Legendary Australian rock band AC/DC has teased a long-awaited comeback with a reunited line-up.
Key points:
AC/DC has not released new music since 2014, and not toured since 2016
Vocalist Brian Johnson, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams are all returning to the band having left in recent years
The band had been teasing a return for some days through cryptic tweets and posters spotted in Sydney
After several days of hints, the band's official Twitter account posted a photo of the reformed band, which sees five experienced members together again for the first time since 2014.
Veterans of the band Angus and Stevie Young remain, while vocalist Brian Johnson, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams each incrementally left the band following the release of Rock or Bust tour six years ago.
The promo shot carries the slogan PWR UP, which also featured in the teaser videos posted earlier in the week and on a poster spotted outside Angus Young's old high school in Ashfield.
A poster appeared outside Angus Young's old high school in Ashfield.(Supplied)
There were no hints of any impending tours or new music releases, but the tweet cryptically asked fans, "Are you ready?".
AC/DC remains one of Australia's greatest musical exports, with its unique hard rock style and aesthetic still immensely popular today, as are famous hits like Back in Black, Highway to Hell and It's a Long Way to the Top.
Rock or Bust was AC/DC most recent studio album and was supported by a world tour throughout 2015 and 2016.
Rudd left the band in 2015 due to legal matters, while Johnson departed in 2016 after doctors order he stop touring immediately to save his hearing. Williams dropped out only months later, citing a change in dynamic as the make-up of the band shifted.
The band has been officially on hiatus since 2016, but rumblings have increased as to an imminent return to the stage, and Wednesday night's announcement seems to have confirmed it.
Marvel has cast its next superhero, but you won’t have heard of her before.
Unlike tapping Oscar winners such as Brie Larson or Angelina Jolie, the person donning the costume is a newcomer – Canadian teenager Iman Vellani.
Vellani, 18, will take on the mantle of Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenager from New Jersey who discovers she has powers to shapeshift. She names herself Ms Marvel after her personal hero, Captain Marvel.
Vellani was cast after an extensive search for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s’ first on-screen Muslim superhero. The character will headline her own Disney+ streaming service, Ms Marvel, and cross over to the big screen in MCU movies.
The newcomer posted on Instagram that she was “speechless and excited”.
The character was created by G. Willow Wilson for a comic books series that debuted in 2014. Wilson posted her congratulations to Vellani on Twitter, adding that “she is the real deal”.
The comics have been hailed as been a sensitive exploration of being Muslim in America, while also dealing with the challenges of coming-of-age and having superpowers. Wilson is Muslim.
Comedian, writer and actor Kumail Nanjiani, who will be seen in the upcoming Marvel movie Eternals, tweeted, “I just saw they cast Ms Marvel and legit got teary eyed. Congratulations Iman Vellani. Your work is going to mean so much to so many people, myself included. I can’t wait.”
Earlier, Marvel announced its roster of directors for the Ms Marvel series would include Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Meera Manon. Bisha K. Ali serves as head writer.
Vellani isn’t the first Canadian to be joining the MCU family with reports last month Orphan Black Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany had been cast as She-Hulk.
After the critical and commercial success of Black Panther, the studio has greenlit a number of projects with culturally diverse casts.
Canadian actor Simu Liu is currently filming Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings in Sydney alongside Awkwafina and Michelle Yeoh while Mahershala Ali will play Blade in an upcoming movie announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2019.
Other MCU Disney+ series in the pipeline include WandaVision, Falcon and Winter Soldier, Loki and Hawkeye.
The Livin’ On A Prayer singer also revealed that despite fame and fortune, Dorothea has always remained “without a doubt” his rock.
“We work hard at it, but we enjoy each other and we never fell for the trappings of what celebrity can do,” he said. “We’ve witnessed that happen over the years to people that were close to us and people that we knew from afar. It’s just what I do, it’s not who I am. I write songs. I happen to be very good at performing them. That’s it.”
The couple, who were determined to give their children a normal upbringing, also work together for the Soul Foundation, which they launched in 2006. The non-profit organisation aims to tackle the issues of hunger and homelessness in the United States.
“It’s a partnership,” Dorothea told the outlet. “When we see injustice or people suffering, you want to help. We’re very blessed, and we have the ability to do that.”
“I’m happiest if I like what I do for a living, I’m doing right by my family and I’m making the world just a little bit better,” Bon Jovi said.
Back in 2016, People reported the couple first met at Sayreville War Memorial High School in their New Jersey hometown. In 1989, at the height of Bon Jovi’s success in music, the couple eloped to Las Vegas.
