Local personalities including Matt Moran, Gary Mehigan, Richard Wilkins and Damien Leith were drawn to the Australian premiere of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace in 3D, many of them towing children who were not even born when it hit cinemas back in 1999.

A live orchestra played the stirring Star Wars soundtrack on a red carpet in Sydney, which was guarded by storm troopers who happily posed for pics with fans as they filed past.

Radio personality Merrick Watts, a self-confessed Star Wars fan, introduced the film, saying director George Lucas had been working on the 3-D conversion for two years with an ‘army of nerds’.

‘Nine nerds died making this film,’ he said.

He went on to ask who in the audience saw Avatar in 3-D.

‘Well, it’s crap compared to this film,’ he stated lightheartedly.

However, many audience members disagreed after watching the film.

While one fan stated he liked the movie, the 3-D did not live up to his expectations.

‘To be honest, I do not think the 3-D was as good as Avatar,’ he said.

Another stated he had seen better 3-D post-conversions.

‘The high hopes was that Industrial Light Magic (Lucas’ visual effects company) was going to show what 3-D conversion is all about, but I do not think they did,’ he said.

A group of avid Star Wars fans thought ‘the 3-D was great’ but ‘the motion picture was crap as always’.

‘It’s only for the children this one,’ one member said, adding the group were larger fans of the original movies, even though ‘the droid battle was pretty good’.

The first Star Wars movies were released in 1977, 1980 and 1983, Lucas created three prequels to the trilogy in 1999, 2002 and 2005.

The first of these prequels, or Episode 1, is The Phantom Menace.

One fan stated he never really liked Episode 1.

‘It’s not one of his (Lucas’) strongest but it was made for the huge screen so I guess it’s good to see it back there and hopefully they will release the original films again,’ he said.

His friend stated he was happy to have brought his son along.

‘He’s seen it on DVD, he is seen it on Blu-ray, so forget the 3-D even, it’s just a chance to see a Star Wars film on the huge screen,’ he said.

His son enjoyed the film but thought it looked better on Blu-ray.

But all concurred it was good to see the film’s villain Darth Maul in a lightsabre battle with Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor).

‘It’s been 13 years since we have seen that on the huge screen,’ one said.

His friend added: ‘Darth Maul and Qui-Gon – when they cut loose, that is the Jedis that we always wanted to see.’

When she is not striding down the catwalk, the model Naomi Preizler is often to be found backstage, sketching her world in all its extraordinary glory.

BY Kate Finnigan | 05 February 2012

Fashion’s not all glamour, you know. Like that of a film star, the life of a professional model tends to involve lots of tedious hanging around – queuing for castings, queuing for fittings, waiting for four hours to see if your face fits the bill for this season’s Calvin Klein show… While some girls might use this time to micro-edit their Facebook profiles or start cultivating that inner diva, the Argentine model Naomi Preizler reaches for her pencil.

The 21-year-old, who has walked in catwalk shows for labels such as Alexander Wang, Chanel, Givenchy and Balenciaga, and has been photographed in magazines including Italian Vogue, Interview and Love, is fast becoming fashion’s unofficial artist in residence, doing lightning-quick sketches of her sister models backstage, and bold, larger-than-life self-portraits. And it was queuing in the ateliers of grand designers that proved the inspirational catalyst.

Self-portrait at Chanel and Preizler sketching while in hair and make-up at the Rag & Bone show

‘You know, you are watching Jean Paul Gaultier or Nicolas Ghesquière designing – they are artists. It’s a great opportunity,’ she says, in the office of her London model agency, Premier. ‘I realised fashion students, for example, would die to see this.’

Having grown up in an artistic household in Buenos Aires – her dad an architect and sometime oil painter, her grandmother a sculptor – Preizler has been obsessed with both art and fashion from a young age. She was spotted by a model scout aged 14 but did not take up modelling until she left high school. In the meantime she had started producing her own versions of fashion images that caught her eye. She still has a 1995 issue of Italian Vogue purchased while on holiday in Rome with her family, from which she did drawings of a Moschino advertising campaign.

Models backstage at Paris Fashion Week (including Lily Donaldson, right)

When her international career finally began, a world of fine art also opened. ‘I was living in Paris, going to the Louvre, seeing the Old Masters,’ she says, in her accented but perfect English. ‘I discovered Schiele’s work, which I’d seen in books, but when you see them in person it’s different. In Argentina we do not have access to anything like that, but in Europe you are surrounded by it.’

In 2007 she found herself at a Balenciaga fitting in the presence of the house’s designer, Nicolas Ghesquière. ‘He was sketching and there was this beautiful coat from the show and I thought, “I want to draw this!”‘ She started taking her sketchbook along to model castings. ‘You’re in line-ups for an hour, two hours,’ she says.

