Australian TV discussion

OP scanning the five TV channels in Australia, seeking validation of his internalised homophobia.

Saying this guy is gay is like shooting fish in a barrel. He's from another generation, and obviously very suburban and unsophisticated. For people like him, being out wasn't seen as an option. I'm sure literally everyone he knew growing up got married and had kids. Gays, I'm sure he was constantly told, were the absolute worst and died of AIDS. There are still young people like him even today. I know one. He's even camper and recently had a baby with his girlfriend.

I have a question.

^ Sorry, wrong thread.

Hiii boythe

0f course they're still on Travel Guides. Got to run it into the ground 🙄

Its the country that brought you Ian 'I would be open about it, if I were gay. But im not and so its so offensive to me' Thorpe, and the likes of current they/them/pansexual (very very gay) Hugh Sheridan. Oh, and dont forget this man

Hugh was hounded out of a lead role in Hedwig because a controlling ideologue decided he wasn't queer enough for her liking.

Until recently I used to work in a very prominent part of the Australian legacy media. In the area where I worked, which involved a bunch of household names, no openly gay men were ever assigned to public-facing senior roles, although almost all the male staff that made things happen were gay. This will give you an idea of why there are still so many closet cases in the Australian media.

The polar opposite of that is ABC and SBS news where the vast majority of on air journalists under 50 are gay.

R5, RIP Bert, They were fun times.

Mark Fren is very camp, but very good at self deprecation. They are a jolly family!

Self deprecation is often a method people have developed to deflect abuse by spotlighting one's perceived deficiencies first before the bully can. It must be fucking exhausting and I find it sad.

C'mon Bert had to have been gay, no? Were he and Graham Kennedy lovers?

Napoleon Perdis? hmmm

r15 oh dear god, I forgot about that sad old queen. I dont know who is more embarrassing, him or Alex Perry.

Whatever Bert may or may not have been, it was very common for gay men of his generation to marry and have kids and many of them did not ever have sex with other men. Gay life was seen as unthinkable and tragic.

R14, we'll never know. It's something best let in the past.

R17 most of them had sex, but only in the confines of public toilets 💦

Bill Collins (gone in 2019), was someone I always thought was gay, yet he was married to a woman (he married for the first time at 48 years old). He introduced me to classic films with his show "The Golden Years of Hollywood" when I was a teenager. Now, Voyager, Casablanca, and of course his fave Gone With the Wind.

He occasionally showed a horror like Psycho, or Night of The Living Dead. He surprised me one night by showing Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 in his usual slot. Saying it wasn't a brilliant movie, but he had enjoyed it, from the technical aspects to the acting. He also made cameos in TV series Prisoner: Cell Block H and the movie Howling III.

The voice of Big Brother Australia Season 1 and 2, maybe 3, had the sexiest voice.

Speaking of public toilets, Alan Jones managed a TV career.

R20, I cant remember ...was he on the ABC or SBS. He certainly was very knowledgeable. His wife Joan was no oil painting.

R20 I still have Bill Collins’ Saturday Night At The Movies introduction to Suddenly Last Summer on my DVR.

He liked a lot of B movies (he promoted Song Of The Turtle with Eleanor Powell and a surprisingly warm and sexy Ronald Reagan) and wasn’t afraid to poke fun at more films things like 40-year-old virgin Doris Day’s fear of sex with Cary Grant in That Touch Of Mink

I can't think how Alan Jones got off that "Cottaging" charge in the UK!! He must have sucked someone off...and still kept his job coaching rugby.

[quote] ...was he on the ABC or SBS

All of them.

Who else gets closet vibes from Ian Smith?

well. Harold did play the tuba

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r29 pushy netball playing lesbian jaw

Let's not forget Baz Luhrmann who is still pretending to be straight the last I heard. Dicko, too.

I've actually met a lot of these guys through work (I currently work at one of the TV channels someone else mentioned in this thread) and you'd be surprised at how many closeted guys there are both in front of the scenes, and also behind them in Oz media. Some of the bigger names, some of them just random team leaders and heads of department. Many of them have wives and children, but frequently visit gay escorts in the city or even just a glory hole here and there. I find a good portion of them also make a lot of jokes about themselves being gay too (and are always in that flamboyant 'performance mode'), it's quite jarring.

But it probably stems from our culture of sports, boganism and masculinity. I think of long lost gays like John Hargreaves who hid his life from the public eye. And even a lot of the content that is put out there reeks of closeted homoerotica (all those blokey guys on 'The Footy Show' constantly joking in speedos or getting waxed together or whatever). We are still a bit behind the times, when you look at our media and pop culture on free-to-air TV, it hasn't changed much since the 70s, aside from the odd gayling comedian like Josh Thomas, Rhys Nicholson, or Benjamin Law who get to corner the market and reap the profits.

Dicko likes dick R31???

I just saw someone in the comments for a listing on squirt.org say they once saw an Australian Idol winner get their dick sucked at that particular beat. Guessing it was Stan Walker

Is there anyone in Australia who actually likes Lisa Wilkinson?

