Rule Kiwitannia

Ladyhawke played a secret show in Shoreditch. Photo / Supplied

While superstar Tom Cruise was Spy-ed in Wellington this week, a couple of Kiwis are making their own presence felt here in London.

House dancer Brendan Cole will take to the dance floor with Rolling Stones wife Jo Howard in the latest instalment of Strictly Come Dancing. The show is being billed as a comeback for the jilted wife of Ronnie Wood after he took up with a Russian cocktail waitress. Comeback, as an ageing single blonde with sex appeal that is. And expect plenty of sexy routines from the choreographer from Christchurch.

Celebrated chef and restaurateur Peter Gordon's restaurants Providores and The Tapa Room in trendy Marylebone are going from strength to strength. Next month it will be his wine making a splash as it gets uncorked at the Toronto Film Festival. Good friend Niki Caro (her hubby Andrew Lister was the architect at Gordon's Bellota bar in Auckland) has asked the chef to supply his Waitaki Braids Pinot Noir wine from his Central Otago vineyard at the world premiere of her latest film The Vintner's Luck. Keisha Castle-Hughes is also expected to attend the festival.

Indie pop star Ladyhawke performed a secret gig at the Becks beer party at Village Underground in trendy Shoreditch this week, though she very nearly didn't. She fell off a table during a photoshoot before the gig and injured herself. But it was her bizarre rock-star request for "no aubergine" backstage that had the media over here talking. One London rag said: "Some bands ask for stacks of booze or only green M&Ms when they play a gig, but Ladyhawke's rider must be one of the most bizarre in rock history."

Back home, Marcus Lush's travel show South is enjoying huge rating success that his bosses at RadioLive will no doubt be hoping can be translated into more listeners for his Breakfast radio show. He has a long way to go to catch up to the ratings NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking has been enjoying since he inherited his gig from Paul Holmes. Last Sunday 710,419 viewers tuned in to Lush's TV One show.

Fair Go's Kevin Milne is set to go nude ... save for a few strategically placed acrylic paint strokes. Phew! The veteran TV presenter is about to go starkers on the telly in his birthday suit and a few licks of paint for the Fair Go Awards next month. I hear he's thrilled the show has stolen Libby Middlebrook away from TV3 as a new Fair Go reporter.

Rachel Glucina

Pictured above: Ladyhawke. Photo / Supplied