Posts Tagged ‘australia’

NKOTB Cancel Aussie Tour

June 19th, 2009

Bad news for fans of New Kids on the Block in Australia: the boys have canceled their tour Down Under, perhaps due to rumored poor ticket sales in the depressed global economy.

 

Donnie Wahlberg posted on the band’s website blog that the group had "exhausted efforts" to get the tour going, but it was proving to be "too complex."

"We are, in fact, in the middle of a worldwide recession and we just cannot make it work," he says, although he didn’t attribute the cancellation to poor ticket sales.

 

After breaking up in 1994, NKOTB reunited last year with the album, The Block, and toured the U.S. and Canada, promoting it to great success.

 

Donnie adds that the guys are "saddened" not to be going to Australia in August, since the country has "always, always, been one of our favorite places to travel to."

"We can only assure you that when the recession’s stranglehold on the world’s economies eases up a bit – we will find a way to make this work," he says.

Britney Going Down Under

June 9th, 2009

Corral the kangaroos and throw another shrimp on the barbi to celebrate: Britney Spears has announced on her official site that she’ll be bringing her Circus act to Australia. It’ll be the pop star’s first time ever touring Down Under.

 

"I’ve wanted to tour Australia for quite some time and now it’s finally happening. My Circus tour is the best show I have ever created and I can’t wait to perform it for all of my Australian fans. See you guys soon!" Britney says on her site.

 

Starting Nov. 6 in the Perth Burswood Dome, Aussies can check out the spectacle that is a Britney Spears Circus show. The tour ends Nov. 24 in  Brisbane.

 

TOUR DATES: 

Friday, 6 November                  Perth Burswood Dome
Wednesday, 11 November       Melbourne Rod Laver Arena
Thursday, 12 November           Melbourne Rod Laver Arena
Thursday, 19 November           Sydney Acer Arena
Friday, 20 November                Sydney Acer Arena
Tuesday, 24 November            Brisbane Entertainment Centre

 

RECENT PICS OF THE CIRCUS TOUR:

brit

 

Sydney Goes Gaga for Gaga

May 27th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

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9 Images in the Gallery

A Child’s Moving Letter To Hugh Jackman

January 25th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Critics might not have loved Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. And judging by the box-office returns, neither did American audiences.

But a 12-year-old Aborigine boy did — and that means a lot to the movie’s star, Hugh Jackman.

At the Nomad: Two Worlds exhibition opening in NYC, the X-Men star told OK! that the movie set out to help "heal those wounds" that remain from the way the Australian government treated the native peoples in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

 

And after receiving a letter from this young boy, the actor thinks the film’s message might be getting across.

"This Aboriginal kid wrote me," said Hugh, "and he’s 12, and he said, ‘You know, I think that film has done more for my people than any government has ever done.’

"He said, ‘I feel proud to be Aboriginal.’ I think it’s been very powerful," Hugh said of the movie.

Australia has not been so popular with everyone. Many critics felt it didn’t live up to expectations, and it only received one Oscar nomination — for Achievement in Costume Design.

Even Hugh’s co-star Nicole Kidman seems to have a less-than-rosy view of the film, saying in an interview with a Sydney, Australia, radio station that she "couldn’t feel proud" of her work, and "squirmed" when she saw herself on screen at the premiere.

But Hugh told OK! that her words had been taken the wrong way.

"That was taken out of context," he said. "I know her very well. I’m very proud of her."

And nominations or not, Oscar night is going to be huge for Hugh, who will be presenting the mother of all awards show for the first time.

So how are preparations for the big night coming along?

"Awesome!," he told OK!, before coming over all humble. "Well, I think they’re awesome, anyway."

By Oliver Coleman

Paris Hilton Loses Her Camera in Oz

January 16th, 2009

Paris Hilton might just have a feeling of deja vu today.

 

 

The heiress has lost a camera packed with private images of her visit to Australia, and apparently people are already trying to sell them to the highest bidder. Let’s hope for her sake there’s nothing racy on there, or she could find herself back in a very familiar situation!

 

Ozzie newspaper The Herald Sun says that Paris lost the camera in a nightclub (where else?) in Sydney on New Year’s Eve. "She lost it in the chaos. It must have fallen out of her bag," said Karen Griffin, a publicist for the party Paris was at. "She is disappointed as it has her personal photos of her visit on it.

"They are happy snaps and there are also some pictures from her trip to the snow before she came to Australia," she added.