Her mentee, Australia’s foremost Karen, Mia Freedman, I guess

R33, well no. But as for Pete...I could. I find brains sexy

Wilkinson's problem is that she has a huge working class chip on her shoulder because she's from the western suburbs and resents anyone who isn't.

^ Campbelltown Queen.

I have no time for The Project - Wikinson, Bickmore, Aly. Can't stand all the posturing and faux sentimentality. I did not mind Wilkinson back when she was a panelist on Beauty and the Beast where she was the 'straight guy'. I miss Beauty and the Beast and how wild it would get with outlandish panelists like Jeannie Little and Carlotta. There were some temper tantrums, but panelists would enjoy sinking their teeth ravenously into some controversial topics in a way they won't today.

Oh Beastie boy Stan Zemanek, I loved him on night radio ( he was a shit) he hated those Femi-Nazis who rang in.

Totally gay

Pretty cute when he was young

Baz Luhrmann is such one of those 99% gay guys who acts as though he is radically queer by sleeping with a woman, but in actuality he just has a massive chip on his shoulder. The fey gayboy who, as much to his own shock as others, finds like he can go through the motions with a woman and runs with it. Add to that an healthy dose of ambition.......

Burt also had a side acting career, staring as the ne'er-do-well dad on The Adventures of Fatty Finn.

I had a weird crush on the boy who played Fatty Finn when I saw it aged 5. Even my mum called me out on it. And yes, I protested too much.

Just watched Bert Newton's funeral, the first half was good, photo montage, speeches etc. Missed the second half with the religious stuff.

Christ catholics shit on and on. It's still on, i gave up. Anthony did a good job and is still cute.

I bet Scomo never even met Bert

^ Huh can’t believe Scomo would approve of Bert’s campy life much. The only thing they had in common was religion 🙏🏻

Did Belvedere turn up and recite a Limerick?

Who’s been watching Love Island? Some serious bi vibes from some of the guys

R50...well...your thoughts?

Aaron is bi as fuck. Noah too.

The Love Island website is terrible, I wish it was more like the old Big Brother site. But I guess people these days don’t really visit websites the way they used to.

Noah seems to have crawled out of the 1980/90's in his gear. As for fuckboi Ryan....he needs a kick in the balls!

The problem with a bisexual Bachelorette is if everyone decides to bang each other instead of her. It’s not supposed to be Love Island.

R45 Ben Oxenbould (Fatty Finn )has grown from a young larrikin into a hot gruff daddy. I had a crush on him back then too. It was a great performance, also one that's very typical of young Australian boys of that era.

What’s the dirt on Matthew Newton?

R57 you mean besides the fact that he's abusive?

R57 He was beating Brooke Satchwell for years. My flatmate in the early aughts a cop in inner west who had been called out to their flat several times.

Didn't Matt have a nervous breakdown overseas back in the day or was it in Aussie? My memory is a bit shot. I did like it when he was one of the leads in the Mr Asia 'Underbelly' series.

He has bipolar and ocd, anxiety, depression

Meh. I know many people with I know heaps of people with bipolar and ocd, anxiety, depression. They haven’t assaulted taxi drivers, concierges and Rachael Taylor.

I think it's pretty well known he has had major addiction demons. He showed promise as an actor with a very sensitive performance in Looking For Alabrandi, but he was never going to be known as anything other than the son of his beloved by all dad. I hope he gets it under control.

R43 The Fatty Finn soundtrack, which includes the songs Hooray For Fatty Finn, and She's a Mean Mean Woman, was written by Grahame Bond a funny comedian, and also great songwriter and the star of ABC's Aunty Jack, and News Free Zone. Grahame also wrote the famed Lainie Kazan Sings Air New Zealand Pacific song.

R63, Matthew Newton is a far better actor than most people have seen. I was privileged to see him at NIDA, where he proved himself brilliant in both Shakespeare and Sondheim (and did a wicked but affectionate impression of Bert when playing Mr Crummles in Nicholas Nickleby). He started writing and directing films in his 20s. His first appearance on the improv show Thank God You're Here was astounding. Bert, who was sensational with the single witty interjection, could not have matched its sustained inventiveness at any point in his career. (It could have been drug-assisted, of course.)

He was never going to be more beloved than his father, who was a show business institution before he was born, but had he not run so completely off the rails he could easily have become more famous, especially internationally. He still might, if he really has got it under control and #metoo backs off a bit. The assaults and the destructive behaviour were truly awful, and he never expressed nearly enough public remorse for them at the time, but they were a long time ago now.

Hamish McDonald has been having some fun on The Project recently as a journo with serious credentials who is also openly gay. Recently Courtney Act was on talking about her memoir. Somebody asked her about the section on her first kiss. She described exactly where and when it was, but said she could no longer remember a thing about the guy, whom she never saw again. McDonald prefixed his next question with, "Well I'm sick that you've forgotten me, Courtney, but..." and laughed agreement when she said, "Oh no! We could have been such a power couple!"

