Seven's early star

KEVIN Rudd has been snapped up to appear weekly on the Seven Network's Sunrise show, the program that gave him such wonderful exposure when in opposition.

KEVIN Rudd has been snapped up to appear weekly on the Seven Network's Sunrise show, the program that gave him such wonderful exposure when in opposition.

 Why, until he joined Joe Hockey in a kind of tag team, most Australians had never heard of him. So Rudd owes Sunrise a swag of gratitude. The new format will have Rudd answering questions live, though whether he can avoid mangling the language remains to be seen. In a frightening development, executive producer Adam Boland says cameras will be set up each week in three viewers' homes and people will be able to direct their questions to Rudd. They'll be allowed to ask one follow-up question, without notice, in a "direct democracy" segment. Rudd will have no prior knowledge of the questions. This sounds like a recipe for some dramatic TV, although Rudd is so well-versed at tackling a question without answering it, the segment could also be excruciatingly boring. But we'll be watching. The only matter left dangling here is: will Tony Abbott be given the same opportunity?

Heckled by a prince

DANCING with the Stars host Daniel McPherson stood at the microphone in his role as MC at yesterday's barbecue for Prince William. He joked that because the prince had taken his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves, he could too. To which William responded: "I wouldn't be seen in those tight pants though!" McPherson barely missed a beat. "When I woke up today, I didn't expect to be heckled by royalty." NSW Premier Kristina Keneally said: "Thank you, Daniel. And for the record, I have no problem with your pants."

Musical lesson

WHILE Prince William was showing off his street cred in Sydney yesterday ("I like rock, Linkin Park [American rap rock], Kanye West [an American rapper] . . . I normally get the piss taken out of me for my choice of music"), British schoolchildren in Derby were enjoying the soothing strains of Mozart. Disruptive behaviour has been dramatically reduced with classical music and poetry. Brats given detention transcribed William Blake's Jerusalem while listening to Mozart's Requiem and Verdi's Aida. As a deterrent, it seems to have worked. Something similar was tried at a Wollongong shopping precinct in the 1980s, the theory being that classical music would drive away hoodlums. Instead, they vandalised the loudspeakers.

Mum's the word

BEFORE she became pregnant, pop singer Dannii Minogue thought she was too old have a baby. The 38-year-old tells London's Daily Mirror that her doctor had "told me I'd got to the stage in my life where I'd have to make decisions" about having babies. "I remember thinking, 'Oh, I'm now that person who is getting too old to have kids.' I told him it wasn't an issue for me because I didn't have a man, there was no one on the horizon, and there probably never would be." A short time later, Minogue met former rugby league player Kris Smith while on holiday in Ibiza. That's called getting on with the job. "I am exploding with happiness. Kris is so completely broody. I'm totally in a panic about everything: babies, living together and working miles apart. It all seems so complicated."

Sexist hit list

THE unashamedly sexist website Askmen has ranked Australian model Miranda Kerr ahead of Megan Gale and Jennifer Hawkins. The Askmen site poses such vital questions as "who do Aussie men desire?", and displays challenging thought-bubbles such as "things we love about older women". In a poll asking for "99 most desirable women", Kerr came in 10th in a list topped by Canadian actor Emmanuelle Chriqui. The poll attracted six million votes and asked men to rate women -- which goes to prove that some men have too much time on their hands. US model Marisa Miller was second, followed by British actor Kate Beckinsale, Brazilian Alessandra Ambrosio, and Jessica Alba. Gale was 48th (obviously Italian men didn't bother voting) and Hawkins 64th. Singer Sophie Monk was 71st.

Al and algae bickies

QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh had a "chance" meeting yesterday with climate preacher Al Gore in Silicon Valley. Seizing the moment, Bligh congratulated him on US work on biofuel and clean energy technologies, and made a pitch for her state, as she should. "Queensland has the potential to produce the sugar cane or biomass needed to create new biofuels . . . I told Al Gore that our state has the scientists and the raw materials." Later, Bligh tasted biscuits made from algae grown from Queensland sugar. "Tasting cookies made from algae which was grown using sugar, which the company are interested in sourcing from Mackay, was a real eye opener," Bligh said.

Prized weapon

THERE was an interesting community cabinet meeting in Adelaide last night. Michael Pratt, the bloke who won the federal seat of Adelaide in 1988 for the Liberals and lost it at the next poll, turned up with what he calls "the Rann spinometer", a spin and win machine. Every player wins a prize: a copy of Winestate magazine, the magazine used to allegedly assault Mike Rann in that complicated little contretemps with an upset husband last year.