Glamour couples, a Kardashian, and an Elvis bonanza: Top entertainment headlines in Qld in 2022
From Hollywood arrivals to a love triangle and a secret wedding – we’ve recapped the best entertainment news in Queensland in 2022
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From keeping up with a Kardashian to secret weddings and new glamour couples, 2022 was bursting with memorable moments – and it doesn’t seem like the New Year will be any different. Here are some of Queensland’s A-list highlights and predictions.
WHAT MADE HEADLINES
The Kardashian-Davidson Factor: It was the year the Kardashian-Davidson show came to town.
The pair were the most talked about celebrity couple – and break-up – of 2022, and Cairns just happened to become an unexpected player in the global headlines.
Davidson was in the region for a number of months to shoot his new film Wizards!, alongside Orlando Bloom.
First there was the hoax: a Cairns cafe owner falsely claimed he had served the couple in June, before they confirmed Kardashian wasn’t in Australia, leaving angered paparazzo in Cairns on wasted airfares.
The manager then went to ground after the hoax monumentally backfired.
Then Kardashian did arrive in Cairns, landing in her private jet in July for a whirlwind weekend of romance with her beau in yet another media frenzy.
The pair called it quits on their nine-month relationship shortly after in August with their demanding schedules cited as a factor.
Meanwhile Orlando Bloom’s fiance Katy Perry spent her time dropping into a Port Douglas circus, the zoo and browsing local shops in a comparatively low-key but delightful visit to Far North Queensland.
Plastic fantastic: An emerging designer received an email she’ll never quite forget.
Beyonce’s styling team reached out to Queensland Ballet costumier Bethany Cordwell unexpectedly in early 2022 after browsing her collection online.
Cordwell sent a one-of-a-kind monochrome bodysuit express to Los Angeles and was floored when the global superstar released her Renaissance album months later, and an image of her wearing the design featured in the accompanying images.
The bodysuit just happened to be made out of 12,000 scale shaped pieces she’d cut from plastic document folders bought from Officeworks, where she used to work.
Cordwell was featured in major fashion publications across the world in what had become a life-changing opportunity.
Radio Ga-Ga: Brisbane farewelled classic hits station 4KQ in 2022 after 75 years on air – but it certainly didn’t go quietly.
The station had been a leader in the Brisbane market in recent years but Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) acquired the rights to the commercial AM license in May, and in a rare occurrence decided to switch off a top-rating station.
With the sale going through in June, SEN showed the slate of 4KQ talent the door and launched its dedicated sports station with a new line-up.
Seizing the opportunity, AM rivals 4BC swooped in and announced one of the biggest commercial radio overhauls in decades less than two weeks later.
They had raided the evicted talent, with former 4KQ breakfast presenters Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine shifting as a team to 4BC breakfast. A producer and music director also made the jump.
It led to almost immediate ratings success.
HOOK UPS
It was the talk of the Commonwealth Games when Gold Coast swimming teammates Emma McKeon and Cody Simpson revealed their romance.
It was an unexpected element to Simpson’s swimming dream. He had put aside his successful life as a singer and Broadway performer in the US, having ended his relationship with Miley Cyrus, and returned to the Gold Coast with an ambition to represent Australia in swimming.
Training on the Gold Coast, he sparked up a romance with teammate McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian of all time with 11 medals to her name.
It was a melting pot of headlines when it came to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham; he was realising his dreams, she broke the record for the most Commonwealth Games medals ever received and they were the sport’s new glamour couple – with an embellished love triangle with fellow swimmer Kyle Chalmers thrown into the mix.
Meanwhile fellow Queensland swimmer Emily Seebohm, who herself had experienced being part of a swimming golden couple in the past, took a break from the sport this year and missed the Commonwealth Games.
She instead found a romance in a different pursuit – meeting now boyfriend Ryan Gallagher while filming reality TV competition The Challenge at the same time.
Gallagher found fame through his appearance on Married At First Sight back in 2018.
Robert Irwin sparked a frenzy in late 2022 when he was spotted on a date with rumoured girlfriend Rorie Buckey.
The young couple were seen spending time together on the Sunshine Coast before she was seated next to his mother Terri for Robert’s 19th birthday celebrations at Australia Zoo in December.
Buckey, who has an identical twin sister, is the niece of the late Heath Ledger.
Meanwhile Brisbane singer Jessica Origliasso, of The Veronicas, revealed in September that she was engaged to new partner Alex Smith, who she met in Los Angeles.
Origliasso endured a tumultuous few years in romance, including a heartbreaking end to her relationship with actor Ruby Rose in 2018 and a split from her former fiance Kai in 2020.
But this year she revealed her happiness with Smith, who she proposed to in the Catacombs of Paris in an emotional happy ending she later shared to Instagram.
WEDDINGS
It was a retirement with a mic drop for Ash Barty this year.
After walking away from tennis after winning the Australian Open at no. 1 in the world, the Queensland star tied the knot with long-time partner Garry Kissick in a secret local ceremony.
Barty shared the news by posting a single photo from her private ceremony to social media.
The guest list included a who’s who of the nation’s tennis greats.