At the time, Bon Jovi told the outlet that he’s no saint and like any marriage, their union has endured its share of bumps along the way. However, he stressed that they make it work.
“She’s the glue,” he said. “I’m the crazy visionary with all kinds of things flying, and the seams are all splitting. She’s the one following me with the glue and the thread and needle, keeping it all together.
“Somehow I became the poster boy for a long-married rock star,” he said. “But I’ll accept the mantle because I’m so happy.”
This story originally appeared on Fox News and is republished here with permission
The legendary rockers have confirmed a long-rumoured return after fuelling speculation with suspicious social media activity all week.
As revealed overnight – and to the surprise of those who have kept up with the band’s movements over the years – the line-up includes a sprinkling of familiar faces.
On Wednesday night, the band uploaded a promotional poster to Twitter asking fans: “Are you ready?” with the hashtag #PWRUP along with a black and white image of the band comprising Angus Young, Stevie Young, and returning members Brian Johnson, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd.
Frontman Brian Johnson, who left the band in 2015 with hearing problems, is included on the poster alongside drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams.
Rudd was replaced with Welsh drummer Chris Slade in 2016 following legal issues which culminated in eight months of home detention for Rudd in his native New Zealand.
He had pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a former employee and possessing methamphetamine and marijuana.
Meanwhile, returning member Williams quietly announced he was leaving the band around the same time, due to Johnson and Rudd’s departures, as well as the death of Malcolm Young.
Co-founder of the band Young died in November 2017 at the age of 64 after a long battle with dementia.
Over the past three years, all members of the band have kept a relatively low profile, but were snapped during a secret meeting in Vancouver at a recording studio last year.
Speculation of a reunion built earlier this week after the band posted a series of short clips online.
A wealthy benefactor of Keith Raniere, the disgraced leader of a self-improvement group in upstate New York convicted of turning women into sex slaves who were branded with his initials, was sentenced to almost seven years in prison in the federal conspiracy case.
Seagram's liquor fortune heir Clare Bronfman was taken into custody yesterday to begin her 81-month sentence immediately after her appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.
The 41-year-old admitted in a guilty plea last year that she harboured someone who was living in the US illegally for unpaid "labour and services" and that she committed credit card fraud on behalf of Raniere, leader of the group called NXIVM.
Clare Bronfman has been jailed for her involvement in the NXIVM sex cult. (Mark Lennihan/AP)
In a letter to the court last month, Bronfman wrote that she "never meant to hurt anyone, however I have and for this I am deeply sorry." Still, she said that she couldn't disavow Raniere because "NXIVM and Keith greatly changed my life for the better."
At trial, prosecutors told jurors the 60-year-old Raniere's organisation, NXIVM — pronounced NEHK-see-uhm — operated like a cult whose members called him "Vanguard."
To honour him, the group formed a secret sorority comprised of brainwashed female "slaves" who were branded with his initials and forced to have sex with him, the prosecutors said.
Bronfman's lawyers argued she deserved leniency because she had no direct involvement in the most disturbing allegations and has a health condition that could put her at greater risk for a coronavirus infection if incarcerated.
Keith Raniere. (Supplied)
But in court papers, prosecutors argued she deserved a serious punishment since, "There can be little doubt that Raniere would not have been able to commit the crimes with which he was convicted were it not for powerful allies like Bronfman."
The defendant had long been affiliated with NXIVM, giving away tens of millions of dollars to bankroll Raniere and his program of intense self-improvement classes.
She also paid for lawyers to defend the group against a lawsuit brought by its critics.
Along with Bronfman, Raniere's teachings won him the devotion of Hollywood actresses like Allison Mack of TV's "Smallville." Ms Mack also has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
As part of a plea agreement, Bronfman agreed to forfeit A$8.3 million from a fortune prosecutors have said is worth A$280 million. They also are seeking a A$697,000 fine.
High Ground, the spectacular and confronting instant Aussie classic— "not a Western, but a Northern", as its director describes — first gripped audiences at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.
Key points:
The film High Ground stars Jacob Nayinggul, Jack Thompson and Simon Baker
The film will make its Australian premier this week at the Brisbane International Film Festival
High Ground was shot across Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park
Then a global pandemic hit, and the story that reimagines Australia's frontier war had its debut on home soil delayed.
That debut comes today when the film, shot in some of the most remote country in the world, is screened for its official Australian premier at the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF).
