Durie all set for royalty

Jamie Durie will make his first appearance at the Chelsea Flower Show, designing an $800,000 garden using Australian plants and materials, and it will be visited by the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth II has accepted an invitation to stop at Durie's exhibit on the opening day, in a coup for the Aussie TV personality and garden designer and his team.

"I can't wait. It's a big moment for me," Durie told news.com.au

Durie's mum, dad and daughter are travelling from Australia and the U.S. to see his team present the Queen with a Queensland bottle tree and a painting by Aboriginal artist Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi.

But the star has been secretly trying to attract another VIP – talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who features Durie in regular gardening segments.

"I did invite her but I'm not sure that's going to happen. We'll see how we go," said Durie, whose company designs gardens in 11 countries with 50 staff.

Source: news.com.au Read more...

Australia's got publicity

It's not often a network goes to the trouble of doing a photoshoot of one of its 'reality' contestants before they have made the finalists batch -but not every show has a woodchopper like Laurence O'Toole Jr. (yep that's his real name).

In his first visit to Australia's Got Talent, O'Toole left judge Dannii Minogue speechless with delight.

Laurence has been woodchopping since he was 15 and is a third generation woodchopper, son of legendary World of Sport Champion, Laurence O'Toole (snr). He has won two world championships (2003 and 2007).

To see how she will react when he returns to Australia's Got Talent check out the Semi Final at 7:30pm on Tuesday 3 June on Seven. Read more...

TEN trailing as Seven pips Nine

It was the week in which the value of television licenses dropped, a Seven reality judge and a former Nine reporter were in court, an Underbelly actor met the law, a fashion guru came to makeover (or is that 'rescue?') Big Brother, TEN's boss had a shot at Seven, Nine's boss apologised for the "C" word, a reality show got free press over bullying, America axed a number of our favourite shows, and Melbourne said a sad farewell to a rising actress.

As they went into Saturday night, Seven and Nine were neck and neck, but Week 20 has gone to Seven again.

It won with a 28.3% share ahead of Nine's 27.7% and TEN's 21.8%. As TEN slips back each week from the highs of a "super-reality week", Week 20 was its lowest survey figure since early March.

The ABC had 16.6% and SBS 5.6%.

Seven won Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, Nine won Sunday, Thursday and Saturday.

Seven's biggest audience for the week remained its repeat episode of Border Security on 1.57m viewers. Also performing strongly were Seven News, Today Tonight, Australia's Got Talent, Surf Patrol, Today Tonight, Desperate Housewives, Better Homes and Gardens, Grey's Anatomy and Gladiators. Seven has problems on Thursdays with poor returns for Trinny and Susannah (793,000) which dragged down Lost to an appalling all-time low of just 392,000. Dogged by the writers' strike the show which was once a flagship programme for the network has also languished under Seven's dreadful scheduling this year. Ugly Betty has also fallen under the 1m mark in only its second year. Seven also needs to rethink its Sunday 7:30pm slot -traditionally the premier slot of the week.

60 Minutes returned to glory as the top show of the week with 1.7m no doubt reaping the benefits of slight choices from TEN and Seven. Along with Nine News (Sun) and CSI Nine kicked off the week well. Even without Underbelly it went toe to toe with Seven right down to Saturday night. Its other performers were Life in Cold Blood, Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen, Sea Patrol, Getaway, A Current Affair and Australia's Funniest Home Videos -still doing good business under a new host, and giving The Great Outdoors headaches. Nine's observational series Animal Emergency and RFDS did very well against Gladiators and Search and Rescue continues a strong debut. Since Kate Ritchie has left Home and Away, repeats of Two and a Half Men have improved well enough for Nine to hold off a return of Temptation. If Nine hadn't slated another repeat of Shrek on Saturday and the movie Hitch on Wednesday it might have won the week.

American dramas House (1.43m) and NCIS (1.38m) were TEN's biggest shows all week. The Carson Kressley Big Brother stunt also paid off so well that TEN will return to the idea this week. The first live eviction barely scraped into the 1m mark, and as daily shows struggle around 900,000 the franchise is now in danger of attracting attention more for its stunts than its cast. On Tuesday even the Budget outrated it. And Big Mouth will be lucky to survive on 660,000. Producer Stephen Tate defended the franchise saying, "In a fragmenting (TV) market, I think it's been a stellar performance." Hate to see a bad performance then.....There were better returns from Bondi Rescue, How To Look Good Naked and Law and Order: SVU. Also disappointing were Don't Forget the Lyrics and Rove. Meanwhile I'm a Celebrity is tanking (who are these people anyway?) and 9AM with David and Kim hit a low of 59,000 on Monday. It is down to four advertorials a day against its rivals which average seven.

