The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
Hugh Hugh Hugh!
dot-matrix:
MaineWriter:
Hugh is such a nice guy! From an Australian newspaper:
IT was billed "Hollywood in the East Kimberleys" when Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban arrived in the West Australian town of Kununurra.
About 250 locals were on hand to greet the actor and her singer husband when they flew in just after 2pm yesterday.
With co-star Hugh Jackman and director Baz Luhrmann, Kidman is expected to spend several weeks filming scenes for the coming epic Australia on Carlton Hills Station, a well-known cattle property 40km out of town.
Unlike Jackman, who lingered at the airport and met fans on Sunday, Kidman's plane was met by a police escort yesterday and the star was whisked away in a dark 4WD.
Peter Grigg, manager of Kununurra Visitor Centre, said locals hoped to see some of the cast and crew in person in coming weeks.
"The town is really, really buzzing – it's all go. We have a few things in place and we'd like to think we could showcase our town to them," he said.
"We'd like to think we can definitely make them warmly welcome to our part of the region."
MaineWriter:
Hugh is a busy man!
MERYL STREEP, GLENN CLOSE and BARBRA STREISAND are fighting to play SUNSET BOULEVARD diva NORMA DESMOND on the big screen, according to Hollywood reports. The ladies are reportedly on a shortlist being considered by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, who composed the music for his version of the 1950 film classic. London's Daily Telegraph reports all three stars have been in discussions about taking on the role of Desmond, played famously by Gloria Swanson. Close played the role onstage in Los Angeles and originated the role on Broadway, while Streisand has recorded versions of Sunset Boulevard ballads As If We Never Said Goodbye and With One Look. Ewan MCGregor and Hugh Jackman are reportedly favoured for the role of screenwriter Joe Gillis in the musical remake.
source: contactmusic.com
MaineWriter:
From an Australian newspaper. The picture was the headline:
ACTOR Deborra-lee Furness believes the Federal Government is fostering an anti-adoption culture that thwarts thousands of childless couples from adopting overseas babies.
The wife of Hollywood star Hugh Jackman says she and her celebrity husband would be childless had it not been for her US residency.
Furness has told of the trauma of "red tape and bureaucracy" that forced them to return to the US to adopt Oscar, 7, and Ava, 2.
And she revealed they were present at the births of their children.
Furness wants to meet Prime Minister John Howard to discuss overhauling adoption procedures.
She wants a government body established immediately to take sole responsibility for adoptions.
"We've experienced it first-hand -- we tried to adopt in Australia and couldn't because we were overwhelmed by the hurdles and obstacles they put in our way," Furness said.
But the adoption process in the US took less than a year.
Furness -- in Australia while Jackman films the Baz Lurhmann epic Australia -- is on a crusade to help the couples with "horror stories" of futile attempts to adopt.
"I'm fortunate," she says. "I have two beautiful children and that's why people come to me and say, 'Deb can you help me?'.
"I tell them it will be long, expensive and may not happen."
Furness says it is "an outrage and an embarrassment" that Australia ranks last in inter-country adoption throughout the world.
"It breaks my heart to think there are thousands of abandoned children overseas waiting for loving families to take them, but the Government is making it so hard."
A parliamentary inquiry found in 2005 that the "current system is not working" and that adoption was a low priority for state and federal governments.
It recommended the Federal Government plays a bigger role in the process -- to make it quicker and less expensive.
While the Government said it "accepted" most of the inquiry's recommendations, it did nothing to implement them. Instead, it devised more restrictions -- announcing last week legislation to stop same-sex Australian couples adopting a child overseas. The child would not be granted a visa.
Furness is worried the Government's attitude may be a return of a "White Australia policy".
"This is a humanitarian issue. Australia has a generous spirit, yet this to me reeks of fear and a lack of generosity," she says. "You see it with the refugee crisis as well."
SHE said she was prompted to speak out on the issue when she read of the plight of a Sydney woman whose adopted baby was still in China because the Immigration Department would not grant her a visa.
"When I hear these stories, it breaks my heart. I know what happens to these babies; they end up institutionalised or on the streets," Furness said.
Denise Calligeros, 45, revealed this week she had been trying for 13 years to adopt but has been rejected for a second time because now she is too old.
The adoption crisis has escalated since 1998 when Australia signed the Hague Convention in respect to the protection of children and adoption.
The agreement resulted in the Federal Attorney-General delegating the administration to state governments. But that stopped voluntary organisations from helping facilitate inter-country adoptions.
As a result, queues have grown into thousands and some states have stopped taking registrations.
Furness says the Department of Community Services in NSW is too busy coping with local issues of child abuse to worry about inter-country adoptions.
"You have children who are abandoned and homeless and you have people desperate to have a child, but because of this bureaucracy and lack of resources they can't," she says.
Adoption has become such a long and expensive process for Australian couples that many simply give up.
Some states have fees up to $10,000 to lodge the initial application -- and it is non-refundable, even if the couple is unsuccessful.
On top of that there are airfares, visas, medical and processing bills. The total outlay can reach $40,000.
Ricky Brisson, whose program to assist couples to adopt was stopped by the Government three years ago, said: "The costs are becoming more prohibitive and a lot of families are giving up."
She said it now took about seven years to process an adoption, which meant some couples failed because they grew too old.
"We have thousands of kids waiting for families and thousands of people in Australia looking to adopt them, but we have a system which is useless in delivering a proper service," she said.
In 2004-05, 410 overseas babies from 25 countries were adopted in Australia -- compared with 21,000 in the US.
Furness said the process in the US was quick and inexpensive "and not made impossible like it is here".
"We are the most blessed people in the world, but I have friends here who are coming up against so many brick walls," she said.
fritzkep:
Imagine him playing Ennis in a BBM musical. I'd certainly go to NYC to see it, if it ever panned out.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/07/24/142404.php#comment-619554
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