The move to my new website, debritz.net, is on - and that's where you'll find my new, improved blog. While the contents of this site will remain as an archive in some form or other, debritz.com will eventually point to debritz.net. What's in all this for you? Well, for starters, there's the chance to become a registered user and have your say on my posts.

I'm back in Brisbane and working hard on the promised changes to this website. The plan is to add some features, change the approach of the blog, and make it all more user-friendly. It will take a few weeks to get everything running smoothly, but I'll be posting updates here.

It's something an Australian actor could only have dreams (or nightmares) about - appearing in the same show, week in, week out since January 26, 1988. According to Playbill , that's been the fate of Broadway Phantom of the Opera stars George Lee Andrews, Richard Warren Pugh and Mary Leigh Stahl, who have been with the production from the word go. Phantom is now the longest-running show on the Great White Way and has been the biggest generator of income and jobs in American theatre.
PS: I met composer Andrew Lloyd Webber once. I literally bumped into him on opening night in Melbourne about 15 years ago. All I could do was shake his hand and say "Congratulations".

I have just received an email from a Russian woman called Svetlana, who tells me she is 25, "blonde with blue eyes ... I have not children and I have not boyfriend here". She is hoping to work abroad and is looking for a man from USA, Europe or Canada to "be my guide". She says she wants to leave Russia "because it is impossible to live here for young pretty woman". Although I'm not in a position to help her out any way, it seems I received the email in error. And for some reason, my mail server filed it in the junk mail folder ...

Just as Phantom of the Opera reaches the record for the most-performed musical on Broadway, rumours are gathering pace that the show will be making a return to the Australian stage. Also rumoured is a touring arena version of the evergreen Les Miserables. Just confirmed for a Brisbane run is Fiddler on the Roof, starring Topol.

Internet kiosks are few and far between in the NSW Central Highlands, but I expect to be back online early next week.

King Kong is not so far-fetched after all, according to evolutionary biologist Sue Lieberman. As CNN reports, she told Reuters that gigantism does occcur in primates who live on islands. No news, however, whether there's any evidence of god-like lions in the depths of wardrobes.

Former B105 star Jamie Dunn's 10-year tenure at 96.1 Heat FM on the Sunshine Coast has not yet begun officially, but that hasn't stopped the station from promoting him. Here's the teaser web page.
PS: For more information about the new B105 breakfast team of Gabby Millgate, Mike van Acker, Stewart ‘Stav’ Davidson and Ben Wasley, click here.

The lights are shining bright on Broadway, with a record year for New York's theatreland. According to the BBC, ticket sales were US$825million in 2005, up from $749million the previous year. The big hits included Monty Python's Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. I suspect Australian theatre has had a somewhat less successful 2005. Still, there's the promise of a few hits on the horizon - including the musical Dusty, which opens in Melbourne next week and - all being well - will tour the country. Brisbane audiences can catch the tail end of the tour of Dirty Dancing from January 14.

Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer, has been added to the Celebrity Deaths Archive at the age of 68. ABC Online has coverage here.

A grief-stricken woman - one of the survivors of the Asian tsunami who has returned for its first anniversary - spots a camera trained on her and orders the operator not to take her picture. He or she does anyway, and someone - a reporter or a producer - decides to screen the image on the 7pm news. I think someone at ABC TV News made a very bad call tonight.

Only in America ... a US court has issued a restraining order against talk show host David Letterman. A woman claims Letterman and other celebrities have been sending her coded messages that have caused her bankruptcy, mental cruelty and sleep deprivation since 1994. Apparently Letterman's at fault because he started sending her "thoughts of love" across the airwaves.

Brisbane's B105 has announced its new breakfast team. Apparently local standups Mike van Acker and Stewart 'Stav' Davidson will line up with Gabby Millgate (of Muriel's Wedding and Full Frontal fame) and announcer Ben Wasley. Reports are that the team, replacing Jamie Dunn, Penny Cooper and Dean Kesby, will be on air from January 3.

West Wing star John Spencer has died at the tragically young age of 58. Ironically, his character in the show, Leo McGarry, survived a heart attack last year. As CNN reports, Spencer did not. His name will be added to the Celebrity Deaths Archive when I get FTP access to that site again.

