We used to have the gayest city in the world outside of San Francisco and we were proud of it. Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras used to be the biggest tourist revenue raiser in the nation. Everything about us was gay, gay, gay. The Boy From Oz was gay. It was one long gayathon. But something’s changed. Something that even the Virus didn’t stop. This year again Sydney has no Pride. While the rest of the world remembers Stonewall,
Gay Pride events attract thousands
Gay Pride … Participants in the Berlin parade pose in the street.
Photo: AFP
Thousands of people across Europe took part in Gay Pride events on Saturday, with some countries in Eastern Europe seeing gatherings of gays and lesbians for the first time.
At least 20 people were injured when the Czech Republic’s first ever Gay Pride parade was attacked by rightwing extremists armed with tear gas even before the event was due to begin in the city of Brno.
Three people were arrested when counter-demonstrators threw fireworks at the gathering of lesbians and gays in which an estimated 500 were to participate.
With calls in the internet for resistance to the “queer parade”, more than 200 police were present during the planned event.
THERE’S STILL NO PRIDE IN SYDNEY by Harley Dennett
Pride spokesman Murray Hood
… but Mardi Gras offers to help beleaguered organisation. Sydney Pride has been offered open-ended support by New Mardi Gras as the charity tries to rebuild itself after two years without any events or services.
Gay and lesbian communities around the world will mark the Stonewall Riots’ 39th anniversary this Saturday, except Sydney.
Last year Sydney Star Observer asked why Sydney Pride had failed to organise any events, such as its Pride Week celebrations in previous years, to discover the organisation had lost too many board members to operate.
Pride spokesman Murray Hood confirmed the situation had not changed in the last 12 months, but said an audit report due this week could open the door to a fresh board and revival.
“Once we get the report from the auditor we’ll call an AGM and decide the [organisation’s] future,” Hood told SSO this week.
Read the rest of the sadness here
Maybe it’s true what Dr Robert Reynold asked in 2002 in the piece that rocked Sydney the Is Gay Passe? theory. Is everyone over it? Is there no reason for Pride? With a dollar so strong and a gay capital all acted up and over, what the bloody hell are we going to do for our tourism gigs?
Their SCANK girl is having the baby in Tennessee. That means it’s NOT Australia’s most anticipated baby. I’m more excited about Tara from work’s baby actually, since it won’t be an Alien. SCANK girl will probably take all the glory from both countries. She was born in Hawaii but she’s happy to cash in on being Australian and Our Nic. But I want this on record. SCANK baby is to be born on US soil. It’s therefore an American Alien. Not an Australian one.
Nic expected to deliver baby in US
June 29, 2008
SCANK girl, soon after leaving Cryogenics Update Lab.
Photo: AFP
AUSTRALIA’S most anticipated terrifying baby is expected to be born on US soil with Nicole Kidman showing no sign of leaving her adopted home birth country as the due date nears.
The actress, who is eight months pregnant, will most likely give birth in a Tennessee hospital or Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. More SCANK propaganda here
Poor Elle. Looking like this didn’t win her a husband and when I realised that it inspired me to go on a binge eating session like never before. Why be thin? It hasn’t worked for Elle, THE Body, so why, I figure should I be any different.
Even producing long haired Swiss lanky heirs didn’t get what Uma gets. 8 carats and all those Swiss bank accounts. What she got that Elle don’t? Maybe she reads books she hasn’t written. Maybe having Timothy Leary for a stepfather taught her something about bewitching. Thank you People magazine for making me feel better. Elle, if you’re reading this honey, which obviously you aren’t, but if one of your friends is, feel free to drop over for some ice cream and sympathy. Uma’s like the other Angelina.
Uma Thurman is engaged to her Swiss multimillionaire boyfriend, Arpad “Arki” Busson, her rep confirms to PEOPLE.
“I can confirm she is engaged,” Stephen Huvane said on Friday. New York’s Daily News was first to report the engagement.
In return for saying yes, the actress received some serious sparkle: an 8-plus carat center stone surrounded by 20 smaller stones. “It’s the most beautiful piece I’ve ever seen,” says a close source of the diamond ring. “Arki did a wonderful job.”
The pair began dating last summer after attending a private dinner together in Milan. Since then, their relationship quickly heated up despite the fact that the couple lived on different continents (she is based in New York, he in London).
