Channel Kevin

COMEDIAN and serial Kevin Rudd-channeller Anthony Ackroyd was in full flight in Sydney on the weekend.

The occasion was the annual ball held by Fighting Chance Australia (the charity focused on young, physically disabled adults) and Ackroyd dazzled with the uncanniness of his impersonation. With the real Rudd's public profile now almost as engorged as one of those Gary Larson mosquitos that's accidentally poked its proboscis into an artery, Ackroyd is one person who can be openly pleased. "The real Rudd wasn't the only one crying during his departure speech back in June last year," Ackroyd tells Strewth. "I thought an unexpected, fun and lucrative career stream would disappear along with Kev's tenure as the main man. But the public's fascination with Rudd continued as did the desire to see him parodied. And with the recent leadership speculation, business is booming. My Rudd character now talks about his plans for when he reclaims his position as PM and audiences love it. It may not be as scientific as Newspoll but my Rudd impersonator index tells me that the reinstatement of Rudd as leader is now being anticipated by much of the public as a given. Deservedly or not, there is great affection for Rudd out there and a strong feeling he was done wrong. I'm so glad I didn't throw away my blond wig last year."

Paging Dr Freud

THE Foreign Minister was also, at least partially, on the mind of Greg Combet yesterday morning when he was being interviewed by Barrie Cassidy on ABC1's Insiders. In the thick of praising the FM's efforts on Australia's latest unfortunate contribution to the Indonesian penal system, Combet stumbled on Kevin Possibly 11's name; Strewth's aural jury is out on whether Combet said "Kevin Du-Rudd" or "Kevin Dudd-Rudd". Perhaps Combet had got up really early to muck out the finches and was yet to have his first coffee. Easily done, we're sure.

Not a duty-free zone

FOR those in need of a refresher, former Fraser government minister Fred Chaney will be at Melbourne Law School in Carlton tomorrow night, drawing on his 20 years in federal parliament as he delivers the Accountability Round Table's inaugural lecture, "Integrity in Parliament -- Where does duty lie?" One hopes attendance is high.

Containment policy

YESTERDAY marked 38 years to the day since Dick Hughes's first performance in the Sydney Opera House, and while 38 is not quite the roundest of figures, we felt it an anniversary worth marking. So how did the jazz veteran celebrate the big day? Why, he and his daughter, the one-woman juggernaut otherwise known as Christa Hughes, gave a concert just up the road from the Opera House in a shipping container. Sure, it was a shipping container parked near the Art Gallery of NSW, turned on its side and decked out with a red curtain, but a shipping container nonetheless. This did at least give Christa the excuse to introduce her father as Dick-in-a-box, though her efforts to turn this into a crowd chant met, uncharacteristically, with mixed results. Them's the breaks with lunchtime gigs.

Pollies to apply boot

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Stephen Conroy and high-vis Liberal backbencher Josh Frydenberg will today be named joint No 1 ticketholders of soccer club Melbourne Heart. One of their first duties will be to take to the pitch this Sunday at AAMI Park in front of 12,000 screaming fans (well, we hope they're fans) to play against the likes of Mark Bosnich, Grant Hackett and former Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd. There will be two main beneficiaries from this event: (a) children's cancer charity My Room, and (b) society at large, largely on the grounds Conroy will surely be too out of breath to "sing" the club anthem.

Priorities straight

JUST so you know the wheels are turning smoothly at the heart of our democracy, here's the program for committee room 2R3 in federal Parliament House this Wednesday: "9.30am: Main Committee meets; Members' 3-minute constituency statements. 10.00am: Resumption of debate; statement on Sam Stosur; further business to be confirmed. 1.00pm: Suspension. 4.00pm: Resumption of debate -- to be confirmed. 7.30pm: Adjournment (no debate)." As long as the statement about Stosur is made, we'll consider the nation well and truly governed.

Between the lines

STREWTH has learned the easy way to tell when England's* doing badly in the World Cup, without having to go to the fuss of watching the game itself. All you need is one mate from Blighty who is due to come to dinner immediately after watching the game at a nearby boozer. When the mate lobs on your doorstep early, appears reluctant to discuss their evening but does, with the air of a man renouncing Satan, volunteer the information "I never was a rugby fan, anyway", you can probably rest assured that England has tanked.

*Method can be applied to other teams.