Ricky Martin, Sam Smith and Demi Lovato all potential candidates
The second series of The X Factor NZ launches next Sunday, and The Diary can reveal TV executives are in secret negotiations with global pop stars about performing live on the TV3 talent show.
Ricky Martin, Demi Lovato and Lay Me Down singer Sam Smith are all tipped as possibilities, said a source close to the show.
"One of those names is already on board to appear on the programme and will do a live performance. It's going to be huge, really exciting."
Martin, Lovato and Smith are all touring Auckland over the next few months, and MediaWorks execs are keen to leverage on their availability. They won't divulge who they are in negotiations with.
The X Factor NZ has a contract deal with Sony Music Entertainment, which will sign the winner of the competition.
Incidentally, Martin, a former judge on Australian music talent quest The Voice, is signed to Sony.
Also making a secret appearance on the show, The Diary has learned, will be one of the notorious Appleton sisters. Natalie, 41, and Nicole Appleton, 40, one half of 90s British girl band All Saints, remain buddies with former bandmate Melanie Blatt, who returns to the show as a judge - alongside Stan Walker, Willy Moon and his wife Natalia Kills. Blatt will be joined on her judge's retreat with one of the siblings.
Meanwhile, also on the MediaWorks reality television front, The Diary can report sparks flew in the Karaka mansion recently where The Bachelor is being filmed - and romance was to blame.
There was a minor accident due to a candle left burning, but an insider says it wasn't a case of where there's smoke, there's fire.
"Yes, there was an incident with a candle, but there was no evacuation, no fire services were called, and we didn't stop filming."
Buy a piece of Darby
Rhys Darby's Grey Lynn home and two cars are on the market.
He has already relocated to Los Angeles with his family to chase the Hollywood dream, however Rhys Darby's Auckland possessions remain for sale. Darby's Grey Lynn home and two cars are on the market.
The four-bedroom family home will go to auction later this month through Kellands reality.
"Please buy it," his wife tweeted. "I have my eye on a house with a pool in Hollywood."
The Darbys, who are believed to be living in the San Fernando Valley, have also listed their cars on Trade Me - a Ford Focus and a BMW X5.
"Here we go again trying to sell our cars again after knobs backed out days before we left the country," Rose Darby posted.
Her hubby, meanwhile, is in Puerto Rico shooting the TV pilot Wrecked.
Slow season start for Jane
Cory Jane ran out of gas and was stranded on the motorway. Photo / Instagram
Let's hope it's not a metaphor. Hurricanes wing Cory Jane, who is finally playing rugby again after injuring his hamstring last year, took on the Blues yesterday for a pre-season match, but not before he ran out of gas. He was left stranded on the side of the motorway.
His wife Amie took to Twitter to offer her sympathy. "Lol my husband is an idiot. Ran out of gas and is walking the motorway in a grumpy with 1 per cent left in phone charge."
We trust it won't be an ominous sign to the start of Jane's season.
Neill's thorny response to Rose
'At least I have the advantage of being alive,' Neill tweeted. Photo / NZME.
Sam Neill, 67, will play the late magnate Lang Hancock - who discovered the world's largest iron ore deposit - in the Channel Nine movie The House of Hancock.
But Hancock's former wife, Rose Porteous, 66, told a woman's mag recently she would have preferred a different actor for the role.
"I think somebody like the late Anthony Quinn would have been ideal," the outspoken Filipina said.
Neill saw the funny side.
He took to Twitter: "Seems Rose thinks Anthony Quinn would be better casting than me. Hmm. At least I have the advantage of being alive."
Porteous became Hancock's housekeeper after the death of his second wife, and eventually wife #3. She felt that Hollywood star Sharon Stone would have been a better choice to play her. "I wonder, can this young actress (Peta Sergeant) play Tchaikovsky on the piano, the way I do every day? Is she used to wearing Chanel?" she said.
Porteous, who now works as a beauty therapist, was embroiled in a 10-year legal battle over her former husband's estate with his only child, Gina Rinehart.
