Good-news Kev

CONTINUING his tradition of fronting up to hard-hitting TV programs, Kevin Rudd will be appearing on tonight's Good News Week on Ten.

CONTINUING his tradition of fronting up to hard-hitting TV programs (Rove, Sunrise et al), Kevin Rudd will be appearing on tonight's episode of Good News Week on Ten. And we're pleased to report he isn't let off lightly as he takes part in the Political Mastermind game ("I'm pretty nervous to be here [but] my country beckons"), with panellist Corinne Grant instructing him in the firmest of terms not to stuff it up, and host Paul McDermott giving him multiple choice questions such as: "Which Australian PM famously said, `Life wasn't meant to be easy?' - (a) Malcolm Fraser, in a lecture, 1971; (b) Harold Holt, underwater, 1967; (c) Kevin Rudd, to a flight attendant, 2009." Our challenge for McDermott next time is to persuade Rudd to duet with him on an old Doug Anthony All Stars number: say, Skinhead Skippy or, at a pinch, Commies For Christ.

Rudd spam hits US

IN the meantime, the PM's mysterious and accidental other incarnation as a poster boy for, er, anti-immigration types continues apace, thanks to a spam email that appears to have a half-life on a par with plutonium's. We first became aware of it late last year when we started hearing murmurs of approval in Blighty over a heavily emailed speech that had Rudd supposedly uttering lines such as: "Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it", and "This is our country, our land, and our lifestyle, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our Christian beliefs, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, the right to leave." At the time, Strewth did suggest that putting words in our prolix PM's mouth was something of a coals-to-Newcastle exercise, but that didn't deter the spammers, who clearly didn't want to have any truck whatsoever with trying to do anything so finicky as replicating our beloved leader's actual speech mannerisms. Now, one of Strewth's top agents has just returned from the west coast of the US, reporting to us in a state of mild bemusement that on three separate occasions, Americans heaped lavish and unsolicited praise on our Kev's head and saying they wished that they too had leaders brave enough to break out of the PC straitjacket. Hmm.

Tony keeps it zipped

AS far as we know, Tony Abbott didn't talk about his or anyone else's sex life over the weekend. For this, we give thanks.

Well-earned praise

AND speaking of gratitude, we tip our lid to The Sydney Morning Herald's David Marr and Radio National's Fran Kelly for going on ABC1's Insiders program yesterday and so thoughtfully providing what amounted to nearly five minutes of free advertising for this paper. And, with some gentle guidance from The Daily Telegraph's Piers Akerman, not only did they give us a gigantic free plug on the national broadcaster, they - particularly Marr - also took care of our marketing for the next year or so. All it will take will be some, ahem, judicious editing of Marr's monologue, as demonstrated here, and we'll be sorted: "The Australian is this extraordinary publication . . . I read it every day. I read it with a mixture of pleasure and incredulity [by which we're sure he means, `Wow, what an incredible paper!']. Here is a paper which has fabulous journalists, which has worldwide resources, which has terrific news sense . . ." Marr also bestowed compliments on you lot: "The market for The Australian is a highly intelligent national market . . ." Truer words have rarely been spoken.

A spell of high flying

STREWTH has been inordinately fond of typos since one day in our childhood when we found our father in convulsions over a slip in an otherwise dry coalmining report. We're paraphrasing here (and, for the sake of any pedantic miners with their fingers hovering over a keyboard, the figure quoted is plucked out of the air), but the line stated that miners at the facility in question were producing 18 tonnes per shift - except the crucial "f" had fallen out of the last word. Happy days. Yesterday's glitch by a skywriter above Sydney - resulting in the slightly enigmatic "MARRY M SALLY" - was not quite as droll, but it was a lot more visible. Happily, before any Sally had a chance to take the wrong message and go marry someone with a name beginning with M, or before any dyslexics took it as a cue to rush to the nearest video shop and rent a copy of When Harry Met Sally, the plane swooped back and, making like a rave devotee, popped in an E.

Bindi's boyfriend

FROM our brand new, as yet tentatively titled Gadzooks! They're Only 11! department, this teaser for this week's Woman's Day: "Although officially `just friends', inside sources reveal . . . 11-year-old Jacob Wertheimer, the grandson of boxing legend Muhammad Ali and a US ambassador for Wildlife Warriors, is the new boyfriend of Bindi Irwin, with the pair's innocent friendship blossoming into tween love." Mercifully we have that ever popular source of information - "family friends" - to let us know: "They are still far too young for anything too serious." Er, phew.