Unfortunately for Paris, since her sex video, taped by ex-Rick Solomon, made millions, everybody seems to know that her private pics are worth a buck or two.

An Australian photo agency says that it has received calls from someone claiming to have to camera. "We told them they could be worth thousands, but nothing eventuated," an agency source told the Herald Sun. "We have not seen the camera and we have not seen the images."

It seems like Paris was a little absent minded during her jaunt Down Under, because she lost her cell phone (again!) as well. "That was left behind at the hotel in Sydney, but it was found and sent up to her on the Gold Coast," said the party rep.

Nicole: “I Squirmed When I Saw Australia”

January 9th, 2009

Now here’s something you don’t see everyday – a movie star giving an honest assessment of their work. And not a very complimentary one, either.

Nicole Kidman has said that she ‘can’t feel proud’ of her performance in Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australia.

 

In fact, she says she "couldn’t connect emotionally" to the movie and "squirmed" when she saw herself playing British aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley at the premiere in Oz!

 

Remembering the November screening in Sydney, which she attended with husband Keith Urban, the star told 2dayFM, "I can’t look at this movie and be proud of what I’ve done.

"I sat there and I looked at Keith and went ‘Am I any good in this movie?’"

 

And although she said that her co-star Hugh Jackman was great in the movie, she added, "It’s just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally at all."

 

Nicole wasn’t alone in her harsh assement. Many critics savaged the film – and it seems that she had an idea what she was in for.

 

London’s Daily Mail reports that Tom Cruise’s ex was so nervous about her performance, she left the country straight after the premiere with Keith and daughter Sunday Rose, so that she wouldn’t have to face the critics’ response.

"We ran because I didn’t want to read anything. I didn’t want to know," she admitted on air.

 

Australian Christmas for Sunday Rose

December 19th, 2008 / Author: OK! Staff

Nicole Kidman is planning a Sydney celebration with hubby Keith Urban, 5-month-old baby Sunday Rose and her children with Tom Cruise, Isabella and Connor.

 

Sources tell OK! that Nicole asked Tom (they were married from 1990 until 2001), to let her take their kids to her hometown for the holidays.

 

“Tom and Nicole’s relationship is now cordial enough that [Bella and Connor] can go back and forth more frequently than ever,” a friend of the Cruise family tells OK!.

 

While Tom and wife Katie Holmes plan to stay in NYC with 2-year-old Suri, Connor and his sister are set to fly to Sydney for Bella’s 16th birthday on Dec. 22.

 

“Bella is already looking forward to helping her mom prepare a traditional Christmas feast of roast beef with all the trimmings,” says the friend.

Hugh Jackman to Host Academy Awards

December 12th, 2008

The Oscars is getting a sexy new host—

Hugh Jackman, who was voted this year’s Sexiest Man Alive–will host the 81st Academy Awards, it was confirmed on Friday.

The 40-year-old Australia star is no stranger to hosting award shows. In 2004, Jackman hosted the 59th annual Tony Awards, for which he won an Emmy a year later.

His choice as this year’s Oscars host is part of the ceremony’s new look and feel. The show will have new producers as well as a new set director. Jackman’s selection is also a departure from the Academy’s standard of big-game comedians.

Past show hosts have included Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres, Jon Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg.

Jackman was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in 2001’s Kate & Leopold. He currently stars in the big budget epic Australia, co-starring Nicole Kidman.

Keith & Nicole: Sunday Best!

December 8th, 2008 / Author: OK! Staff

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are getting ready to celebrate their first Christmas with 5-month-old daughter, Sunday Rose.

"We’re having our family come over," Nicole, 41, said at the NYC premiere of her movie Australia. "Lying low. Taking it easy. Lots of food and carols."

For his part, the film’s director Baz Luhrmann thinks Nicole and Keith, 41, are perfect together. "They are individuals and yet make a team," he tells OK!. "Individuality within the team is important so there is something to give."

As for how motherhood has changed Nicole, Baz says, "She doesn’t waste time, but the electricity is still there."

Meanwhile, Nicole’s adopted children with ex-hubby Tom Cruise, Connor, 13, and Isabella, 15, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in NYC with their dad and step-mom Katie Holmes along with family friends David and Victoria Beckham. But it wasn’t just fun for the adults–The Cruise kids, including 2-year-old Suri, formed a posse with the supercool Beckham boys, Brooklyn, 9, Romeo, 6, and Cruz, 3!

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