Lilith Lacroix Goes to the Olympics

Well she’ll be performing, but at the Opera House, not Stadium Australia. Lilith, aka New Zealand composer Gareth Farr, brings his percussion concertos, Hikoi and Wairua to the Sydney…

Russell Crowe: Hollywood Actor of the Year

Russell Crowe was named Hollywood Actor of the Year at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards held at the Beverly Hilton on August 7th. Internet users voted online at Entertainment…

Sam Neill: vintage celebrity

The Telegraph investigates the latest celebrity trend: the wine-making lifestyle: accessorise with vines, winery and bottling linel. Kiwi Sam Neill makes the star vigneron along with Aussie golfer Greg…

Anna’s new rhythm

Vanity Fair profiles the maturing of Kiwi actress Anna Paquin, from precocious Oscar winner in Jane Campion’s The Piano, to upcoming roles in Bryan Singer’s blockbusting sci-fi flick X-Men…

Poetic shock tactics

An extensive Guardian profile of New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock that elaborates on everything from her OBE, the end of her muse, her relationship with Barry Crump (“New Zealand’s…

“Luck Star” shines in Shanghai

Lydia, an 8-year old New Zealand girl attended, with her father, the 2000 Shanghai International Children’s Art Festival. She was picked as one of the honour guests from millions…

Natural History New Zealand double Emmy nomination

Natural History New Zealand writers Ian McGee (who won NZ’s first Emmy last year) and Quinn Berentson were nominated for their for an episode “The Rat” in the 13…

Bloodlust ballet brings in the crowds in Australia

The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Dracula is slaying audiences across the Tasman. Described as “grand gothic entertainment layering gloom, psychological gutsiness and new eroticism over a hackneyed old plot”…

Cate Blanchett Talks About Me, My Elf and I

Blanchett, Academy Award nominated for her performance in Elizabeth is in the final stages of filming another Queen, the role of elf Galadriel in Lord of the Rings. Blanchett…

Kiwi President of Iconoclastic Toronto Advertising Agency

New Zealander David Fong was earlier this year appointed President of Toronto advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day and along with Creative Director Jamie Way has turned the agencies flagging fortunes around…

More *Aussies* to join

Putting more Kiwis in Kangeroo skins and calling them Aussies, news.com.au reports that four more ‘Australian’ actors have been added to the cast of George Lucas next Star Wars…

Newzedge Footnote: “I Link Therefore I Am”

Paying tribute to the emblematic (and Kiwi conceived) Arts and Letters Daily, Jenny Lynn Bader writes, “There are entire publications on the Web that are just indexes of other…

More Rings Buzz

No, not the Lord of the Rings … amidst speculation about upcoming productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, New Zealand soprano Margaret Medlyn has been picked to sing the part…

Kiwi singer new sensation in INXS

Two years after the death of Michael Hutchence, Australian rock legends INXS have announced that they will return with former Noiseworks lead-singer Kiwi Jon Stevens at the mike. “We’ve…

Wellywood

Hobbits boost the local carpentry trade: “They haven’t begun construction of a new Hollywood sign yet on the steep hills that encircle New Zealand`s capital city of Wellington, but…

Kiwi Curator Appointed to Prestigious Post

Dr Christopher de Hamel has been appointed to one of the world’s most prestigious library posts at Cambridge University’s Parker Library. Formerly a senior valuer at Sothebys, de Hamel…

Bean Says Boromir No Gamble in Lord of the Rings

Sean Bean has trodden the tightrope between Hollywood Bond villain and small budget independent movies enough times to know that the movie world has its ups and downs, but…

“It’ll make Star Wars look like a weekend in the lavatory”

Ian Holm, the British actor who plays Bilbo Baggins, oozes enthusiasm about Peter Jackson’s big-budget adaptation of the Lord of the Rings. “There are 130 special effects people and…

Rogue Paquin: mutant rebel with a cause

Paquin stars in Bryan Singer’s blockbuster adaptation of the comic X-Men. In the high tech parable of good and evil, Paquin offers “a surprisingly poignant performance.” Expressing well the…

