Discovering something to refer to as "the new black" is the new black, according to one of my colleagues. If you're not familiar with this craze, check out Matthew Paul Thomas's blog where you'll find links to everything from abstinence to zombies - via daschunds, J.K. Rowling, pompoms and security management - being referred to as "the new black".
My learned colleague's theory is that the craze began with things being referred to as "the new rock'n'roll". When fashion became the new rock'n'roll, the analogy morphed.

"I agree I knew the tape was going on at the time - I must have. Although, I'll guarantee you, I wasn't sober." That's just part of an amazing interview with recording artist Kid Rock over the release of a video featuring him and a group of women. The video was taken by former Creed singer Scott Stapp, who apparently visited Rock's motor home with a camera and asked to "get in" on the action involving four strippers.

The good news for the makers of Brokeback Mountain is that it's the popular choice in the rundown to this weekend's Academy Awards, having won more than half the votes for best picture in a poll. The potentially not-so-good news is that the people polled were readers of the BBC website, not actual Academy members.

Must see: Operator, the new David Williamson play at La Boite's Roundhouse Theatre.
Also: Absurd Person Singular, the Queensland Theatre revival of Alan Ayckbourn's black comedy; and the Queensland Ballet's return season of Cloudland.

New Sydney/Melbourne radio station Vega has struggled to find an audience since it launched last year. Now comes news that one of its stars, Wendy Harmer, has quit. If the failure of the Vega format sounds like bad news for radio, the people who run our broadcast companies - and have paid many millions for their licences - better hope that Jeffrey Cole, the director of the centre for digital future at the University of Southern California, isn't on the money when he predicts the ultimate death of radio (and daily newspapers). He says the survivors among existing media in 50 years time will include music, cinema going, Sunday newspapers, and lifestyle and special interest magazines.

Want to know what was No.1 on the UK charts the day you were born? Check out the everyHit.com date engine here.

This morning on the Brett's Brisbane segment on 612 ABC, Spencer Howson and I discussed Woody Allen, fading road signs, La Boite's play Operator (my review is coming soon in Brisbane News) and celebrity deaths. One I missed, though, was Jack Wild, who played the Artful Dodger in the movie musical Oliver! and was the boy hero of TV series H.R. Pufnstuf. He was just 53. Visit my Celebrity Deaths Archive here.

Alan Ayckbourn, the British playwright whose Absurd Person Singular is being revived by the Queensland Theatre Company at Brisbane's Cremorne Theatre, has been admitted to hospital in North Yorkshire after suffering a stroke. Ayckbourn, 66, told the BBC he hopes to be back on his feet as soon as possible.
PS: La Boite's production of David Williamson's Operator opens at Brisbane's Roundhouse Theatre tonight.

Just what you need if you're a nervous flyer: An attendant on a flight from London to Las Vegas apparently panicked during turbulence and repeatedly shouted to the passengers: "We're crashing." They all lived to tell the tale.

What is it with Pete Doherty from UK band Babyshambles? The on-again off-again boyfriend of model Kate Moss has already had a serious run-in with the law, and now he's been arrested on suspicion of car theft and possession of illegal drugs.
PS: In a totally urelated story, a 8.62m giant squid has gone on display at London's Natural History Museum. It's bigger than a bus.

Another old cowboy has ridden into the sunset. Dennis Weaver, the star of Gunsmoke and McCloud, died over the weekend. See my Celebrity Deaths Archive for more information.

"Bert Newton is a dead man talking ... and talking ... and talking." So writes David Dale in today's Sydney Morning Herald. Dale says Newton's first show two weeks ago attracted just 678,000 viewers in the mainland capitals, but "by the end of last week the audience had dropped to 431,000 - exactly half the number that watched Deal Or No Deal, the Channel Seven game show Newton was hired to destroy". Dale says, in the old days, Newton's show would have already been pulled from air. He tips that it won't survive past the Commonwealth Games. Of course, Dale is writing about the southern capitals, because Bert's Family Feud isn't the lead-in to the Nine News in Brisbane, the locally produced Extra is. Nine Brisbane still has cause for concern, though. It has lost another survey to Seven, and its relaunched Today program is slipping further behind Sunrise.

Am I the only one to notice how the paint on many Brisbane traffic signs is disappearing? I pulled up near this sign in Murarrie the other day and had to guess which way the arrow was pointing. I later discovered a whole series of signs along Samford Road in Mitchelton in the same poor condition, and have noticed that some of the relatively new yellow lines on roads in inner Brisbane are already starting to fade. This is obviously something about which somebody ought to do something.

"Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions. Don was special. There's nobody like him. I loved him very much. We had a long and wonderful life together." So said Andy Griffith of his co-star Don Knotts, who died on Friday aged 81. This weekend has also seen the passing of Darren McGavin, the actor who played the title role in the spooky 1970s series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. More details at my Celebrity Deaths Archive.
(Updated: 1.20pm)

Good news: Apparently my interview with Woody Allen (published today in The Sunday Mail) officially elevates me in the celebrity stakes. I can now claim a C+, with chances of a B- if and when a vacancy arises.
Even better news: You can listen to highlights from my interview with Woody on Podcast 3. For details of all my podcasts, click here.

A newspaper story about Bubbles the chimp giving evidence at the Michael Jackson trial was a big winner at last year's annual Shafta Awards, so it's no wonder UK media types are looking forward to this year's ceremony on April 25. According to Media Guardian* the bash "recognises Fleet Street's least accurate and most outrageous reporting" and will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year.

* Site may require registration

Director Baz Luhrmann has confirmed he has cast Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe to star in an epic film to be made in outback Australia. "We wanted two of the most extraordinary actors in the world in that extraordinary landscape," Luhrmann said, adding that the film would be on the scale of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. Now that's a big call.
Update: According to the ABC the Queensland town of Bowen is likely to be used as a location for the $40 million film.

New Channel 9 boss Eddie McGuire is apparently set to cut more costs following "soft" advertising revenue. Apparently the performance of the new-look A Current Affair is under the microscope, but management is basically happy with the performance of Bert's Family Feud as the lead-in to the news in Sydney and Melbourne. So far.
PS: If Bert Newton flops, maybe Brisbane's Extra can go national?

"I hate it when people call me a teen queen." So says actress Lindsay Lohan, the star of such films as Freaky Friday, Herbie: Fully Loaded and The Parent Trap. As well as talking about her new "serious" films - A Prairie Home Companion and Chapter 27 - Lohan addresses her recent breakup with actor Wilmer Valderrama, saying "I know now that I don't need a boyfriend." Let's see how long that lasts.
PS: Let's get all the celebrity trivia out of the way in one hit. Kylie Minogue is not getting married to boyfriend Olivier Martinez.

Looks like I wasted my time going to Canberra earlier this year. The Old Masters from the National Gallery are to be loaned out to the state galleries, so I could have gone somewhere interesting to see them instead. Still, I did get to see a wallaby bouncing down the road past the National Library. It's a pity there weren't any overseas tourists around at the time; it would have fulfilled all their expectations about Australia.