Henry poised for bigger role at 7pm

Paul Henry. Photo / Supplied

TV One breakfast show host Paul Henry is poised to take a bigger role fronting Close Up.

Television sources say momentum is gathering for a change.

The debate is whether TVNZ will wait until Mark Sainsbury's employment contract runs out in late 2010 before making the move.

But it would be a risk. Sainsbury has appeal with viewers but is a weak interviewer.

Henry flies close to the wind in his interviews and takes chances that can provide good TV. But he polarises audiences.

In that sense he is a broadcaster's broadcaster and favoured by Close Up boss Mike Valintine and further up the TVNZ pecking order.

But Henry would also be a risk for TVNZ.

In March he humiliated a female news guest over facial hair.

A public broadcaster was rubbishing the way a guest looked for a laugh.

TVNZ upheld a complaint, but Henry wasn't embarrassed.

The bad attitude from the broadcaster's studio fortress illustrated the dangers when big egos misuse their power.

It came close to bullying.

Now he is up for promotion to prime time, the question will be whether he can manage his wish to shock.

Is he Paul Holmes without a self-deprecatory streak?

This week Henry declined to discuss speculation about his Close Up role, the state of the 7pm current affairs slot, or his acknowledged aspirations for Sainsbury's job.

Asked if the "lady with a moustache" incident indicated he was not up to the prime time spot, Henry said: "You cater for the show you are on, but I am always me. I walk on that fine line, but to me that fine line is the place to be."

HIT HIM OR HUG HIM

A former TVNZ head of programming once told me that the secret of an X-factor TV star was that viewers either wanted to hit them or hug them (or words to that effect). In other words they should elicit a strong emotional response.

Henry acknowledges he polarises opinion and says that the days are gone when broadcasters are overly concerned about polarising people.

But bringing in Henry will be the subject of extensive market research.

In August last year Henry told this column: "It is no secret I have ambitions [to present Close Up].

"Seven o'clock is where I want to be."

TVNZ did not take the bait. In a recent Sunday Star-Times interview he was ambivalent about the Close Up role. It is a handy "I can take it or leave it" stance after missing out last time, and now being courted by TVNZ with the prospect of pay negotiations ahead.

TELLYCOM

How successful will TiVo be? The details of a deal with Telecom were revealed yesterday and it may change the shape of the TV market.

Technology savvy early adopters might race to their Telecom stores to buy in. But how big is the mass market?

There are no monthly fees but the 46 per cent share of New Zealanders who have Sky will take some cajoling to choose TiVo instead of My Sky. At $899 it is a big ticket item.

The Telecom deal is attractive, but competitors will be working on alternatives.

Sky Television - which has been holding talks with Vodafone - scrapped its broadband download site because it could not get an unmetered no-cap deal. Sky chief executive John Fellet said TiVo should have no problems getting pay-per-view movie content.

He said he welcomed the move saying that it might encourage other ISPs to offer similar unmetered deals.

FILM CHEERLEADERS

An article in the Dominion Post on critical reaction to The Vintner's Luck illustrates New Zealand media's cheerleading relationship to its creative output.

The film is funded by the New Zealand Film Commission whose choices are being examined in a review by Peter Jackson and Australian David Court.

Caught up in the creative hype after Lord of The Rings, Wellington media especially perpetuate a myth that New Zealand film is universally successful and adored.

The September 16 article headlined "Kiwi films touch chord with reviewers" focuses on Niki Caro's latest feature debuting at the Toronto Film Festival - an important stepping stone to finding a North American distributor.


The article quotes extensively from a movie website called Dark Horizons whose review waxes lyrical about a "lush, erotic and passionate film with its frank exploration of sexuality and eroticism".

Caro directs this film with an exquisite sense of detail, says the website.

But the two major film industry trade magazines - The Hollywood Reporter and Variety - had a different take.

The Herald reported Hollywood Reporter reviewer Peter Brunette describing the film - which features Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes - as "confused" and "an overblown work of amazing silliness".

Brunette said the various threads in the novel - winemaking, love, religion and murder - were incoherently assembled. Variety film critic Justin Chang praised the film for its cinematography and production values but panned its "shambolic" storytelling.

Feted in the US, Caro is a real talent. The best film directors have movies that do not work - and The Vintner's Luck may be one of them. But surely if that happens we ask what went wrong and don't keep up the myth of infallibility. Wellington - or Wellywood as it dubs itself - is in danger of perpetuating myths.

THE HOON REPORT

Television was part of the problem of the Undie 500 hoon-fest, not the solution.

Live broadcasts from Castle St gave hoons the national stage to play up on. Reporters looked uncomfortable and unhappy as the yobs in the background played to the cameras.

One journalist warned on Friday night that Saturday was traditionally much more exciting. It sounded more hopeful than rueful.

The broadcasters relish the idea of a "riot" from drunken students, in the same way that they love interminable shots of boy racers. When you are 17 and pissed, the chance of being on TV is a drawcard, not a deterrent.

KIM GLORIOUS KIM

With debate over the role of Radio New Zealand National, its Saturday and Sunday mornings show what is being done very well and what is being done very poorly.

On the former, Kim Hill's Saturday morning show is better than many shows you might hear on public radio overseas. Outward looking and often international in its focus - it is a marked contrast to RNZ's focus on the Beehive and matters in Molesworth St.

It manages to surprise and Hill - of course - exercises her formidable brain.

Like Henry, she is a "love her or hate her" broadcaster but I would argue that under producer Mark Cubey she has developed new energy - or "vvveerrvve" as Hill might say.

Compare Hill's Saturday mornings to Chris Laidlaw's Sunday mornings. I understand that RNZ wants Laidlaw to look at public issues but this is Wellington Radio at its worst.

Sunday mornings should be illuminating and not an amble along well worn paths and tired old issues with predictable conversations all built on the premise of Laidlaw's experiences, including neither the movers and shakers nor the moved and shaken.