By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Canberra is a small town. Never more so than at the Parliament House Press Gallery Midwinter Ball on Wednesday, where Coalition senator Jane Hume was seated at the same table as none other than her Lycra buddy, Australian Securities and Investments Commission chair Joe Longo.
Regular readers will recall that the pair’s last interaction during Senate estimates last month sent them both viral.
Jane Hume, third from left, and other female Coalition MPs and senators arrive at the Midwinter ball.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I feel this is very awkward – every time I see Mr Longo now, it seems to be at the gym on Saturday mornings, so I apologise for the Lycra,” the Victorian senator told everyone, before vocalising her inner voice. “Less worthy men have seen me in far less.”
Even the Daily Mail covered it, with headlines about Hume’s “candid admission” and “revealing statement” about Lycra.
At the ball, Hume had clearly taken the moment in her stride, wearing a chartreuse bodycon dress.
“I didn’t apologise for the Lycra this time,” Hume told CBD.
A late surge in the ball’s charity auction saw more than $62,000 raised toward the total charity funds of $360,000. The anonymous winning bid for dinner with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon (at either The Lodge or Government House, winner’s choice) was $25,432.
Dinner with Jodie Haydon and Anthony Albanese is worth $25,000.Credit: James Brickwood
While seasoned public relations executive John Connolly (also known as Lachlan Murdoch’s comms man) outbid rivals to land the dinner with the journos, forking out $6000 for the prize of dinner with journalistic luminaries Seven News political editor Mark Riley, Guardian Australia political editor Karen Middleton, Nine News national affairs editor Andrew Probyn and The West Australian’s Canberra bureau chief Katina Curtis.
“Every year I buy exactly the same thing, except the price has gone up,” said Connolly, adding the dinner discussion was usually media gossip.
Reactions to the speeches from Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton varied, with many feeling that the PM understood the self-deprecatory brief better, such as when he welcomed WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange home a free man.
“I did get to speak with Julian on the phone. He told me that his experience had been long and it had been difficult. And there were times where he wondered if it would ever end. Happily though, his flight with Stephen Smith and Kevin Rudd is now behind him.”
The reactions of the Labor luminaries turned diplomats Albo burned is unknown, but the crowd in the Great Hall loved it, no doubt suspecting it had the ring of truth.
SUNRISE BOULEVARD
Finally, the world’s best-selling soprano Sarah Brightman, the star of Sunset Boulevard, has returned to star in Sunset Boulevard.
Brightman, 63, was once married to Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of Sunset Boulevard and Phantom of the Opera, which turned her into a megastar in the 1980s.
So when Opera Australia tapped her to play ailing film star Norma Desmond in the Melbourne and Sydney revival of the show, it must have heard the ker-ching of the box office till.
After mixed reviews, very expensive ticket prices in Melbourne at the Princess Theatre and empty seats, Brightman vanished from the stage, last performing on June 9, to silence from OA, until asked about it by this masthead, when it cited a leg injury.
But on Wednesday night Brightman was back, making it official with a social media quip, from the show’s most famous line: “Yes, Mr. DeMille, I AM ready for my closeup!”
An OA spokeswoman said: “We’re really thrilled that Sarah is back in good health and able to resume playing the role as Norma Desmond.”
Which hopefully bodes well for the Sydney season at the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Opera House from August 28.
The board and management of Opera Australia had high hopes for the production being a blockbuster, but poor ticket sales must be a headache for OA chief executive Fiona Allan and new artistic director Jo Davies, smarting from a $4.9 million loss.
HOLIDAY COVER
With ratings regularly in the doghouse this year, there’s been intense scrutiny of ABC local radio in Sydney and Melbourne. In both capital cities, Aunty’s radio offerings have hit record lows, suffering their worst results by audience share since the data started getting collected back in 2004.
Naturally, much scrutiny has fallen on the choice of presenters. In Melbourne, the non-ratings period has coincided with a decidedly commercial radio vibe. Sammy J’s breakfast slot was filled by Dave O’Neil and Brigitte Duclos, which felt very FM radio from 15 years ago, while Raf Epstein’s Morning Show was taken over by Justin Smith, who normally operates along a 3AW/Herald Sun axis. Clearly, an era of experimentation is upon us.
ABC radio host Craig Reucassel.Credit: James Brickwood
In Sydney, the decision to give the morning shift to Craig Reucassel, one of the cohort of Chaser Boys who now get lifetime tenure on the public broadcaster because they were funny in the 2000s, is yet to pay off.
But with Reucassel on holidays over the past fortnight, ABC Sydney’s few remaining listeners have been treated to the reassuring tones of the fondly remembered Angela Catterns, a radio veteran with the public broadcaster, best known for knocking Alan Jones off his perch atop the airwaves for a brief three-month window in 2003. The ABC never does that any more.
Suffice to say listener sentiment, from callers, and CBD correspondents, has been glowing. Unfortunately for Aunty, none of this is going to help with the numbers – the fill in hosts’ stint behind the mic coincided, as we noted, with the non-ratings period.
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