So what is it that brings people to this site. According to my latest stats, search engines are pointing web surfers in my direction when they look for information on: Brett Debritz (as you'd expect), recently departed Channel 9 staffers Rick Burnett and John Schluter, radio funnyman Jamie Dunn, spammer emilycoolplums, Queensland Theatre Company's production of A Woman Before, singer-songwriter Bernard Fanning and, curiously, Brazilian waxing*. I don't claim to be an expert in that last category, but I'm willing to try anything once**.
* I think it referred to my item about Stav Davidson from B105 undergoing a treatment in the name of entertainment.
** On second thoughts, no I'm not.

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.

A memorial to Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin will be held on Tuesday or Wednesday next week, probably at Suncorp Stadium (a.k.a. Lang Park) in Brisbane. I don't think I'll be attending, but it's probably a good idea for those deeply affected by his death to go alone so they can move on. The ABC has some details here.

On 612ABC and ABC News Radio's election coverage, host Richard Fidler has referred to guest Kevin Rudd as "the ABC's federal spokesman for foreign affairs". Rudd is, of course, the ALP's spokesman on foreign affairs.

Paris Hilton has been arrested on drink-driving charges. It amazes me that Hilton would do something as pedestrian as drive. Doesn't she have people to do that for her?

I don't know what's more disturbing: the fact that a statue of Sylvester Stallone as fictional fighter Rocky Balboa is to be placed outside Philadelphia's famed Museum of Art, or the fact that Stalllone is making another Rocky film.

"I'm interested in man's march into the unknown but to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time. Neither is a fiery crash with the vomit hovering over me." That, apparently, is why Captain Kirk actor William Shatner turned down Virgin Galactic boss Richard Branson's offer of a berth on the first passenger space flight, set to take off in 2008. He added: "I do want to go up but I need guarantees I'll definitely come back." The Daily Mail has more here.

For an intelligent (although not necessarily correct in everyone's eyes) alternative view on the life and death of Steve Irwin, read what Germaine Greer had to say for The Guardian here. If you can't be bothered, or don't have the time, to read the whole things, here's her punchline:

The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing 10 times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn.

So, this is what we've been waiting 50 years for: Channel 7 will be celebrating a half-century of television in Australian with a reunion of the original cast from A Country Practice. A gala event hosted by Mel and Kochie (that's Melissa Doyle and David Koch for the benefit of the 19,500,000 Australians who don't watch Sunrise) on September 17 will also see a reunion of the Daddo brothers - Cameron, Andrew and Lachie - and will feature appearances by Hollywood actors Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (who, presumably, will just happen to be in the country at the time flogging their latest film, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). Other "big" names to take part will be John Burgess, Lindy Chamberlain, Alan Bond, Stuart Diver and Molly Meldrum. It's so exciting.

Breakfast radio star Meshel Laurie is officially staying put in Brisbane. Nova national program director Dean Buchanan says he has no plans to change the current Nova 106.9 breakfast lineup.

What's the world coming to? Elton John is going all hip-hop on us. What next? Eminem's favourite polkas? A Julie Andrews cover of Anarchy in the UK? Pat Boone sings heavy metal? Hang on, that last one has already been done.

In The Courier-Mail this morning, columnist Dianne Butler tips that Jillian Whiting will host Channel 9's Extra next year. I imagine this is based on the information imparted recently by a person from another station that Extra rated higher when regular host Rick Burnett was absent earlier this year and Whiting was in the chair. It's an interesting suggestion, and it certainly makes a change from the usual annual prediction that Extra - the only show of its kind in Australia - will be axed altogether.
PS: In other Channel 9 news, 4BC breakfast show producer Bruno Bouchet tells me he's leaving the world of radio to become a producer at A Current Affair.

Cliff Richard says he gave British Prime Minister Tony Blair use of his villa in Barbados because the PM was looking tired after deciding the go to war in Iraq. I've been pretty tired lately, too, Cliff. I wonder if you could see your way clear ...

I didn't catch the debut of David Tench Tonight on Thursday because I was at the theatre. But I did get a personalised DVD - which, unfortunately, seized up before I could play it all the way through (or copy the video). I managed to rescue this audio grab though. Pity he can't pronounce my name properly. It's deb-ritz, not de-britz. Before I start to feel too special, I notice that the Tench website offers you the chance to send a friend a message from the man himself (albeit only by email).

From superstar to street sweeper. That's the fate of Culture Club singer "Boy George" O'Dowd. The 45-year-old will spend five days cleaning New York streets as his punishment for wasting police time over a bizarre incident where he called the cops to the scene of a crime that never happened. O'Dowd joked that he had "always been a scrubber" but said he'd be better off giving a charity concert. Perhaps, but who would come?

As a wannabe radio star, I'm impressed by this story. Two British guys who broadcast an internet radio program from a spare bedroom in Wales got to interview Jeff Daniels - the star of Good Night, and Good Luck, Dumb and Dumber, Pleasantville and The Purple Rose of Cairo, about his new album. The CD, Jeff Daniels Live and Unplugged, includes a song called If William Shatner Can, I Can Too.

[Lots of goss to read here; please click on Read More]
Further intelligence has come to hand regarding my item in the ie liftout of The Sunday Mail today: Jamie Dunn's visit to the 4KQ studios in Brisbane to prerecord a segment for tomorrow's Ian Keenan show (at 5pm) caused a bit of panic at KQ and sister station 97.3FM - especially when the longtime B105 breakfast host spent time behind closed doors with station boss Peter Verhoeven. Dunn is, of course, now heading up the breakfast show on Zinc 96.1FM on the Sunshine Coast. I was unable to contact him late last week, but I feel sure he'd be keen to stoke any rumours about him returning to the big smoke - if only for mischief-making purposes.
Also in radio land ...
* As I also reported today in ie, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee will soon be heard on the drivetime shift on B105, heralding a return to Martin-Molloy style networking in the late afternoons. If internet gossip is to be believed, they'll be up against Merrick Watts and Tim "Rosso" Ross next year. The comedy duo are said to be ready to relinquish their breakfast show on Sydney's Nova in favour of a networked Nova drive show. Rove McManus and Peter Helliar are filling in for M&R soon, and they are touted as possible permanent replacements - pitting them against former Brisbaneite Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O in the Sydney FM breakfast stakes.

Further to my radio rumour item, the Q Confidential column in today's Courier-Mail says former Big Brother housemate Chrissie Swan was approached to join B105's new breakfast show - but declined. If Swan did have an offer - and I've heard that story, too - it would have made things fairly crowded in the B105 studio, with four people already on air at breakfast time. Or maybe it meant one or more of the incumbents were in for the chop. Whatever happens at B105, I feel sorry for the likeable and talented team already in place. Gabby Millgate, Mike Van Acker, Stav Davidson and Ben Wasley were on a loser to nothing when they took over from the hugely popular Jamie Dunn and the Morning Crew. A good number of his fans aren't going to like them no matter what they do.

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.