Eddie McGuire is strongly hinting that he's about to be offered the chance to run the Nine Network - and has even said he'd give up running his beloved Collingwood football club if he got the job. The incumbent at Nine, Sam Chisholm - who has always insisted he is only in the position temporarily - certainly didn't seemed fazed with the jokes at his expense in Brisbane on Thursday. Screen icon Bert Newton told the audience he was 100 per cent behind Chisholm, but as a precaution he was joining Collingwood.

Actor Al "Grandpa" Lewis has died at the age of 95. The star of The Munsters and Car 54, Where Are You? was also a one-time Green Party candidate for Governor of New York. This weekend also saw the death, at age 85, of pioneering feminist Betty Friedan. For more information, visit my Celebrity Deaths Archive.

"There isn't enough authenticity in the pop industry. It is karaoke culture." That's the view of former Sex Pistols manager and Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle mastermind Malcolm McLaren, who is backing a British Musicians' Union campaign against lip-synching on TV and at live events. Performers have been urged to come clean on the occasions when they are only miming. Union spokesman Keith Ames has urged the use of a logo on posters or television screens to alert audiences that the performance isn't live.

Katy Manning, who apparently still doesn't tire of being called a former Doctor Who assistant, opened her one-woman show, Me and Jezebel, at the StageDoor Dinner Theatre in Bowen Hills last night. Here are photos of Katy and her partner Barry Crocker, who directed the play (about a woman's real-life encounter with screen goddess Bette Davis):

If you missed me on 612 ABC this morning, I spoke with Spencer Howson about yesterday's Channel 9 launch; the victory of non-celebrity Chantelle in the UK's Celebrity Big Brother show; and the upcoming season of An Inspector Calls at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

The Guardian reports that regional commercial radio stations in the UK have been urged "to rediscover their 'localness'" if they want to compete successfully with their high-rating BBC rivals. Emap group managing director of programming Mark Story is quoted as saying that his regional stations had reversed their fortunes by investing in "local personalities who mean something locally". "It's not good enough for them just to pick five songs in a row," he said. "We want them to get involved and get under the skin of the local community". In other words, unlike many regional stations in Australia which, for most of the day, are networked out of "hubs" thousands of kilometres from the community they are licensed to serve.

Channel 9 began its fightback in the ratings war today by bringing out its big gun - Bert Newton. At a luncheon hosted by Karl Setefanovic, media and advertisers also got to meet other stars of the network, including Georgie Parker and Jessica Rowe. While my camera couldn't avoid Bert, it amused me to pair some of Brisbane's radio stars with their breakfast rivals. See if you can spot who's consorting with the enemy. To see all the pictures, click "read more".

According to Virgin Blue's current Voyeur magazine (page 130 if you want to look it up), Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his 7th symphony during the Nazi siege of Leningrad in 1942 and broadcast it on loudspeakers in defiance of the invaders. All very well. But then it goes on to say: "One hundred years after Shostakovich's death, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra joins video artist Tim Gurchy to recreate this inspirational event ..." Inspirational indeed, as - according to Voyeur's account - the composer must have been long dead during the events of 1942. Not so, Shostakovich was born in 1906 and died in 1975. If you want to buy tickets to hear the orchestra, go to the Adelaide Festival site.

I had a sneak preview of Woody Allen's Match Point yesterday. I won't say too much about the BBC-funded film, except: think Crimes and Misdemeanors among Britain's upper-middle class and you've got an idea of where Woody's coming from this time. For some reason, although Allen isn't in the movie himself, I had this thought: if his surname hadn't started with A would be still insist on listing the actors' names in alphabetical order?

The self-congratulation spree in Hollywood will culminate with the Academy Awards on March 5. The nominees are now in, giving us all about five weeks to speculate on likely winners. The BBC has done the maths, and worked out the number of nominations per film: Brokeback Mountain 8; Crash 6; Good Night, and Good Luck 6; Memoirs of a Geisha 6; Capote 5; Munich 5; Walk the Line 5; Pride and Prejudice 4; The Constant Gardener 4; and King Kong 4.

Late 1970s/ early 80s Australian pop icons - oh, all right, they're Kiwis - Split Enz are reforming for a series of gigs in capital cities. The official announcement is being made on Wednesday, but a press release and subsequent wire stories went out Tuesday afternoon. The line-up will be Neil and Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Noel Crombie, Nigel Griggs and Malcolm Green.

