Jeremy Wells, Jason Hoyt and Leigh Hart fronted the NZ show.
Jeremy Wells, Jason Hoyt and Leigh Hart fronted the NZ show.
An Austrian television production company has bought the rights to New Zealand comedy show The Late Night Big Breakfast, which was dumped by TVNZ this year and will not return for a second series.
The deadpan comedy programme fronted by Leigh Hart, Jason Hoyt and Jeremy Wells ran on TV One last year, but the state broadcaster has not commissioned another series.
"TVNZ said no," Hart told The Diary, "but we are talking to a number of people in New Zealand about getting a second series or a similar concept up and running on a different network, and it is likely to be a multi-platform initiative.
"The really exciting thing is that Austria wants the show and will be doing a European version for all the German-speaking countries," he said.
Austrian comedian and TV presenter Gernot Haas and Swiss entrepreneur Axel Kunzli, who own Lightkid, a Munich-based television and film production company, have bought the format rights.
"I don't know how they first knew about it, I guess they watched the episodes online and our Moon TV YouTube clips," Hart said.
"Everything is so fluid now and global ... It's all about generating content for screens, and it doesn't really matter where that content format comes from."
It's not the first time TVNZ has rejected a Kiwi comedy which has been picked up overseas.
TVNZ was criticised in 2008 for its reluctance to commission an independent comedy by Jemaine Clement and Brett McKenzie, who took their Flight of the Conchords pilot to American cable network HBO " and went on to fame and fortune.
"TVNZ can't say yes to everything," Hart says. "But you do tend to find that shows which are quite unique or niche tend to fall through the cracks, while safer shows are picked up."
Hart says he will travel to Austria and Germany to help the production company establish the show.
"We did The Late Night Big Breakfast from the Target furniture store on Dominion Rd, so the Germans will need to find their own furniture store. And one of our top guests was a Mongolian throat singer: again they will need to find their own."
Winston Peters joked that John Key's "curtains don't match the carpet", and now a former local body politician says he can sort that.
Former Auckland City councillor Michael Goudie - who retired from politics in 2013 because it "was turning [him] grey" - has turned to men's grooming and launched a start-up company targeting what he calls "youth preservation".
Michael Goudie and Nick Grant are behind men's grooming outfit the Clooney Club.
Goudie and his business partner Nick Grant are behind Clooney Club, which has launched a home application premium hair colour for men. Mr Amal Alamuddin was the inspiration behind the name.
"It's a far cry from sitting around the council debating chamber," Goudie laughed. "Those councillors could be my target market now."
A certain rugby legend is a customer, although Goudie won't reveal who. "Club rules," he says.
He is bringing out a hair styling gel and hair retention cream next.
Sales have so far been through word of mouth and through the company's Facebook page, but Clooney Club products will be sold exclusively online through their own website, which goes live in May.
Cricket legends play Arrowtown, but will Warne play Tinder?
As the Black Caps prepare to play Bangladesh in Hamilton today, golden oldie cricketers are taking Arrowtown by storm.
Legendary Australian cricketer Shane Warne posted an Instagram photo from the celebrity Pro-Am event at the BMW New Zealand Open with a who's who of faces including Ricky Ponting, Sir Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Nathan Astle, Mark Richardson, Graeme Swann and Stephen Fleming.
Ponting and former England legend Ian Botham are returning to the Millbrook course, but it's Warne, playing under an 11 handicap, who's tipped to win.
Clockwise from top left: Ricky Ponting, Sir Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Nathan Astle, Stephen Fleming, Mark Richardson, Graeme Swann and Shane Warne.
Ponting, who's using his dad Graeme as caddie, is no slouch on the tee. Crowd Goes Wild frontman and cricketer Richardson has said Ponting is the one to watch. "He's the best [celebrity] golfer here."
However, 45-year-old Warney may be playing another field. His predilection for dating app Tinder has locals wondering if he'll swipe right while in Queenstown.
Maybe. If he can guarantee sexual liaison privacy, that is. He hit back in the Australian press on Sunday about a Tinder date who kissed and told.
Kim McGrath met Warne on Tinder while he was in Adelaide for a test match. He texted: "You're hot, are you home alone? Can I trust you? Are you private? This has to stay between us? X" the Sunday Telegraph reported.
It didn't. She subsequently sold the lurid details of their sexual encounter to an Australian tabloid magazine.
"Their night of passion included Shane asking her to stand in the corner in her high heels while he spanked her; him discovering erogenous zones on her body she didn't know existed; Shane driving her wild with his own brand of foreplay; and him talking dirty to her and encouraging her to try a few 'porno' style moves," the women's magazine reported.
Will he play tinder in New Zealand?
Last month, when Warne jetted into Auckland to watch the Black Caps play the Aussies at Eden Park, cricket fan Nathan Baxter took to Warne's official Facebook page to ask: "You going to get on tinder in Auckland Shane?"