The BIFF screening comes after High Ground was this week brought home to Arnhem Land, where the film was shot, with special screenings in the communities of Gunbalanya and Yirrkala.
Through the crocodile-infested East Alligator River to Gunbalanya, a massive blow-up cinema screen was transported to the Aboriginal community in West Arnhem Land, 300 kilometres out of Darwin.
High Ground executive producer Witiyana Marika in Gunbalanya.(Supplied: High Ground)
As the sun set, reflecting off the escarpment and flood plains, a local oval was transformed into an open-air cinema, with most of the community turning out for the show.
While coronavirus lockdowns kept an all-star cast including Simon Baker and Jack Thompson from attending the screenings, local Gunbalanya actor Jacob Junior Nayinggul was the man that people were keen to see.
"I was kind of nervous, but I was excited and my family enjoyed it very well," Nayinggul said.
Gunbalanya star Jacob Junior Nayinggul plays Gutjuk in High Ground.(Supplied: High Ground)
New to acting, Nayinggul is stunning in his portrayal of character Gutjuk, an Aboriginal man raised by a mission family after his family is wiped out in a police-led massacre.
"My grandmother nearly had a heart attack on that scene," Nayinggul said.
"I just felt sorry for her."
The story is a fictional reimagining, steeped in the stories of an Aboriginal resistance to white settlement drawn from Arnhem Land's traditional owners and elders, including lands in Kakadu National Park.
"It's the history of this country and showing it through the movie worldwide, from the little corner of Arnhem Land, but representing the whole of Australia and Tassie about what happened," the film's executive producer Witiyana Marika said.
For Marika, the 20-year process to create High Ground has been about correcting history: to reflect the stories his grandmother told him.
"It was something sad, but as I was growing up I thought maybe one day I'll get to that point and I'll show the world what happened," Marika said.
"And then this man [Stephen Johnson] came along just at the right time."
Caren Pistorius plays Clare in Stephen Johnson's film.(Supplied: High Ground)
At that time, when Marika and his friend Dr M Yunupingu AC were part of Australian rock band Yothu Yindi, filmmaker Stephen Johnson shot the clip for their hit song Treaty.
Dr M Yunupingu passed in 2013, before he could see the film completed, but is remembered in the credits and his friends have stayed close to their original vision of the film.
"We decided to go with a fiction because it allowed us to open up the story in a sense and tell a greater truth," Johnson said.
Jack Thompson plays policeman Moran in the film.(Supplied: High Ground)
Johnson says Aboriginal elders and landowners from West to East Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park came together to contribute their family's stories of settlement.
It's a frontier western with the pace of an action film.
"There's a thriller aspect to it. It's not a Western, it's a Northern," Johnson said.
"It's about really trying to put something out there that had entertainment value and was going to appeal to a wide audience," Johnson said.
Actors Jacob Junior Nayinggul and Maximillian Johnson in Yirrkala.(Supplied: High Ground)
The film's landscape looms as large as any character, and from lockdown in Melbourne, actor Aaron Pedersen said he was impacted by the country's "great beauty".
"It was mesmerising, but also the danger, and that's how Indigenous people were able to align themselves to country. They knew the beauty and the danger," Pedersen said.
Pedersen said the work feeds into a broader conversation around settlement Australia needs to have.
"I truly believe that that is the one thing that's keeping us from growing up as a country and becoming the nation that we should become," he said.
Simon Baker plays ex-soldier Travis in the film.(Supplied: High Ground)
On Gunbalanya oval, the winds off the billabong rippled the projector screen — a dream sequence meeting the bush movie experience.
The audience was transfixed, barely registering the dogs bickering and snapping in packs through the seated crowd.
Jonathan Nadji, a traditional owner and chairperson the Kakadu Board of Management, was a producer on the film and one of those in attendance.
"When I watched it actually hurt," he explained, bringing his fist to his chest.
He is hoping Australians and the world will embrace the film.
High Ground officially premiers in Australia at the Brisbane International Film Festival this week, with a wider cinema launch locked in for early 2021.
The soundtrack of your youth always becomes the most special part of the soundtrack of your life. Years later, you can sing every word.
But I Am Woman has stayed with me for more powerful reasons than that.
A Helen Reddy poster from 1980.(Facebook: Helen Reddy)
For so many women, across decades, the song has given full-throated voice to our fight for gender equality. The lyrics capture how we like to think of ourselves — strong — and our movement — invincible. This anthem does not shy away from the tough, complex stuff; that there is pain and a price to be paid in the struggle for gender equality.