Firmly at the Front of the Nu-skool Jazz and Beats Movement

On the verge in London, Mark de Clive-Lowe’s album Six Degrees continues to spread the vibe. ” has assembled a collection of spacy tracks ornamented by his elegant…

Lovebug the Secret to On-line Advertising

Internet advertising that works has become the advertising industry’s holy grail. Futurist Kevin Roberts says that solution remains the same as always: good web advertising will play on emotional…

The real Gauguin? A hairy question

Four hairs stuck in a depiction of an outrigger canoe on a harbour may help decide whether an oil painting is the work of Paul Gauguin. A New Zealand…

New Zealand weaned spin-king appointed to Buckingham Palace

We are amused – a colonial has been given the job of putting spin on the damming corgi stories (head of public relations for HM the Q). Currently head…

Ian Athfield: last of the intelligent bohemians

As if the rugby wasn’t enough: renowned Australian playwright Alex Buzo advances our architect fair, calling Athfield a member “of a species now extinct in Australia, the intelligent bohemian.”…

Sun, sea, sand and … guns: Palm Beach Hotel (Gaza)

New Zealand journalist Phil Reeveson, writing for the Independent, visits the chaotic and ‘screwed up’ Gaza Strip – the conflicted strip of land between Egypt and Israel. Including a…

The Outsider: Huck Finn on Heroin

Alison Maclean brings verge vision to the story of an American outsider. Jesus’ Son, an adaptation of a story by cult American author Dennis Johnson, is about a 7’s…

Te Whaea opens Options

Options, a tertiary dance festival for Australian and New Zealand students held in Sydney, was joined on its gala day by the New Zealand School of Dance. The Kiwi…

Bilbo buzz spawns rumour about a hoard of treasure

The Lord of the Rings folklore continues to spread. Fox chronicles the Ring rage: the record breaking previews, websites, esoteric and precious fans, mammoth investment and eager anticipation that…

Cate’s Elvish Ways: standing up for the sisters in

Cate Blanchett, playing the role of the enigmatic and beautiful elf queen Gandriel in Lord of the Rings, found a unique way of keeping up with the lads on…

Stead and Knox star at Melbourne Writer’s Festival

New Zealand writers CK Stead “whose new novel has earned rave reviews in Britain and the US” and Elizabeth Knox feature among global talent including Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson,…

Jesus and the Second Coming

Kiwi director Alison Maclean wowed Cannes with the moody Crush, then took a seven year maturing process, through Sex and the City, Homicide and a Natalie Imbruglia music video,…

Peter Jackson: “One of the Most Creative Directors Around”

Chicago Tribune, backs the talent of Jackson and a “top notch cast” as Hollywood indemnity for the Lord of the Rings. Jackson was recently voted 7th most promising director…

Lisa Harrow brings Wit to the stage in New York

Kiwi Lisa Harrow plays the lead in what the Times calls “a theatrical experience of which legends are made”. She plays Dr. Vivian Bearing, an uncompromising professor of literature…

Cyborg creatives

New Zealand artists working with cutting edge computer-based new media technology feature in Art Asia Pacific’s feature “Interface: visions of the body and machine”. Mauren Lander and John Fairclough…

Phil Keoghan Spot on as Adventure Crazy Host

Remembered in New Zealand as host of Spot On, 3.45pm Live, Phil Keoghan has made a name for himself in the US as host and executive producer of Phil…

Building Rome and other literary Pastimes

“I like computer games – of the world domination kind.” She-Devil/New Zealand reared novelist Fay Weldon, in the Independent’s 50-best list, admits she has a soft-spot for empire building,…

Rogue Anna Paquin is Premiere Cover mutant

Playing the character of ‘Rogue’ in Bryan Singer’s (Usual Suspects) blockbuster adaptation of comic legend X-Men, Anna Paquin makes the special edition cover of July’s Premiere. Like Paquin’s Oscar…

