with new episodes, suggesting rumours of its demise may have been exaggerated. Some of the material was filmed after newspaper reports of the show's cancellation and feature Tom Williams, Jennifer Hawkins (pictured) and Ernie Dingo heading off to a variety of destinations including New Zealand, Vanuatu, Canada, India, Hawaii, Spain and Hayman Island. The show has been in "hiatus" since last year.BACKYARD BLISSThe LifeStyle Channel has commissioned a new 12-part half-hour practical gardening series, Garden Angels, from Southern Star Entertainment. The series will be fronted by three well-known horticulturalists - Melissa King (Gardening Australia), Jody Rigby (The Outdoor Room) and Linda Ross (Ground Force). The series will have a practical focus, including step-by-step plans for creating vegetable gardens and growing plants and will include a weekly "weekend project". It will launch later this year.ROY'S WRITE STUFFAward-winning screenwriter John Doyle will deliver the Foxtel Screenwriters' Address, an annual event staged by the Australian Writers' Foundation. The address is intended to allow an "esteemed Australian screenwriter" to speak on "contemporary issues, their craft and its place in the world". Doyle is best known as his alter-ego Rampaging Roy Slaven, one half of iconic Australian comedy duo Roy and H.G., but is also an acclaimed writer, with credits including Changi and Marking Time. The address will be delivered at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School on Tuesday.RAY SHINES AGAINVeteran journalist Ray Martin made a low-key return to television current affairs last week, filing a piece for The 7.30 Report. The report, on plans to break the cycle of despair in the indigenous communities of Palm Island, was a "one off", an ABC source told the Guide. Martin enjoyed a distinguished career at the ABC before moving to the Nine Network.TIFFANY RETURNSFoxtel has recruited sports presenter Tiffany Cherry to its Vancouver Olympic Winter Games team. Cherry, who spent five years working for the Fox Footy channel, has spent the past 18 months in the US working on ESPN's SportsCenter, covering Wimbledon, English Premier League and US football, basketball, tennis and golf. She joins former Olympic athlete Matt Shirvington, with more announcements expected imminently. Foxtel will screen more than 340 hours of live coverage of the Games in February.GLASS-HOUSE GAGTen's new daily news panel show The 7pm Project kicked off to unsteady ratings last week. On its opening night, with 1.28 million people tuned in, host Charlie Pickering gently mocked 60 Minutes for slipping below the one-million-viewer mark against the might of Ten's MasterChef finale - 901,000 viewers against 3.72 million. His tone raised a few eyebrows - and with good reason. By Thursday The 7pm Project had settled into a sub-million-mark audience of its own - with just 806,000 people tuned in.MUSICAL GONG SHOWChicago stars Craig McLachlan and Gina Riley, Wicked's Maggie Kirkpatrick, actors Joel Edgerton and Kate Fitzpatrick and MTV "it" girl Ruby Rose will be among the presenters for the 2009 Helpmann Awards, held tonight at the Sydney Opera House and broadcast live on the Bio channel. The telecast will include performances by the casts of Avenue Q, Chicago, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Shane Warne: The Musical, Spamalot and Wicked.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This