My annual holiday starts here. If all goes to plan, this blog will be updated every few days until mid-January, when daily updates will resume. I'll also update the Celebrity Deaths Archive and Brisbane Theatre Calendar when I can. When I return, I plan to start work on a new look (and a slight change of direction) for debritz.com.

Brisbane's only daily newspaper, The Courier-Mail is to change size from broadsheet to tabloid sometime in the first half of 2006. The story is on The Courier-Mail's website here. The announcement comes on the same day that Premier Peter Beattie said he would like to see another newspaper in Queensland.

Twelve European women have spent two months in bed - all in the name of science. By lying down and undertaking certain tasks they have helped scientists learn more about the effects of weightlessness in space. They were also paid £10,000 each for their cooperation. I wonder if they're looking for male volunteers ...

Brokeback Mountain, about a longstanding gay relationship between two cowboys, has scored a swag of nominations for the Golden Globes. Actors Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams and director Ang Lee have been nominated in their fields, and the film itself will be competing against George Clooney's Good Night, And Good Luck, Woody Allen's Match Point, Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence in the best film drama category. Significantly, many of the nominees are low-budget independent efforts.

I had some feedback about links that don't work for some readers - although they work perfectly well from this end. Please let me know by email if you're having trouble with the Brisbane Theatre Calendar link. The calendar, which is still being developed (and is farily bare for this time of the year), can also be found at www.brisbanetheatre.com.

ABC Radio's Conversations is going south. From early next year, Richard Fidler will host the 11am program both on 612ABC Brisbane and 702ABC Sydney. However, it's not clear from the announcement whether it will be the same program. Because of the time difference between the states, it will be theoretically possible for Fidler to do unique shows back-to-back for the different markets. If it's the same show, then the Queensland audience will get their "live and local" radio on a one-hour delay during summer. If the Sydney experiment gets extended beyond its initial 13-week trial, the show will have to have a more "national" approach when the time zones fall back into alignment. It'd be a shame if that meant guests were chosen for their appeal to the larger NSW market rather than their ability to connect with Queensland audiences. Whatever happens, it's clear - as I've been saying for some time - that Fidler, who is also slated to host the 1pm to 3pm slot on 612 next year, is being groomed for bigger things on the ABC. Perhaps the big-wigs in Sydney regard his time in Brisbane as an "out-of-town tryout".

Life without sin is not boring, according to Pope Benedict. I guess it all depends on what you class as sin - and I have more than a sneaking suspicion that the pope's definition is way more conservative than mine.

"There are many different kinds of comedians - the observational humorist, the impressionist, the character creator, the physical comedian, the self-deprecator, and the dirty-joke teller. What made Richard Pryor so brilliant is he was able to incorporate all these styles at once." So said Damon Wayons in tribute to Richard Pryor. Bill Cosby said: "I wish that every new and young comedian would understand what Richard was about and not confuse his genius with his language usage."

Comedian and actor Richard Pryor has died at age 65 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. CNN reports that Pryor, the star of 40 films and one of America's favourite standup comics, died on Saturday of a heart attack. For more recent celebrity deaths, see the Celebrity Deaths Archive.

"I didn't expect to end up with the sort of finances I ended up with. I was just running a business." So said hitherto little-known Australian businessman Greg Poche after donating $30 million to research into melanoma. Bravo to him.

Closes tonight: A Christmas Carol, Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.
Today and tonight: The Spirit of Christmas, Concert Hall, QPAC, 2pm and 7pm.
Until December 17: He Died with a Felafel in his Hand, Roundhouse Theatre.
Book now: An Inspector Calls, March 16-26, Lyric Theatre, QPAC.
All bookings: QTix
See also: Brisbanetheatre.com

The director of the film Memoirs of a Geisha, Rob Marshall, has defended his decision to cast Chinese actors as Japanese characters. He says Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li were chosen for their acting abilities, not their race. In that case, why didn't he cast Meryl Streep?

Looks like Nicole Richie is available for another season of The Simple Life. Like her former best pal Paris Hilton, she's split from her fiance. Apparently Richie and DJ 'AM' Adam Goldstein have parted ways "by mutual consent". The whole sad story is here.

"What they're doing is protecting the names of The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And they have to be really looked after. So it's important that people like me don't come along and make a mess of it. Of course, we weren't intending to make a mess of it." So, philosophically says Ian Watts, who found out the hard way that nobody makes a musical on the life of the late John Lennon without permission from Yoko Ono. Her lawyers apparently told Watts: "Your head's above the parapet and Yoko's crosshairs are firmly fixed on your forehead." Not necessarily the most appropriate analogy given what happened 25 years ago today.

"Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual." That's what Tom Shields QC, for singer Robbie Williams, told the High Court in London in a case that led to him being awarded substantial damages from newspapers that claimed otherwise. I guess that settles the question, then. Details from the BBC here.

The Celebrity Deaths Archive has been updated, with the passing of colourful Queensland cleaning-products salesman Kev McQuay (whose catchcry was "I'm excited"), veteran Hollywood character actor Jack Colvin and Saw horror films producer Gregg Hoffman, who died suddenly at the age of just 42.

Girl group The Pussycat Dolls are officially no longer a one-hit wonder. They've just had their second No.1 single in the UK, with their Stickwitu beating Oasis' Let There Be Love to the top spot. Liam Gallagher will not be happy.

Thanks to Calendars.Net, I've developed a Brisbane theatre calendar. It still needs work, but you can find it at Brisbanetheatre.com.

Now don't tell me this won't get people back into the pews ... A German church group has released a calendar featuring photographs of erotic scenes from the Bible. Photographer Stefan Wiest says: "There's a whole range of biblical scriptures simply bursting with eroticism." And as Anne Rohmer, who posed as prostitute Rahab, points out, "it doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that you are forbidden to show yourself nude".

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, for one Lost star to be arrested for drink driving may be regarded as a misfortune; for two of them to be looks like carelessness. Both Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros were nabbed by police on the same night and, according to People , Rodriguez could be heading for the slammer for breaking probation. Last year pleaded no contest to a hit and run, driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence following two incidents in LA in 2003. She was sentenced to 36 months probation and a 30-day alcohol program (which doesn't appear to have worked).

A theatre company in Singapore has been refused permission to present a play about the hanging of drug courier Shanmugam Murugesu - unless the script makes no mention of the death penalty and no reference to any political leader. The AAP story here provides some interesting insights into freedom of expression, or the lack of it, in Singapore. To me, it also raises a few questions about possible applications of Australia's sedition laws.

As if Angelina Jolie's kids aren't already confused enough, they are now going to be adopted by Brad Pitt. They will be known as Maddox and Zahara Jolie-Pitt. I guess that means Brad and Angelina are an item after all.

Ian Skippen has made an emotional return to the B105 Morning Crew to donate $2000 (earned by his Triple M colleague Greg Martin in a run up the Gold Coast's Q1 Building) to the Children's Hospital Christmas Appeal. In true acerbic form, Jamie Dunn told a teary Skippen (who jumped ship this time last year and now hosts the top-rating The Cage on Triple M): "It's because of you it's our last day. Thanks a lot; you've cost us all our jobs, you bastard. Now you've given away my last words on B105: 'Get stuffed, Skippen'."

It will be the end of an era in Brisbane radio tomorrow morning when Jamie Dunn and the Morning Crew host B105's breakfast show for the last time. In a live broadcast from outside the Royal Children's Hospital, Dunn - who has been a fixture on B105 since its launch 15 years ago - will sign off for the last time at 8.45am. There's also talk of a special event at 7.30am.

Have you wondered why we haven't been seeing much of Kevin Costner lately? Costner, 50, says he entered into an oral agreement to star in a romantic comedy called Taming Ben Taylor but the production company pulled out. He's seeking an US$8 million-plus settlement. Here's the lowdown on the legal showdown.

Julia Roberts can command US$20million a movie, making her the highest paid actress in Hollywood. Our Nicole (as Nicole Kidman must always be called in the Australian media) is second on the best-paid list with $17m per movie, followed by Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore on $15m. Details here.

It's always sad when friends fall out over money. That's why it's nice to be able to report that pop billionaires Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell have settled their differences over the Pop/Australian/American Idol and X Factor franchises. Without going into boring details, it means Cowell has signed up for "at least five more series of American Idol". Can the world cope with five more manufactured pop stars?