R47, if ScoMo ever did meet Bert I'm sure Bert would have been charming to him, but he was always pro-Labor. Being a Victorian State Funeral, this one offered Labor Premier Daniel Andrews a chance to shine. A cynic might be forgiven for believing that ScoMo's mission was to upstage him if possible. However, Bert and Patti would both no doubt have felt the honour of having so many senior politicians and head-of-state types there, especially as Andrews was the only one who spoke officially.

He was beating Brooke Satchwell for years.

He hits you once, it's his fault, he hits you twice, it's your fault. Who stays for 'years' to be bashed? Unless pros of being Matthew Newton's girlfriend outweigh the cons?

Does Matthew Newton like dick like his dad did?

Australia is full of closeted bi men who are extremely homophobic. Australia rewards bisexuality, but still mocks homosexuality and actual gay men. It's never been any different and it never will.

R69 is Debbie Downer.

I like The Cheap Seats! Fun, quick and witty show.

Lisa W has grown on me through the years. I like Hamish on The Project, his interactions with Tommy Little are cute.

I think it's fantastic that the bachelorette is a first nation's bisexual, even it if it's not rating so well. I only ever watched the Sophie Monk series, because I think she's fucking hilarious! Don't watch her current Love Island shit fest though.

It's sad that there are so many closeted middle aged guys in Australia. God bless the younger generation.

I remember Bert's last Logies appearance, where he referred to himself as an old poof. Got bad press of course. Obviously he and Patty loved each other very much.

Channel 9 shits me.........seems to be still very homophobic and blokey, although I guess it's changing. Maybe I should say Blocky. Although those 2 guys won this year. It kind of irritates me that all the 'gays' on TV have to be sooooooo 'gay', if you know what I mean.

I love Adam and Poh.

Still too many white people on Oz TV.

The sports guy on ABC Breakfast is a breath of hot fresh air.

I loved 'Frayed' and of course 'Rosehaven'. ABC does good Oz comedies, shame there aren't a few more.

I used to have Sunrise on every morning, getting ready for work. Can't stomach it now. Kochie makes me cringe. I liked Sam, she was herself. It's a very white show. I'm white, but deplore the lack of diversity on these shows.

Very random thoughts and post!!

[Quote] Channel 9 shits me.........seems to be still very homophobic and blokey, although I guess it's changing.

I'm sure Eddie McGuire will make sure it stays as blokes as possible.

[quote]Who stays for 'years' to be bashed?

Sadly, more women than not stay, if not for years then for many rounds of violence. Part of the grooming process is to lower self-esteem and drive away friends and family. Also to convince her that he needs her dreadfully. (No idea which, if any, of these applied in this particular case, of course.)

As for The Bachelorette, I'm very dubious about it. All the "lesbians" in it are the kind of pretty, groomed-to-the-teeth girlies straight men look for in lesbian porn, and if that demographic of viewer wasn't a sure thing I doubt it would have been made. I put lesbians in quotes because everybody on those reality shows is acting a part. 9 out of 10 of them will probably be fraus with three kids in a decade. It's nice for gaylings of all genders that it's on, because from a teen's point of view it looks like validation, but I think it's a lot more cynical than that. The Bachelorette herself is on her THIRD "looking for love" reality show, which translates "looking for a contract".

Bert thought of becoming a priest when young, lived with his mother till he was 36.....hmmm, gay?

Lisa W has grown on me through the years.

like a parasitic growth?

The Block should be renamed 'Bogans Who Think They Can Decorate'.

I can't palette that old poof on The Block with the glasses who dresses like a woman clown

R75 Yes

I think Mel from Master Chef will win the Gold Logie next year. Just putting that out there!

R77 did you know that old poof has an ex-wife and 3 kids?

I got bi vibes from Vito

r79 your point?

r79 poor them, have they changed their names?

I just wanted you to know because I think it’s hilarious R80

[quote] He hits you once, it's his fault, he hits you twice, it's your fault.

Yah, no.

[quote]Who stays for 'years' to be bashed?

Hi Matthew. You’re still ugly and can’t hold a candle to Toby Schmitz or Ewen Leslie.

r83 You'd stay in a violent relationship for years?

[quote]I love Adam and Poh.

Adam Liaw is hilarious and his ramen recipes on YouTub are gold.

[quote]The sports guy on ABC Breakfast is a breath of hot fresh air.

Tony Armstrong is a hunky hunk

[quote]I used to have Sunrise on every morning, getting ready for work. Can't stomach it now. Kochie makes me cringe.

I love how he looks like a penis. I’d do him.

[quote] You'd stay in a violent relationship for years

Sweetie, are you trying to claim Matthew Newton didn’t abuse minimum of 2 partners, one taxi driver and one hotel employee he didn’t over the years?

r86 Not at all hun, I've no doubt he did. I'm saying people who stay in abusive relationships for years have to ask themselves why they stay? Don't give me they're conditioned and groomed and they have low self esteem, it's not the 1950s, women have their own money and support now, if someone is hitting you you get out, it's not rocket science. He doesn't love you.

So why do you think the very vast majority of people in abusive relationships don’t leave r87?