It would be the third marriage for Thurman, who has a son and daughter with ex Ethan Hawke, whom she divorced in 2003. Her marriage to Gary Oldman ended in 1992. Busson has two sons with former supermodel Elle Macpherson, from whom he split in 2005.
This guy will never get special forgiveness from Big Nazi. He is the world’s most selfish man after Robert Mugabe and would only be suitable for the death penalty but he got in before we could. It’s days like this I wish there were a hell so that this guy could go there. It’s a damn shame. Why couldn’t he have just killed his useless self? Why be so selfish to everyone else? And yet i’m not supposed to be bitter….
Father was arrested before murder-suicide
THE man whose body was found in his car with his dead children had been arrested for violence against his wife on Monday - and released shortly afterwards, a relative said last night.
Police believe Gary Bell, apparently unable to cope with the breakdown of his 18-year marriage, may have drugged his three children, put them in his car and killed them with its exhaust fumes. The 44-year-old father died alongside his children - Bon, 18 months; Maddie, 5; and Jack, 7.
The family was known to police and the Department of Community Services. A relative who asked not to be named said Mr Bell was arrested after being violent against his wife, Karen, early on Monday.
“Police picked him up about 3 o’clock in the morning, took him to jail. Karen put an AVO on him again. Then he was let out. I don’t know how he ended back up with the kids. Karen was staying at her mum’s in Bega.”
only sometimes I wish I were Catholic. Now is SO one of those times. They’re giving away freebies when the Pope comes. Forgiveness for pilgrims, that’s me, special one time only. Which means we’ve got like 2 weeks to go on a shooting rampage or do whatever and get off free before the Big Nazi gets here. By we I mean them. Catholics who want forgiveness from Nazis kind of them.
Pope asked to indulge sin city with a reprieve
POPE BENEDICT has been asked to grant special indulgences - remittances of punishment for sins already forgiven - to thousands of young Catholics expected to attend World Youth Day in Sydney.
When the event was held in Cologne in 2005, young Catholics who took part in confession and communion during the jubilee of devotion received full, or plenary, indulgences.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, has asked that the Pope grant an indulgence for pilgrims who visit St Mary’s Cathedral and pray the prayer of consecration to Our Lady of the Southern Cross, the patroness of Australia and of World Youth Day.
There’s something really unlucky about dying in an Olsen apartment. There was something strange about Heath Ledger’s family saying ACCIDENTAL every second word before they’d even removed the body from the apartment. Now, there’s something freaky about the Ledger family’s handling of his estate. Very Hutchence it appears. Something for Peter Andre to note. Wouldn’t want his family to spend it all on boomerangs and dingoes. From deceiver.com:
Heath Ledger’s Family Is Botching Up His Will
Remember when Heath Ledger’s family swore that they would provide for Matilda, his daughter with Michelle Williams, even though his will had been written before she was born? Back in March:
“Matilda is our absolute priority and Michelle is an integral part of our family,” Heath’s father Kim Ledger says in a statement. “They will be taken care of and that’s how Heath would want it to be.”
Ledger’s rep quickly squashed any speculation that Williams and 2-year-old Matilda would not be provided for. “The story is getting taken out of context and media is speculating that this means Matilda and Michelle will not be taken care of. I want to make it very clear nothing could be farther from the truth.”
I’m sure Michelle Williams remembers this very clearly. But fast forward to now and apparently she and her daughter haven’t seen a dime of that inheritance. Michelle is reportedly planning to boycott the premiere of The Dark Knight next month over the dispute.
Not that I blame her. Kim Ledger made news a while back for his financial incompetence, so it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if he’s already spent it all on boomerangs and dingoes.
There’s something really strange going on with Hillsong. We know that Mercy Ministries is all but over. But what’s the go with the conferences. The Hillsong Conference circuit is a great stop off for the travelling evangelists. They used to be overflowing with speakers and booked out way ahead. Now, things seem so much quieter.
I got a tip off that Acer Arena has said no to future Hillong conferences. I called Hillsong to find out where the gig is next year, but they haven’t confirmed. It’s going to be announced at conference this year. Conference this year looks boring. Who are these people apart from Brian and his old mate Paul de Jong? One of them doesn’t even have a last name. I guess God knows who they are, but does the tax department? Seriously it’s like a low rating M*A*S*H reunion.