‘All the girls are listening to music or reading or chatting and I was speaking to nobody, so I started sketching. I wore my sunglasses so nobody could see me looking at them.’

casting for the Calvin Klein show

Her drawings have to be quick – ‘The girls move on all the time’ – and she sometimes leaves them half-finished, liking the sketchiness of the figures. Preizler develops some initial drawings into paintings, using lurid colours that burst out of the page nearly monstrously. A backstage self-portrait sketched at a Chanel fitting – the reflected figure is herself as artist, the other figure herself as Chanel model – was fleshed out afterwards on paper in acrylic, combined with watercolour, ink and pencil. She also paints on canvas in oil brightened with acrylic paint to make the colour more vibrant. The effect, combined with the exaggerated features she gives herself – ‘I always do thick eyebrows and strong features and skinny figures because it’s a version of me’ – is carnivalesque.

Lara Stone backstage at Givenchy and the male model Marcel Castenmiller

Her peers have differing reactions. ‘Some of the girls do not like it, and some people really like it and say, “Oh, I see you are sketching me, Naomi. OK…”‘ – Preizler strikes a challenging ‘model’ pose in imitation – ‘”…let’s see what you have got!”‘

With such unique inside access Preizler’s artistic talent is increasingly sought after. She’s proud that she is been on the cover of Argentine Harper’s Bazaar, with her art featured inside. Jean Paul Gaultier owns the watercolour she did of him and Beth Ditto after his spring/summer 2011 show, and Harvey Nichols recently commissioned Preizler to illustrate its spring/summer 2012 press book. At the next round of international fashion weeks she will be doing backstage drawings for vogue.com.

Beth Ditto and Jean Paul Gaultier

Preizler, it seems, has found that elusive path of working and indulging her passion at the same time. ‘For me fashion and art will always go alongside each other,’ she says.

Paradoxically, for a simple hobbledehoy such as my ’umble self, yer honour, the task can be even more taxing than for those whose thoughtful efforts you will find closer to the front of this publication. It’s not for numpties on the back page to comment on serious, important events. I have my own views on the current shemozzle in Europe, bankers and their bonuses, Fred’s knighthood, the great disappearing Veto, the Arab Spring, the Strait of Hormuz, the smacking of children, whether Andy will ever win a major, and the cricket. Oh, the cricket! I know it’s no more than your opinion, but who cares what we think? I might as well be speaking to myself. As a matter of fact, this was brought closer to home for me last week.

Under pressure from my endless nagging, the present Lady Wogan paid a visit to an ear, nose and throat doctor to check her hearing. She returned with that superior smile that all married men know so well, and the news that her hearing was that of a hunting barn owl. You see, it wasn’t that she can’t hear. She just can’t be bothered to listen. And who can blame her, after 46 years? She’s heard all I’ve had to say, years ago.

I like to think that this is not necessarily the view of our august editor and that, in his more lucid moments, he thinks you’ve probably had enough of Europe, bankers and all the rest, by the time, drained of all emotion, you get to the back page. A tiny light relief is called for. Bring on the dancing girls! Shame, it’s only Matt, Fogle and me.

But if you think it’s simple for Ben to come up with something fresh on the goings-on in the Wild Wood every week, or a genius like Matt to pull something out of the fire, and then, draw it, week in, week out, think again. As for me, I find myself increasingly looking over my shoulder, not just to see if I’m being followed, but for inspiration. And it’s always a mistake.

I wish I could take those poor deluded unfortunates seeking fame so desperately on “reality” shows (was there ever a greater misnomer than “reality” to describe them?) and tell them that fame and “celebrity” get you as many brickbats as applause. Witness this unsolicited testimonial that I dug from my dusty archives:

“Have you noticed how the public’s perception of the famous can be assessed by how they refer to them? Those they love and admire are called by their first name: Kate, William, Harry, Charles, Sam, John, George, Paul, Ringo. For those the public abhor, the surname is used: Hitler, Stalin, Crippen, Wogan.”

“I had a burning desire to see black people presented on tv in a positive light,” stated Cornelius.

Cornelius created Soul Train in 1970, with just $400. He hosted the hugely popular music and dance show for more than two decades. It was must-see TV for the latest fashion trends, innovative dance moves and black music hits.

Ralph Herndon is a pianist with the Choral Arts Society of Washington. He has fond memories of the show.

“Soul Train was like having a party at your house every Saturday. Something that our black youth had to look forward to, something they could identify with,” stated Herndon.

Soul Train helped to propel the musical careers of giants such as Michael Jackson, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye. The weekly show was the first TV program specifically geared towards African Americans.

By the time it went off the air in 2003 Soul Train had become one of the longest-running syndicated shows in U.S. tv history. Cornelius hosted the show until 1993. Herndon stated the TV icon helped so many recording artists.

