Movie with the times

Celebrities, they’re just like us! Russell Crowe didn’t get any special treatment on Sunday when he joined the queue outside Sydney Olympic Park’s mass vaccine centre.

Russell Crowe.

Celebrities, they’re just like us! Russell Crowe didn’t get any special treatment on Sunday when he joined the queue outside Sydney Olympic Park’s mass vaccine centre. The 57-year-old patiently waited with 7000 other jab and jab nots to secure his first shot. A stark contrast to the men who snuck into Brisbane on a 34m superyacht to watch the rugby. Rusty is among the five million Sydneysiders currently in lockdown. However, the New Zealand-born Gladiator is hardly slumming it in his luxury $30m Woolloomooloo penthouse. The busy little bee was papped last week enjoying a bike ride through the empty CBD streets with his 30-year-old girlfriend, American actor Britney Theriot. Coffs Harbour’s most famous resident is hard at work on “Aussiewood”, a $440m family-friendly film studio he plans to build near the Big Banana; halfway between the sound stages of Sydney and the Gold Coast, and close to the Byron Baes. NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro was by Crowe’s side when the studio announcement was made last month. The timeline for construction and the taxpayer funds committed are completely unknown. Crowe says he’s keen to cash in on the influx of creative types heading down under and cement Australia’s status as the one of the most Covid-safe filming locations in the world. Talk about famous last words! Hollywood A-listers including Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Taika Waititi, Zac Efron and Sacha Baron Cohen have happily quarantined for two weeks, upon arrival to our shores in the past 15 months. And George Miller was scheduled to shoot his big budget Max Mad prequel, Furiosa, here next year. The status of Crowe’s next project is pandemic-pending. He was set to step behind the camera later this month when action thriller Poker Face started filming in the Harbour City. Set in the world of high-stakes gambling, the Oscar winner plays tech millionaire “Jake”, who gathers friends to his palatial abode, only for the tables to turn when someone crashes the party. One of the elite locations earmarked is the $140m penthouse at James Packer’s Barangaroo Crown Residences. Not word yet on whether “Jake” also ends up in front of a royal commission.

Elsa Pataky, Chris Hemsworth and Rusty.

Mad AZ Hell

Even Aunty is confused about Australia’s vaccine rules. Strewth spotted these conflicting pieces of advice displayed on the ABC TV ticker during Scott Morrison’s press conference: “ATAGI changes advice on AstraZeneca jab for under-60s”, and, below, “Advice for AstraZeneca vaccine remains unchanged following ATAGI meeting.” Whoops!

Which is it?

At the coalface

South Sydney owner Crowe may be stuck at home, but fellow bunny boiler Anthony Albanese is back in the Canberra Bubble™after a short sojourn in the Sunshine State. While the Labor lockdown avoider was secretly visiting a coalmine in Moranbah, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce jetted to Gladstone to host a meet and greet at the Central Lane Hotel for the Nationals’ new candidate in Flynn, state MP Colin Boyce. It’s been over four weeks since Albo set foot in his Sydney inner-west electorate, which could explain his dead rubber prediction against the Blues. “I think NSW are favourites. But I think losing the Penrith halves combination could give Queensland a chance,” the Labor leader guessed. “And you never write Queensland off.” Wise words to hasten slowly.

Anthony Albanese.

An important birth

Congratulations are in order for first time grandparents Tony and Margie Abbott. The former prime minister’s middle daughter Frances Loch welcomed a son on Sunday. “Ernest Loch — born on his due date, July 11. Tipping the scales at an even 9lb,” hubbie Sam Loch gushed on Instagram. “Brought into existence by his mum with nothing but breathing, coconut water and heart.” Aunty Bridget Abbott, Frances’s younger sister, added, “Love you Ernie my little man”, with a love heart emoji. Shucks! By Monday evening (US time), Ernest had been discharged from hospital and was meeting the couple’s cat and dog. The 29-year-old Frances lives in Portland, Oregon, where she works as a fitness instructor for Barre3. Which could prove tricky for the Abbotts, given Australia’s current travel bans. Lucky grandpa Tones knows his way around the exemption process! Frances, a former bodybuilder, documented the pregnancy for her 8400 followers over the past few months, with candid baby bump snaps and videos working (out) from home. Streets apart from the 2013 election campaign, when she appeared in a video for the locked-down Big Brother contestants, where her father’s pitch was: “I’m the guy with the not bad-looking daughters.” Frances married former Olympic rower Sam, a senior manager at Adidas, on Valentine’s Day 2018, after three months together. As the story goes, he popped the question in the kitchen two weeks into their relationship, as she was putting peas in the freezer. After the speedy nuptials, Sam described the couple as “the motherf..king Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers of love”. Indeed.

Winter of discontent

The Canberra Writers Festival 2021 has been Covid cancelled, a day before the August program was due to be launched. “The 2021 program is a culmination of many months of hard work and one we are immensely proud of and were eager to share with you. Instead, in view of the pandemic uncertainty, we have decided to postpone before tickets go on sale,” festival director Paul Donohoe announced on Tuesday afternoon. It was bound to happen. But Bubble bibliophiles can pencil in a possible four-day festival for November, with organisers ambitiously aiming for a line-up of nothing but live panels (no virtual loopholes) … pending a higher vaccine uptake.

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