Whatever you do don’t go in the water

More bloody innovation saw Colenso pick up a Golden Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival. The campaign to promote the opening of the movie Scream, unlike another Kiwi winner…

Breath of fresh air from ideas company wins Cannes award

Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland won a Golden Lion at the renowned Cannes Advertising Festival for its innovative solution for the Auckland Regional Council Anti-Pollution campaign. The campaign involved local…

Romance and roadkill in

Director Alison Maclean’s edge aesthetic gets sharper: described by the New Yorker as having a “big messy emotional talent”, she is thrilled that audiences are connecting with the romance…

Stories from the Diaspora

“I write to give voice to those who are otherwise lost or forgotten completely in Pacific literature: young girls and women.” Pasifika Press in New Zealand snapped up Sia…

From One Edge to Another to Take up the Haka Challenge

From Vancouver on the edge of the Atlantic, director Jonathan Tammuz will continue a global roll to the edge of the Pacific to direct “Haka” an 1850s-set $30million British…

The Ubiquitous Crowe Tabloid Dispatch

“Hollywood’s golden girl Meg in marriage split … Crowe has become Hollywood’s latest heart-throb since starring as Maximus, in the summer’s most successful blockbuster. Ryan is reported to have…

Sam Neill: walking with the dinosaurs … again

Kiwi Neill has become the first major actor to sign on for more encounters with a blue screed/rampaging dinosaurs in Jurassic Park 3. He will reprise his role as…

Simply the best: Dame Kiri: the Tina Turner of the opera world?

Dame Kiri talks about her Maori heritage, playing to an audience of 600 million people, her forthcoming concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and how long she can keep…

Hollywood Hobbit Brings Trouble to Middle Earth

Literary fans who are devoted to the purity of Tolkien’s Middle Earth ouevre are angry at rumours that Frodo Baggins is ready to flirt. The introduction of glamorous Hollywood…

Neighbours no more: Kiwi pop culture export success reverses the flow

Aussie girl-group Bardot, the most manufactured band in the history of pop, have become a sensation. “Popstars”, the hit TV show that followed their evolution from nobodies to Spice…

Maclean movie puts the art before the horse

Feed gets a shot in the arm from director Alison Maclean. “We all know what to expect from ’70s smack movies. So why is Jesus’ Son so unexpectedly good?…

Kiwi Comics Turn Fringe Festival Into Laugh-fest

The All New Kiwi Stand-up Experience has gained a reputation as one of the funniest acts in town at Ottawa’s Fringe Festival. But be warned that “the routines of…

Tolkien epic is lord of the net

The $200m epic, in production in New Zealand and not due for release for a year and a half, is already burgling box-office treasure and causing a storm on the…

Elemental Design Lets House Take Care of Itself

Professor Brenda Vale and Dr Robert Vale of the Sustainable Design Centre Research Centre at the University of Auckland, use The Times to forward their manifesto for environmentally friendly…

Teddy Tahu Rhodes: Kiwi man singing Houston

Teddy Tahu Rhodes, “a New Zealand baritone well known in Sydney for his Opera Australia appearances”, is playing the lead role of Joe in the Houston Grand Opera’s rendering…

Oceania Merge the Edges With Log Drums and Electro Beats

Former leader of Killing Joke Jaz Coleman joins Maori singer Hinewehi Mohi in a high-tech fusion on their eponymous debut. “This isn’t a fashion record for me, or a passing flirtation…

Kiwi Professor of Pop Crafts Summer Sounds from Nashville

“If there were advanced academic degrees for pop music, songwriter Tim Finn would have achieved professor emeritus status long ago. This Split Enz and Crowded House alum is a…

Bonding Bungee Brings Together Father and Son Film-makers

Award-winning doco “Pop & Me” charts father/son relationships around the world as the father/son makers work out their own. The film’s defining moment comes when Chris persuades his Dad…

Sir David Low: “the greatest political cartoonist of the century”

London’s Evening Standard previews an exhibition by the Kiwi cartoonist Churchill called “a green-eyed young Antipodean radical.” His work was banned in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy due to…