Overwhelmingly though, the lyrics are positive and generous of spirit, a spreading of "loving arms across the land". This is an implicit rejection of the regular caricature of the women's movement as divisive and doctrinaire.
I have three indelible images of Helen Reddy imprinted on my mind
The first of the youthful Helen, her strong, straight shoulders visible in her pink halter top, delivering with pitch precision and smiling warmth the bold lyrics of I Am Woman. You were carried away by her power and potential as she sang, "you can bend but never break me, because it only serves to make me more determined to achieve my final goal".
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The second of the aged Helen, on stage in the US at one of the enormous Women's Marches that marked President Trump's inauguration. Here she is small, grey-haired, much nearer to the end of her life, yet there is still power in the punch she throws into the air as she sings "I am strong".
These two moments teach us what it is to be sustained by a cause; that the power of purpose comes both with the vitality of youth and the experience of age.
Perhaps it was only the older Reddy who could fully understand the beauty of the line "Oh yes, I am wise, but it's wisdom born of pain", which she had written so many years before.
Helen Reddy was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award.(Supplied: Helen Redd Official Fan Page)
Remarkably, the message of I Am Woman perfectly fits both moments. Every word is still relevant, no message has dated, including that we have "a long, long way to go".
Does that tell us about the strength of Helen's work or our failure to have achieved a gender equal world almost 40 years later? Perhaps both.
Mostly I hear the song in my head not because I am being sentimental, but to help me get ready for the next feminist battle.
I dream of the days we will only sing it when indulging, over glasses of wine, in reminiscences of times long gone.
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The third is her on stage at the 1973 Grammy's accepting the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Award for I Am Woman, thanking God for the award because "she makes everything possible".
Back home in Adelaide, not yet in my teens and still a regular attendee at Baptist Sunday School, this was a moment that shocked but became one to savour.
The life of Helen Reddy was broader than one song
I, of all people, know what it is like to have your career told constantly through one frame, in my case the misogyny speech. I do not want to make that error here.
Helen made us proud time after time as she created hit songs in her Aussie accent, ultimately selling tens of millions of albums worldwide and becoming the first Australian to make it to the top of the US charts.
We saw her headline American television shows, appear in stage musicals and star in movies.
Memorably she appeared as a singing nun in the air crash disaster movie, Airport 1975.
Her performance was lauded by the critics. For years afterwards my sister and I would joke that if you saw a nun with a guitar boarding your plane, it was time to run for the door.
All this was achieved though she battled health conditions across her life, having a kidney removed at the age of 17 and then being diagnosed with the rare and incurable condition Addison's disease at the height of her fame.
Helen would go on to become patron of the Australian association dedicated to raising awareness of this frequently misdiagnosed condition.
Undaunted, she would speak about how she lived with the condition and did not let it hold her back.
Helen Reddy left the music industry behind for much of the 2000s.(702 ABC Sydney: John Donegan)
During her long life, she loved and lost and loved again, marrying three times. She raised her two children and became a grandmother.
Her family, to whom she meant the most, will be feeling her loss acutely and deeply. To each of them, I offer my sincerest condolences.
More than seven decades after she appeared in vaudeville as a four-year-old, she has exited the stage for good. Like all legends, she has left her audience applauding and calling for more.
Former prime minister Julia Gillard is the chair of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's College London.
Jessica Simpson is flaunting her fit physique on Instagram just over a year after giving birth to her third child, Birdie Mae.
The fashion designer posted a picture of herself on Monday doing a warrior yoga pose in workout clothes from her Jessica Simpson Collection, after she admitted she gained 45kg during her pregnancy.
“Starting the week with a warrior mindset aligned with the beauty of the sunset,” Simpson, 40, captioned the pic, which features a beautiful sunset backdrop.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star Gretchen Rossi commented, “Wow!! You look sooo good girl!! Keep doing whatever you are doing.”
Simpson has been candid about her weight loss journey since gaining more than 45kg during her most recent pregnancy. In addition to Birdie Mae, she has two other children, Maxwell Drew, 8, and Ace Knute, 7, with husband Eric Johnson.
The With You singer shared in September 2019 that she weighed 108kg while pregnant with Birdie Mae, but was able to shed the weight by choosing to “work harder” with her longtime trainer, Harley Pasternak.
Pasternak said of his client, “Been working together for over 12 years and she’s always the most warm, sweet, polite, and respectful person in the world. And on top of it all, after being non-stop pregnant for as long as I can remember, she’s down 100 pounds and looks younger today than she was when we met.”
