Not taking punches
New Zealand-born Charlotte Dawson, 43, co-host of Australian reality boxing show The Contender, talks candidly to The Age about the programme and what she knows about the opposite sex. “Women want to be open…
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On the Conchord cult
Actor and Conchord Jemaine Clement talks about his latest film Gentleman Broncos and the future of ‘Hiphopopotamus’ and ‘Rhymenoceros’ with Paul Fischer in an exclusive Moviehole interview. Fischer asks Clement about his reaction to…
Traits of an auteur
Ahead of this month’s release of Peter Jackson’s latest cinematic offering The Lovely Bones, The New York Times’ Terrence Rafferty takes a look at Jackson’s body of work over his 20-year career as a…
Poetic challenges
Bright Star director Jane Campion, 55, says she was always terrified of poetry. “It wasn’t poetry that brought me towards this story; it was my ignorance about the subject. I hit 50 and decided…
Tracking Morrison
Actor Temuera Morrison stars in the Ian Sharp film Tracker, set in New Zealand in 1903. Tracker also stars Ray Winstone (The Departed, Nil by Mouth) who plays Arjan, an ex-Boer War guerilla sent…
Antipodean partnership
Director Jane Campion’s Bright Star is “almost certain to be among this year’s leading Oscar contenders” and, according to The Times’ Tom Charity, “one of Campion’s best films, on a par with The Piano,…
Best Role of All
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis, 41, talks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about his role as flight medic Rabbit in NBC show Trauma. Curtis says it is “the most fun character” he has ever played. “He’s…
Funksters Release Second
The Flight of the Conchords have released their second album in the UK, I Told You I Was Freaky. The Guardian’s Will Dean says “we told you they were funky” and offers readers some…
Soap’s Scottish success
Wellington opera director Colin McColl was interviewed by The Scotsman on the eve of the opening night of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. Has Scottish Opera lost its marbles…
Big and buzzing in NY
Auckland band Surf City played six shows in New York as part of the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon. The Washington Post’s David Malitz writes: “For a band with just an EP to its name,…
Lunchbox Aesthetics
Christchurch art commentator Denis Dutton is invited by The New York Times to discuss beauty and the Japanese bento box. What does the care devoted to the visual details in a packed lunch suggest…
Spontaneous breeze
“In person, Campion is neither gorilla nor goddess,” writes Guardian correspondent Peter Conrad. “The breeze derives from her quirky humour and the mercurial play of expression on her face; her greying hair and her…
Talking to the trees
New Zealand business and IT consultant and author Claire Bulman, 41, has released her first book, aimed at children aged seven to ten, The Answer Tree. Maldon-based Bulman is hoping her target audience will…
Bones for the Queen
Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones has been selected to screen at November’s Royal Film Performance in London’s Leicester Square. Jackson said he is “honoured” it has been selected, adding its making has been “an…
Conceptual Costs
Professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury and author of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution Denis Dutton writes an opinion piece for The New York Times on the surprises conceptual…
Taking home the loot
Masterton-born singer Ladyhawke has won six Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, won the album of the year for Ladyhawke (Modular/Universal) and single award for ‘My Delerium’ at the…
Amidst the peach trees
“My favourite destination in the world will always be Coromandel in New Zealand,” says British author Fay Weldon in an interview with the Telegraph. “There I can go back to my golden age and…
Progeny of genius
New Zealand musician Liam Finn, 26, recently performed in Wisconsin at Madison’s Majestic Theatre with his childhood friend and current musical collaborator Eliza-Jane Barnes. In a review of the performance on Madison.com Aaron Conklin…
From serious to sassy
Actress Anna Paquin says she was the “most serious 15-year-old ever” but she has certainly grown up with a vengeance. “Oh, is a really full-on sexy show,” Paquin agrees easily, taking a…
Homemade Impresses
Wellington reggae seven-piece Fat Freddy’s Drop is compared to 70’s funk groups the Average White Band and War in a Guardian review of their latest nine-track album Dr Boondigga & the Big BW. The…
With eyes wide open
Pioneering New Zealand camerawoman Margaret Moth is the subject of a CNN World’s Untold Stories documentary ‘Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story’, in which former colleagues — including New Zealand photographer Barrington West and…
Into the Void
Photographer Robert Pearson was the sole New Zealander, and one of 18,000 entries, to make the International Photography Awards (IPA) final selections winning second place in the Fine Art: Abstract Pro section for ‘Entrophy…
Big Cheers for Danielle
Auckland dancer and Warriors rugby league cheerleader Danielle Miller, 22, has been named Big League’s 2009 Cheergirl of the Year the first time it has been awarded to someone outside NSW or ACT in…
Cinematic claims
New Zealand-born director Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano is included in Vogue Australia’s 50th Anniversary edition featuring alongside Picnic at Hanging Rock, Strictly Ballroom and Lantana as examples of “seminal moments in Australian…
Fox treads the boards
Wellington actress Kerry Fox stars in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues on at Duke of York’s Theatre in London. Fox plays Jane, who witnesses a possible crime and struggles with her decision…
New directions
Auckland-based playwright Stanley Makuwe, who is originally from Zimbabwe, recently returned to his homeland where his latest production The New Road premiered. The New Road tells the story of Sammy, a Zimbabwean who has…
One for the history books
Renowned New Zealand historian and writer, James Belich, has his latest book Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-world reviewed by The Times’ Bernard Porter, who believes Belich’s fresh…
Southern celebrations
Auckland-based singer-songwriter Caitlin Smith will perform at this year’s ASB Queenstown JazzFest, a 10-day live music celebration from October 17 to 26. A sensational line-up of more than 50 bands and 200 local and…
High expectations
