News
Peter Rowley talks Billy T James
Taken from Stuff, by Bridget Jones.
Comic Billy T James' wonderfully unpolitically correct jokes and his trademark chuckle are about to be celebrated again in a new DVD.
Billy T & Me, which will be released on Wednesday, is a personal tribute by Kiwi actor Peter Rowley. He spent five years working with the funnyman, writing and starring in homegrown sitcom The Billy T James Show.
"It's basically a bunch of friends who worked with Billy getting together to tell a wee story about his Pakeha cohort, how he got into it, the fun they had and the mischief they got up to," Rowley says.
That included the pair being caught shooting targets in Northland. Instead of being cautioned, the local police just wanted to talk about the TV show.
"The constable just said, 'Looking forward to nest week's episode. see ya'. It was bizzare," Rowley recalled.
"We used to shoot old TV sets and ten take them to the dump.
"The guy there would ask what was going on and Billy would just say, 'Don't worry, some of our jokes just bombed'."
Rowley admits some material wasn't exactly sophisticated. But Billy T, who died of a heart attack in 1991, was a master of delivery.
"Some of the gags were pretty simple, some people would use the word lame, but when Billy delivered them, they were never lame.
"He could say hello and people would laugh."
Rowley, who has appeared on shows including Pete and Pio and Letter to Blanchy, is convinced Billy T would still have something funny to say today, despite the abundance of political correctness the pair resisted so much.
"There's just as much ammunition today. What would he say about Bishop Brian Tamaki? The seabed and foreshore?"
But he says the duo never crossed the line.
"Billy and I were never crude, just politically incorrect, mischievous, cheeky little boys."
Rowley feels privileged to be able to tell the Billy T story. "There's only one person who can tell the story - because I was there.
"There is only one guy. It's part of our culture.
"At the time you don't think it, you're just giggling away writing, but looking back 25 years later it's extraordinary."
But the hours spent trawling through old footage has left Rowley wondering what might have been.
"In 1990, we decided, 'Let's do it again'. We were writing a new series when he passed away."
He said of his time with James: "It was a once in a lifetime experience. Most people don't get it, but I won lotto by being associated with Billy."
Watch the NZ Herald video here.
Sarah McLeod on Radio NZ
Sarah McLeod talks on The Panel on Radio NZ with Josie Pagani and Peter Elliot.
Listen to the link here.
NZ Herald on media coverage of The Hobbit
Taken from NZ Herald, by John Drinnan.
Current Affairs Gone Bad (again).
Fresh from the Paul Henry fiasco, Television New Zealand has stumbled into another case of current affairs gone bad.
TVNZ is considering five formal complaints against Paul Holmes covering the Hobbit dispute on TV One show Q&A on Labour Weekend.
Holmes appeared agitated on Q&A and his comments in other media showed strident opinions about who was in the right and who was in the wrong.
A fortnight after Henry's resignation and a review on live broadcasts, TVNZ let Holmes wade into the Hobbit dispute.
Interviewing Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly and South Pacific Pictures managing director John Barnett, Holmes gave fawning praise to Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor and put Kelly in her place.
"You see, I think the impression people have, Helen, is you're well out of your depth. When Jackson calls you clueless and tells you to go home - this is a New Zealand-produced genius, the like of which we'll never see again."
On Newstalk ZB, Holmes let loose on Actors' Equity union leader Simon Whipp, whom he called "a dick".
The same day as the Q&A interview, producers could have read Holmes' column in the Herald on Sunday. Holmes - who played a hobbit in The Lord of the Rings - was emotionally involved.
"Man I'm angry. Angry that a group of gullible actors allowed themselves to be used by some bolshie left-wing filth from Australia," Holmes wrote.
Following the argument of Jackson and the Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA) - dutifully repeated by some media - the production industry may have behaved impeccably through the dispute. There is no question Actors' Equity made a hash of the dispute.
There is no guarantee the complaints will be upheld. But the Q&A item raises questions about how some TVNZ news programmes are being managed.
