What a spiffing week to be a celebrity in New Zealand. If you weren't being wined and dined then hurled off a slope at the Queenstown Winter Festival (where camera crews threatened to outnumber tourists), there was always Robbie Williams' exclusive concert on the North Shore for 1000 or so "VIPs."
Good to see those Shortland Street folk sitting down the front so when we see it on television this week, it will look just that little bit more local.
Other Kiwi actors — Temuera Morrison, Rena Owen, Ian Watkin and Marton Csokas — were busy getting their costumes fitted for the shooting of Star Wars Episode 2. For Csokas, his casting as a planetary leader in George Lucas' film puts him in a fairly unique position — he's in The Lord of the Rings too. Should look good on the CV.
HEY HO HEY HO, IT'S OFF TO WORK WE GO: Shooting on The Lord of the Rings trilogy begins again on Monday after a three-week break, which meant some of the cast — including Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Orlando Bloom — took off to Queenstown for the festivities. So there may be some hungover little Hobbits come the end end of the weekend ... Meanwhile veteran English actor Ian Holm, having returned Up Over after five weeks on the film, was rather enthused by the experience. As he told The Irish Times: "I'm not allowed to say much about it but it's going to make Star Wars look like a weekend in the lavatory. There are 130 special effects people and it's brilliant, absolutely brilliant."
NOW IT'S THE PITTS: Brad Pitt and Friends star Jennifer Aniston are to marry in Los Angeles next week, according to Britain's Sun newspaper. According to the paper, 200 family members and friends have been invited to the ceremony next weekend at a mansion in Malibu Beach.
MOB RULE? The new United States hit White House drama The West Wing and the mob series The Sopranos led the field of Emmy Award contenders with 18 nominations each, including nods for best drama. West Wing, starring Martin Sheen as fictional US President Bartlet, and The Sopranos, which swept last year's Emmy nominations, were joined on the list of best-drama nominees by veteran hospital series ER and the legal dramas The Practice and Law & Order. Nominated as best comedy series were Frasier, Friends, Sex and the City, Everybody Loves Raymond and Will & Grace.
MICHAEL WOULD HAVE WANTED IT THAT WAY: Some groups just aren't the same after the singer, well, dies. Some folks swear that AC/DC wasn't any good after Bon Scott popped his clogs, the Doors carried on regardless even giving our Graham Brazier a try-out for Big Jim's old job. And now we get our chance to ponder a post-mortem INXS who head here next month on a national tour with "our" Jon Stevens where the late Michael Hutchence used to be. If nothing else, they'll probably be the best INXS "tribute" band in the world, ever. And also from the land of "covers' band, here comes another one next month. They're called Babba. You can guess the rest.
<i>Chatterbox:</i> The egos have landed
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