Channel 9 has dropped the dots from its logo but continues its claim to be "Still the One". Not in Brisbane over the past week, however. Channel 7 reports that it won the survey period January 22-28 with a 30.0 share, ahead of Nine with 28.6; Ten with 20.6; ABC with 14.8 and SBS with 5.9. That loud noise you just heard was Kerry Packer turning in his grave.

Wendy Wasserstein, the playwright who gave the world The Heidi Chronicles, has died at age 55, of cancer. Brisbane theatre audiences may remember Queensland Theatre Company's production of this remarkable play starring Penny Cook and Andrew McFarlane. (At the time, someone connected with the QTC told me: "Those two could recite the phone book and people would come to see it", but the comment undervalued what is an incredibly clever and funny play.)
Link: Celebrity Deaths Archive.

Tom Cruise (War of the Worlds), The Rock (Doom), Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo), Jamie Kennedy (Son of Mask) and Will Ferrell (Bewitched) will be battling it out for the Worst Actor award at this year's Razzie Awards. Worst Picture nominations are Son of Mask, House of Wax, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Dirty Love and Dukes of Hazard; while in the Worst Actress category, Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four and Into the Blue) will be battling it out with Hilary Duff (Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Perfect Man) and Jennifer Lopez (Monster in Law). As the BBC notes, last year's awards were dominated by the film Catwoman, with star Halle Berry being only the second person in the Razzies' history to turn up to collect her gong.

I'm not sure how this fits into the theories about who will win the Oscars: The stars Brokeback Mountain didn't win any of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The big winners were Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote and the cast of Crash.

Adelaide radio host Bob Francis seems to have fallen on his feet despite costing his employers a hefty legal settlement. Francis, who has been ordered not to drink alcohol while on air, featured on Media Watch last year after he called an 81-year-old woman caller a "dickbrain". What really got him into trouble, though, was blasting a magistrate who had decided to hear a bail application by a man facing court on child-pornography charges. "Oh, smash the judge's face in," Francis famously said. Magistrates are legally obliged to hear all bail applications, and Francis's remarks apparenlty cost radio station FiveAA "around $60,000" in a defamation settlement. What offends me about the whole affair is that Francis still has his job. Presumably his program rates well - but so do many shows where the announcers respect their callers, do their research and control their mouths. To paraphrase The Jam's Paul Weller, does the public get what it wants or simply want what it gets?

Brokeback Mountain - the so-called "gay cowboy film" - has just firmed in the odds for the Academy Awards. Director Ang Lee has received the Directors Guild of America's award. The award and the Best Director Oscar have apparently been won by the same person 51 times in the past 57 years. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise has been named "star of the year" in a survey of American cinema operators. The Quigley Poll, conducted since 1932, asks the exhibitors which stars made them the most money. Johnny Depp was in second place, while Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt tied for third. (Isn't that nice?) Filling out the top 10 were Vince Vaughn, George Clooney, Will Smith, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler and Tom Hanks (who was No.

Congratulations to Brisbane's Troy Cassar-Daley, who won four Country Music Association of Australia Golden Guitars at the Tamworth festival last night. His awards were for Male Vocalist Of The Year (for his song Lonesome But Free); APRA Song Of The Year (for Lonesome But Free); for Vocal Collaboration Of The Year (his duet with Jimmy Barnes on Bird On A Wire); and Instrumental Of The Year (for Yellow Belly). I wonder if Troy, who has been quietly plugging away for years, will now be hailed as an "overnight success".

In the UK, Celebrity Big Brother has been won by Chantelle Houghton. You've never heard of her? Never fear - she's a non-celebrity deliberated planted by the CBB producers and she was allowed to stay in the house when she convinced the other genuine (albeit B-list) celebrities that she was a famous singer. The irony, of course, is that Chantelle now is a celebrity.
PS: A Google search reveals a Chantelle Houghton is on the books of the Susan Scott agency as a Paris Hilton lookalike.

"If you're a US senator and your sex tape is leaked, it could end your career. If you're Paris Hilton, it makes your career." So says Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in a CNN article on the subject of celebrity sex videos. He says it's just become another medium in which actors work. Others may say the "accidental" release of a sex video is a cynical way to ramp up a career.