northbysoutheast

I felt mildly sorry for author, Nikki Gemmell when she broke down on LNL the other night. I think it caught Phillip Adams a little off guard too. It left him strenuously denying any kind of set-up in the face of Nikki's accusation of cynicism on his part or that of online guest, Dr Rebecca Peelan from the National University of Ireland. Before this I'd not taken much note of her book The bride stripped bare whose authorship is attributed to "Anonymous". But some time after publication and subsequent success, apparently including translations into several European languages, little Nikki was outed by the British press on the strength of infomation from some malicious "publishing executive" from Sydney. Since then, her identification as author of the sexually explicit roman à clef has "made her life hell." I did a bit of googling around and there was last week's article from the Guardian in which Gemmell relates all this, concluding with how her husband read it and although he was "turned on" by what he read they "haven't made love since." Hmmm. Then on a tape timeshifting Andrew Denton's Monday night interview, there she was in floral-bright cheong sam and Valley-girl intonation, her dirty-coy promotional-tour script spilling from her Luna Park mouth. This pretty much put the seal on it especially as I seem to recall the tearful breakdown on LNL coinciding with Dr Peelan alluding to issues like marketing and the Helen Darville/Demedenko fraud. It stretches credulity publishing as "Anon" and claiming surprise at getting found out. Really. LNL asked the question "What makes a writer decide to write a novel anonymously? I think the answer has to be "Sales," Phillip, "Sales".

A lot of whacky events in the week past, hey? Mick Jagger turned 60 and PM Howard finally reached his 64th (not out) the one where he said he'd consider retiremens. The fact that he has and isn't seems to have sent the journos back to questioning the longevity of Leader of the Opposition, Crean. I know I'm tired of how political analysis in this brown land seems preoccupied with questioning leadership. It's got something to do with our recent decision to make it an article of faith that whoever holds the treasury portfolio or its shadow, is annointed as successor to the leader. One of the newspapers noted the youth of our present PM relative to many of his predecessors and other world leaders. He has a good decade or more on so many of them. So when its time for him to go by choice or electoral mishap (barring divine intervention, an unlikely occurrence) the present treasurer could be long gone, or if not, looking very stale and tired indeed.

Meanwhile no sooner had runner and Olympian, Cathy Freeman announced her retirement from sport, than political leaders were canvassing her suitability for public office for their respective opposing parties. Astonishing. I have to wonder at a system which privileges image so readily. I mean the dear girl is an unknown quantity as far as intellect is concerned, but her public speaking alternates between rambling and incoherence, but then again I guess the party reps see this as evidence of her fitting in with the pack. One hopes Cathy will take more note of Mary G.

And the execrable Big Brother ends with this country's first female winner. It was refreshing however to hear "Reggie" who has become the most famous Tasmanian woman since Truganini, say that winning and the loot has changed everything. Thank god - I can't stand hearing people who come into largesse saying they'll "...still be the same as they've always been..." . I feel like telling them to back then. Fools.

Then this morning, woke to hear of Bob Hope's death. He made his hundredth birthday as did fellow comedian, George Burns and we all thought ill of the Reader's Digest dictum that Laughter's the Best Medicine.