The world has lost some great entertainers in the past few days. French actor Philippe Noiret, US jazz singer Anita O'Day, Broadway producer Betty Comden and BBC radio journalist Nick Clarke have all been added to my Celebrity Deaths Archive.

I just had occasion to visit the QTix website, where one can purchase tickets for shows at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and various other Brisbane venues. I was immediately reminded that the site is quite unfriendly. It features just a few shows on the front page and then invites users to search for what else is on offer. All very well if you know what you're looking for, but not very helpful if you just want to have a quick look at what's on offer. Yes, you can just search by genres, but surely a significant number of people might just want to browse the "shop window" and, as a result, could end up buying tickets for something quite different to what they were originally looking for.

I guess it's a matter of how contrived you want your "reality" TV to be. Gold Coast chess champ and Dancing with the Stars contestant Arianne Caoli is under fire because she's allegedly a well-trained dancer - even though she told host Daryl Somers that she'd never had a dance lesson. My care factor's pretty low, but people are voting on this thing and the producers owe it them to preserve some integrity in the process.

Over at the Internet Movie Database, there's a poll asking: "Imagine you're invited to the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes nuptials - what gift would you bring the happy couple?"
The results so far: A South Park DVD set (21.3%); a gift that will self-destruct in five seconds (14.4%); anything that won't result in a lawsuit! (my favourite - 14.2%); a copy of the Handbook of Psychiatric Drugs (12.0%); a copy of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet (9.6%); and a new publicist (6.2%).

Should we listen when celebrities pontificate on issues about which they know little or nothing? I raised this question on my other blog in regard to Elton John's views on religion, now it's perhaps even more relevant given that Rachel Weisz has created a storm by saying it's OK for pregnant women to drink. Some of the people who've actually studied the issue beg to differ.

"I'm 20 years old. Is it a crime to go ... dancing with your friends?" That's what party girl and actor Lindsay Lohan said to Oprah Winfrey in her own defence - and it's a pretty good one. Lohan has been accussed of unprofessional behaviour in the past, but her latest director Emilio Estevez says she turned up on set on time and did the best work of her life in his movie, Bobby, about Robert Kennedy's assassination.

As I said on my other blog:

And the Michael Cole Award* for most boorish behaviour by a visiting celebrity involving a bottle of liquor goes to Johnny Knoxville. In other ARIA Awards news, didn’t Queenslanders Bernard Fanning, The Veronicas and Troy Cassar-Daley do well? I thought it interesting, though, that the two awards based on actual record sales went to industry “outsiders” (i.e. people who don’t fit the image that the music biz likes to present and don’t get played a lot on mainstream radio) - dance act TV Rock featuring Seany B (biggest-selling single) and reborn boy band Human Nature (biggest-selling album)..

* Michael Cole was the star of The Mod Squad who, in a tired and emotional state, swore during the Logies telecast in 1973.

Having seen Keating! the opera a few days ago, I wonder whether we'll one day be treated to Beattie!. As I write Queensland Premier Peter Beattie is in fine form, "weighing up" whether he'll call an election or just a byelection for the seat of the seriously ill Nita Cunningham. Oh, the drama, the pathos, the protesting-too-much. Maybe it's more the stuff of a TV soap. I can hardly wait for the next exciting episode.

I was bemused to see a television news report last night on the film 48 Shades, adapted from a Nick Earls novel. The report said the film couldn't be "more Queensland". I haven't seen 48 Shades but I do know that, while it was filmed in Brisbane, many of the principal cast are not Queenslanders. In fact, I recognised only one local name in the cast list on imdb.com. We have many excellent actors here, why couldn't they get a break in a Brisbane story?

"Don't forget that the media is constantly fascinated by the media." That's media buyer Harold Mitchell quoted in an article in today's Australian Financial Review about the week of dramas at the Nine Network. I would argue that, particularly with the never shy and retiring Eddie McGuire in charge of Nine, the general public is fascinated, too. After all, it's our money that buys the products that pays for the advertisements that Mr Mitchell's firm places on Channel 9 to get us to buy more of the products ...