“If sheer workload weren’t enough to keep the 47-year-old filmmaker on edge, he’s also grappling with lofty expectations,” writes Sandy Cohen for Associated Press. “Chief among them, his own. ‘You’re always imagining…
Pure Success
Tourism New Zealand’s 100 per cent Pure campaign has topped an international branding survey published by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and European Travel Commission. The survey asked 165 national tourism organisations which…
Daring new role
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis, 41, stars in the NBC medical drama Trauma as daredevil flight medic Reuben ‘Rabbit’ Palchuck. The show premiered in the US on September 28. Acting was always a hobby to…
Westenra joins forces
Christchurch soprano Hayley Westenra, 22, will top the bill at the Royal British Legion’s annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 7, replacing glamorous Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins as the…
Toronto’s Triple Treat
New Plymouth-raised, Los Angeles-based actress Melanie Lynskey, 32, has roles in three of the most talked-about movies at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Her roles in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, Tim…
Squat sophisticates
Aucklander Dan Simon, 31, and his art collective ‘The Oubliette’ have been squatting in two 15 million pound mansions in the exclusive suburb of Mayfair, London, transforming the six-story buildings into a cultural centre…
Gorgeous melodrama
Niki Caro’s film The Vintner’s Luck, based on Wellington author Elizabeth Knox’s novel of the same name and starring Keisha Castle-Hughes is, according to entertainment news site Moviehole, “Gorgeous in all facets of visual…
Beer for art’s sake
New Zealand singer Ladyhawke, 30 and painter/illustrator Sarah Larnach, 30, have redesigned labels for Beck’s beer bottles as part of beer brand’s Music Inspired Art project, labels which feature watercolours of a howling wolf…
Holy dedication
This month, Auckland singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore, 23, releases her debut album Holy Smoke which was recorded in Los Angeles with the American band The Cardinals. Wigmore is signed to Universal in Australia, where she…
This way through love
“The Topps defy logic,” writes Variety in a review of The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls — winners of the audience award for best documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. “‘On paper,’ says their…
Preoccupation with Love
Jane Campion’s Bright Star, which recently opened in New York, won much praise at Cannes, some from unlikely sources. “I’m not really into poetry,” said Quentin Tarantino, who also said he believes Bright Star…
World Odyssey continues
South Seas Film School graduates New Zealanders Julian Hanton and Camilla Andersen joined forces to film Travel Channel-commissioned television series Julian and Camilla’s World Odyssey; the show’s first season was one of the…
Such deep silence to hear
Christchurch poet Ursula Bethell’s ‘Rock Crystal’ was a recent Guardian ‘Poem of the Week’. ‘Rock Crystal’, travels beyond the garden and celebrates wider nature. It’s a “holiday poem” but one that takes a metaphysical…
Career beginnings
Tauranga-raised actor and Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O’Brien, 67, has told the Guardian that his career began riding horses in movies, having learnt to ride growing up in New Zealand. “In 1965, I…
Small Screen Project
Waikato-born executive chef de cuisine, head of Gordon Ramsay’s North American operations and New Zealand’s first Michelin star winner Josh Emett, 36, will document his rise to culinary fame in a documentary called Chef…
Tui time at the Vector
Auckland band Midnight Youth and London-based Ladyhawke — aka Pip Brown — have both been nominated for a number of awards to be presented at this year’s New Zealand Music Awards held at the…
Rewire and succeed
Browns Bay neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman, 53, has written a book called The Winner’s Bible which instructs how to rise beyond your natural limits using detailed examples of people Spackman has worked with over…
Inspired by Wings
New Zealand choreographer and Rambert Dance Company’s artistic director Mark Baldwin is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth with The Comedy of Change, a new work inspired by Darwin’s theory of the…
Henderson Signs with ABC
Auckland-born actor Martin Henderson, 34, has reportedly signed a six-figure deal with network ABC. According to Hollywood Reporter, Henderson is expected to topline an hour-long project for the network. The former Shortland Street star…
All in this Together
The Age of Stupid producer Auckland-born Lizzie Gillett, 31, spent five years working on the climate change drama-documentary with McLibel director Briton Franny Armstrong “working through obstacles as they come up: from difficult…
At Home on the Edge
Artist Judy Millar, 52, explains to the Financial Times that she lives “at the end of a seven-mile dusty road on Auckland’s west coast and overlooks perhaps one of the most untouched beaches on…
Family affair
Neil Finn, his brother Tim and sons Liam and Elroy are just four of the 21 songwriters, 14 backing musicians and a dog collaborating on the album The Sun Came Out just released in…
She’s no Barbie doll
True Blood star New Zealander Anna Paquin — “who has an Oscar and a cool accent” — talks to Nylon magazine about the show’s phenomenal success, those nude scenes and going blonde for the…
She’s Getting on With It
“Stuntmaster turned-actor of the moment seems to be New Zealand-born Zöe Bell”, writes Douglas Rusley for The Examiner in a review of web series Angel of Death, in which Bell stars as professional assassin…
Soprano for life
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is profiled in the Guardian’s ‘Portrait of the Artist’ column in which the soprano says opera is sung by performers from “very ordinary backgrounds”. “I’m not an elitist, so I…
Solace in the city
Auckland writer Chad Taylor has received a number of reviews commending his latest novel The Church of John Coltrane. A sequel to 1994’s Heaven – made into a film by Miramax in…
Massive comparisons
Wellington soul collective Fat Freddys Drop released their second album Dr Boondigga & the Big BW earlier this year, an album which according to Guardian reviewer Neil Spencer has an “infectious mix of retro-soul…
Disney’s Newest Princess
Orewa-raised actress Emily Robins, 21, is enjoying international success starring in the Disney Channel’s latest tween hit The Elephant Princess, where she plays Alex, a regular suburban girl who discovers she is a princess…