What do you think the reason is?

Apart from them all being not as intelligent, wealthy and enlightened as you deem yourself.

^can be blame 'Stockholm syndrome'?

What am I going to watch on free to air over summer?

what about weelend sunrise host matt doran? recently announced he is engaged to the show's executive producer.

R90 something with gravitas - like Supergirl reruns.

I watch 60 Minutes Australia on youtube, and I think the half middle eastern reporter is very hot and I am not even bi. I hate that you can’t comment on their videos though what the fuck is up with that?

I wanted to post a seething comment about these bogan trash parents, oh well.

R91, the Matt Doran with anger issues?? God he's lost his looks quickly. He's never been the same since he left Ch 10.

R91 isn't he engaged to a producer of the Today show?

I miss Wheel of Fortune.

Celebrity Letters and Numbers is the new Wheel of Fortune.

I think it's better than the British 9 out of 10 Cats does Countdown. More games, more relaxed, very Aussie, hot host and diverse casting.

Whenever I think of Wheel of Fortune, I think of Kath Day-Knight saying "Wheel hasn't been the same since Adriana Obscenities left."

R98 😆😆😆

Has anyone been watching [italic]Big Brother VIP[/italic]?

Big Brother hasn't been interesting since they stopped doing the Up Late episodes.

that guy in the scratched car ads is cute.

I was an avid Big Brother fan back in the day. I even went to a few live evictions at Dreamworld! I have no interest at all in the new version. Seems like old, tired games to me.

I think I'll give Celebrity Masterchef a miss as well tonight. The 3 blandest contestants made the final. Yawn.

Do you think Sunrise will air the Adele interview if it is released? After all the palava about the guy not listening to the album....

^ I'll say it again in this thread Matt Doran is a fuckwitt!!

maybe *fuckwit*?

Did anyone else watch the 60 Minutes segment about the disappearance of Russell Hill and Carol Clay the other day and is now disappointed in themselves for not seeing through the police’s tactics? Apparently they’ve known the guy’s numberplate all along, but darkened the image of his car, and the entire segment was just an attempt to get him to incriminate himself over the phone so they could charge him. I’m guessing they swarmed him with the helicopters because they thought he was going to kill himself or something.

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The AACTA Awards (Australia's equivalent of the Oscars) were on last night and it was surprising how many internationally famous Australians were home for it. Baz and Taika presented Best Film. Sarah Snook was there, Russell Crowe, Rebel Wilson. Rachel Griffiths won Best Supporting Actress in a TV Drama and was there to get it. Eric Bana was there for his win too.

Judy Davis astonished by being present to receive her Best Actress in a Film award - not because she doesn't live in Sydney but because I can't remember the last time she showed up at an awards night. She got massive spontaneous applause. Her reaction was, "That's enough of that."

For overseas readers who are interested, the film that literally swept the awards was Justin Kurzel's Nitram. The title is "Martin" backwards - apparently a nickname given to the real shooter at school because he was "backward". It is a character study of the boy-man who carried out Australia's worst gun massacre at Port Arthur. They never used his real name in the movie, since what little is known of the real Nitram's motivation is that he expected to become famous through the massacre. The action stops before the people surrounding him have even sensed danger, so there's not a drop of blood nor a fearful victim in it.

More than a portrait, it is a minute demonstration of the kind of person who could just walk into a gun shop and load up on automatic weapons before 1996. Information provided at the end states that Australia's ban on automatic weapons has been gradually collapsing over the decades since its strong start, hence the need for a new warning. Judy Davis and Anthony LaPaglia play his parents and Essie Davis the eccentric wealthy woman he took up with. All three, plus American Caleb Landry-Jones in the main role, are really brilliant. LaPaglia is heartbreaking.

The Campion movie wasn't released in time to be eligible this year.

To return to TV, Best TV Drama was The Newsreader, which has a gay theme and a pretty leading man, so catnip for DLers. Anna Torv is the female lead.

I knew Nitram would sweep after it won that big prize at Cannes. Judy Davis really is THE queen of Australian cinema. She has already won 3 of these since they changed the name to AACTA, and I think like 7 more back when it was AFI. More than any other actress. She and LaPaglia were absolutely brilliant in Nitram. I thought the movie was beautifully shot and very complex, a great, haunting snapshot of disaffected Australia at that time. I know there was controversy about even making a film about the subject, but it's a story worth telling. I was shocked at the heiress being interested in him, especially after I read the full story (upon watching the film).

In gay news, SBS' Mardi Gras also won an award. Which is nice, since ABC now has the rights for the next few years. They really do a great job putting gay content on free to air TV, even at a time when none of the other networks were doing so.

[Quote] Baz and Taika presented Best Film.

Was Taika on his best behaviour?

LOL, R111, Taika couldn't get a word in edgewise over Baz. Which was a good thing - he can be quite the asshole.

Baz read all the nominations and then read the winner.

I agree about Judy Davis. One of the finest actors in the world. There is a scene just before the endgame of Nitram starts where she is on her own with no dialogue. It's a masterclass in acting.