Without competition from those gangsters Spicks and Specks reaffirmed with 1.27m viewers for the ABC. A new series of Silent Witness (1.1m) was also strong. Australian drama Bed of Roses had mostly good news, losing 120,000 viewers in its second outing but remaining high at 951,000 viewers. Elsewhere ABC News, The New Inventors, Spooks and Collectors did well.

Saturday was best for SBS.

Week 20
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Airdate: Showcase and NIDA present...

Diana Glenn and Peta Sergeant, two stars from Satisfaction, will talk about the production in an Actors Studio-style interview before NIDA students.

The discussion will screen this week on the Showcase channel.

Glenn and Sergeant, a NIDA graduate, chat to Nell Schofield about the challenges and intimate experiences of working on Satisfaction.

Recorded before an audience of drama students they will reveal how they prepared for their roles, the casting process and an insight into what happens behind a closed set.

Showcase and NIDA present...airs on Showcase Wednesday May 21 at 5pm. Read more...

Daddo in the White House

He's going from the white house of My Kid's a Star to the White House in 24 -Cameron Daddo has landed a profile role in the Kiefer Sutherland series.

Daddo will play the vice president in the next season on FOX.

The revamped series will return to the US in January, following a 2 hr telemovie, set in South Africa, airing in November.

Source: Daily Telegraph
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It's no Secret as lawsuits begin

There's a war brewing over The Secret, that self-help book and documentary packaged by a former Australian producer, Rhonda Byrne.

A lawsuit filed by Melbourne filmmaker Drew Heriot in the US against Byrne claims he is the co-author of the screenplay and book and is therefore entitled to up to half of and estimated $300 million in revenue.

The Secret, a theory based on the 'laws of attraction', reached international success after the documentary became a hit on the internet and was featured on Oprah, Larry King Live and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Heriot says he began working at Byrne's company, Prime Time, as an editor for the television show Australia Behaving Badly in 2000, notes The Age. He said Byrne told him and producer Paul Harrington, in January 2005, about an idea she had for a new television series based on several "self-help" and "success" books and audio CDs she had come across. She wanted to make a documentary-style series using self-help teachers.

Heriot said the three of them decided that the series should be called The Secret. He said Byrne promised him a percentage of the profits from the project. A plan to create seven episodes was scrapped due to funding. But filming began on a two-hour special in Alaska in July 2005 after the Nine Network invested $600,000 in the project.

On the DVD, Byrne was credited as executive producer, Harrington as producer and Heriot as director. In late 2005, Nine decided not to air The Secret (it aired after its US success) but it became a best-seller when released in the US in 2006 and distributed on the internet.

Heriot's lawsuit claims that following the DVD's success Byrne set out with Chicago businessman Robert Rainone to defraud him by marketing The Secret as Byrne's sole creation. All copyright in the film was transferred to Byrne and Rainone's company, TS Production LLC.

Byrne wrote the book in August 2006, but Heriot claims it was based mainly on the movie screenplay and documents he created.

Byrne, in her lawsuit, claims Heriot was her paid employee and that she created the book.

TS Production has asked the Federal Court to restrain Mr Heriot from making any further claims to copyright on The Secret.

Source: The Age Read more...

Number 96 DVD brings back pantyhose murders

A new 4-disc DVD of legendary Aussie soap Number 96 will be released in September, bringing back to life the 'Pantyhose Murders' storyline.

Back in 1974 the soap on Channel 0 (now TEN) was the raciest thing on the box. It's outrageous storylines of infidelity, lust and romance kept the country talking. The show is also the first anywhere in the world to include a long-running sympathetic gay character.

Before it's infamous "bomb" scenes, the mystery of the "Pantyhose Murderer" kept viewers guessing. On the DVD the storyline weaves its way through the shocking deaths, and near-deaths, of several long-time residents of 96 Lindsay Street, putting most of the other residents under suspicion.

The DVD set will comprise 32 episodes on four discs - starts with Episode #649 (originally aired 4/11/1974) and finishes with #680 (original airdate 27/01/1975). It will feature a stills gallery, a new commentary and even a Network Ten News report (10/07/06) of the first Number 96 DVD release. Andrew Mercado, author of the comprehensive book Super Aussie Soaps and journalist for the Sunday Telegraph, has contributed to the commentary.

It will be released by Umbrella Entertainment in September.

Source: Therin of Andor (warning: spoilers)
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