You'd think a current affairs show like Q&A, which is 100% funded by the taxpayer, would not allow its impartiality to be undermined.
Kelly said that neither she nore the CTU are among complaintants but she was concerned by Holmes' motivations.
Q&A producer Tim Watkin - a big fan of The Lord of the Rings - provided a commentary on Radio New Zealand's Mediawatch about how difficult it was for journalists to cover the dispute.
Pow-Wow Wow
The screen productions industry holds its annual conference in Auckland next week. Organisers at SPADA are conducting a post-mortem about issues that led to The Hobbit production being kept in New Zealand.
The campaign against a boycott by Actors' Equity squeezed an extra $33 million for Warner Bros and delivered Jackson and local producers astonishing political concessions with a new law that, in theory, limits the ability of contractors to claim they are effectively employees.
Labour law spokesman Charles Chauvel - who as a lawyer played a part in the Bryson dispute that underlies it - says SPADA was wrong to believe the issue clear-cut, and that the hastily drafted law passed last week has several problems.
The dispute - a battle for the union to gain influence in the industry, and industry attempts to keep them out - got ugly.
The SPADA conference starts next Thursday and the first session examines the impact of the Hobbit case - "what really happened, from a producer's perspective".
SPADA executive director Penelope Borland says the session will be explaining the chain of events that led to securing The Hobbit.
But it's clear the debate will be controlled by SPADA. Borland will be on the panel alongside Hobbit assistant producer Philippa Boyens and SPADA executive member Richard Fletcher.
Like Actors' Equity with its actors, SPADA represents a minority of the production industry and even within the industry there are critics of the settlement and SPADA's role.
It is not just producers who will attend the pow-wow but it would be a brave person who would stand up in the session and question SPADA's handling of the issue or SPADA's past approaches to dealing with industry guilds.
There is a case for SPADA's position - that union influence should be minimised. Actors' Equity's handling of the dispute gives credence to that view. But the industry also came across as union-bashers.
Union Free
Dominic Sheehan was a former president of the Writers' Guild and worked there for seven years. He said the guild wanted to talk about a minimum pay agreement back in 1999. "Like Equity, we had only been looking for a meeting but the initial response was met with incredible aggression."
The industry is producer-run, which is not unusual. But SPADA has a history of rejecting overtures and in New Zealand we have no bottom line. The SPADA attitude was they wanted a non-union industry and would do anything to stop minimum terms.
Not Tax Breaks
Media covering the Hobbit fiasco commonly described taxpayer incentives to Hollywood as "tax breaks" or "tax rebates".
In fact, the Large Budget Screen Production Grant is a 15% direct rebate on money spent here - and not linked to the tax system.
One film industry source was sceptical about the payback to New Zealand taxpayers from the enlarged production grant available to Warner Bros.
Based on the production spend and additional money allocated, the source said Warner might be expected to receive roughly $100 million.
Estimates on the value of the Hobbit to New Zealand's economy are difficult to assess. But on the rather generous estimate that the two movies will create the equivalent of 1000 full-time jobs for three years, those jobs would cost New Zealand $100,000 each to subsidise.
That figure excludes the economic impact from activity created by the production and the intangibe impacts on tourism.
'Herald Pro-Actors'
SPADA executive director Penelope Borland criticised the Herald's coverage of the Hobbit saga.
This column sought clarification about the seminar and its value debating the issues. When I pointed out that there might be differing views about SPADA's handling of the dispute Borland said: "Look, can you get down off your high horse and let me explain what the f*** this is about. Can you just shut up," she said.
She did not appreciate being "provoked" by the Herald.
"The Herald has run a bloody line about this all along. They have been pro anything that the actors had said and not the producers."
Borland said there needed to be some analysis of what had occured and that would be available at the conference.
Read the full article here.
Show Me Shorts Awards
Taken from the Show Me Shorts website.
We love to give out prizes highlighting the creme de le creme in filmaking genius. Each year we appoint respected and experiences judges to select winners in eight award categories which we announce (and play the winning films) at our Opening Night.