Baz then went on to close the ceremony by himself and directed from the stage by yelling 'cut'.

It was quite over the top and Divaish.

I wish I knew how to make a meme out of it.

Anthony LaPaglia was SO fucking hot in Nitram

beau ryan

Who else is obsessed with channel 31/44?

[Quote] He was beating Brooke Satchwell for years. He hits you once, it's his fault, he hits you twice, it's your fault. Who stays for 'years' to be bashed? Unless pros of being Matthew Newton's girlfriend outweigh the cons?

If you want to align yourself even more with M. Newton, you should go further and say that it's always HER fault...

R115, really? Are you brain dead? Cheated on his wife and an absolute dipshit.

Apparently Michael Veitch is bisexual

R31 I can't remember when I found out John Hargreaves was gay. I can't even remember when I read that he had passed away which was in January 1996 I but was really sick for a number of weeks at the time so that may be why.

During the 1980's he moved to France with his lover (a Frenchman) and I understand that it was likely him who passed on HIV to John. The guy cheated on him and broke his heart.

I visited John Hargreaves grave in late 2014. It didn't look like anybody had been to it for a long time. He was my favourite Australian actor and his death still breaks my heart.

r120 you'll live

R120 I met Hargreaves not long before his death. He was visiting an associate. He was quite laid back and unassuming.

Piercing blue eyes from memory but they had that look of someone not well.

Yeah, so crazy

If you ever get to see outtakes from The Odd Angry Shot you can see that Hargreaves and Graham Kennedy got along like a house on quite a lot of fire. Kennedy was compering a weekend Tonight show at the time the movie came out and he had the cast on to spruik it; it was even more obvious there.

Hargreaves was much loved by the showbiz community generally. Apparently a lovely guy.

R124 John Hargreaves and Graham Kennedy also appeared in Don's Party a few years earlier.

Was Robie Porter family?

Michael Veitch used to do those flight attendant sketches on Fast Forward. Considered homophobic by today's standards.

Here's Judy winning

Baz and his wife CM have an open "marriage". He is fundamentally homosexual and she is a bisexual tending towards lesbian. They are close companions and creative collaborators who had sex a few times. If you want to be wet about it you could call them soul mates. Other people might call it the eternal alliance between gay men and fat women. For many that alliance ends in high school, for others it's a life long thing that works really well for both.

R128 "That's enough..."

LOL.

I've slept with an SBSssssssssssssssssssssssss newsreader.

R131 stop revealing my secrets

You were great, Lee Lin! But you already knew that.

R131 Was it that short fey one with the pocky face?

Who is that?!

R45 Ben Oxenbould’s character was offed by Mick Taylor in one of the Wolf Creek series.

R106 Thought that was quite obvious - but why they waited until Mr Lynne had taken himself back to the scene of the crime was apparently because Mrs Lynne had a showdown with him, which the cops were recording. Known as the ‘Wife Killer’ in the aviation industry - allegedly, he lost his first wife in strange circumstances.

What was his motivation for the double murder?

I've had enough of the current crop of Australian TV personalities. They're not even that bad, I just think their time has come and gone (Carrie Bickmore, Samantha Armitage, Charlie Pickering, etc.).

Carrie and Samantha are harmless.

I know what R139 means. It's not that the current crop isn't any good, it's that there's not much of a new generation coming through except from the First Nations population, who are more than pulling their weight (2-3% of the population!). The reality TV shows are supplying a lot of famewhores, but not many with enough talent to actually front shows, as opposed to wearing a pretty dress on Neighbours.

Where are the new groups like Working Dog and the Fast Forward crew, who create their own vehicles and find other new talent? Rove (who gave Carrie her start) and several others of the current generation came from community TV, which is gone now. Mind you, Working Dog is still contributing - their The Cheap Seats premiered in 2021, with all millennial presenters and regulars.

Thanks R141 for articulating what I meant!

It just feels like the Aussie TV landscape has stagnated since roughly the Rove era. It's all the same hosts and shows... this same 'tone' of comedy and news that hasn't evolved in about 10-15 years. They do it well, but nobody new is coming through. I agree that the First Nations talent are pulling their weight - Tony Armstrong has been one of the first TV personalities in years with that kind of natural 'star power'. And I did enjoy The Cheap Seats a bit when I would catch it after Survivor.

Are you guys sure that Marta Dusseldorp is totally heterosexual? She was pretty effective in her lesbian love scenes in Janet King. Plus, she’s so dour in her interviews.

^ That woman has a very unfortunate nose. It's like an axe-head.

Samantha Armytage is a snooty spoilt head girl bitch and she's fat, Carrie Bickmore is a talentless twit, Charlie Pickering is not funny and his ego far outweighs any talent.

Carrie Bickmore is a bitch.

She visited The Stonewall Hotel and stared at all the gays as if they were freaks.

[quote] The Cheap Seats premiered in 2021, with all millennial presenters and regulars.

There are high school students, aren't they?

Why would any young person pursue a career in free to air TV? Why would any network develop new talent to target an under 50s audience that no longer exists?