In July, Simpson proudly squeezed back into her 14-year-old jeans for her birthday and said, “I figured that since I’m in the final hours of my 30s I’d give them another try, and hello 40, so nice to meet you.”
This story originally appeared on the NY Post and has been reproduced here with permission
Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander starred in the iconic flick Pretty Woman alongside Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, but it isn’t all happy memories for him.
The actor opened up to Robin Bronk during the At Home With The Creative Coalition podcast, with the 61-year-old revealing that his role as lawyer Phillip Stuckey in the 1990 film wasn’t the best experience for him.
“It was a unique situation because when I got [Pretty Woman], I fully understood that the director did not want me,” Jason admits. “I was not what Garry Marshall wanted.”
He continued, “I had auditioned for him, he was very sweet. He basically said, ‘you’re too young. You’re too baby-faced. You’re too little.’ There were other people he tried to get and I don’t know why but they couldn’t make a deal … I got the part because they couldn’t make a deal with the actor they wanted and they were desperate.”
In fact, Alexander recalls the part making him one of the most hated actors at the time.
“I was known around the world as the a**hole who tried to rape Julia Roberts so women hated me,” he says. “I would walk down the street and women would say mean things to me.”
He even admitted that he “got punched many times. I got spit on by one woman. It was a rough year.”
The actor is best known for his role as George Costanza in the sitcom Seinfeld.
While it is one of the most successful shows on television, the actor actually admitted to nearly walking out on it, when he threatened co-creator Larry David that he would quit.
“Very early on Larry wrote an episode where Elaine and Jerry go to Florida and Kramer and George are not in that episode,” Alexander said to Access Hollywood.
“And when Seinfeld started I had a very successful career in the theatre in New York which is what I thought I was going to be doing all my life. So when I was written out of an episode I came back the next week and I said to Larry, ‘Look, I get it. But if you do that again, do it permanently. If you don’t need me to be here every week … I’d just as soon go back home and do what I was doing’.”
“He freaked out,” Alexander said of David’s reaction. “And then he did it and thank god he didn’t say, ‘take a hike’”.
Seinfeld is now considered one of the greatest TV shows in history, but Alexander admitted it wasn’t until an episode in season four that the actors knew they were onto a good thing.
“The Contest [an episode where the four main characters bet to see who can go the longest without pleasuring themselves] … I think that was the marker where we went, ‘I think we have some job security for a while’”, he said.
Radio host Kyle Sandilands has often reminded listeners of The Kyle and Jackie O Show that he had a hard childhood, and even found himself homeless at one stage.
While introducing rapper Machinegun Kelly, 30, on the show before a live interview, Kyle wanted to relate to him by letting listeners know that he had also had to bring himself up from nothing.
Unfortunately, the rapper heard Kyle speaking to Jackie O Henderson about her privileged upbringing, and thought he was talking about him.
“You know, how you got brought up by your very rich parents, and you had the silver spoon up your a**ehole your whole life,” he told his co-host.
“Then here’s kids like me who brought themselves up because our parents didn’t want us. And that’s Machinegun Kelly. The guy is a worldwide success!”
After a long and incredibly awkward silence on air, the rapper, whose real name is Richard Colson Baker, asked Kyle: “Are you being facetious right now?”
The radio host thought he was being asked if he was serious about his own upbringing, answering: “No, no! I brought myself up. I was a homeless teenager here in Australia, and I know what it’s like.”
After another long pause, the Bad Things rapper clued in.
“Oh! I’m sorry! I thought you were referring to me. I thought you said I had a silver spoon in my mouth!” the star explained.
Jackie O, horrified, replied: “Oh my God! He was referring to me!”
Fox uploaded a photo with Kelly, with the caption “Achingly Beautiful Boy … My heart is yours,” at the time.
Three hours later, Austin Green shared photos of the couple’s sons. Also pictured was his eldest son Kassius, 18, who he shares with ex Vanessa Marcil.
And Austin Green’s caption? “Achingly beautiful boys...... My heart is yours.”
The former 90210 star’s post was soon flooded with messages from celeb-watchers lapping up the drama.
“I’m here for the pettiness,” wrote Perez Hilton.
“Whoa. I see what you did there,” wrote one Instagram user. “Savage, love it, you’re an awesome dad,” said another.
Others were less impressed: “Now we know why she broke up with you. Your children must be more mature than you. Move on,” was one top-rated comment.