In another intimate ceremony, former Bachelorette Sophie Monk finally got her moment in 2022.
The Gold Coast star, who was once engaged to Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden, had ended her tilt as Bachelorette broken hearted before she met Joshua Gross on a plane in 2018.
The pair married at home four years later in what she described as “eloped-ish”.
“I really do believe everything happens for a reason,” Monk said.
Speaking of the Bachelor, former Brisbane leading man Matty Johnson finally tied the knot with Laura Byrne, who he met on the show in 2017.
The pair share two daughters, both of whom were involved in the nuptials in November.
“Just the happiest day of our lives,” they said in a joint announcement.
Back on the Sunshine Coast, dessert king Adriano Zumbo married former My Kitchen Rules star Nelly Riggio in a stunning Hinterland ceremony in May.
The couple first met when she began working for his dessert empire and since relocated to the Sunshine Coast.
NEW ARRIVALS
We welcomed plenty of new additions in 2022.
Cricketer Usman Khawaja made it back from Australia’s tour of Pakistan to be with wife Rachel for the birth of their second daughter, Ayla.
Queensland teammate Marnus Labuschagne became a father, welcoming daughter Hallie in September.
There was a baby boom at Channel 7 Queensland. Amanda Abate welcomed daughter Pia, her second child, on August 11 to complete her family.
Gold Coast colleague and Olympic champion Sally Pearson, who began her new career as sports presenter on the news bulletin this year, gave birth to son Harry, also her second child, on August 24.
Brisbane colleague Kendall Gilding welcomed son Moses in Brisbane on September 28 and Liz Cantor gave birth to her third child, a daughter named Sky, two days later.
Fox League host Yvonne Sampson welcomed a baby boy, Henry, with her Channel 9 star husband Chris O’Keefe – the pair having first met in the Brisbane newsroom and now starting a family together.
Gold Coast mega-influencer Tammy Hembrow and ironman Matt Poole welcomed their daughter Posy back in June before a rumoured break-up.
Brisbane singer Dami Im gave birth to son Harrison in May, starting a family alongside husband Noah.
EVENT OF THE YEAR
As if making up for lost time after two years of Covid disappointments, events were back with a glamorous bang in 2022.
Fittingly it was the Australian premiere of the now world-conquering Elvis movie in June that stands out. The film itself was shut down by Covid in early 2020 when Tom Hanks contracted the virus, making global headlines. So to have Hanks back on the Gold Coast alongside
Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge and filmmaker Baz Luhrmann to celebrate the film’s release in the city it was made was a moment not to be missed in 2022. Insiders say Luhrmann likes to create a “happening” when he throws an event, and it was a happening at Pacific Fair on June 4. The cinema, fronted by thousands of adoring fans, was an unrecognisable curtain-draped, sparkling Elvis wonderland and bug rolls were served to mimic those at Rick Shores.
Luhrmann danced the night away with anyone who joined him on the dancefloor and Hanks offered a memorable speech, even mentioning his love of Dan Murphy’s. We hear he had quickly asked a minder – “what was the name of the liquor store named after a man?”
Perhaps it’s our Covid hangover talking but it was a night in Queensland that will be hard to top in years to come.
It was also the return of the Logies to the Gold Coast a few weeks later, seeing the stars of the screen finally return to the night of nights for a celebration two years’ in the making.
Another highlight was the Camilla Luncheon & Runway Fashion Show at Brisbane City Hall in August. The sellout event hosted by designer and cancer survivor Camilla Franks raised money for grassroots cancer charities, and, held within days of the loss of her friend Olivia Newton-John, featured a touching tribute.
CRYSTAL BALL
Out with 2022 and in with the Real Housewives of Brisbane.
We have taken a look into the crystal ball to predict what’s in store for Queensland’s A-list in the New Year. And at the top of the list is the rumoured Queensland Real Housewives franchise.
It is a spin-off that’s been talked about in Brisbane’s social circle for years but it seems to have finally got off the ground.
A list of affluent and glamorous women from across Brisbane and the Gold Coast were approached and with some having screen tested in recent months, the series is rumoured to begin production in March.
We imagine A-list events around town will suddenly be bursting at the seams if camera crews are on the guest list.
Another A-list prediction is that Elvis will bring home an Oscar.
The Baz Luhrmann film, produced and filmed entirely on the Gold Coast, has been scoring a host of award nominations as the season begins with the Golden Globes this week.
With Luhrmann now basing himself on the Gold Coast we won’t be surprised to see the film not only land several Academy Award nominations, but bring an iconic golden trophy back to the glitter strip.
But after the Will Smith slap heard around the world last year, what else will the ceremony have in store for us in March?
Speaking of movies, we have a suspicion Far North Queensland should be getting set for some more celebrity sightings.
We hear the new custom-built studios will be opening in Cairns mid-year and the Queensland Government wants to open with a bang.
Insiders have been working overtime to lure big-names to the region and ensure the money is well spent. The focus is on big productions that will set up shop in the region for months at a time.
Sean Penn was one name who has apparently taken a Zoom chat with a Queensland politician lobbying for the Cairns studio.
Don’t take your eyes off the Gold Coast just yet though – we hear a big name is browsing the real estate market.
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