Entertainment picks: Little Brits with loads of money

Disruptiv crew get spraying for the Ignite05 festival.

TV

The line between documentary and reality show continues to blur with Young, Posh and Loaded (Tuesday, TV2, 10.30pm), an insight into Britain's spoilt brat population. Donatella, for instance, is yet to get her driver's licence but still wants daddy to buy her a car. So he forks out for a $116,000 Mini Cooper.

Can't relate? Well, you've probably already got the book, so how about Beyond the Da Vinci Code (Prime, Tuesday, 8.30pm), which examines some of the more controversial theories proposed in Dan Brown's best-seller. Did Jesus and Mary Magdalene get married and have kids the conventional way?

Who knows, but it could explain Richard Sandrak, the 11-year-old capable of lifting three times his own body weight. He features on the TV One doco, The World's Strongest Boy (Thursday, 8.30pm).

The TV miracles don't stop there - Jeremy Wells makes his triumphant return to our living rooms, post-Anal Mana, with a new series of Eating Media Lunch (TV2, Tuesday, 10pm).

Movies

Speaking of sick, but in a good way, if you're taking the little ones to Robots from Thursday it might pay to pack a watertight bag, as some of the sequences in this fantastic animated film are a bit like being on a roller coaster. The story follows Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor), a young inventor who goes on an action-packed journey to the big city to meet his idol and show him his ideas. Along the way he befriends a group of misfit 'bots (including the rather OTT Fender (voiced by Robin Williams) and tries to overthrow the evil capitalist who is making all the rusty 'bots resort to expensive up-grades (like my cellphone company).

Also starting on Thursday is Miss Congeniality 2, the somewhat unnecessary sequel, in which Gracie (Sandra Bullock) has become the glamorous face of the FBI. It should be a laugh, if you can stand Bullock's attempt at drag halfway through.

Ethan Hawke's latest project, a remake of John Carpenter's 1976 thriller Assault on Precinct 13, sounds almost as riveting, only this version is more complicated, more expensive and, possibly, more hip. Hawke plays the bad-ass cop who gets a band of goodies and baddies together to help him defend his precinct against armed criminals trying to free a mobster (Laurence Fishburne). It's directed by a French hip-hop producer, Jean-Francois Richet, and co-stars Drea de Matteo (Joey in The Sopranos) as a sex-obsessed secretary, Ja Rule as a hustler and the charismatic Gabriel Byrne as a cop.

Music

Continuing in the surfers-with-guitars tradition that last week saw Donavon Frankenreiter and Ozzie Wright visit our shores, Jack Johnson plays the St James on Thursday, the Wellington Town Hall on Saturday and the Christchurch Town Hall on Monday, with support from Xavier Rudd and G Love.

Also here is Ali G - sorry, I mean Roger Sanchez - for the Found At Thirst regional finals, where the winner of the DJ/producer competition will be crowned. This year emerging artists will be up against seasoned professionals, including Damon Schwalger (the Nomad), Ryan Beehre of Minuit and Isaac Aesili. The Auckland regional final is on Friday at 4:20, K Rd. Festival

Installation art, film workshops, weird video projections - it's all at Ignite05, the youth arts festival that kicks off this week. An initiative by the Edge in Auckland, it's a showcase of innovative local and international talent in theatre, internet art or dance. And there's plenty happening throughout the week, such as Dead Man Talking, (nominated for outstanding new play at last year's Edmonton festival) a solo performance by Canadian Jeremy Baumung, and Flip the Script, a concept that sounds like NZ Idol for new playwrights. Then there's Doodlebug Presents, your chance to get spray-painting with British graf writer Barney Doodlebug in Aotea Square each day from 11am-2pm. For times and more info go to www.ignite.co.nz

Dance

Speaking of dancing, all-male troupe Black Grace kickstart their 10th anniversary celebrations with New Works at the Maidment from today until April 20. Not the most inspired of titles, but the choreography should be - after wowing audiences at the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in New York last year, they've been invited back. Then they'll perform a four-week season at the New Victory Theatre in Manhattan.

Also making a welcome comeback is Momix, the American dance illusionists who debuted in New Zealand with Optus Cactus. This time they're performing Passion, inspired by the 1984 Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ. See them at the ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, from Tuesday to Sunday.

Social

Some rather unusual invitations arrived in the mail this week. The first was a small plastic bag filled with brooches printed with strange messages, the best reading "You're bored because you're boring". Hopefully they're just the song titles from the Mint Chicks' new album, [Expletive] the Golden Youth, rather than a personal attack. The Kiwi alterna-punks' launch party on Tuesday is a private affair in downtown Auckland. Also making an appearance is local magician Jon Zealando. In case it's boring, I presume.

The other invite was to preview a place that is "mysterious by day - forbidden by night". Which kind of makes you wonder how you get in for dinner. Anyway, Opium, a big, new contemporary Asian lounge bar in Aotea Square, spans three rooms - bar, club and private den. These days, dahling, you can drink, dine and dance the night away all under one roof.