By Kishor Napier-Raman and Noel Towell
The NRL’s Sin City opener lacked a certain razzle-dazzle on the ground in Las Vegas, with Hugh Jackman pulling out at the eleventh hour, and Russell Crowe off shooting a movie.
Talk of an appearance from retired NFL great Tom Brady, after the seven-time Super Bowl winner’s appearance in Australia last month, was just that.
Fans at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the NRL opener.
Instead, guest-of-honour status fell on News Corp chair Lachlan Murdoch, in town with his wife Sarah Murdoch, and a few of the media empire’s top brass including chief executive Robert Thomson and Foxtel boss Patrick Delany.
Murdoch’s fellow nepo billionaire James Packer was also spotted in a box, as was the former American ambassador to Australia John Berry.
PAPER CUTS
There’s been a bit of an exodus from News Corp’s The Australian of late. Late last month the Murdoch family’s national broadsheet lost its arts correspondent Matthew Westwood, who departed the paper where he’d worked since 1990.
That’s quite the innings. Both Westwood and the Oz declined to comment when contacted by CBD.
He isn’t the only wise old hand to move on. In February also came the departure of storied cricket writer Peter Lalor, who, unlike most leaving the Holt Street cabal these days, was given a glowing tribute, with contributions from former Test captain Ricky Ponting, among others.
CBD regulars might recall that the same treatment wasn’t afforded to Gideon Haigh, who also wrote about cricket for the masthead and shared a much-loved podcast with his friend and collaborator Lalor.
Haigh went on The Betoota Advocate podcast to describe the paper as behaving like a spoiled toddler after he was forbidden from continuing the podcast with Lalor after leaving The Australian.
SETTLE PETAL
We love the softer side of politics here at CBD, and when we brought word last month that veteran political operator David Epstein had returned to Labor’s inner circle with a job in Prime Minister Albanese’s office, it turns out we were not apprised of all the facts of the matter.
Epstein is known in some quarters as a tough customer and he was certainly frank and fearless when he reflected on his time in Kevin Rudd’s office back in those days, in a 2014 book on prime ministerial chiefs of staff.
But Epstein’s new gig has left a job opening at an organisation we hadn’t expected: Open Gardens Victoria, the not-for-profit that helps open up the state’s most beautiful private spaces for the public to enjoy, and where Epstein had chaired the management committee since last year.
At first bloom it looks like a dramatic contrast to the hand-to-hand combat of federal parliament, but we’re reliably informed that, just as in politics, noxious weeds are an occupational hazard in the open gardening line of work and, as we learned last week via ASIO’s Mike Burgess, you can’t take your eye off invasive species, either.
We gave David a shout to see how his garden grows these days, but received a polite “no comment”.
Suppose we’ll just wait for the next book.
COOK UP
The Liberals are set to pick former prime minister Scott Morrison’s successor in the Sutherland Shire seat of Cook on Monday night, and the backroom skulduggery is reaching fever pitch.
Sutherland Mayor Carmelo Pesce, once the frontrunner, whose support has dwindled of late, is trying to claw back momentum by offering up ally Eleni Petinos’ state seat of Miranda to the hard right in return for their votes.
A few insiders are annoyed that Pesce’s team would have the gumption to make such a move, especially since the Miranda preselection, which isn’t open for years, isn’t exactly theirs to give out on a whim.
Whatever the result, expect plenty of grumbling about smoky deals and broken promises.
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