K for kiss of death

WHO needs enemies when they've got a fan like Kevin Rudd?

WHO needs enemies when they've got a fan like Kevin Rudd?

As the Parramatta Eels faced defeat at the hands of Melbourne Storm (who dreams up these team names?), the PM took to Twitter to reflect on the high price of his affections: "Now at ANZ Stadium for Final - half time - going for Eels, which given my recent footy form may well be the kiss of death." And so it proved. Meanwhile, we gather Melbourne Storm flew home yesterday to a welcome at the airport from just 10 supporters.

Discredited credit

FAIRFAX'S Good Weekend magazine may have found a way to pluck Annie Leibovitz from her dire financial circumstances: swell her oeuvre by passing off other photographers' work as hers! Genius. In a profile of the celebrity photographer, GW included a spread of magazine covers featuring "famous Leibovitz photos". One of them is a Vanity Fair cover with Nicole Kidman displaying her bra. The one small hiccup is that the photo was taken by Patrick Demarchelier, a small but unhelpful fact spelled out on the cover at Nic's belly button level. Whoops-a-daisy. And, no, we've never heard of any expression involving stones and glass houses.

Beers on the Barina

AS newspaper polls go, the one on offer at Western Australia's Pilbara Echo is a ripper. Under the friendly beginning "I enjoy a drink at ...", readers are presented with a comprehensive list of alternatives including the Icon, the Tav and All Seasons. But the winning option is "friend's place", which pulled 20.8 per cent of votes, followed by "Woolies carpark" on 18.3 per cent.

Achilles of the ALP

STREWTH is greatly relieved to see that being on the receiving end of a walloping hasn't dented South Australian Premier Mike Rann's momentum on Twitter. Sure, he may not be talking much about the beating (or at least not for the time being), but he's thoughtfully sharing other little distracting nuggets along the way, such as this one: "Great to hear that Bruce Hawker was up in Athens for the Greek election campaign. He's a great strategist, greatly respected in Wash DC too." Bruce Hawker getting involved in the Greek election? When senior ALP strategists can head off to do their bit overseas, you get the feeling the party isn't feeling especially threatened by Malcolm Turnbull and his crew.

Band returns, knees OK

IN news from the Blast From the Past Department, Melbourne punks the Painters and Dockers are to re-form. Throughout the 1980s and 90s the band played more than 1500 shows including support spots with the likes of the Monkees, Los Lobos, the Cramps, the Gun Club, Midnight Oil and lip-curling, serial Harley-Davidson crasher Billy Idol. Singer Paul Stewart tells Strewth he easily recalls their most nervous performance: "The head of the real Painters and Dockers Union, Bob Dix, who was in Pentridge jail at the time, sent his wife to one of our shows to see if we would be given permission to continue using their name and she stood right up the front of the stage flanked by two burly minders. Thank god she gave us the thumbs up. We were totally petrified."

The road, less travails

ON Strewth's latest travels, we were struck, on crossing the Victorian border, by how few police cars there seemed to be on the road there compared with NSW, even though it was school holidays, a revenue-rich season for NSW wallopers. But this was more than compensated for by the exhilarating profusion of signs by the roadside: "Slowing down won't kill you"; "Drowsy drivers DIE"; "Have a rest or be under arrest"; "Snooze and you'll snuff it" (some paraphrasing may have been used in the preparation of this item), and so on in that vein, bludgeoning the eyeballs in stern procession. Does Victoria fear an invasion of motoring narcoleptics from the north? But after two weeks Strewth crossed back into NSW and a swarm of police cars. All in all, we grew nostalgic for the signs.