The Australian director of the recent film about Helen Reddy's life, Unjoo Moon, spoke with the late singer only a week before her death in Los Angeles at the age of 78.
After meeting at a G'Day USA dinner seven years ago, the two became close during planning for a bio-pic titled after her enduring hit - the stirring feminist anthem I Am Woman.
As musicians, feminists, fans and family paid tribute to Reddy around the world, Moon said she found the trailblazing singer-actress-television-presenter-and-feminist-icon in good spirits during a video call. Diagnosed with dementia five years ago, Reddy had been living in a home for retired Hollywood talents in Los Angeles.
"She just looked radiantly beautiful," an emotional Moon said. "Her skin was glowing and she just looked amazing. She was on her phone and I was on her phone and I spent most of the call walking around my garden and showing her things."
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Coming to know Reddy and her career well to make the film, Moon learnt how often her music "somehow always made women stronger and bolder".
Helen Reddy at the height of her fame in the '70s.Credit:SMH/The Age
"I know what an iconic figure she was for a lot of women in my life so when I met her I really wanted to speak to her," she said. "She really was one of the most famous women of her time."
Reddy's children, Traci Donat and Jordan Sommers, confirmed her death on Wednesday morning, describing her as a " a wonderful mother, grandmother and a truly formidable woman".
"Our hearts are broken. But we take comfort in the knowledge that her voice will live on forever," they said.
Helen Reddy's classic hit and feminist anthem 'I Am Woman' set the stage for her career
The Melbourne-born Reddy was regarded as the queen of 1970s pop with her hits including Delta Dawn, Angie Baby, Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) and Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady.
After arriving in New York as a 24-year-old single mother of a three-year-old with just over $US200 to her name, she overcame years of struggle in the US to become the world's top-selling female singer in 1973 and 1974.
She won a Grammy for I Am Woman, had her own weekly prime-time television variety show and branched into an acting career on screen and stage that included a Golden Globe nomination for Airport 1975.
The stirring anthem that became her best-known hit turned her into a feminist icon.
Accepting her Grammy - the first Australian woman after opera singer Joan Sutherland to win one - she famously thanked "God, because She makes everything possible".
Musician Katie Noonan said Reddy carved a path for Australian artists, particularly women, to find international success and her legacy extended well past I Am Woman.
"Helen paved the way for the careers of Australians full stop, but particularly Australian women in America," Noonan said. "The fact that she won [a Grammy] in such a huge, prestigious category is just incredible."
I Am Woman writer Emma Jensen, who spent a week with Reddy in the US, saw what would be Reddy's final live show in Las Vegas.
"It was pretty amazing to sit in a packed auditorium and where everyone was singing I Am Woman as loudly as they could and the pure delight of everyone who was there," Jensen said.
"Helen was terrific. She was incredibly smart, quick witted, good fun. She loved to tell a story loved to have a laugh. It was just such a gift to write this movie - in ways that I didn’t even anticipate - as a writer, as a woman and just as a human being."
Reddy was born into a show business family in 1941 and began performing as a child. In 1966, she won a singing competition on the television show Bandstand to travel to New York and audition for a recording contract. When that opportunity vanished on arriving, she stayed - after a brief diversion to Canada for visa reasons - in the US.
The show's presenter, Brian Henderson, said he had the impression Reddy was a "very determined young woman, highly talented of course".
"I don’t remember how many people we had on Star Flight, the competition we were running then, but for her to leave them all behind was no surprise because she was quite a talent,” he said. “I watched her with interest after that, naturally, and of course with good wishes and the further up she went, well, I think we all enjoyed her success. But when I Am Woman was such a runaway hit we all rejoiced with her”
Reddy performing at the Academy AwardsCredit:ABC Photo Archives / Getty
After marrying Jeff Wald, who was her manager, Reddy's recording career initially took off with the B-side to her second single - a cover of I Don't Know How To Love Him from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar - becoming a moderate chart success.
She went on to have three number one hits and another dozen songs in the US top 40.
It was 1972's I Am Woman - she wrote the empowering lyrics ("I am woman, hear me roar/ In numbers too big to ignore") with Australian singer-songwriter and friend Ray Burton providing the music - that became her enduring legacy.
At a time when a woman could not get a credit card or a mortgage in her own name, Reddy emerged to become one of the world's highest paid entertainers.
Reddy was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006, only the fourth female soloist to receive the honour. In a statement, ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen paid tribute to the "pioneer".
