Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman maintains he is unaware of any golden handshake to Paul Henry and says it would be "inappropriate" to find out.

It doesn't have to be wacky, but a bit of fun at work is therapeutic for staff, and for the business.

Kiwi actors are being used as pawns in a high-stakes game involving Sir Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

A Canadian actors' union has sided with its Kiwi counterparts in a dispute over employment terms on Peter Jackson's The Hobbit films.

Actor Sam Neill says the dispute between the actors' unions and 'The Hobbit' producers could be resolved with a simple cup of tea.

Australian MP Eric Abetz is accusing the actors' union advocating a boycott of the film The Hobbit of threatening thousands of jobs on both sides of the Tasman.

Two firms caring for the disabled asked to be put under statutory management as they could not afford the potential $176m liability of a requirement to pay sleeping workers.

Two senior ministers have made themselves available to mediate in the industrial dispute surrounding The Hobbit after meeting with Fran Walsh and Sir Peter Jackson today.

The Aussie film industry is lobbying for The Hobbit should industrial issues not be resolved in NZ, says the film's co-producer and co-writer.

The furore over The Hobbit is the normal process of a union trying to talk to an employer who is refusing to talk back, says actor and director Ian Mune.

The head of an Auckland actors' agency says he was saddened by an insulting email from the head of South Pacific Pictures reacting to comments he'd made on the Hobbit stand-off.

The actors' union pushing for collective contracts for actors in New Zealand says it is "disappointed" in Sir Peter Jackson's refusal to negotiate terms and conditions for Hobbit actors.

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) is fuming at the Government for siding with Sir Peter Jackson's stance on the union dispute surrounding The Hobbit movies.