Humphrey, the cat that wandered in to No. 10 Downing Street in 1989 and survived the reigns of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, has passed on. The moggy became the subject of great speculation when he was removed from the British Prime Minister's official residence early in the Tony Blair regime, with rumour-mongers suggesting he had been done away with. The Blairs insisted Humphrey was living with a government official and had to release photos of him sitting on current newspapers to prove he was still alive. Now, at the age of about 18, he is no more. Humphrey was, of course, named after Sir Humphrey Appleby in the sitcom Yes Minister. There are obits here, here and here - more than most humans get, in fact.

Rehearsals are over; the previews have begun. Queensland Theatre Company's production of A Streetcar Named Desire will officially open on Thursday night at the QPAC Playhouse. It stars Jason Klarwein, Melinda Butel, Leeanna Walsman, Hayden Spencer and Veronica Neave, and is directed by Jon Halpin. Details here.

Shock, horror. For a minute, The Sydney Morning Herald's David Dale thought Australians were watching less television. Turns out we've just varied our televisual diet with pay-TV offerings. The facts are here.

On my way to work this morning, I noticed a man driving with his elbow out the window. Nothing particularly surprising about that. What shocked me, though, was that his small child, in a baby seat behind him, was doing exactly the same thing. I should have chased the driver and told him how his child could lose an arm this way - but there wasn't really an opportunity, so I took this photo instead. It's a little far away but I hope you can make it out.
PS: If you think I'm being alarmist here, this sort of thing has happened in accidents.

It's good to know that in these troubled times, some people are stretching themselves beyond the limits of human endurance to achieve their goals. No, I'm not talking about the Commonwealth Games, I'm talking about Shahimi Abdul Hamid, who has (provisionally) set a record by kissing a 4.6-metre-long, 10kg king cobra 51 times in 3 mins 1 sec. The serious side to all this is, he says, that it proves one just has to know how to handle snakes to avoid being bitten. I, however, prefer the idea of staying right away from snakes to avoid being bitten.

Podcast 6 is online now, with some talk about A Streetcar Named Desire, a reminder to see Operator and some news about Monty Python's Spamalot.

"We're not going to have that sort of behaviour in Queensland. If they want to do that they can go somewhere else but not in Queensland." So said Premier Peter Beattie after a huge armed brawl on the Gold Coast last night. Isn't that taking parochial politics just a little too far? Surely such incidents aren't acceptable anywhere.

Monty Python's Spamalot is celebrating a year on Broadway. A London production will open in October. The big question is: will it come to Australia? The lacklustre performance of some big musicals in recent times has seen Australian producers sit on their wallets, but I'm told this one is relatively cheap to mount. The secret to comedy, however, is timing - and any deal would have to be done while there's still significant buzz about the show.

Tom Cruise has denied he had a repeat of the Scientology-spoofing episode of South Park pulled from the schedule of America's Comedy Central station by threatening to withdraw from promotional activities for his new film Mission Impossible 3. The TV network and the MI:3 studio, Paramount Pictures, are owned by the same company. The official reason for replacing the South Park episode was to screen two episodes prominently featuring the Chef character - as a tribute to voice artist Isaac Hayes, who quit the series because of the Scientology episode. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said in a statement: "So, Scientology, you have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun."

The judges' votes have already been counted, but the winners of this year's Matilda Awards for excellence in theatre won't be announced until April 10. In the meantime, here's the list of nominees.

This morning on Spencer Howson's show on 612 ABC, we spoke about the remake of Welcome Back Kotter, the World Shakespeare Congress being held in Brisbane in July, and An Inspector Calls, which opened last night at the Lyric Theatre.

Brisbane's run of bumper theatrical events - think Queensland Ballet's Cloudland and La Boite's production of David Williamson's Operator - continues with the opening of the English Royal National Theatre's stunning production of An Inspector Calls at QPAC tonight. I've seen it already in Sydney, and it comes highly recommended, not just for the excellence of the acting by the all-British class but for the substance of the play. You can buy tickets for Inspector (and Operator) from QTix.
PS: On the subject of David Williamson, here's a story about what he's up to now, including a new project with talented Queensland guitarist Karin Schaupp.

I didn't watch the opening ceremony last night - I think I was washing my hair at the time - and I doubt I'll be watching much of the Commonwealth Games at all. Of course, I'm not all that interested in sport, and especially uninterested in those often-curious activities that only seem to come around briefly every two years at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. So rather than have my own opinion about the ceremony, I'll appropiate this one from The Australian's Patrick Smith.

Welcome Back Kotter, the TV sitcom that launched John Travolta on an unsuspecting world, is being made into a film. In a surprise bit of casting, it will star rapper Ice Cube, who will also co-produce, in the role created by Gabe Kaplan. (Details here.) What I want to know is: who will play Arnold Horshack?

Isaac Hayes has quit as the voice of Chef on South Park, citing the show's "intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs". Considering the animated series began its life a decade ago as a short film that sent up Christianity, it took him quite some time to work that one out.

The University of Queensland's Professor Richard Fotheringham today revealed some details of the Shakespeare World Congress to be held in Brisbane in July this year. The picture shows him addressing the Glugs of Gosh luncheon. If you want to know more, visit the Shakespeare 2006 web site.

Maureen Stapleton, who won the best supporting actress OScar for Reds, has died at age 80. Details at my Celebrity Deaths Archive.

This just in: the Matilda Awards for excellence in theatre will be held at QPAC on April 10. Details - including the list of nominees - are here.

According to this Sydney Morning Herald blog, the most-watched show on Australian television was the 1997 funeral of Diana Spenecer (a.k.a. Princess Di). Other biggies include the opening and closing cermeonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and a 1977 screening of the film Sound of Music. In this century so far, the most popular program has been the 2005 Australian Open tennis final.
Meanwhile, Channel 7 is today trumpeting what looks like being the first of many wins in the "official" ratings survey this year. Unofficially, of course, Seven has already been winning. As the SMH's David Dale points out, "More than a million viewers have now swapped a Nine habit for a Seven habit, leaving their remotes untouched between news time and bed time (9.40pm)." Dale also notes that Nine owns none of this year's crop of US hits and it desperately needs "fresh dramas and comedies".

The Courier-Mail's bold new "compact" design today is complemented by a redesigned web site. The Sunday Mail has also been doing some work on its web site lately, including the addition of photo galleries.