All That Glitters: Mayor Tom Tate’s Facebook alter ego reveals himself … or does he?

THERE have always been questions over whether Mayor Tom Tate has sole control over his Facebook page. We think we’ve found the answer.

When it comes to covering the gossip of the Glitter Strip, we’ve got you covered.

OH YES HE DID

Mayoral Chief of Staff Wayne Moran. Picture Glenn Hampson

HAS Mayor Tom Tate’s online voice revealed himself? Cr Tate is well known for his interactions with followers on Facebook but there have always been questions over whether he has sole control of his page. A curious post by ‘Wayne Moran’ — the name of the Mayor’s chief of staff — on Cr Tate’s page during debate about the budget has raised eyebrows. “GC had at(sic) rate rise of 11.5% a couple of years before I was elected for example’,” the post said. As Mr Moran has never been elected, we assume he was posting on behalf of our Mayor.

ON POINT

WHEN it comes to Origin, Mayor Tom Tate doesn’t do halves. In what’s become a House of Tate tradition, he turns off his phone, shuts down his computer and pushes record as the telecast kicks off. Thirty minutes into the first half, he sits down to watch his recording of the 80-minute match — no ads, no 10-minute half time. ATG wonders if he makes it to the full-time siren without a pause to pee.

HE SAID IT

John Doyle and Greg Pickhaver (aka Roy & HG)

TODAY the Commonwealth, tomorrow the world! Greig Pickhaver, aka HG Nelson, and John Doyle, aka “Rampaging’’ Roy Slaven, have heaped praise on the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and chairman Peter Beattie. The duo gave the event and its chief top grades as part of a mid-season report card for Australian sport during a laugh-out-loud chat with ABC TV’s Charlie Pickering. “The Australian Games — we won everything. It was great,” HG gushed.

“I got tired of standing, saluting, with the trousers around the ankles, we won so much.”

Roy said the Games had put the Coast “right up there as the big events capital of the world”.

“Peter Beattie showed what the Gold Coast can produce with those Commonwealth Games. They were absolutely perfect,” he said.

When HG pointed out Mr Beattie was now “head of the rugby league”, Roy suggested NRL wasn’t the only sporting code in need of his Midas touch.

“I would like to see Beattie the head of cricket in Australia now that James Sutherland has gone,” Roy said.

“And I would like to see Beattie take over the AFL because this Gillon McLachlan fellow who killed Tasmanian AFL — he’s a murderer, a murderer of Tasmanian football — has got to be replaced and I think Peter Beattie walks into it as a clean skin.”

Looks like the balls are now in all your courts, Mr Beattie.

EAVESDROP

ATG hears nominees, presenters and performers at TV’s night of nights can look forward to a couple of hi-tech surprises in their prized Logies gift bags next weekend. Tech brands Audiofly and Belkin have come to the party. Perth company Audiofly will slip a set of its AF33W wireless in-ear headphones into the celebs’ goodie bags while Belkin will gift Logies stars its lightweight 5000mAh Pocket Power portable charger, which should come in very handy later in the night if any celebs need to keep their devices charged up while they party on.

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ON THE RECORD

Alli Simpson and Conrad Sewell pictured arriving at the 2017 ARIA Awards held at The Star in Pyrmont in Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

COULD a reunion be on the cards for Conrad Sewell when he performs live at next weekend’s TV Week Logies at The Star Gold Coast? ATG hears Sewell’s ex girlfriend, Alli Simpson, will also be in town next week. The younger sister of homegrown US-based musician Cody Simpson, Alli, 20, met her much older former flame Sewell when she interviewed him on the red carpet at the ARIA Awards when she was just 17. The duo stepped out publicly as a couple at the ARIA Awards last year. “She wasn’t even legal when I first met her so I had to stay away for a while,” Sewell told Hit105’s breakfast radio crew last month. Brisbane-born Sewell, 30, will perform his new single, Healing Hands. “It will be a really special night — especially in my home state.”

GUTTER

A BIG boo hiss to the convoy of truckies tailgating L-platers and drivers in the slow lanes on the M1. We get it — you’re frustrated by the left-lane only rules imposed on truckies on the M1, but your behaviour is bullying on wheels. Back off.

HUSH HUSH

Which reality TV femmes jagged a ticket to the Logies from their former network because they agreed to get themselves to and from the ceremony at The Star Gold Coast at their own cost? ATG hears penny pinching on the part of more than one network has seen talent from further afield overlooked for “stars’’ who live closer to the awards’ new home. Ouch!

Laurie Anderson is on the Gold Coast. Picture Mike Batterham

OH YES SHE DID

LAURIE Anderson appeared to be right at home already when she arrived at HOTA on Monday ahead of her series of performances as the venue’s first international artist in residence.

The artist, musician, multimedia maven, filmmaker, writer and New York maverick rocked up to her media call rugged wearing comfortable boots, a shirt, jacket and scarf around her neck — and a pair of army green trackie-daks.

It’s a fair bet Anderson knew next to nothing about the Coast until HOTA invited her to visit for art’s sake.

“I had no idea how close to the whales you are — this feeling of being close to nature is unique because you also have those gigantic skyscrapers,” she said, gesturing towards Evandale Lake.

“It’s a pretty amazing place to have those two things happening in such closeness.

“My first impressions are it’s extraordinary to have a lake right outside here where people on their lunch break go swimming. That’s really a treasure to me. You’re very lucky to have something like that in the city. It’s really extraordinary.”

Renowned for having her finger on the pulse — then and now — Anderson’s residency is a coup for HOTA and follows her previous appointment as NASA’s first and last artist in residence from 2003 to 2005.

“There’s only one degree of separation between Laurie Anderson and pretty much every creative person you can think of in the 20th century. She’s worked with them all,” one observer said.

The residency culminates with three shows this weekend including the free Songs From the Bardo on HOTA’s outdoor stage today at 4.30pm and the Concert for Dogs tomorrow at 9am.