I like The Cheap Seats.

[quote] I like The Cheap Seats.

What in particular? Theres's nothing unique about it.

The Cheap Seats is a tax dodge to fill up the Australian TV Content Quota.

These witless kids spend NOTHING on professional scriptwriters.

R131, R135

Anton Enus

(the surname rhymes with penis)

No. Anton is very happily married. I do see him around a lot though. He is a committed jogger.

I like The Cheap Seats too. It is face paced and very well scripted (lots of laugh out load moments). The way they find all of the obscure, ridiculous and stupid moments from TV is clever and entertaining.

I also have to admit that I'm looking forward to I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of HEREEEEEEEEEEEE, tonight. Poh is on it! So is Beau. Should be a hoot and a half!

Is Carrie Bickmore the one who asked Lulu why Maurice Gibb bought her a car? So much for researching your interview subjects...

Carrie Blickmore is a blinking dope with two and half pounds of face cream on her face.

It's probably Patrick Abboud.

I did like when Carrie accidentally said 'cunt' on the air.

No but I'd do Patrick.

I can give you an idea of just how homophobic the big Australian commercial networks are. I was working for one when one of their legacy news stars, WHO WAS NO LONGER ON AIR, and was effectively retired, was planning on coming out in another medium. The network did everything in their power to shut it down, because even though he was NO LONGER ON AIR they feared it would stain the credibility of their news brand. Then something happened that meant they couldn't control the story. I've hated that network ever since.

R159 Are you talking about middle-aged newsreader from Melbourne ?

remember this?

^ THat's not funny.

It's not the stations that are homophobic- half their staff are gay- it's that they're shit scared of losing viewers and ratings if they show gay content or admit one of their presenters is gay. Every time Home and Away has a gay character channel 7 is inundated with complaints and therefore gay characters always leave Summer Bay, they can never be a long running character.

I find that coffee ad homophobic. Homosexuality can only be treated as a joke on Australian television. Even that couple on The Block recently had to fit the stereotype for entertainment value, they couldn't have a masculine gay couple, it had to be a flamboyant couple who pinged from high heaven.

I know all about how homophobia operates at a structural level in Australian TV. Whether management likes you personally is irrelevant when they won't put you in a public-facing role, or won't cast you in a show, or won't promote you despite the great work you are doing, because they think it's bad for business. Seven and Nine (and to a lesser extent Ten) might be full of open minded people, but who they do and don't give major on air roles tells the full story. You can have an office full of gays doing all the work behind the scenes and still be a deeply homophobic organisation when you only put them on air as clowns and gossip reporters.

[Quote] Every time Home and Away has a gay character channel 7 is inundated with complaints and therefore gay characters always leave Summer Bay, they can never be a long running character.

So that's what happened with Zoe Ventoura's character... 🤔

R147 Melanie looks like a frau version of Ruby Rose.

Melanie is definitely funnier than the guy. He's sweet, but something about the messy hair annoys me lol.

R165 is correct. I work at SBS and for what is probably the gayest and most left-wing free to air network, we get a surprising amount of homophobic complaint emails. You'd think they would know not to tune in to the channel of Eurovision, World Movies, and Mardi Gras. We even get complaints from like, white people claiming that the term Whitefella (said by an Indigenous actor) is racist and we should put out an apology. You'd be shocked at some of the ridiculous emails.

What demographic mostly watches free to air television and especially news and current affair programs? Old straight white men. Who bothers to write letters? Old people. Nothing will change till the old bigoted cunts die off.

[quote]Seven and Nine (and to a lesser extent Ten) might be full of open minded people

Ten has the openly gay Hamish McDonald fronting The Project when the openly Muslim Waleed Aly isn't, and neither of them seems to have any constraint on them about talking about those issues during the show. Neither of the other stations can match that.

Home and Away's complaints are probably coming from the parents of the tweens and teens who are its target audience. I can't imagine the kids caring. Australian adults don't watch H&A and Neighbours unless there are kids in the house (or they're 102 and have strayed from the ABC).

I thought that Australians were getting over their homophobia. Guess that Tim Conigrave’s memoir didn’t have as much of an impact as thought.

^ It's foolish to generalise about TWENTY FIVE MILLON people.

[quote] I work at SBS and for what is probably the gayest and most left-wing free to air network, we get a surprising amount of homophobic complaint emails.

Surprising?

You may work for employees who are painfully woke, PC and holier-than-thou but you have to satisfy your customers.

Which means lots of brainless soccer shows to appease a group of people who (to a large degree) —

1. Distrust modern Australian government.

2. Contain a large proportion of people who cannot be bothered learning the language of their host country.

3. Gave the lowest vote for Gay Marriage.

4. Had the highest amount of residents not testing for Covid (they didn't go to get tested but the Department of Health found it in the sewage).

R171 The homophobia mostly exists in the immigrant ethnic communities who bring their prejudice with them to the country.

The Same Sex Marriage plebiscite showed the no vote was most prominent in ethnic communities.

Your Anglo Saxon Caucasian types voted overwhelmingly yes.