Tickets to the Opening Night celebration are $20 including a glass of bubbles, the films, cupcakes and Lemon Z limoncello. Contact the Academy Cinema for the Auckland event on the 4th of November or Paramount in Welly for the 11th of November.
2010 AWARD WINNERS
Kodak Best Film: Felicity Letcher & Rachel Lorimer for 'This is Her'
Nominee: Nikki Walker for Brave Donkey
Nominee: Vicky Pope for Choice Night
Special Jury Prize: Kurt Filiga for 'Kurt-E: In My Blood'
Nominee: Robert Jukic for Sacrafice
Nominee: Patricia Phelan for A Furry Tale
SGDNZ Best Director: Mark Albiston & Louis Sutherland for 'The Six Dollar Fifty Man'
Nominee: Katie Wolfe for This is Her
Nominee: Joe Hitchcock for The North Pole Deception
Nominee: Christopher Dudman for Choice Night
SDGNZ Best Editor: Hayley Lake for 'Make Me'
Nominee: Lisa Hough for This is Her
Nominee: Mark Albiston for The Six Dollar Fifty Man
Nominee: Cushla Dillon for Brave Donkey
Script to Screen Best Screen Play: Kate McDermott for 'This is Her'
Nominee: Gregory King for Brave Donkey
Nominee: Bianca Zander for The Handover
Nominee: Erin White for Four
Screen Hub Best Student Film: Zyra McAuliffe for 'Four'
Nominee: Kurt Filiga for Kurt-E: In My Blood
Nominee: Patricia Phelan for A Furry Tale
Panavision Best Cinematographer: Jac Fitzgerald for 'Choice Night'
Nominee: Ginny Loane for This is Her
Nominee: Leon Narbey for Va Tapuia
Nominee: Mart Williams for Day Trip
StarNow.com Best Actor: Cameron Rhodes for 'Brave Donkey'
Nominee: Aaron McGregor for Choice Night
Nominee: Gareth Reeves for The Handover
Nominee: Tuhoe Isaac for Day Trip
The judges for the Show Me Shorts Awards this year are Kathryn Burnett, James Cunningham and Tammy Davis. Tammy Davis will be familiar to you from his roles as 'Munter' in the popular local drama Outrageous Fortune. In addition to his acting experience Tammy has recently completed shooting on his directorial debut short film Ebony Society.
Kathryn Burnett is an award winning screenwriter and columinst. She is the co-creator of The Cult, the writer for The Strip, Street Legal and Amazing Extraordinary Friends, story editor on the award winning short film Poppy and international feature Dean Spanley, plus two more films to be released next year: Devil's Rock and Love Birds.
James Cunningham has a substantial oeuvre of short films. His third short film Infection screened at film festivals around the world, including Cannes. More recently James made the hugely successful short film Poppy which took out three of the eight Show Me Shorts awards last year. The film was also extremely well received and awarded at high profile film festivals all over the world.
Reviews - After the Waterfall
Taken from NZ Herald, by Francesca Rudkin.
Rating: 4/5
Verdict: Promising directorial debut but it doesn't get much more depressing than this.
Brooding, intense and at times uncomfortable to watch, After the Waterfall is an ambitious and solid debut from New Zealand writer-director Simone Horrocks.
The film is based on English auther Stephen Blanchard's novel The Paraffin Child. The book's original British setting is shifted to Auckland's remote and timeless West Coast, in particular Piha, for this story about John Drean (Starr), a forest ranger whose 4-year-old daughter Pearl (Georgia Rose) mysteriously disappears in the bush while in his care.
After the Waterfall isn't so much about Pearl's disappearance, but the profound effect it has on John and his family long afterwards.
Overwhelmed and exhausted, Drean accidently burns down his house, and discovers his wife Ana (Stockwell) is having an affair with his best friend David (Cohen Holloway), a cop working on Pearl's case.
With nothing recognisable left of his life, guilt and grief overwhelm him until an unlikely event brings him back to life.
