People

Frankly Fred

FRED HOLLOWS suspected the man facing a firing squad in old photographs on the wall of his office might be some “wild revolutionary”. “Look at the way he died,” he says. “You can see the way he’s having his last smoke. He’s got his handkerchief out over his heart so that those f…..g hoons will know where to kill him. He’s just a bloke who chose the demeanor of his own death, didn’t he?” Read …

Facing the music

He was one of the highest flyers in Australian entertainment who fell back to earth owing millions. So why has Glenn Wheatley decided to stick around? Read …

The Midas curse

He’s one of the few survivors of `80s excess. At nights, he weeps for the world’s poor. But if he lost his fortune, Rene Rivkin says he still might kill himself. Read …

A big deal

Rising above the roar of the crowd is a new sound in sport: the clatter of cash registers. And nowhere is it better illustrated than in the selling of Kieren Perkins. Read …

Counting Crowe

BETWEEN films, Russell Crowe is a singer in a rock ‘n’ roll band called 30 Foot of Grunts. Their new single has the line: “The photograph kills and your fame will destroy you”. No wonder he’s taken his time making it big. Read …

The Wright side of the road

GEOFFREY WRIGHT hopes he has not come across as a “petty, vindictive creep”. Said in jest, there is nevertheless an abrasiveness about the controversial director who has stirred up both acrimony and applause in recent years. Read …

Being Ben

HE AMBLED into the boardroom like a genial intruder. A scruffy presence among the objets d’art at Channel Nine’s Richmond headquarters, Ben Mendelsohn plonked himself down at the head of the table. Read …

A talent to enthral

The compelling aspect of a performance by actor Jacqueline McKenzie is her ability to convey the truth to an audience. Read …

The Word (according to Joe)

He paid millions to save his footy club but Joe Gutnick’s greatest passion is for things spiritual. Read …

A funny thing happened on the way from the war …

Since fleeing from Saigon as the city fell, Hung Le has turned his experience of war and refugee camps into an unlikely comedy act.  Read …

Big wheel

Bob Jane pursues life and business the way he took to the race track, with his foot to the floor.  Read …

Thank you for joining us tonight, John Clarke

With his bone-dry wit, he has turned a three-minute spot on national TV
into one of Australia’s most potent soapboxes. Just don’t ask John Clarke to talk about himself. Read …

Lucky Jim still thanks the angel of the western front

ANGELS don’t lie. Jim Baddeley was cowering in a shell-hole on the western front when a radiant, white apparition hovered just long enough to tell him, “Don’t be afraid! Nothing is going to happen to you.” Read …