Category - Entertainment

Don’t mention God. I mentioned him once, but I think I got away with it.

I meant to blog about this yesterday but didn’t get the chance.

Apparently we need to be careful about mentioning the word ‘God’. It’s not a word that should be used in polite company … or at least that’s what one overzealous, young, film censor thought. He fastidiously cut every mention of the word from the new Helen Mirren movie, The Queen.

News.com.au reports that the movie was modified for showing on airline entertainment systems. The article says, “God was bleeped out seven times during the film, which centres on the Queen’s relationship with Tony Blair in the weeks after the death of Princess Diana. “

Both Qantas and Air New Zealand have pulled the edited movie from their planes after complaints from passengers but it’s unclear what other airlines have done about the odd censorship.

It seems that the young employee who was responsible had been told by bosses at the distribution company to remove all swearing from the film. He failed to distinguish between the legitimate use of the word and its use as a profanity.

In the edited version Helen Mirren, as the Queen, is greeted by a character with the line, “(bleep) bless you, ma’am.”

I suppose that the young censor will be supervised a little more closely in future. Maybe they can post a big chart above his desk explaining which words really are offensive and which aren’t. I was thinking of sending him a Bible so that he could find out a little bit more about God but I figure that he’ll just think it’s a dirty book with lots of swearing in it.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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Are you ready for Australia Day? Have you got plans to celebrate what it is to be Australian?

I wonder if you know why we celebrate Australia Day on the 26th of January? Is it the day that Australia was discovered? Is it the day that the states joined together to become a nation? Is it just a good opportunity for a public holiday? What are we celebrating?

Did you know that we celebrate on the 26th of January because it was that day in 1788 that Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor? The first official celebrations were held in 1818 to mark the 30th anniversary of white settlement.

If you want to find out more about Australia Day you can go to the official website here.

I hope you find some way of celebrating. If you’re in the Perth area it’d be great to catch up with you at Ashfield Reserve for the Town of Bassendean Australia Day Celebrations. It’s a great event that culminates in a massive fireworks display away from the big and sometimes rowdy crowds of the city fireworks. 98.5 Sonshine FM is proud to be providing the soundtrack and we’ll be broadcasting live from the venue, Ashfield Reserve, from four o’clock on Friday afternoon.

I’ll be joined on stage by my friend and colleague, Arthur Muhl, to MC the live entertainment which starts from 6:00 p.m. and features acts such as James T Webb, Iambic, Nathan Gaunt & the Black-Eyed Dogs and The Zydecats featuring Grammy Award winning Lucky Oceans. There’ll also be a citizenship ceremony. The fireworks will begin lighting up the skies at 9:00 p.m.

If you want to enjoy some great entertainment in a more relaxed family atmosphere, without having to wait hours in traffic on the way home, come on down.

Either way, make sure that you’ve got some plans in place to celebrate.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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Technorati Tags: Australia Day – Australia – Fireworks

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I mentioned some time ago in a previous post that we had seen a preview of the Australian movie Kenny before it was released in cinemas.

It was recently released on DVD and this article from News.com.au tells us that it’s doing huge business.

“THE DVD of the hit Australian film about an amiable portaloo provider has become the best-selling DVD of the Christmas season, with more than three times the sales of the next most popular title, Superman Returns, in many outlets.

A quarter of a million copies of Kenny will be shipped, and probably sold, by the new year, comfortably placing it among the top three DVDs of the year and possibly the best-selling Australian film ever.”

Kenny is a mocumentary. It takes the form of a documentary about the portable toilet business but the characters are all ficticious.

The main character is played by comedian and co-writer Shane Jacobson. His fellow writer is his brother and director of the movie, Clayton Jacobson.

This movie has pathos by the bucketload. You find yourself growing to really like this down to earth toilet plumber and respecting the priorities in his life. That’s not to say that he’s not flawed but I suppose that’s what makes him so likable. He’s an unremarkable man doing an unremarkable job but through it all you get the idea that he’s a decent bloke doing the best he can with the hand that life has dealt him.

I certainly won’t be complaining if I find a copy of the DVD under the tree on Monday.

And it seems that the Jacobson brothers are only now starting to see a return for their efforts.

“Shane remains on a wage from Splashdown, a Melbourne-based toilet supplier, while he promotes the film, and the brothers had to borrow money from the film’s financier, Splashdown’s owner Glenn Preusker, to get through Christmas. Mr Preusker has just recouped his stake in the film of just under $1 million.”

It would appear that the Australian film industry is a long way from Hollywood.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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Belinda Emmett, actrees, singer and the wife of TV personality Rove McManus has died in Sydney at St Vincents Hospital.

She was born in Umina, New South Wales in 1974 and was best known for her roles in such television programs as All Saints and Home and Away.

For the past eight years she has had breast cancer which forced her to leave her role on Home and Away. The cancer spread to her vertebrae and other bones.

As well as some solo recording, in 2004 she recorded a duet with Marcia Hines, a cover of the Carly Simon hit “Shower the People”.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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How was your weekend? Mine started very well with a dad and daughter date on Friday night. I took Emily to Swan Lake on Ice at Burswood Theatre.

We had dinner at the Emporium before heading off for the show. I particularly enjoyed my big plate of nachos, knowing that it would be my last meal before I began the World Vision 40 Hour Famine. (Thanks to all those who sponsored me. I’ll post details of what I raised when it’s all finalised.)

I had visions of the lower area of Burswood Theatre being converted into a huge ice rink. I was quite surprised when we entered the theatre to see that the ice was only covering the regular stage area. The stage is quite sizeable as theatre stages go but how they managed to perform such a spectacular show on such a small area of ice amazed me.

The athleticism, strength and skill was beyond incredible. I find it hard enough to stand up in ice skates but the performers for this show were doing somersaults and all sorts of leaps and jumps.

Not a word was spoken from the stage before, during or after the performance yet the story was told with amazing clarity, skill and humour through the music and the outstanding performances of the cast.

This afternoon I spoke to Tony Mercer, the director of the show. I’ll be broadcasting the interview during my radio programme tomorrow morning but you can listen on line while you continue to browse the internet by clicking play on the audio player at the bottom of this post. It’s worth listening to the interview just to enjoy Tony’s rich voice.

The Imperial Ice Stars are touring the production in various parts of the world for the next couple of years so if you get the opportunity, get along and be amazed.

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