Reddy in 2014.Credit:Steven Siewert
"This year we were reminded of her inspiring life with the movie I Am Woman telling the story of her incredible career to a new generation," Rosen said. "She was inducted in the ARIA Hall Of Fame in 2006, and even amongst that company she is a pioneer. Our thoughts are with her family at this time."
Her fans drew inspiration for their farewell from another legendary Australian, Peter Allen.
"Quiet Please, There is a Lady Leaving the Stage," the president of her fan club, Jim Keaton, wrote on Facebook.
"She always left me feeling loved (even when I got on her last nerve!) and that I mattered. That, in itself, is a rare and precious gift that I will treasure for the rest of my life," Keaton wrote.
Moon, who showed the I Am Woman film to Reddy and her family in an emotional screening in a Los Angeles cinema, said the singer sang along to the soundtrack, laughed and cried.
"I'm proud that we got to make the movie and that she entrusted me with the story," Moon said. "I'm glad that she got to see it. And even though we're all really sad, Helen really would have wanted us to celebrate her extraordinary life."
Garry Maddox is a Senior Writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Nathanael Cooper is a senior culture writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age with a focus on music.
From two thespian buddies to adventures with Jack Whitehall and his father, there’s a raft of great stuff to watch this week.
SOMETHING TENNANT & SHEEN
Staged: Of all the pandemic-driven projects to have emerged in the past few months, this is one of the most solid – and the most charming.
David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s real-life friendship anchors this scripted series where they portray exaggerated versions of themselves rehearsing (but not rehearsing) for a West End play.
They’re petulant and often bickering, but it’s all in the spirit of comedy.
Filmed from their homes and featuring their partners plus celebrity guests Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson, Staged plays off the pair’s delightful chemistry over six 20-minute episodes. It’s the easiest two hours you’ll spend this week. Watch it: ABC iview
Good Omens: It’s hard to believe that Good Omens was the first time David Tennant and Michael Sheen had worked together because they have serious onscreen fireworks. In this TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s book, they play an angel and a demon trying to stop the end of the world. It’s wild, over-the-top and a hell of a lot of fun. Watch it: Amazon Prime Video
SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS
Briarpatch S1: There are many TV shows anchored by the mystery of a violent death leading to a bigger revelation about corruption in a small town.
But those other shows don’t have the talented Rosario Dawson, who plays a woman returning home to Texas after her estranged sister is killed in a car bomb.
Briarpatch is full of oddball townies with shady connections and secrets. A dramedy with a touch of noir. Watch it: SBS On Demand
A Few Good Men: If all you remember of A Few Good Men is Jack Nicholson bellowing “You can’t handle the truth” then it’s time to revisit the legal drama about two Marines accused of murder. And the timing is kind of perfect because after almost three decades, Aaron Sorkin has another courtroom thriller out in select cinemas this weekend, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Watch it: Binge*
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SOMETHING HORRIFYING
The Walking Dead: World Beyond: If after 10 years of zombie-watching The Walking Dead has left you hungry for more – as bewildering as that sounds – there’s now a second spin-off out this week. World Beyond is set 10 years after the apocalypse and centred on two teen sisters who has to come of age as everything crumbles around them. Watch it: Amazon Prime Video, from Sunday, October 4
The Comey Rule: Look, The Comey Rule isn’t a horror movie, but it may as well be. If this two-part miniseries had been a fictional political thriller, it would’ve been fine. But it’s not. Instead, it’s a dramatisation of the battle of wills between former FBI director James Comey (Jeff Daniels) and Donald Trump (Brendan Gleeson) which feels too soon and too triggering. Watch it: Stan
SOMETHING FRENCH
Emily in Paris S1: This Netflix series follows Emily, a doe-eyed American marketing exec who is transferred to her company’s new Parisian acquisition to give an “American perspective” – something her French colleagues obviously love. It’s created by Darren Star (Sex and the City) so you know it’s going to be frothy, unrealistic and full of enchanting outfits the main character couldn’t possibly afford. But the gorgeous shots of Paris will make you wish you could use your passport right now. Watch it: Netflix, from Friday, October 2 from 5pm AEST
Delicatessen: The opposite of Emily in Paris, Jean Pierre-Jeunet’s apocalyptic comedy has a dark and carnivorous soul. Set in a French apartment building owned by the ground floor butcher, it’s a fight for survival when food resources are scarce and unsuspecting new workers find themselves in a meat grinder. There are underground vegetarian rebels, a biblical flood and kind-hearted circus clowns. Embrace the absurdism, it’s worth it. Watch it: SBS On Demand
SOMETHING TRAVEL-Y
Travels With My Father S4: British comedian Jack Whitehall’s adventures abroad with his conservative dad has been a source of great joy for three seasons. And now they’ve brought their brand of spark and bickering to Australia – wrestling emus, going on camel rides, touring nudist beaches and speed dating at a winery. Guaranteed fun times. Watch it: Netflix
Street Food Asia: It’s hard to not salivate over slow-motion close-ups of okonomiyaki, Singapore chilli crab and slippery noodles, without thinking about the last time you wandered past those lively food stalls on a trip to Asia, the smells seducing your tastebuds. And until we can do that again, at least we have gastronomic travel shows. Watch it: Netflix
Sacha Baron Cohen's satirical mockumentary about a clueless foreigner's travels in the United States will get a sequel in October, according to US media reports.
