When Columbian superstar Juanes took his Spanish-language hit A Dios Le Pido ("I Ask God") to Britain last year, interviewers asked him who Lepido was, and why he was saying goodbye. Juanes, who was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world today, is one of many acts who haven't made it in Britain, largely because they don't sing in English. Click here to read the UK Telegraph's story about Juanes and other international artists in the same predicament. I have no doubt that a similar story could be written about Australian audiences' reluctance to embrace songs in other languages. Xenophobia? Please explain.

Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company, has announced plans to release more than 100,000 "deleted" music tracks on the internet. According to Media Guardian, the move means that consumers will be able to purchase favourite tracks that are no longer available on CD. Universal's back catalogue includes artists ranging from French cabaret star Jacques Brel to Greek folkie Nana Mouskouri and UK rockers Eddie and the Hot Rods. The Guardian's Owen Gibson writes: "[Universal's] rivals are expected to follow suit, resurrecting artists and creating the 'celestial jukebox' long envisaged by online music enthusiasts, with everything ever recorded available at the click of a mouse." I say: the big music companies have always been slow to embrace change, and it's taken them a heck of a long time to understand what the internet's all about.

I went to see Mrs Henderson Presents yesterday and left the theatre impressed with the show (and the performances of Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Will Young and Kelly Reilly) but intrigued about the true story of the Windmill Theatre. If you've seen the film, check out this story - and I think you'll agree that the Windmill's ultimate fate is quite sad.

Congratulations to Larry Emdur, who was picked up by Channel 7 to host Wheel of Fortune just after his contract with Channel 9 finished. Asked about his appointment to the role, the former Price is Right host told The Courier-Mail: "I suppose my name has been on every game show pilot list for the last 20 years because there aren't too many of us, so you're going to find the same names appearing each time." In other words, the TV networks are generally conservative and would rather go with a known quantity from another channel than try somebody new. Curiously, the exception to the rule is relative newcomer Andrew O'Keefe from Deal or No Deal, which has been such a huge hit for Seven that Nine axed Price is Right. Nine's replacement show is the revival of another old game format, Family Feud, starring another oldie (but goodie) Bert Newton.

The Golden Globes may be over, but the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still have four days to vote on the Oscars, which will be presented on March 5. The BBC says the Globes voters (members of the sometimes-controversial Hollywood Foreign Press Association) are usually pretty good at choosing the best picture. If their luck holds, Brokeback Mountain looks like a certainty.

Of course you want to know who's won at the Golden Globes. In summary, Brokeback Mountain got four gongs including best dramatic film and best director for Ang Lee; acting awards went to Felicity Huffman for Transamerica and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote; and the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line won the trophy for best musical or comedy film plus acting awards for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. CNN has more here.

I stumbled on this quote from Richard Le Gallienne today: "A critic is a man created to praise greater men than himself, but he is never able to find them."
When I Googled the words to find out more, I discovered this site, which lists a whole lot of amusing and insightful comments about critics. My favourites include:
"A critic is a legless man who teaches running." (Anonymous)
"A critic is someone who meddles with something that is none of his business." (Paul Gauguin)
"A drama critic is a person who surprises a playwright by informing him what he meant." (Wilson Mizner)
"A critic never fights the battle; they just go around shooting the wounded." (Tyne Daly)
"A drama critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned." (George Bernard Shaw)

The existence of the University of Queensland Student Union-owned Schonell cinema could be under threat from voluntary student unionism. Staff have started an "SOS" (Save Our Schonell) campaign aimed at getting more bums on seats, especially during the traditionally slow summer-holiday period. I did my bit tonight, catching the French film 36 Quai des Orfèvres and a tasty meal at the adjoining Pizza Caffe. The powerful drama stars Daniel Auteuil as an old-school cop and Gerard Depardieu as his morally challenged rival.
One for the diary: From April 6, the Schonell will be the venue for a live production of the musical Rent.

