Mad world of Milk
“In the real world, Lucinda probably would be in court-ordered psychotherapy, with a restraining order or two thrown in to boot. In the fanciful world of The Price of Milk, however, Cormack’s Lucinda is…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
How to remember the holocaust?
As conceptual architect of the “extraordinarily popular Museum of New Zealand Te Papa” Ken Gorbey has earned a reputation as a world leader in museum innovation – head hunted to be project director of…
Nice snap
Kiwi AP photojournalist Greg Baker snapped third place in the World Press Photo of the Year Sports stories category for a series taken at a Chinese sports’ school.
Lost in Te Anau
New Zealand-filmed BBC production of sci-fi dino classic The Lost World set to be “a ripping yarn with some of the most exotic locations we’ve seen in television drama”.
Hunter is home from the (Beverly) hills
Rachel Hunter features in a movie about a furry antipodean who gets lost and ends up in LA…
In the can
“I can shut my eyes and imagine the movie playing in my head,” says Peter Jackson, spilling the exhaustion and elation of moving from filming to post-production.
Touch of Class
German band ATC’s Around the World (La La La La La) is big in Germany, but hasn’t hit New Zealand yet, home of singer “Joe”.
Luna Live!
New Zealand-born Luna lead Dean Wareham’s “uber-romantic, world-weary lyrics” feature on recent release Luna Live!
Political Thrills
“I felt that this picture was made for me, because I love politics and I love making thrillers,” says Kiwi-spawned director Roger Donaldson of missile-drama Thirteen Days, reviewed as “a sleek, fast and…
Jazzy sound
New Zealand’s c.l. bob impress in Melbourne, “an inventive ensemble whose music ranges from AfroCaribbean shuffles to Hendrix-style mayhem”.
Acting love
British actor Toby Stephens “sips cranberry and soda in restaurants with his girlfriend, the New Zealand actress Anna-Louise Plowman (Flick, The Adulterer)”, and enjoys “choosing colour schemes for his new north London flat.” …
Dinosaur amore
Sam Neill confesses to feeling something for his Jurassic co-stars: “There was one little female velociraptor who had a cute haircut, but it was never anything more than holding hands… holding claws.”
Cross-cultural carving
A display of Japanese netsuke, small carved toggles for pouches, includes “a mythical bird’s head by a New Zealand carver,” which “successfully combines the imagery of one culture with the aesthetics of Japan.”
Group sex
Veiled body parts and explicit pictures on show at Group Sex, One Eye Gallery, Paekakariki.
Still sailing
Ian Tew’s soon to be published In Grandfather’s Wake includes an account of finding Grandpa Graham’s old yacht “in full commission” in New Zealand.
Cultural resonance
”Everything I saw in this film I see in my own country,” says Maori Jillian White, speaking of Native Canadian films screened at Canada’s Sundance festival.
Dread Drought
New Zealand artist Horace Moore-Jones painted “one of the few pictorial responses to Australia’s Long Drought” (1895 and 1903), a series which included “Dead Drought as ‘a ghastly emaciated figure of doubtful sex, wearing…
Lang may his lum reek
New Zealand’s now home for Scottish actor John Cairney but he makes a yearly return to Scotland for Burns night.
Tools out
Carving New Zealand jade is among the retirement pursuits under consideration by Australian songster Rolf Harris.
Scraps of genius
New Zealand-born artist Rosalie Gascoigne used roadside ephemera in her work: “from the grasses, pebbles, discarded roadside trophies, road signs and softdrinks crates, she built an extraordinary body of work. In her hands and…
Web savvy
Lord of the Rings producers have played it cool with net marketing – giving away photos and info titbits to keep the fans keen. The redesigned Rings site has already clocked over41 million…
Blanchettes
Maybe it was all the fresh air and vigorous activity? Cate Blanchett says “working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand made her feel especially broody”.
Prehistoric background
New Zealand provided the background – and the KY jelly – for the phenomenly successful Walking with Dinosuars, soon to be followed by The Ballad of Big Al.
Spence of the sixties
The house of Beehive-architect Sir Basil Spence is described as “the best 1960’s space in Great Britain”.
Ringing up the gold
Lord of the Rings has brought the gold into Wellington, the city of “tearooms and sea views”. View the New Zealand setting in the round at the official site.
Country & Urban
New Zealand-born country singer/ songwriter Keith Urban’s “Rollercoaster” gets a Grammy nom, while Keith himself fronts Music Row mag and toasts his top-ten success.
Kraus purposes
“If women have failed to make ‘universal’ art because we’re trapped within the ‘personal,’ why not universalize the ‘personal’ and make it the subject of our art?” asks Edge-thinker Chris Kraus.