Here's what you need to know.
Remind me about the first Borat film
It was really popular.
Officially titled Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, it earned more than $200 million worldwide and won a Golden Globe.
It was alsocontroversial.
A lot of people who appeared in the film later sued Cohen and his team, saying he misled them and harmed their reputations.
Kazakhstan itself had a complicated reaction.
At first the government was angry and the film was not released there … until it realised the film was a tourism drawcard, and that Cohen's real targets were actually clueless Americans.
What do we know about this new one?
It is called Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan.
Or so it seems from a now-deleted filing with the Writers Guild of America.
According to Deadline, it was shot quickly and cheaply in the US during the pandemic lockdown.
Cohen was spotted shooting as Borat in LA in August:
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In June, the comedian crashed a far-right rally and started a conspiracy theory-laden singalong.
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We don't know if that was a stunt for the film.
But we do know some locals were not happy and that on two filming days for the new Borat, Cohen expected backlash to the extent he reportedly wore a bulletproof vest.
So that title suggests Mike Pence might be a target…
The singer and ex-husband of UK media personality Katie Price has revealed he’s built a home gym in his mansion, making his daily exercise regimen all the more convenient.
The Mysterious Girl hit maker – who has been sharing his fitness progress on Instagram – discussed the move in a recent magazine column, revealing he’s “not as obsessed” with fitness as he was in his 20s, though it’s hard to tell.
He said of his recent home addition: “My home gym is coming along beautifully and has its own little waiting area, coffee machine, cardio and weights section.
“I’m only offering limited membership as I just can’t get the staff – only joking!
“It’s looking amazing and I love training. It’s part of my daily routine, but I know how to have days off, believe me.”
Andre made a name for himself in the ’90s with his incredible six-pack – and he recently showed it off again in the second episode of UK reality show Life With The Andres.
He and wife Emily MacDonagh are fitness fans and both work hard to stay in shape, he revealed on his new reality show which aired exclusively on The Sun’s YouTube page.
But despite his toned physique, Andre insisted he eats “whatever I want” at night.
He said: “Nothing is off limits. I do enjoy my chocolates but where I counter that is my training.
“I really push myself. I do the opposite to what’s classed as normal.
“I have no breakfast, just a black coffee, and loads of water.”
The star similarly shed light on his daily routine a few years back, praising coconut oil for his youthful glow.
In an interview for The Guardian’s How I Get Ready series, the pop singer outlined a typical morning – which he said takes an impressively organised 75 minutes.
“If I have to be somewhere in the morning, the actual getting ready takes 15 minutes. But I need an hour before that to put on my steam shower, go downstairs and sit and have a coffee in silence,” he explained.
“I have a double espresso and a glass of water, like the Mediterraneans, to get that caffeine kick and hydration, and then I’m raging, ready to go. At that point my steam shower will have heated up, but I only go in for a short time. I love a good steam, except in summer.
“I also use coconut oil as moisturiser. You can do anything with it – eat it, cook with it, use it on your skin. It’s fantastic,” he said.
Andre and ex-wife, Katie Price share two children, Junior, 15, and Princess, 13 who they had during their five years of marriage from 2004 to 2009.
Andre married current wife, doctor Emily MacDonagh, 30, in 2015. They have two children, Amelia and Theo.
Taking to Instagram last month, Price said she was left devastated as “doctors told her she won’t walk for six months” and she needs major surgery on her broken feet.
The former glamour model, 42, fractured both her heels after jumping off a wall during a nightmare accident on holiday in Turkey.
According to The Sun, her recovery could take up to two years.
“Doctors are saying she won’t be able to walk for six months, or put any weight on her feet,” a source told the publication.