I certainly hope the new design of this site appeals to you. Otherwise, according to this story - which says that readers make up their mind about a website in 50 milliseconds - I've already lost you.

Playwright Alex Buzo had some interesting and entertaining points to make about his craft in an interview with Nikki Barrowclough in last Saturday's Good Weekend. As well as lamenting the current state of theatre, he spoke about the Australian idiom and stressed that, contrary to popular belief, there are strong regional variations in the Australian accent. Exhibits one and two are politicians Alexander Downer and Bob Katter. "One of them's from Adelaide, the other is from Townsville," Buzo is quoted as saying. "If you tell me there's no difference, you're a crazy person."

The Brodsky Quartet is in Australia principally for the Sydney Festival. In a coup for the Brisbane Powerhouse, they'll also be doing a Brisbane gig on Saturday night. They'll be playing a program including Beethoven's String Quartet Op 59 No 2 and Gershwin's Lullaby. But to hear them play The Juliet Letters with Elvis Costello, you'll have to go to Sydney (and already have a ticket).

Katy Manning, one of the former stars of television's Dr Who, is coming to Brisbane to perform in the one-woman play Me & Jezebel at the StageDoor Dinner Theatre from February 3. It's directed by Manning's partner Barry Crocker, who is also heading to Brisbane as part of the Fiddler on the Roof cast. The play is based on an apparently real-life incident when ageing screen siren Bette Davis overstayed her welcome at an acquaintance's home. StageDoor's Damien Lee says the show is a tentative move into the world of professional theatre for the previously pro-am venue.

The musical Dirty Dancing opened in Brisbane last night to wild audience applause. Traditionally, January is a slow month in the arts world, but producer Kevin Jacobsen told the first-night party that he'd already sold 85 per cent of tickets, with new seats now on sale. Jacobsen also spoke of well-advanced plans for a German-language production of the musical and a London version due to open late this year. The only problem, Jacobsen reckons, is that his UK and European partners are having trouble finding talent as good as the Australian cast, which is headed by Kym Valentine and Josef Brown.

"... a memoir is, indeed, a loose and slippery genre - as loose and slippery as memory itself. And there's a difference, even in publishing, between the lies we tell about ourselves and the lies we tell about others." So opined The New York Times in an editorial on the controversy surrounding James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces. The book claims to be a memoir, and many readers believed it to be a true account of Frey's life. Now it's emerged that Frey made up bits of the best seller - inclusing a jail sentence he apparently never served. At least one reader wants to sue the author, whose book has sold many copies on the back on Oprah Winfrey's endorsement. Frey has defended it on the grounds of "emotionall truth" and distinguished what he has done from journalistic writing. For her part, Winfrey says the complaints are "much ado about nothing". Even if it was Frey's intention to defraud his readers - and that's by no means proven - he seems to have given them a good read for their money. And something to think about.

It's something an Australian actor could only have dreams (or nightmares) about - appearing in the same show, week in, week out since January 26, 1988. According to Playbill, that's been the fate of Broadway Phantom of the Opera stars George Lee Andrews, Richard Warren Pugh and Mary Leigh Stahl, who have been with the production from the word go. Phantom is now the longest-running show on the Great White Way and has been the biggest generator of income and jobs in American theatre.

Just as Phantom of the Opera reaches the record for the most-performed musical on Broadway, rumours are gathering pace that the show will be making a return to the Australian stage. Also rumoured is a touring arena version of the evergreen Les Miserables. Just confirmed for a Brisbane run is Fiddler on the Roof, starring Topol.

IT HAS all the makings of a mystery novel. It involves death, deception and detective work over four centuries.

The mystery is: Who wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare?

The most obvious answer, and the one still most widely accepted, is that William Shakespeare, the actor who moved from Stratford-upon-Avon to London and strode the stage in the late Elizabethan age, wrote the plays still performed under his name.