The wogs were on the no side.

You can note that a lot of the social conservatism in modern Australian cities is centred in some recent immigrant communities without using racial slurs.

[quote] slurs

Are you offended by the 'W Word', R175?

Wog is now a term of endearment.

It lost its racial slur long ago.

The word "offended" implies that I might be reaching for the sniffing salts, or that I'm really delicate. If that's what you meant, then offended isn't the word. I just don't use racial slurs and haven't since I was an ignorant school kid back in the 1980s. I don't know why anyone would?

You are obviously a socially-superior person, R178.

We need you to teach us the skills of Virtue-Signalling.

I remember when that word was commonly used. Presumably that was during your prime and you haven't been willing or able to move on or adapt since then. Times change. Most people that word targets don't want it used. This is 2021. Move on. We don't do poofter and ethnic jokes anymore. Hey Hey is off the TV if you haven't noticed.

[quote] This is 2021…

This is 2022.

Any dirt on Ben Tari from All Saints? Or Jason Torrens from Pugwall?

Can we have more info about Michael Veitch being bisexual?

Someone upthread said community TV is gone but it’s still on the air in Melbourne at least

[quote] Michael Veitch

He's Irish and fat now.

But back in his hey-day he appeared in two Fast-Forward sketches.

One was advertised as a 'cock-fight' where he and someone else where shown shirtless from the waist up fighting a duel (supposedly with their penises out of camera range).

Another one was he and 3 others were in a pretend cooking class for housewives. They were shown on the kitchen bench and Margie and Jane were complaining to the cooking teacher that their husband's penis 'won't rise'. Magda came over said they had use special techniques to rub it in order to rose.

This is obviously a satire on the old housewives' complaint on sponge cakes which won't rise.

Is Martin Lynes still in prison for rape?

Gangster shootings, violent kidnappings and bikie bombings are fine on Home & Away, but when a boy kisses another boy, it's a moral outrage. This is the way bogans think.

[quote] moral outrage

You need to change your friends, R186, if they're still experiencing 'moral outrage' from five years ago.

What about the ‘light’ sentence Ben McCormack got from A Current Affair? No jail time, $1000 fine 3 yr good behaviour bond! Madness. At least his life is f*cked and he’s on the Sexual Offenders Register.

Who remembers the mid 90s after-Logies gay sex video scandal? That was pre Internet and it was able to be contained thanks to a lot of cash and effort. The bottom even made it in Hollywood later on.

Jackie Weaver?

r189 who was involved?

R189 Are you talking about that big guy (Darell McSomething?) wearing kilt on the red carpet and lifting it up for the cameras?

This had nothing to do with a kilt or a red carpet. It was a home sex video filmed on Logies night/the next morning, in a Melbourne hotel room. The bottom had won a gong and it was flashed around in the video. The video was shown around the hotel within that same 24 hour period, including to industry and media figures who were staying there too and were continuing to party. The actor's team immediately swung into action. About a dozen people were mobilised and given hands of cash to buy back any copies that may have been made. It was successfully shut down. One of the main reasons for that was the actor's mother, a notorious stage mum from hell. She'd been (and would continue to be) a massive personal embarrassment to him but on this occasion her unique "characteristics" saved his bacon. She had a take no prisoners attitude during the whole crisis. Because of her he was able to keep working as an actor and did later get a massive gig in the US.

FFS just tell us who it was

Did he put the Logie up his arse?

No, nothing like that.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

If it was mid 90s and no internet means no iphones either, how was the video distributed to others? i smell bullshit

It was shown on video equipment. The hotel was full of media.

more clues?

There are loads. of clues in there. BTW this was not strictly an "insider story". It was referenced in the Herald Sun at the time, although usually obliquely.

Julian McMahon made it big overseas, had a nightmare mother who was always on set for his performances but doesn't have a Logie

Simon Baker won a Logie in 1993, made it big in America, don't know about his mother, no gay rumors.

Back in the last century, Julian wearing green.

R185, he is. Last time I heard. Have to contact my pen pal in Perth but I think that he’s going to be in jail for a while.

Interview, R185.

Thank you R205. Listening to the interview now. Can't forget that deep, raspy voice of his.

I am getting old and pathetic - I realize that I answered my own question. I had forgotten that quickly!!!

[quote] Any dirt on Ben Tari from All Saints

He's now fifty and retired from the limelight to work as a special schoolteacher in dusty, sweaty, semi-rural Albury.

Thanks, R207.

Do you know if he's gay or straight?

^

Heterosexual, of course.

A gay man would have gone crazy dealing with sub-literate Australian children in suburbia and the outback.

A gay man would be sniffing around Tim Draxl in the coastal suburbs of Sydney.

Ben is aging well.

This guy has gotta be bi

R211 Why?

He’s just got that vibe R212

R213. Do you think an earring in his right ear gives him "that vibe"?

Is anyone able to post the text from this paywalled article?

PS John Aiken, the “expert” on MAFS is bi/potentially gay. Same goes for Matt Dalton from Gogglebox.