Starr is a revelation in this film. As clever as he is to play two characters in Outrageous Fortune (Van and Jethro West), here he is not only convincing as a father dealing with the grief and guilt of losing his only child, but he holds this film together.
He is well supported by Peter McCauley as his father, George, but it's largely up to Starr to keep us gripped and he does an admirable job.
Horrock's approach, nicely complemented by Joel Haines' haunting and memorable soundtrack, is one of quiet anguish rather than loud hysterics. The use of natural light and handheld camera work adds intimacy, drawing you into the characters.
The landscape, often a noted feature in local productions, is beautifully shot with its desolation nicely reflected in the characters' emotions.
There are moments and performances that aren't as convincing as others, and occassionally the script is too sparse and the pace slow. But overall this is a realistic portrayal of grief and human resilience. It is ultimately uplifting, though you've got to steel yourself through plenty of bleak material to get there.
Cast: Antony Starr, Peter McCauley, Sally Stockwell
Director: Simone Horrocks
Running time: 94 mins
Rating: M (Contains Violence, Offensive Language & Drug Use)
Other reviews available on TVNZ, bFM, Flicks and RadioNZ websites.
Hobbit sorted - what's the next bad law?
Taken from NZ Herald, by Tapu Misa.
It's not the money that bothers me. As galling as it is to watch a corporate giant finesse extra millions out of the Gorvernment, I don't blame Warner Bros for wanting to nail down the best deal for itself. That's business.
Try to get away with that same behaviour as a teacher, though, and you're called greedy and told the Government can't just "magic up more money". And if you're an actor, wanting to, you know, please, Sir, have a chat about maybe, just possibly, getting the same conditions as overseas actors who come here to do the same job, you get death threats.
What a happy confluence of circumstances those bolshie overseas actors' unions, their boycott, and Peter Jackson's injured pride turned out to be for Warner Bros.
I'll buy the argument that the economic benefits of keeping the Hobbit movies in New Zealand, saving hundreds of jobs and our fragile film industry, were worth the extra money, even if John and Gerry made it too easy for Warner by signalling ahead of time that they would do anything to keep the project here.
What is harder to swallow is the idea that we could so casually surrender sovereignty and the integrity of our law-making process to clinch the deal.
Welcome to New Zealand Inc, small, desperate, and a little too ready to sell its self-respect for the casting couch.
Going cheap this week: an employment law change that aims to deprive workers in the film and video games industry of the right to collectively bargin or take action for unfair dismissal by specifying that they should always be regarded as contractors, rather than employees.
Whatever happened to the fiercely independent New Zealand that once stood up to the US over nuclear ships?
As Labour MP Charles Chauvel said during last week's parliamentary debate: "Once the euphoria of retaining the Hobbit in New Zealand wears off, and once all the union bashing bloodlust dies away, people are going to be disappointed with what remains. This is a Government that has reduced New Zealand, in the words of the Financial Times, to client status of an American film studio."
What next? "Do we give in to any multinational that asks for a labour standard to be diluted in return for some investment?"
The law change is supposed to avoid the situation a Peter Jackson company, Three Foot Six, faced in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled that James Bryson, a modelmaker the firm had employed on The Lord of the Rings, was an employee rather than a contractor.
Chauvel, who was on the legal team arguing the Bryson case, said the Supreme Court decision - that Bryson was clearly an employee "by every test known to the common law and applied in this and every other common law country for over the last 100 years" - had settled the question of how you determine whether a person is a contractor or an employee. The court ruled that all attributes of the relationship have to be looked at, not just the label attached to it.
The test was clear and well established. The law didn't need clarification.
Chauvel says last week's "rushed and botched" law is so badly drafted it will do the exact opposite of what John Key promised Warner Bros and Jackson. There will be more uncertainty and litigation, not less.
He points out that the provision making all film workers contractors doesn't apply to those covered by "an employment agreement", which is not defined by the new legislation.
That leaves the door open to anyone who wants to argue that they are employees, which means the court will still have to apply the same test it applied to the Bryson case.
