It's impossible to know what's really going on at Channel 9, but the latest story has Jana Wendt saying she has assurances from CEO Eddie McGuire that her job hosting Sunday is safe. The gossip this week was that Wendt would be replaced by Queenslander Ellen Fanning.
PS: I've launched a new poll today (top right-hand side of the page, under the newsletter subscription feature) to see what you think about the job McGuire is doing at Nine.

Popular fantasy writer David Gemmell has died at aged 57 following heart surgery. Visit my Celebrity Deaths Archive for more details.

After 46 years on the Brisbane airwaves, and half a century in radio, 4KQ's John Knox will read his final news bulletin next Friday, August 4. To celebrate Knox's significant contribution to the medium - including training many announcers through the Air TV school he established with Jim Iliffe and Ivor Hancock - 4KQ will broadcast a week of tributes. Listeners can take part by phoning the 24-hour message bank on Brisbane 3394 0804.

With dam levels at record lows, and Toowoomba having a referendum this weekend on whether to drink recycled sewage, you'd think the rainfall in Brisbane today would be universally welcomed. Not so, according to one of my colleagues who heard a young train communter complaining about the weather this morning.

If you missed hearing me on Spencer Howson's show on 612 ABC this morning, we spoke about Songs of the Wanderers, Cirque Eloize, Kate Miller-Heidke and the matter of washing one's hands after going to the toilet.

Rising star Kate Miller-Heidke is losing one of her band. Talented violinist and back-up vocalist Emma Dean played her last gig with Miller-Heidke at the Spiegeltent for the Brisbane Festival last night. Dean then rushed over to the Verve Cafe in Edward St to play the first gig of her fully solo career. All the best to her. Miller-Heidke, meanwhile, made the video for her new single last night and sang many other songs from her eccentric repertoire. The comic highlight of the night was guitarist Kier singing Where Have I Been All Your Life?
PS: Spiegeltent, Spiegelzelt or Mirror Tent? Should the word be half-English and half-German or all of one or the other?

You saw it here first. This will be the cutting edge of Ekka fashion this year. Brisbane's RNA Show runs from August 10-19.

Further to my item about Ben Elton's issues with Wikipedia, satirical website The Onion is now on the case with an article titled "Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence". It says:

Wikipedia, the online, reader-edited encyclopedia, honored the 750th anniversary of American independence on July 25 with a special featured section on its main page Tuesday ...
According to our database, that's 212 years older than the Eiffel Tower, 347 years older than the earliest-known woolly-mammoth fossil, and a full 493 years older than the microwave oven."

There's a hint of light at the end of the "reality" television tunnel. Britain's ITV has dropped a show called It's Now or Never, where participants propose to their partners in the style of a West End musical, after just one episode. Details from Media Guardian here.

I don't have enough time this morning to say how much I enjoyed Cirque Eloize. All I can say is: see it; it's astounding, funny and thrilling.

Now for a delicate matter regarding personal hygiene. I was at a Brisbane pub the other night when my companion, who was facing the entrance to the toilets, remarked how many men were coming out of the gents adjusting their flies. "That means they haven't washed their hands," she noted. In my place of work there are signs stressing the importance of hand-washing for health and safety reasons; should they be in pubs as well?

Last week, there were tonnes of rice on the stage at the Lyric Theatre for Cloud Gate Theatre's Songs of the Wanderers. From tonight, it will be saturated with water when Canada's Cirque Eloize brings Rain to town for the Brisbane Festival. My impressions tomorrow ...
PS: At long last, my theatre reviews are up to date.

If you're a fan of Star Wars and old cheesy TV series like The Six Million Dollar Man and CHiPs - or you just enjoy a good pop culture send-up - you'll love Pitching Lucas. It's the winner of the George Lucas Selects Award and the 2006 Star Wars Fan Film Audience Choice Award, and you can watch it online.
PS: In semi-related news, episodes of The Flintstones,The Jetsons, Friends and other old TV series are soon to be available via download on iTunes in the US. The BBC has the story here.

The Simpsons is entering its 18th season with a guest-star line-up that includes Natalie Portman, Kiefer Sutherland, Eric Idle, Fran Drescher, the White Stripes, Dr Phil McGraw and authors Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen. Read more here and here.

Over the weekend I was marvelling at a list on boxofficemojo.com that showed Crocodile Dundee as the 99th most successful film of all time at the American box office.* Today, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Paul Hogan and his partner John Cornell have a tax problem. Seems they may have taken some bad advice and got themselves involved in some schemes that aren't quite on the up and up. The SMH says it is likely they will face fines rather than legal proceedings.
* It took US$174,803,506 in America and US$328,203,506 worldwide.

You may remember the story of David Manning, the fictitious film critic created by a Sony marketing executive to say nice things about releases from Columbia Pictures. Manning was said to work for a newspaper called The Ridgefield Press, which had never heard of him. I doubt if Manning was the first made-up critic, or even the last, but there is a better PR wheeze going around. I was surfing the Net today and found a advertising blurb for a film that quoted a real-life LA-based critic. This particular gentleman does not work for the mainstream media - although he has been known to pretend that he does - and he is generally only quoted when better-known (and, arguably, more reputable) critics have nothing good to say about the film in question. Some of his colleagues have suggested that his opinions are easily swayed by distributors who look after his various needs. Maybe so. Or maybe he just has different tastes to the rest of the pack. Either way, I treat his recommendations with caution.

"This is very much an old-fashioned, romantic, fun, happily-ever-after fairytale show." That's the word from producer Karen Willing about Yasmin's Getting Married*, the Network Ten "reality" show where a woman is contractually obliged to marry a man she hasn't actually met yet. Not exactly my idea of old-fashioned romance.
I have lots of questions about this show, including:
1) Will the wedding be legally valid or is there an escape clause?
2) Is she obliged to sleep with the winner?
3) Are plans already afoot for Yasmin's Getting Divorced?
* Formerly Rene's Getting Married.

They don't call it "theatre of the mind" for nothing. Sydney's 2DayFM has, apparently, been "rocked" by claims that calls on its Kyle and Jackie O breakfast show were faked. The Sydney Confidential column in today's Daily Telegraph reports that a call in which a woman threatened to leave her husband was "a set-up between two staff members" of the radio station, although the hosts were unaware of it. A call last year which claimed to be with a personal trainer suffering from body odour was also said to be faked.

Remember bicycle couriers - those fearless deliverers who would risk life and limb (not just their own) to move documents between CBD offices? Want to know what happened to them? Well, they're almost extinct; killed off by broadband internet. The Sydney Morning Herald has the scoop here. Apparently about 70 of the species survive in Sydney, delivering legal documents and other paperwork that must be in its original form rather than a pdf file sent across the internet. I'm not sure if there are any left at all in Brisbane, where they can be easily walked to their destination in the CBD or sent by motorised courier elsewhere. Reports of spottings would be appreciated.

Billboard reports that, despite being in the midst of a tour that may make her the top-grossing female live act of all time, Madonna can't get her songs played on American radio. It's a story that's familiar to many musicians - the fans like you, but you don't fit into one of radio's tight formats. It's worse here in Australia because there are fewer stations and, therefore, fewer formats. I guess John Farnham would be the classic example of an artist who sells a lot of CDs and sells-out live venues yet can't get played on radio. There are many others from all genres, and it's even harder for new acts to get airplay than old ones. What it comes down to is the fact that commercial radio has to play it "safe", because of the potential switch-off factor during a song the audience doesn't like. Of course, there is the argument that music radio is in its death throes anyway, because internet and iPod users can listen to the songs they want whenever they want. That's why, even on a Top 40 station, getting the right talking talent is so important.