Going postal!

Australia Post has come up with a novel way to take the boredom out of a trip to the post office. You get to give Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and Geoffrey Rush a good licking ... well, stamps featuring them, anyway! They're appearing on the new 55c stamps, which will pay postage on a domestic letter, anywhere in the country:

Cool set of stamps. Now, you would think that one could at least issue a set of stamps, for heaven's sake, without rubbing someone, somewhere the wrong way ... but you'd be miles away from the truth. Something is apparently wrong with the above lineup.

Let's see. Both the women are blonde, there's a prejudice against brunettes? Um ... all four are European, there should have been at least one black Australian? Uh ... all four have hair; at least one ought to have been bald? Ah -- I have it.

One of them isn't actually an Australian. Russell Crowe is a Kiwki by birth, related to the famous Crowe family of international cricketers, who've played for the Black Caps. Right?

Right. Now, Russell's New Zealand origins don't bother Aussies; but --

The decision by Australia Post to include Russell Crowe in a special series of stamps to mark Australia Day has rubbed New Zealanders the wrong way. Some Kiwis - already cranky about Phar Lap and Pavlova - believe it is another case of Australians claiming what is not rightfully theirs. Now Australia Post has added salt to the wound, naming Russell Crowe an "Australian legend" and putting his picture on a special Australia Day stamp. The colourful and at times controversial Crowe was actually born in Wellington and went to school in Auckland. He became an Australian citizen in 2006, but this doesn't seem to faze the Kiwis, who say Australia can keep Nicole and Cate but can't have Russell. (Kiwis cranky over 'Australian' Russell Crowe stamp).

In fact, you'd be surprised by the people who'll go down in history as Aussies, but are really Kiwis. Like Sam Neill and Karl Urban ... and Russell Crowe!

"Australia" rakes in the big bucks after all

You've probably heard that the recent movie Australia was Hugh Jackman's and Nicole Kidman's all-time flop. Right? The pundits could have spoken way too soon!

Here's a choice quote from the feature article on The Australian:

"Luhrmann's romantic epic starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman has been pilloried since its November premiere, with Kidman particularly enduring vituperative reviews from columnists and commentators for what is a solid performance.

Yet despite the slings and arrows, Australia is set to become the second highest grossing Australian film in history (in unadjusted figures) in this country, second to Crocodile Dundee, and the fifth highest grossing Australian film worldwide (behind Happy Feet, Crocodile Dundee I and II and Babe).

"If the industry sees this as a failure, send us more failures," says Peter Howard, who runs cinemas in the NSW towns of Taree and Tuncurry.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25004481-15803,00.html

Read the whole thing -- go on! Turns out, the movie did poorly in North America, and frankly there's no surprise there: there's no Americans in it, and American audiences are so focused on American actors and accents, this alone would do in the movie.

(D'you know, whe Mad Max was released over there, they overdubbed Mel Gibson ... with an American voice speaking US slang! He was an Aussie at the time, if you remember. 21 years old. And still sane. I know about the Mad Max soundtrack for a fact. I've seen it -- or do I meant heard it?)

Anyway -- down here in Aus, Australia still screening in the rural communities, and doing, uh, quite nicely. The problem is that if a movie "fails" in the continental USA, it's said to be a failure per se ... which (like the old song sez) ain't necessarily so.

Cool news, this!