Is Andrew 0’Keefe in jail yet or rehab????

Is it true that they make kangaroos carry equipment for tv crews in their pouches?

Which Neighbours boys might have to turn to escorting or presenting their hole on OnlyFans when the show goes off air?

[quote]Who remembers the mid 90s after-Logies gay sex video scandal? That was pre Internet and it was able to be contained thanks to a lot of cash and effort. The bottom even made it in Hollywood later on.

[quote][R189] who was involved?

Although he didn't win an award, R191, it was Jesse Spencer from Chicago Fire.

I thought that was fabricated from envious fellow actors.

Mmm, Kochie.

^ vomit.

Which of the Neighbours boys will present their holes on OnlyFans now that the show is being tossed out with the trash?

Have we talked about MAFS?

^ no we haven't ....where should we start? Immature Al, lack of empathy Cody (still a 15 yr old) get some therapy mate!! Caroliar and that dickhead Daniel. That bitch and ex fatty Olivia the petty one...run Jackson run...Tam Tam you're beneath me Brent and I'm always right. Over it and those stupid matchmakers, sexologists....every year wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again.

John Aiken sure does follow a lot of shirtless guys

R226 He does have a fetish......watches and cars!

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Henri Szeps has a bi vibe for sure

There’s no way Allan Raskall is straight

God no, that girlie voice.

Who was the Logies after party sex tape guy?

My boyfriend wants to know what DLers think of The Cheap Seats

Love it, R233.

WHET to Ryan Corr?

Ask and ye shall receive, R235. This is running now on Oz TV.

Thanks r236. I hope it streams on US platforms.

I’ve crushed on him for a while now. Good actor.

He is. It's on the ABC, so the chances of seeing it overseas are pretty good.

Loved him in HOLDING THE MAN, BLOOM AND THE WATER DIVINER. The latter was a very sad story.

Will Matt Shirvington show his big swinging balls on TV?

Andrew Denton is bi and kinky as fucj

I can recommend the new series Deadloch, which is half-noir, half-comic. It is set in a small town in Tasmania which is hosting a lesbian festival, and the lesbian drama will have the average DL-er in constant chuckles. The chief cop is a lesbian whose wife keeps interrupting the murder investigation to bring her her lunch and/or demand they work through their feelings. It's written by two women, one of whom is openly bisexual and both of whom have a great eye for BS. On Amazon Prime in Australia.

R241 - I want to hear more about Andrew Denton and his proclivities!!

I also recommend Deadloch - one of the characters is way too much to start with but stick with it. It improves!

I still find it weird that there no gay characters in Home and Away. I mean, it's a soap with a lot of 20 and 30 somethings in it, but everyone is strictly straight.

Apparently it's because the network it's on doesn't want anything gay. It seems like it's not a very gay friendly country.

It's mainly because Home and Away is an early evening soap aimed at young teens, R245. Neighbours was a bit more adventurous recently, but then look what happened to it. There's plenty of teh gay in Australian prime time shows though.

R246 Surely that's only a valid reason if no straight relationships are shown as well. But they are, so they're not deemed unsuitable for young teens.

I should add that I'm not advocating for anything explicit, just one gay relationship that's shown in the same way as the numerous straight relationships.

That said, I'm surprised it's aimed at young teens, as when I caught a recent episode it was focused on a woman in her 70s who was feeling lonely , a music group made up of 30 somethings and a 30 something woman who'd been sexually assaulted and was being bribed by her attacker. Strange that would be deemed suitable but men kissing wouldn't be.

I'm not Home and Away's demographic and I only ever see the teasers for it, so I can't say whether or not they ever had any gay relationships in it. Either H&A or Neighbours definitely has, and Neighbours also had a young trans character (played by a trans actor). If H&A has strictly never had any gay, that's a choice of the network or the showrunners and is not typical of Australian networks.

For example, there was a dramedy called Househusbands on the 9 Network several years ago which played at 7.30 and which was known to be watched by a younger audience. I think it had a PG rating. In it one of the kids had two daddies, who were just as prominent in the show as the other dads, got on well with the other dads and had the same relationship ups and downs. In the final episode they married and all the kids were part of the ceremony, the couple kissed on screen, etc.

R248 Neighbours definitely had a gay couple who got married. I didn't watch it regularly, but I'd catch the odd episode and I remember that.

I'm not really bothered about Home and Away itself, as I don't watch it, I just thought it was interesting that it's 100% straight - especially as it's meant to be set in a suburb of Sydney.

Thanks for your comments though, as it gives me a bit more faith! I've never been to Australia, but I've heard anecdotally that it's not the gay friendliest place - which I always found curious, given it markets itself as a "young nation". But I suppose prejudice exists everywhere.

Apparently ABC's "Fisk" is now on Netflix worldwide. Highly recommended low-key sitcom set in a probate law office, written by and starring one of Australia's top stand-up comedians, Kitty Flanagan. Give it a couple of episodes because it's a slow burn. There is an eldergay couple in it that I anticipate the DL will enjoy. Two short seasons so far, with a third on the way.