Different way of seeing
“It’s generally accepted that what really great artists do is change the way that we see things, and Rosalie . . . changed the way we see our country,” says Australian arts writer Hannah…
NZ film in NY
“2001: A New Zealand Film Odyssey” currently running in New York festures “new, rediscovered and undiscovered” New Zealand films, including hot-now The Price of Milk and classics Utu and War Stories Our Mothers Never Told…
Greenstone Hit
New Zealand historical drama Greenstone infiltrates Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
Old play, new tricks
1975 New Zealand play Mothers and Fathers gets a convincing makeover for Sydney’s Fringe – “even though it’s slightly archaic to think that $50,000 could buy you a dream home in this town”.
The authors’ luck
The selection of New Zealand novels Baby No-Eyes, The Vintner’s Luck and Believers to the Bright Coast on the short list of six for the new A$40,000 Tasmanian Pacific Region Prize for best novel…
Neil plugged in
New Zealand maestro Neil Finn talks live, performs and announces the launch of his new website.
Trailer Lords
“There’s an advert currently going out on Virgin radio encouraging listeners to go to the cinema this Friday. It does urge you go to a film but only because this is the first opportunity…
First Baggins off the rack
“The most ambitious undertaking in the film world recently has been Peter Jackson’s filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand. If the results are as epic as the production, the first…
Janet and John Revamped
Janet and John, the New Zealand-authored, internationally successful learn-to-read books of the fifties and sixties are making a come-back in ethnically-inclusive, non-sexist but still easy-to-read versions.
More Cate
“I’m so excited to be doing all three movies,” says Blanchett. “It’s thrilling. I wanted this project so badly. We’re talking Peter Jackson. And Tolkien – my God! That man, Tolkien, created a whole…
Holiday high
New Zealander Russell Brice plans to build the world’s highest hotel – at base camp on Everest’s Tibetan flank. The hotel aims to be “a flagship of green construction techniques,” using solar power and…
Change your life
Get prepared for Rings-mania: Brush up on your Tolkien makes number 16 on the list of 99 ways to change your life.
Rings v Potter
“If the budget on Lord of the Rings is sky-high, so are expectations surrounding the films. Fans of Tolkien’s 1,000-page trilogy about hobbits and elves in the fantasy land called Middle Earth are truly…
Spin the disc
Radio Pacific DJ Des Coppins hit the airwaves nude after losing his shirt, and his trousers, in an unwise bet.
Going Vertical
Kiwi filmed/helmed Vertical Limit gave star Chris O’Donnell a few moments of terror: “my next thought was, somebody better show me a copy of my paycheck again, so I can remember why I’m doing this…
Moving Opera
Diva Kiri Te Kanawa’s welcome to the millennium was “the first, and one of the relatively few, moving moments among a hailstorm of images bearing down from around the globe during marathon New Year’s…
Dishy Neill
Sam Neill puts in a “terrific performance” in The Dish, a “little-known story of how an obscure Australian tracking station provided the crucial downlink for the worldwide broadcast of the 1969 moon walk”, which has…
In the Pink of Elf
“Cate Blanchett is looking particularly ethereal…perhaps it’s just a little leftover glow from the four months spent in New Zealand playing the Lady Galadriel…”
Vertical #2
“Vertical Limit has its flaws – but they’re not enough to dim rousing, old-fashioned escapism which uses modern techno-skills to really put you in the picture and on the mountain peak.”
Birth blocked
New Zealand website Calendargirls’ planned broadcast of a live birth on Christmas day was stymied by a high court ruling.
Escape from Middle Earth
With a $100 000 budget and all the glamour Wellington could muster, the Rings wrap party was like “something straight out of Tolkien”.
Domestic goddess
Christmas brings out the “Nigella domestic goddess” in New Zealand lesbian-crime writer Stella Duffy.
Flight Patterns
“The best of the work in “Flight Patterns” examines the surface detail of social, urban and environmental landscapes to present timely portraits of contemporary life in the Pacific Rim region… Gavin Hipkins’ two dozen…
Year of the Crowe
What sparked Crowe-mania? “I don’t know mate. Luck?” suggests the man himself, Entertainment Weekly‘s entertainer of the year. Proof of Life co-star David Caruso disagrees: “Once in a generation an actor will come along and…
Land Ahoy!
Karen Hesse’s teen novel Stowaway chronicles the life of Nick Young, a stowaway on Cook’s ship and the first of the crew to spot Aotearoa
AL&D ‘indispensable’
“Arts and Letters Daily triumphantly confirms its founder’s original hypothesis – that there is a cornucopia of wonderful writing out there on the web…but its success is mainly due to the way it met…
Immaculate Duffy
New Zealander Stella Duffy, creator of lesbian crime-fighter Saz Martin, tackles God and redemption in her latest Immaculate Conception: “I think it’s ground-breaking to write about miracles as if they’re real. It’s not very…
