Lette it bleed

AUTHOR Kathy Lette has come a long way from her roots in Sydney's southern beachside wonderland, the Shire.

AUTHOR Kathy Lette has come a long way from her roots in Sydney's southern beachside wonderland, the Shire.

These days she has only the one regular partner, barrister extraordinaire Geoffrey Robertson. Now a London local, the Puberty Blues author is a close friend of Britain's first lady, Sarah Brown. Lette was delighted when Brown quoted her in a speech at the White House last week during the Clinton Global Initiative dinner. Brown mentioned Lette's favourite charity, Plan International, noting Lette's call to end worldwide discrimination against women and girls, which the author has dubbed "a vicious cycle, a menstrual cycle, which can only be broken by education, protection and nutrition". Lette tells Strewth she was pleased with the plug. "I was chuffed to be mentioned in Sarah's speech, given in front of all the good and great. Naomi Campbell, Jane Fonda, Hillary Clinton: all the cliterati were there," Lette says. "I'm also thrilled to have the first mention of the menstrual cycle in such hallowed halls. Usually in such lectures the word period is only mentioned in relation to Hellenic or Jurassic. I hope to be able to insert many more female-friendly quotes in speeches to come." Lette throws in a glowing tribute to her friend for good measure: "Sarah is a woman's woman. She is a human Wonderbra, supportive, uplifting and making other women look bigger and better. Which is what the plan is all about."

Greer window

MEREDITH Burgmann, queen of the annual Ernie and Elaine awards for the most sexist remarks of the year, is confident the Elaine for most sexist comment by a woman against a sister will be won by feminist Germaine Greer. Greer is the frontrunner for her catty appraisal of Michelle Obama's election night outfit as a "butcher's apron" and a "travesty". "We all love her very much, though she's totally batty," Burgmann says of Greer. "I think she will win the Elaine."

Blooping blokes

BUT most of the interest will be on the candidates for the 17th Ernie award for male sexist comment. Burgmann thinks the usual suspects - Kyle Sandilands and Paul "Fatty" Vautin, for example - will be overshadowed by strong offerings from Tony Abbott, who thanked Lachlan Murdoch for "allowing" wife Sarah Murdoch to launch Abbott's book Battlelines; Mark Latham for writing: "Australia has been in the unusual position of having education ministers, first Julie Bishop and now (Julia) Gillard, without first-hand experience in parenting and educating children"; Wilson Tuckey for saying: "(Women) want a job on the weekends when dad's home to look after the kids"; and Bart Cummings for saying rival racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse is"married to a bookmaker; she's under his control".

Between the lines

READERS' responses to timber giant Gunns' Little Green Book, published recently and duly reported on by Strewth, have been overwhelming. Tasmanian Pete Godfrey even went to the trouble of editing Gunns' publicity tome, redrafting its introduction (Gunns' original words are in brackets): "We at Gunns are pleased to bring you our Little (Green) Greed Book, a snapshot of some of the activities we carry out in our community to look after our (forests and the environment) shareholders," the new version reads. "We aim to substantially manage our (natural resources, trees, walnuts and grapes) money. We seek to protect our (environment) business and deliver social and economic benefits to our (community) directors and friends. That is why we make (sustainability) subsidies our business." Godfrey also helpfully added comments to key paragraphs of the booklet. To Gunns' line that "almost 4000 recreational visitors to the Gunns estate enjoy a range of community benefits", Godfrey noted that the company "carefully monitors visitors' activities so that they don't look behind the propaganda screens we leave to hide the clear-fell logging and the poisoned animals". Far be it for Strewth tosuggest that anything Godfrey writes is true.