Chauvel: "We're tying ourselves in knots, we've sacrificed our sovereignty, we've thrown out due process - all for an amendment that simply will not do what the minister thinks it will."
Still what's one more bad law rushed through under urgency to add to a growing number from this Government?
What makes this worse is that Warner Bros did not ask for a law change; Gerry Brownlee said so twice in the House last week. Brownlee said Warner wanted certainty, something the local union had already given after realising it had been well and truly outflanked.
It seems a relaxed Key was all too happy to offer up the law change, and dispense with all the fuss and bothere of due process. Democracy can be such a drag.
Time is money, and changing laws on the hop makes you look nimble and active.
As Brian Gaynor suggested in his Weekend Herald column, it's a lot easier to ride to the rescue of The Hobbit than to develop a long-term economic strategy for the country.
NZ Herald talks to Antony Starr
Taken from NZ Herald, by Sarah Lang.
He's best known for Outrageous Fortune but Antony Starr hopes to bust preconceptions with new projects.
A hint of a blush colours Antony Starr's face when I mention his well-deserved trophies for best actor and TV's sexiest man.
"To a certain extent it's flattering, but you can't put too much weight on it," he says of his sex-symbol status, distinctly awkward and a little abrupt for the first time during out interview at a Ponsonby cafe, where two ladies who lunch are trying (and failing) not to stare. It's not just Outrageous Fortune viewers whose pulses race when they see him.
The spotlight-shy Starr remains tight-lipped about adulation from female fans. One set up a Facebook page called "Antony Starr Rocks" ("For all of us who think he is wicked, would love to hang out with him, and have his babies"). Another baked a ginormous OF cake complete with a bed, figurines, Van's chain, tools and a Tool Guys van, and hand-delivered it to the set. He didn't know until now it was especially for his birthday. "Really? That's more effort than anyone's ever gone to for my birthday!"
He lets slip that he has a partner, but no more probing, please. He's here to promote his latest projects, not his personal life. "I keep myself to myself pretty much. I'm not someone who gallivants around town looking for attention."
That's not to say he's anything but a model interviewee. Grounded and genial, articulate and cerebral, confident but in no way arrogant, this self-confessed geek takes his work seriously but not himselfd, as those who saw his hilarious cameo on The Jaquie Brown Diaries will know. He pauses to consider each question, not thinking of the most PC thing to say what he thinks. A bit of a philosopher at 34, he's nothing like the twins he plays on Outrageous - gormless stoner Van and ruthless cynic Jethro.
The final season is still screening - only three episodes to go - but filming wrapped up in February, so Outrageous Fortune is long gone for Starr. And yes, it was time to call it quits. "Inevitably any series that goes on too long will reach a point where it starts struggling for ideas, so I've always been really aware of getting out while the going's good. I don't really want to be associated with something that you put your heart, your soul, your energy, your love into - and everyone loves what you've done - and suddenly it flips and they turn on you ... It's the last thing you want to happen. So I think it'll go out as it should. On a high."
After six seasons in the Wests' bosom, Starr has relished playing against type in recent projects. In upcoming TV One telefeature Spies and Lies, he plays charming conman Syd Ross who, in a little known true story, pulled off the cheekiest of hoaxes in New Zealand history. In 1942, the government swallowed the ex-jailbird's tall tale about a Nazi plot to take over New Zealand. "He said there was a Nazi spy ring and he could infiltrate it if they gave him wads of cash and a really nice car," says Starr. Sending him to "spy central" Rotorua, the state effectively paid Ross to impersonate a captain, drink beer, stay at a flash hotel and romance a local lady while gatherine "intelligence" for a paranoid major (played by Scottish actor John Sessions). Eventually, of course, the jog was up. "The whole fiasco made the government look so inept that they basically just hushed it up."
The part was a bit of fun after filming a hevy role in local drama After the Waterfall, which pulled full houses at the New Zealand International Film Festival. It will be released nationwide on November 4. In his first film lead, Starr plays John, a park ranger whose world and relationships collapse after the disappearance of his 4-year-old daughter, Pearl.
