Cozy chat

As most of know, in my career of interviewing the stars I was always striving for a Parky-esque style with which to put the A-List celebrities I interviewed McFly and Girls Aloud at ease and have them open up to me (phnar).

There are currently loads of ads on TV (or 'spots' as most of you lot would call them) for "Parky - The One Man Show" featuring the man himself giving it the hard sell "join me for an evening of watching clips on a big screen and me babbling away about how great it all was, apart from Meg Ryan, obviously..." (I'm paraphrasing slightly).

He's huge here, partly due to the fact that he comes over every January for the cricket (the trooper) and drops the required platitudes in at the right times "love coming here, fabulous country, the cricket culture is second to none" etc etc

So now you can get to see the man live for the night for a mere seventy five notes! Or a nifty if you want to sit up the back ($150 & $100).

A ton-fifty a seat! Still, he's a legendary act who puts on a hell of a show, it must cost a fortune to get all those backing dancers up to speed, the pyrotechnics, that bit where he flies out over the crowd on a wire...

Brisbane again

I'm in Queensland again for work. I've been here since Monday, was supposed to be here for eight days until next Tuesday, but am now going back to Sydney on Friday. This is becuase I was coming up to show the journos the new sports site that's been built and be the liaison between up here and down there in the week before it got launched, except since I've got here the tech boys have piped up and mentioned that it ain't going to be ready on time. Which has left me looking like a bit of a spare one. The cynical Queensland mob seem generally wary of flash Harry's coming up from the big smoke showing them the latest piece of magic that will change their life, but fear not as I'll be back in a week or so when the site is ready to launch. Brilliant...

It's the second game in the best-of-three State Of Origin series tonight and as Queensland are one-nil up and love their 'footy' it's a big deal up here. Pity the match itself is in Sydney, I can see the Suncorp stadium from my hotel balcony... it's always a sell out up here though so I doubt I'd have been able to get hold of a ticket. Brisbane Roar are playing Celtic there on July the 12th, the Hoops over on a quite bizarre pre-season visit. Meanwhile Sydney FC are playing "Robbie Fowler's North Queensland Fury" (as they've now become known) in a friendly at Cronulla's rugby ground on Saturday.

In other soccer news, new A-League team Gold Coast United are said to be in talks to bring Henrik Larsson over to light up the league. They've already signed their one marquee player (Jason Culina, ker-pow...) but you can have 'guest players' sign up on short term contracts (and still earn big bucks outside of the squad salary cap, obviously...). Romario and Benito Carbone have been previous guest players, for Adelaide and Sydney respectivly. Sydney's marquee this year is John Aloisi.

Moran Away

For those of you that watched the first series of Underbelly, there's been another Moran murder, this time Desmond 'Tuppence' Moran, the uncle of Jason and Mark, brother of their dad Lewis. It was on the ninth anniversary of the murder of Mark. As well as the numerous headlines with 'Moran' in the title there's this little interview from 2007 where he talks about being the only one left. He was shot in the head 'execution style' a few times, and lay in the shop doorway for seven hours whilst forensics did their thing (slowly, it would seem). Someone had tried to top him in March but the gun jammed or summat. If that had happened to me I'd have probably kept on my toes a bit, rather than going to the same cafe every morning for coffee.

The creators of Underbelly are looking for subject matter to base the third series on, might not have to work too hard if this kicks off again...


*UPDATE: In a rather unexpected turn of events, his sister-in-law and widowed matriarch of the Moran gangster clan, Judy Moran, has been charged with his murder. She got pulled in, and whilst in nick allegedly ordered her house set on fire to destroy evidence. She's been denied bail due to being a potential flight risk. Mental.

MF32