Sideswipe

Songbird: New Zealand’s very own easy-listening singer Wing has been immortalised in a South Park episode, performing her version of Dancing Queen.

Matthew J. Hogan has just been appointed by the Bush Government as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Interestingly, Hogan was the lobbyist for Safari Club International - an elite club of exotic animal trophy hunters and a keen exotic hunter himself. The club has 40,000 members, and promotes global competitive trophy hunting, with Grand Slam and Inner Circle competitions. These include Africa Big Five (leopard, elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo), North American Twenty-Nine (one of each species of bear, bison, sheep, moose, caribou, and deer), Big Cats of the World and Antlered Game of the Americas. To complete all 29 awards, a hunter must kill 322 separate species. (Source: Popbitch.com)

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Email to Classic Hits, from Tony."What a beautiful day in Auckland. Just typical of the best city in the world! Can I please hear I Can See Clearly Now by Stevie Wonder?"

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A BBC researcher contacted the Bob Marley Foundation last week, wanting their co-operation with a documentary about the making of No Woman No Cry. The email says, " ... The Story of No Woman No Cry would obviously only work with some participation from Bob Marley himself. I would be very grateful if you could see whether this is the kind of project that he might be interested in ... It would only involve Bob Marley spending one or two days with us to talk about this hit track." (Source: Ananova.com)

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Most marketeers would kill their own mother to get their product featured on film, but it seems Bombay Sapphire brand gin turned down an opportunity to appear in the new New Zealand film, No 2. The film makers were hoping to use the pleasant-looking bottle as the tipple for the film's main character, Fijian Indian Nana Maria. It seems the snooty gin brand didn't think Pacific Islanders drinking their product was a good look.