Watching the first few scenes, it's not hard to see Starr as Van or Jethro. "Yeah I've got to get over the block around that. People do pigeonhole, so this film will remind the public there's more, not just me - to any actor - than just one part." Indeed, 10 minutes of a grieving father stuck in a hellish limbo. "The film's a testament to the strength of the human spirit. How do you survive? How do you get through? How do you move forward? How do you live again without that eating you day and night?"
All were meaty questions that appealed to Starr. As did the question of why men (particularly Kiwi blokes) find it harder than women to express themselves and emotionally support each other - like John and his father, who inhabit separate bubbles in the same house. "Rather than tying everything up and putting a little ribbon on it, the film asks questions. It makes [the viewer] ask the question, makes you judge, and then examine your own judgement. I think that's one of the most important things films can do, and it's why I steer clear of popcorn films. I'm not really attracted to big, glossy, high-budget, style-over-content, meaningless shit."
During the film's genesis in 2004 - when Outrageous Fortune had not yet premiered and Starr was a lesser-known supporting actor - he couldn't understand why he scored the lead.
But award-winning writer/director Simone Horrocks knows why. "It was obvious that Antony had potential and x-factor to burn and, after meeting him once, we never looked at anyone else. As an actor, and as a person, Antony is generous, intuitive and demanding, both of the material, and of himself. Antony brought passion and dignity to a role that required him to a role that required him to take a deep dive into some very dark emotions then lead us back towards the light. The depth of his commitment raised the bar for everyone, myself included."
He wasn't involved just from action through to cut but swapped ideas and drafts with Horrocks over a five-year "slow burn". You could almost call him a creative consultant; Horrocks calls him a key collaborator.
"Collaboration is the best way to work. It's only way to work really," Starr says. "Everyone's there because they have a set of skills to offer across the board."
To get into John's headspace, Starr drew on the bond with his four niece, and immersed himself in a research about coping with a missing child. He admits he put a lot of pressure on himself to nail it.
"The pressure wasn't so much ego - it was from dealing with very sensitive material. Missing kids. Unfortunately, it's much more common than you'd think."
It's not just the trickle cases you see on the news: around 4000 children under 18 are reported missing each year. "During filming I kept thinking 'people who have lost kids will be watching this' and thank God some of the feedback from them has been really positive.
"These people never let go. It stays with them and they never get over it," says Starr. "They never learn to live with it: it's the backpack of stones they carry around forever, but you learn to carry it alongside you as opposed to in front of you. You have to be able to live, and live with it, rather than it screwing up the rest of your life."
Most of what John feels is conveyed through expression, very little through words. "I'm a big fan of not wasting words," says Starr, who helped snip back the dialogue. "A lot of telly is verbal diarrhoea. I think I grunt out about six words in the whole film."
Not that he watched it for some time. "I get quite judgemental of myself, so I put it off for quite a while. Because we had such a short time to film it - five weeks - the temptation and the trap is to sit there and hammer yourself: 'I should have done this and that'. I don't know any people that like watching themselves. I prefer not to."
The process took its toll, and not just because John's beard three years on meant the scenes were shot in reverse order. "Being around that study of missing kids and broken families, people being lost and destroyed emotionally - it's pretty grim territory. You're constantly thinking about it. It was only afterwards that you actually look back and go 'aw, that was kind of excruciating'."
He burned himself out sandwiching filming of After the Waterfall and Spies and Lies in the gap between seasons five and six of Outrageous Fortune. "It wasn't 'til well after that the cracks started showing and I deflated a bit."
Re-energised now, he's been "sniffing round overseas" for work. This month, he slipped to the States, though he's staying mum on any specifics. "I don't have my crystal ball on me today. Na, I like not knowing, not trying to forecast it too much, 'cause there's that saying: 'How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans.' I'm just trying to keep my little self to myself."
After the Waterfall is in cinemas from November 4. Spies and Lies is scheduled for TV One mid-November. The final episode of Outrageous Fortune airs on TV3 November 9.