“We probably would not have come this far had it not been for Don Cornelius and Soul Train being a catapult for a lot of black artists,” stated Herndon.

Other Soul Train fans concur and state Cornelius introduced the music of black Americans to the world, and to their fellow Americans.

“I’m Don Cornelius and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul.”

Tycoon purchases the rights to Humphrey B Bear Says he is planning a Humphrey comback “Who would not want to own one of their childhood icons?”

HE has been confined to the showbiz wilderness but Australian children’s icon Humphrey B Bear is back and ready to take on the world.

Adelaide company Imagination has purchased the rights to the “funny old fellow”, breathing new life into Humphrey in a bid to captivate a new generation of kids – nearly 45 years since he first graced black and white TV screens on Channel 9.

Imagination chief executive Shane Yeend stated he was still pinching himself over his company snaring the rights to Humphrey B Bear ahead of about 100 groups that had shown interest.

“I used to get up every morning and watch Humphrey,” he said. “Who would have ever thought that we would end up owning him? Who would not want to own one of their childhood icons?”

Dual Logie Award winner (1970 and 1982) Humphrey’s famous suit has been sitting idle in an Adelaide accounting firm office since his former owner Banksia Productions was wound up three years ago.

That was until Imagination clinched the deal this week for an undisclosed sum. Mr Yeend stated he was exploring how Humphrey – created by former Nine program director, the late Rex Heading – would make his return. Options included a new TV program, charity work or a re-invention in an animated series.

“Anything is possible,” he said.

“Look what happened with Bananas In Pyjamas.

“They made it into an animated series and now it is on its way to becoming a billion-dollar brand. It is not an simple road. The kids’ market is a very tough market these days, but Humphrey is still recognised by young children. My daughter adores him.”

Mr Yeend stated he planned to celebrate Humphrey’s comeback with a reunion of those who helped bring him to life in the world’s longest-running children’s program, screening in Asia, US and Latin America.

“For the last few months, we have been going through 40 years worth of material,” he said.

“We have come across all these people who have had something to do with Humphrey and we thought it would be nice to have a reunion later this year to celebrate how he has affected so many people.”

Ericka Lee, who claims to be the ‘Headlines’ hitmaker’s ex-girlfriend, has filed a lawsuit against him seeking damages and a co-writer credit for his 2011 song ‘Marvin’s Room’ as she alleges he concurred to split the profits from the track with her after she concurred to record the opening monologue and the song’s “hook”.

Ericka filed the lawsuit on Thursday (02.02.12) in California federal court and she claims the pair had a romantic and business partnership between early 2010 and mid-2011, in which time she stated they swapped song lyrics and discussed joint creative projects, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The complaint – which alleges that Drake sent Ericka a text message stating she could have two per cent of the “publishing royalties” – reads: “Plaintiff’s contribution is highly significant to the overall work.”

In July 2011, Ericka made a claim at the US Copyright Office regarding the song – which has been viewed more than 39 million times on YouTube – stating: “My works and voice are used on this work.”

Published: Feb. 4, 2012 at 6:00 AM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) — U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday urged Americans to pressure Congress to pass his plan to help home owners refinance mortgages at “historically low rates.”

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president once again touted what he calls his “blueprint for an economy that is built to last.” He stated the collapse in the housing market has “been the single biggest drag on our recovery from the recession.”

“It has kept millions of families in debt and unable to spend, and it has left hundreds of thousands of construction workers out of a job,” Obama said.

“Right now, there are more than 10 million home owners in this country who, because of a decline in home prices that is no fault of their own, owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth,” Obama said. “Now, it is wrong for anyone to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible home owners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. I do not accept that. None of us should.

“That’s why I’m sending Congress a plan that will give every responsible home owner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgages by refinancing at historically low rates,” he said.

Obama stated the plan will not help “folks who purchased a house they could not afford and then walked away from it” or people who “bought multiple houses just to turn around and sell them.”

He stated his proposal to lower mortgage payments will require congressional action, but “as anyone who has followed the news in the last six months can tell you, getting Congress to do anything these days is not an simple job.”

“That’s why I’m going to keep up the pressure on Congress to do the right thing,” the president said. “But I also need your help. I need your voice. I need everyone who concurs with this plan to get on the phone, send an e-mail, tweet, pay a visit, and remind your representatives in Washington who they work for.

The British actor plays the role of Arthur Kipps in the motion picture about a lawyer who visits a haunted house, and he admits he was jumpy when he read through the screenplay, which was a good indicator to him that audiences would be scared.

He said: ‘It was a very compelling, frightening story. It frightened me when I read it, which I took as a pretty good indicator that it would frighten people when it was filmed.

