Fresh doubts have emerged over Robbie Williams's planned Australian tour, with reports that he cancelled the Asian leg of his tour due to depression. The Daily Mirror in the UK says Williams is "being treated by Dr Mark Collins, a top expert at the Priory clinic in South West London". Don't panic quite yet if you've got tickets to one of his two Suncorp Stadium gigs, though. At this stage at least, Williams's Australian tour is officially going ahead.

The guessing game is over. The face and voice behind animated talk-show host David Tench has been revealed as that of actor Drew Forsythe. The Sunday Telegraph has the story here.

What is Jamie Dunn up to? As I reported on the ie blog, Jamie Dunn rang 4KQ on Thursday offering to fill in for ill host Laurel Edwards. He said he wanted to return to Brisbane radio because "I've only got two listeners" at Zinc 96.1 on the Sunshine Coast. (You can read it and listen to it here.) Is there a place for Jamie Dunn on Brisbane radio? If so, it would have to be at an older-skewed station - meaning any of the AM-banders (4KQ, 4BH or 4BC with the first, arguably the best fit) or, perhaps, KQ's sister station 97.3FM. Dunn is supposedly contracted to Zinc for 10 years, but the metropolitan broadcasters have very deep pockets and there's no doubt they'll get him if they want him. But do they - and a big-enough number of Brisbane listeners - still want him? My guess is that they very probably do.

"I remember when we started the show, we had an order for six episodes, and we're like, 'This is great, because, when we're older, we'll always have these six shows'." That's South Park co-creator talking about his cartoon creation, which has now been on air for 10 years and more than 150 episodes. Who would have thought that the sometimes-offenssive adventures of four little boys would have been so successful?

Here's something you won't see in Australia. A UK company has handed back an FM radio licence to the government regulator, saying the rules have made it unviable. The regulator, Ofcom, denied the company permission to share programming across two of its stations - something that is commonplace in Australia, and has led to a loss of identity for many regional broadcasters.

On Spencer Howson's 612 ABC breakfast program this morning, I spoke about Queensland Theatre Company's The Woman Before (ahead of my full review in Brisbane News), traffic signals, Spanish spam and cinema candy bars.

For the best part of a month, Campbell St, Bowen Hills, has been closed on both sides of the railway crossing. This is a permanent closure, and there are fences and barricades in place to stop traffic. But that hasn't stopped the lights flashing and the boom gates going down each time a train comes along. If I lived near a level crossing that didn't have boom gates, I'd be rather angry about that.

There's an old saying in journalism that Dog bites man is not a news story, but Man bites dog is. In China, I guess Man bites panda is the equivalent. The story goes that Zhang Xinyan drank four jugs of beer, went to the zoo and decided he wanted to touch a panda. The panda, GuGu, was startled and bit Zhang, who bit the panda back. They then got into a tussle that didn't end well for Zhang. "No one ever said they would bite people," Zhang said from his hospital bed. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much."

According to my expert on these matters, the surname of playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig (whose The Woman Before is opening at the Queensland Theatre Company's Bille Brown Studio tomorrow night) is unusual even by German standards. It means "mouldy penny".

I can't quite come to grips with the public outpouring of grief over the death of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin. I heard a woman on the radio this morning who had driven from northern New South Wales with her children simply to be at South Bank's Suncorp Piazza to watch this morning's memorial service among like-minded people. As far as I could tell, she had never met Irwin but was simply a fan of his work. It's not something I would do and I wonder whether, in some cases at least, it's more about being a part of something than it is about Irwin himself. In any case, I hope that these people take a strong conservation message home with them today and start thinking, and doing something, about big issues like the destruction of habitat, desalination, pollution and climate change.

When was the last time you saw a German play? For me it was when the Queensland Theatre Company presented Falk Richter's God is a DJ in 2004. The next one will be this week when I see QTC's production of Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Woman Before. I'll reserve my judgment until I see the show, but I will note now that it's refreshing to see something other than our usual diet of English, Irish, American and Australian fare. Maybe soon we'll see some local companies produce plays from Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and the Middle East. In translation, of course.

I've been thinking about John Schluter and how, it seems, he was told at age 51 that he didn't have a future at Channel 9. By my reckonning, he has 15 years to go until normal retirement age and at least twice as many productive years left in him.

Looks like I might have to take back my (qualified) praise of "guerilla artist" Banksy. Seems his latest stunt - painting an elephant to look like wallpaper - may have been illegal. It's hard not to agree with authorities who called it "frivolous abuse" of the animal.

More spam, this time partly in Spanish. It says:

Hola
Este es un correo automático que [name] te ha enviado para queingreses tu fecha de cumpleaños.

According to Babelfish, that means: "Hello This it is an automatic mail that [name] has sent to you so that you enter your date of birthday."
It's all clear now.

Ever been confused by a magazine that carries a date well ahead of the time you bought it? Well, a UK publisher has discovered that readers actually want the date on the magazine - and its content - to reflect what's happening when it's on sale. Details here.

The renewal (or whatever the correct term is for it) continues at Channel 9 Brisbane, with the announcement today that longtime weatherman John Schluter is leaving the station effective immediately, to be replaced by Joseph May. He follows another station veteran, Rick Burnett, out the door. I suppose the big question is: did Schlutes get the boot?

It would seem I'm the only person in the nation not watching Australian Idol. Last night's show apparently won the ratings in all major demographics, beating such enthralling fare as Seven's TV Turns 50 (how much nostalgia can we bear?) and Nine's 60 Minutes. Being in the minority of non-Idol watchers, as I now am, means I may be the last to know who's next to have 15 minutes of fame and then fall into pop obscurity.

Great news! I've just been advised by email:

In view of the yearly sweepstake of the above named organization held on the 8th of September,2006.It is my pleasure to inform you that your e-mail address attached to the above Ref No came up in the third dip. This invariably means that you have emerged as the prize recipient in the third category with an allocated sum of Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars(850.000.00USD). Be informed that all participants were selected from a randon computing ballot system.This charitable sweepstake is sponsored by a group of corporate organizations and governmental parastatals drawn from major cities in Europe.

My dictionary tells me "randon" is an obsolete form of "random" and that "parasatatal" means "owned or controlled wholly or partly by the government".

This might be a matter of the pot calling the kettle black*, but I'm a little disturbed by what I hear on the radio these days. Not just the news, which is generally depressing, but the way it's delivered. This morning, an ABC newsreader referred to something happening "outside of" Rome. Why not just outside Rome? Also, there's one News Radio announcer who inevitably pronounces "for" as "fer" as says "gunna" instead of "going to".
* My excuse is that it's not my day job.

John Cleese is coming to Australian for a series of seminars. But what are the other Fawlty Towers cast members up to? They're attending the relaunch of the hotel on which the series was based.