Hobbit bullying? Whose perspective?
Taken from Scoop Independent News, by Alana Bowman.
Perspective in films can make or break the artistic impact of the production. And perspective in journalism can make or break public understanding of issues - and can create a credible alternative reality just as much as the best sci-fi flick.
The perspective of The Hobbit issues presented by most of the media (I write "most" because I haven't seen all the newspapers or TV coverage in the last couple of weeks) has been from the point of view of Sir Peter Jackson's production company and the Hollywood studios.
The Script?
Imagine if you are an employer who has lost a case to a former employee that you fought all the way to the Supreme Court and you want to do something about it. Wouldn't you dream of this outcome:
- The employees whose interests you fought against in court are demonstrating in the streets by the thousands - and demonstrating FOR you, not against you
- The employee union has promised no industrial action at all against your company
- The government is thinking of changing the law to overturn the decision that went against you
- That same government may increase taxpayer-financed rebates to your company
Whose call?
The Dominion Post front-page report on Friday was written from the anguished view of Sir Peter Jackson and Prime Minister John Key, who expressed their despair that the effect of New Zealand Actors Equity's attempt to protect its members would cause the film's American studios to abandon New Zealand for a better deal in another country.
Jackson was warning that the American studios may abandon New Zealand and "movie studio executives" were coming to make their decision. But who makes the decision?
- On 4 October, TV3 reported: "In response to the union pressure, Sir Peter threatened to take filming of The Hobbit overseas to Europe".
- On 21 Octover the LA Times reported: "Deteriorating relations among several performers' guilds ... have prompted director Peter Jackson to say that he would move the production out of New Zealand even if the boycott is lifted ... The decision on where to shoot both Hobbit movies will ultimately be made by those financing the pictures - which include Warner Bros., its New Line cinema unit and MGM - but with heavy input from Jackson."
Strategic timing?
Rather than featuring the thousands of demonstrators at the Parliament rally protesting against the government's latest de-valuing of the wage earner's power, the DomPost chose to feature on its front page the anti-actors' union demonstration ("The Battle for Middle-Earth" ran the sub-heading).
The coverage of the labour rally appeared on page 7, with a small photo (which failed to identify the speaker addressing the crowd as mayor-elect Celia Wade-Brown, new-making in itself).
Read the full article here.
Hobbit folk to grovel to feudal movie lord
Taken from the NZ Herald, by Brian Rudman.
Not so long ago, the rest of the country guffawed at Wellington planning to rename itself Wellywood.
Now the whole country seems to have taken leave of its senses, demanding we rename New Zealand "Hobbiton" and elevate the Gnome of the Wairarapa, Sir Peter Jackson, to be our Lord and Master. Have we no sense of shame, or of the ridiculous?
On Monday, Samuel Parnell, the father of the eight-hour day, would have turned in his grave at the way the day set aside in his memory was desecrated. Up and down the land, crowds marched and rallied to pledge to be servile to a Hollywood movie conglomerate.
Down with the evil actors for asking for another plate of soup, they chanted. Off with the heads of the dastardly Aussie manipulators. The union leaders were simple womenfolk who should be back in the kitchen where they belong.
Parnell, a London carpenter, arrived in Wellington in 1840, in the same week of the Treaty of Waitangi was being signed. A fellow passenger on the ship out, George Hunter, asked him to build him a store. Parnell told him there were 24 hours in the day - eight for work, eight for sleep and eight for recreation.
Those were his conditions. So, the eight-hour working day dream was born.
On October 28, 1890, to mark the 50th anniversary of European settlement and the first birthday of the Maritime Council, the workers organisation, Labour Day was marked officially with the marches in the main centres.
It was to celebrate the eight-hour working day and publicise workers' rights. Ten years later it became a statutory holiday with huge parades, picnics and sports days.
Sadly, the marchers on Monday know more about the fantasy lives of elves and goblins, and of the fabulous wealth of Sir Peter, than they do of the history of New Zealand. Few would have known how they came to have the public holiday that freed them for the day to indulge in their union-bashing activities.