‘And when I met the director James I became even more excited to be a part of it because he was this smart, young, ambitious, hungry director. And that is always wonderful to work with.’

The ‘Harry Potter’ star also found reading the script particularly simple as it was more like a ‘novel’ than what he normally has to see.

He added to Bloody Disgusting: ‘The script was so good for this. Normally if there is a script that has a lot of stage direction it can be hard work wading through it.

‘But this just read like a novel. The stage direction was so compelling and beautifully written and so clear, and so visual actually, that just reading it you had a sense of what the film was going to look like.’

BY Michael Roberts | 04 February 2012

Africa Fashion Week, a national event since 2006, is a relatively late addition to the worldwide network of fashion weeks, but the opening ceremony, held in a Johannesburg hotel, is blessed with fashionistas in numbers equal to those at similar affairs in New York, Paris, London and Milan.
We were promised 18 shows, 50 models and 30 designers in three days. I met the Somalian twins, Idyl and Ayaan Mohallim of the label Mataano (Mataano means ‘twins’), who have appeared on Oprah, and two men from Mozambique dressed in polka-dot shirts, bow ties and horn-rim glasses, who might have been the African version of Viktor and Rolf but were instead a fashion designer and his PR. Their collection, they said, was inspired by the death in 1986 of their country’s president, Samora Machel, in a plane crash.
I then greeted the veteran white South African designer Marianne Fassler, the winner of the 2010 Outstanding Contribution to Fashion in Africa award, who has vermillion dreadlocks and is, I am told, the Vivienne Westwood of the African fashion industry. ‘I have generations of clients,’ she said. ‘I’ve been working since 1976 at the begin of the Soweto riots.’
‘We do not have a strong celebrity culture,’ stated Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, the head of African Fashion International, which organised the event, and a woman equipped with Michelle Obama-esque poise and a coral-coloured Oscar de la Renta jacket, ‘but we have energy, passion, desire and hunger for fashion. Now we have to educate the consumer and find ways of making our manufacturing costs more competitive because they are higher than in China.’
Our hotel conference room was all business and bustle as we the judges and jury sifted through piles of nominees in various categories. Model of the Year: a toss-up between Nyasha Matonhodze, the woman in the Louis Vuitton advertising, her sweet expression evoking Naomi Campbell after a successfully finished course of anger management, and a striking 27-year-old Kenyan woman with a one-year-old child, who once trained to be a 400m runner. The fleet-footed Ajuma Nasenyana (this page, one of our models in this story, alongside Sudanese-born Tina Johnson, overleaf, who moved to Australia as a child) took the prize.
At Mustafa Hassanali’s show, two spear-carrying Maasai, their robes twinkling with sequins, pogo danced vigorously as the models swanned past on the catwalk. Otherwise, Amaka Osakwe of the label Maki Oh impressed with a collection wreathed in back stories involving African traditions, while David Tlale halted all printing of money for two days by showing at the South African Mint.
Then followed the judging for ideal accessories, hair, make-up and stylist of the year and, of course, someone had to win for their blog (Emma Jordan of ifashion.co.za). Finally it was Inter­national Designer of the Year. The prize went to Ozwald Boateng, of Ghanaian descent and familiar to Britons for his Savile Row tailoring. Boateng hangs humbly behind his award. ‘That’s a special thing,’ he said.

He has stated that his life went off the rails for a period when he turned 18 and was filming Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince as the pressures of fame made him so dependent on alcohol.

“I have a very addictive personality. It was a problem,” Radcliffe told Heat magazine this week in an interview to promote his latest film.

“People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it. It was bad. I do not want to go into details, but I drank a lot and it was daily – I mean nightly.

“I can honestly state I never drank at work on Harry Potter. I went into work still drunk, but I never drank at work. I can point to many scenes where I’m just gone. Dead behind the eyes.”

Radcliffe developed a penchant for whisky and partying, and stated he was fortunate that the paparazzi failed to capture his drink-fuelled excess.

Realising he had to change his ways, Radcliffe quit drinking and has not touched a drop of alcohol since August 2010.

“You either have to change something or give into that shame,” he added.

The British star, propelled to fame aged 11 after being cast to play the boy wizard in the movies based on J.K. Rowling’s bestselling novels, also admits to a “very busy personality”.

“I can also be quite insecure. A lot of actors have self-doubt. I live under that the whole time, and it’s how I function best. I think she puts up with a lot; she states she doesn’t,” stated Radcliffe.

Radcliffe has received critical acclaim for his theater work in the Broadway and West End productions “Equus” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”.

He is currently promoting his current film, “The Woman in Black”, a neo-Gothic horror movie, which opens this week, is his first post-Potter film.

The eight Potter films grossed more than $7.7bn (£4.87 billion) worldwide at the box office and made stars of Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.