Brazil's Ronaldinho is renting out his mansion for $18,137 a night
Looking for somewhere to stay in Rio de Janeiro during the upcoming World Cup? Ronaldinho can help - if you can afford $18,137 a night. The Brazil superstar, who was excluded from his country's 23-man squad, is holidaying out of the country in protest and has rented out his seven-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion. With the Cricket World Cup fast approaching next year, will we find former Black Caps turning their homes into money-making castles?
Chris Cairns lives in Auckland's most expensive suburb, Herne Bay. Dion Nash is a neighbour. Adam Parore resides in nearby St Mary's Bay.
New Zealand has 23 tournament matches, including a quarter-final in Wellington, a semifinal in Auckland and the opening match in Christchurch between the Black Caps and Sri Lanka. Accommodation is sure to be tight.
Ronaldinho took to Twitter on May 24 to post an advertisement for his digs on Airbnb, a global accommodation site. The mansion, located in an upmarket gated community, boasts a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, home theatre, wine cellar, beer fridge, zen massage and yoga room, a children's playhouse and a stage for musical performances. Plus, an impressive haul of trophies and narcissistic over-sized self-portraits.
"I will not be in Rio during the period," Ronaldinho wrote, "but I'll leave all the recommendations with the staff of my team who will be available when you need it."
Shooting for new career
She quit international netball, effective immediately, but after 20 years at the top, what will Irene Van Dyk do now? We take the shot and have a punt:
1. Transfer her sporting popularity to civic politics and start a campaign for the Auckland mayoral race.
2. Join Prime sports show The Crowd Goes Wild and double the female quotient.
3. Have an arm wrestling match with Urzila Carlson and Heather du Plessis-Allen for top South African import.
Coast star checks us out
BBC History guru Neil Oliver is in New Zealand next month to scope out a possible series of Coast New Zealand.
Oliver is riding high with his series, Coast Australia, one of the highest rating shows on BBC2.
Coast Australia is made by New Zealand production company Great Southern Television, who are shooting a second series with Oliver.
Managing director Phil Smith is keen to jump the fence and make a Kiwi version. "Australia's tourism authorities are really happy with their primetime exposure in the UK, and I look at that and think I'd love to do the same for New Zealand," says Smith.
Coast Australia was the highest rating factual series on Foxtel in Australia earlier this year and boasts 2.4 million viewers in the UK.
Lorde-ing it up on the charts
Lorde was pipped to the No 1 post on Spotify's inaugural Top 25 Artists Under 25 yesterday by Swedish DJ Avicii.
Lorde floating in the pool of her hotel in Rome this week.
The music streaming service factored chart hits, volume and growth of streams and shares to compile its ranking. Lorde was followed by Miley Cyrus, One Direction and Taylor Swift.
"Lorde is proving to be as enduring as royalty itself; her follow-up track Team is enjoying a hot streak with more than 80 million streams and counting," Spotify said.
The ecstatic teen queen took to Twitter to tell fans: "This means a lot to me because it's just you listening to music, and recommending it to friends, and listening again. no frills. THANKYOU xo."
It's not such good news for the New Zealand music industry, which is shrinking according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report this week.
Despite Lorde's success in the US, it wasn't enough to lift domestic music profits. The music market was worth $212 million in 2013, down $9 million from the previous year. Music revenue is forecast to fall a further 1.7 per cent to $195 million by 2018.
Lorde is in London, performing tonight at the Brixton Academy and on Wednesday chilled out in the pool of her Rome hotel.
Promos and giveaway gimmicks are nothing new in the world of radio, but broadcaster Duncan Garner has stepped it up a notch. He's giving away his own homekill.
After a successful boar hunt in Hokianga last weekend, Garner donated a wild porcine salami on-air - one of 30 homekill salamis from the beast. The phones ran hot.
"I had 700 texts in just over two hours!," Garner told The Diary.