So, on the 110th anniversary of a public holiday marking New Zealand's proud leadership in workers' rights, news beamed around the world of a nation rising up to plead with a movie magnate to forgive us for having a few wayward troublemakers in our midst with the temerity to be acting in the spirit of Parnell.
There they were, saying, "Tell us how long to grow our elven beards, and how hard to pull our forelocks, Sir, and we will do it. Straight after we burn those evil witches, Robyn Malcolm, Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Helen Kelly, in the public square for disturbing the tranquillity of our feudal land."
Workers' rights have taken a battering over the past 30 years from successive governments, but every employee in the land should be concerned at the hammering the actors have got for daring to ask for meaningful negotiations.
We might have thought the television current affairs gurus would have brought a certain gravitas to the issues. But Paul Holmes on state television's so-called flagship current affairs show, Q and A, and John Campbell on TV3 a day or two before, appeared to have been issued super-strength hysteria pills before going on air.
Campbell beamed in live from a Hobbit doll's house he had to crouch to fit inside, gasping at every tearful word spluttered by the incandescent Lord of Hobbit, Sir Peter.
Holmes, sweat pouring down his face, making exasperated stage sighs to Camera 3, was so beside himself that the guilty womenfolk in the dock hardly had a chance to stammer out an uninterrupted word before he donned the black cap and dispatched them back to the kitchen.
I say womenfolk, because throughout the whole battle, the patronising sexism aimed at the union side - nice gals, but out of their depth, not up to it, dupes of Aussie svengalis - has been shameful.
Yesterday, South Pacific Pictures chief executive John Barnett was at it again: Robyn Malcolm was a "terrific actress" but the union had let her and Jennifer Ward-Lealand down. "They should not have let her go out and speak." Pardon? Who better than a terrific actor to speak on behalf of actors seeking a decent employment contract?
Amid the histrionics, it was a relief to read University of Otago employment law specialist Paul Roth, in Monday's Herald, warning what a Third-World country the Hobbit saga was showing us to be.
He was reacting to Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee's warning to unionists that law changes may be in order.
Rather than being a First-World country, New Zealand was "teetering" on Third-World status, prepared to "basically lie back and prostitute ourselves to get more employment into this country". He complained that a movie-maker and money were driving possible law change, not principle or justice.
The Hobbit is about a bunch of peasants living simple feudal lives. The way we're behaving, where else but New Zealand could it be filmed?
The Kitchen Job returns to TV3
Taken from Throng.
The Kitchen Job is back! Returning to our screens on Tuesday, October 26th at 7.30pm on TV3, the reality series sees restauranteur extraordinaire, John Palino, saving restaurant and cafe owners around New Zealand from the brink of ruin.
The restaurant business is no place for dreamers or the inexperienced - yet every year in New Zealand, from the far north to the deep south, hundreds of new restaurants and cafes open, and half of them fail within the first year!
"I found it very sad going into some of these restaurants, meeting the owners who were usually in a state of desperation and completely lost," says Palino, explaining the amount of despair that some of these establishments are in.
"Often they would be only weeks away from closing the doors, with very little hope in sight for them."
And this is where Palino comes in! With over 30 years of restaurant experience under his belt, he knows how to turn around struggling establishments and educate owner - he knows the industry inside and out.
"Meeting them and trying to turn their business around wasn't an easy task," Palino continues. "But seeing them find a little hope for their future made it a pleasure to help."
Unlike the series' first season, Palino explains that this year he will not be visiting the restaurants undercover. "Instead I get to spend one full day working with the owner before I make a plan." he says.
"In that day I will look for what's not working with the restaurant," he continues. "The owners and the staff will give me their opinion and I make my own as well. It gives me the opportunity to experience the skills of the staff and what I can achieve with them in the restuarant."
So what will his plan for struggling Titirangi restaurant Toby's be? Find out when The Kitchen Job returns for a brand new second season, Tuesdays at 7.30pm on TV3.