As for the women’s conference Colour Your World 2009 is promising a stunning lineup of speakers, well 3. One is Brian, always the female expert, the other is Sy Rogers an ex-gay who is such a big girl he’s going to be in his element, and some other chick who obviously doesn’t read the papers. That’s it? That’s all they can russle up? Where’s the princess carry-on? What’s changed?
Is it due to the new branding manager, who works tirelessly to change the public profile of Hillsong into something palatable? Is that why all the pink’s gone? Is that why Bobbie’s been pulled from the headline acts?
As for the men’s conference in November this year, they don’t have any speakers lined up at all. Since they have a majority of male speakers at Colour, it seems appropriate to have the same gender reversal at the men’s conference. I wonder what the speaking rate is plus love offering. I might apply. They say it’s going to be 24 hours that could change your life, but how if nobody shows?
There are some cheap tix going for Hillsong 08 next month. $7 a night or $5 online? Have Hillsong seen $5 notes.
Even though Derryn got heaps of publicity from the clips of phone calls Carl Williams made to him on air in Underbelly he decided to get things rolling yesterday by laying into Melbourne’s underworld which has kept him in ratings and adrenalin for over a decade.
So of course, one of the boys rang up. One of the few left that is. Why he was listening to my Bearded One if he hates his guts so much is unclear, but I don’t like jokes about Derryn’s death. Or threats. Underbelly 2 is not going to be about Derryn’s downfall. Not like this. Not after everything he’s been through and he still LIVES ON. Please not Derryn. Anyone else. But not my childhood hero.
This is the carry on between the two bovva boys each thinking they’re the one who’s got it right. The whole article is here.
“You are scum, and I tell you what, I have a punching bag at home with your name on it and I punch the shit out of it,” Gatto told Hinch.
Hinch hit back.
“If burning you is my job in life, I’ll be more than happy to do it. I think you and all your ilk and all your mob and the Carlton Crew and the Carl Williamses of this world, you are all scum.”
The verbal jousting lasted several minutes and included this exchange:
Gatto: “It’s ratbags like you that sort of put me in the limelight, where I want to be left alone and mind my own businesses but I can’t because I’ve got maggots like you driving me mad”.
Hinch: “Do you know what? If I could go to my grave being called a maggot by a person like Mick Gatto, boy I’m proud of myself”.
Gatto: “Well, I hope you go to your grave very quick, mate”.
Hinch: “Yeah?”
Gatto: “That’s where you deserve to be because you are a maggot”.
Hinch: “You live in that world where people go to their graves. You … you … you live in that world where people go to their graves quickly. Don’t you?”
Gatto: “Well, you’ll be one of them. You’ll be one of them very soon, mate”.
WELL, no credible witnesses were there but the SCANK actress claims she was crying when she saw her babyalien ultrasound. We know this isn’t true because first she had her tear ducts frozen with botox and secondly she was born without a heart. Sounds great for the interview though. As the article from Eonline says, she’ll whore anything for a role. Thoughts for Annie Lebovitiz who had to do this shoot.
Annie Leibovitz/Vogue
Nicole Kidman can’t believe she’s pregnant.
“When I first saw the baby on the ultrasound, I started crying,” she says in the new issue of Vogue. “I didn’t think I’d get to experience that in my lifetime…To feel life growing with you is something very, very special, and I’m going to embrace that completely. I don’t believe in flittering around the edges of things. You’re either going to walk through life and experience it fully or you’re going to be a voyeur. And I’m not a voyeur.”
And that means experiencing the good and the bad.
If you remember, Nic’s husband, Keith Urban, checked himself into rehab shortly after they were married. Now, Vogue writer John Powers reports, she and Urban are never apart for more than five days at a time. “I’m so committed to this relationship, and so is he,” Kidman says. “I don’t have addiction problems, but love is a very powerful force in my life. It’s my fatal flaw and my virtue.”
Also powerful in her life? Work.
You can’t accuse Ms. Kidman of not going all the way for a role.
Gay Pride … Participants in the Berlin parade pose in the street.
Remember when Heath Ledger’s family swore that they would provide for Matilda, his daughter with Michelle Williams, even though his will had been written before she was born? Back in March: