I think you gracefully withdraw at some point soon & spend the rest of you days happily with your corgis & race horses ... & become the "Queen mother", passing on the top job onto your most suitable off-spring. How that will go is another question.
Me, I'm still a republican. No surprises there, I'm sure.
Nothing to do with her majesty as a person, or anything like that.
I just think we're a multicultural country & an English monarch is no longer appropriate. And that we should grow up & become independent of old ties. (I have a hunch her majesty sees things much like this herself.)
Speaking of the monarchy & royal weddings & all that ....
Interesting that the BBC pulled the Chasers' coverage of the event. Rumoured to be at Charles's request.
Strange stuff, really. Charles is a big Monty Python fan ... has he lost his sense of humour completely?
But more surprising to me was the BBC going along with his request & denying the ABC coverage. Weird, seeing the funny side of these situations is not allowed, it seems.
I kinda agree with the decision.
I wouldnt want the chaser satirising my wedding.
Slightly different proposition given that the royals are public property and that the weddding was an "event" but that was my thought.
Christ knows what the chaser would get up to.
I wouldnt want the chaser satirising my wedding.
Slightly different proposition given that the royals are public property and that the weddding was an "event" but that was my thought.
Christ knows what the chaser would get up to.
Yep, slightly different, I agree.
But it might have been funny.
0 Replies
hingehead
1
Reply
Sun 1 May, 2011 10:39 pm
@msolga,
Apparently the most fervent supporter of an Australian republic is the Queen herself - a constant message from her for twenty years is 'I won't be offended, get on with it'
Where the push for an Australian republic fails is the issue of whether the parliament or the electorate choose the head of state (governor general, president, whatever you want to call it).
I also think the idea that the looney-itis surrounding the wedding means we aren't pro-republic is disingenuous at best, apparently the Americans went even more looney than us - does that mean they've realised how greatly they've erred against King George III and are reentering the commonwealth? Not likely. This is all about celebrity and bugger all to do with systems of government.
Oh I absolutely agree with all you've said, hinge.
My thoughts exactly.
(I don't think the Queen of England knows what to make of us Australians! )
I was very involved in that last referendum campaign. The republican movement stuffed that one up.
Most modern thinkers here take the view that the sooner Australia becomes republican the better. It will happen anyway at some point as you become more secular, multi-racial and hag-ridden.
PERHAPS the Aussiest actor of them all, Bill Hunter, is seriously ill.
The 71-year-old star of films including Muriel’s Wedding, Gallipoli, Australia and Crackerjack, is said to be surrounded by family in a hospice in Melbourne.
Hunter’s agent, Mark Morrissey, confirmed to the Herald Sun that Hunter is “gravely ill” and would disclose more after talking to Hunter’s family later today.
Hunter, who lives in a property in north-western Victoria, will be seen in two Australian films this year - feel-good outback drama Red Dog (out August 11) and his last movie, The Cup (out October 13), in which he plays horse trainer Bart Cummings.
The director of The Cup, Simon Wincer, told the Herald Sun Hunter showed no signs of illness when the film was shot in Melbourne last year.
“There was certainly no hint of it then, he was his normal self,” said Wincer. “I will say Billy has lived life pretty hard, a smoker and drinker, a legend in that department, but that was one of his charms. I would describe him as a real Aussie bloke.
"A latter-day Chips Rafferty, I suppose - an iconic, classic, Australian bloke. And a wonderful sense of humour on screen."
Wincer had been in the process of setting up a special screening of The Cup for Hunter, but the actor has been unable to see it.
“We needed a legend to play Bart Cummings and Billy was the man. It was only a very small cameo, but I just wanted him to be part of it.
“We go back a long way, we go back to the Crawford days, Matlock Police and Homicide and all that sort of stuff. So I’ve known him for years and years and years. A real sweetheart and a great pro."
Wincer said a quote Hunter gave for the press kit for the upcoming film summed up the veteran’s approach to acting: “Something along the lines of, ‘There’s no great art to this, you just have to do what you’re told, hit your mark … there’s no great mystery’. It was so self-deprecating but so wonderfully honest. He just turns up and does it, that’s the wonderful thing about Bill. Just old-school.
“But he’s an amazing talent when you think of the range of his work – Strictly Ballroom, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Newsfront, the voice of the dentist in Finding Nemo, fantastic, you know. It just goes on and on and on."
Hunter’s career began in the 1950s. He worked steadily in TV and film throughout the decades, sharing the screen with actors such as Jack Thompson, Terence Donovan, Mick Jagger, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Jackman, Toni Collette, Joel Edgerton, Bryan Brown, Barry Otto, Naomi Watts and Anthony LaPaglia.
Despite having worked with the cream of the Australian crop and internationally, Wincer said Hunter was ever-modest.
“He is absolutely passionate about Australian film,” Wincer said. “But in a very modest way. Billy was never grandstanding, no fuss, no bother, mates with everybody.
“You never hear a bad word about Billy. He’s certainly left his mark.”
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