By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
It wasn’t that surprising the Archibald judges awarded Australian art’s most famed gong to a (relatively safe) portrait of novelist Tim Winton. Frankly, we’re shocked this is the first time the patron saint of literary Australiana has been a finalist for the $100,000 prize.
More astonishing was how, at Friday evening’s opening ceremony at the Art Gallery of NSW, a night of nights for the local creative establishment, it was a state politician who briefly stole the show.
But NSW Arts Minister John Graham recently enlisted former Triple J funnyman Tom Tilley as a speechwriter, and those watching his public outings have noticed an added dose of elder Millennial humour of late. Graham drew plenty of laughs from the crowd with a special shoutout to Australia’s richest person and newly revealed art aficionado Gina Rinehart.
“Not since The Picture of Dorian Gray has there been so much talk about portraiture,” the minister said, during a ceremony where departing Art Gallery of NSW president and Sydney business supremo David Gonski delivered the prizes to the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman winners.
Once the formalities were out of the way and the drinks started flowing, CBD spotted several prominent “sitters” from among this year’s finalists, including Winton, Matildas star Cortnee Vine, Socceroo turned human rights campaigner Craig Foster, journalist Cheng Lei who spent three years in a Chinese prison, and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the academic imprisoned on false espionage charges by the Iranian regime.
Among the other notables in attendance were actor Hugo Weaving, the ABC’s outspoken Laura Tingle and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young with her lobbyist partner Ben Oquist.
TRUTHER’S OUT THERE
While Channel Seven’s Spotlight show continues to wallow in the gutter, one of the program’s high-profile contributors, Gold Walkley winner and dear friend to this column Ross Coulthart, has not averted his gaze from the heavens, searching for those elusive lights in the sky.
Better still, while Ross has been talking to his fellow believers at the conference Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies in Huntsville Alabama (aka “Rocket City”) – that’s the big league of alien believers – the veteran journalist hasn’t forgotten about his old mates at CBD.
Coulthart told the room that he had been subjected to “ridicule and derision” in the Australian media in the wake of the former Four Corners and 60 Minutes man receiving the Australian Skeptics’ Bent Spoon, awarded to what the doubters dub “the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of pseudoscientific or paranormal piffle”.
Ross Coulthard wants to believe.Credit: John Shakespeare
Now, for the record, Ross reckons the Skeptics failed to put in the required research effort before bestowing the dubious honour in December last year, and the journalist let his US audience know it.
But who could he have been referring to when calling out a “low-brow Australian newspaper” which “tagged me as a UFO truther” …“just a wee hint there that I’m a UFO nutter”?
OK, guilty as charged on the first count, but we have never referred to Ross as a nutter. Like we said, he’s a dear friend.
HOME GAME
Young presenter Narelle Sindos was meant to land a dream gig in Optus Sport’s broadcast team for the European Football Championships, kicking off in Germany this week.
But Sindos was quietly absent from the full Euros line-up Optus Sport released on Wednesday. Coincidentally, a fortnight ago, her fiance, Kiwi international footballer Clayton Lewis was one of four Macarthur Bulls players charged over their alleged roles in a betting corruption scandal which rocked the A-League bang in the middle of the finals series.
British football presenter Betty Glover was hastily flown in from the UK instead.
As is so often the case with these things, there’s always a badly aged social media post. Just a week before the Macarthur betting scandal broke, Sindos posted on X that “Betting on red cards is the best way to make money atm” during an A-League finals game. Key to the case against the Bulls four were allegations that they’d deliberately conceded yellow cards to manipulate offshore betting markets.
A spokesperson for Optus Sport told CBD the decision to remove Sindos from the broadcaster’s Euros line-up was a mutual one.
“In the interest of delivering a broadcast where the focus can be entirely on the game, and after discussions with Narelle Sindos, we have agreed that she will step back from her hosting duties for the upcoming coverage out of respect for current personal circumstances,” they said.
“We are committed to supporting Narelle during this period.”
SPIN CYCLE
As the election inches closer, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s frontbenchers are making a few critical tinkerings to their key staff.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has lost senior spinner Fergus Maguire, who’s headed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade after a second stint on the Hill working for a federal treasurer – he also worked for Wayne Swan during Labor’s last stint in government.
Meanwhile, it’s a bit of a game of musical chairs in the ministerial wing. Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s head of communications Eliza Mitchell is taking a break from the Canberra Game, with Suze Metherell from the Prime Minister’s Office taking her place. Former ABC journalist turned Tony Burke spinner Jamie Travers is headed to the PMO.
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