Creatures from the news lagoon
Philip Matthews celebrates the movies.
Oscar and the grouches
Bring back Billy Crystal, that’s what we say. But seriously: is it a big deal that the worldwide audience for the Academy Awards slipped to a mere 26.5 million viewers, in an age of social media and news websites, when results can be shared immediately? But as part of his ongoing war on Hollywood liberals, President Donald Trump went on Twitter to mock ‘‘the lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY’’, to which Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel snappily replied, ‘‘Thanks, lowest rated President in HISTORY’’. We were happy with the winners, including a heavily made-up Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins for Blade Runner 2049 and of course The Shape of Water, this year’s most imaginative Cold War allegory about race, sex, diversity and inter-species romance with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Hooray for Hollywood.
Re Joyce
Another week, another Joyce resignation. This time it was our own Steven Joyce who is stepping down as a National MP after contesting but not winning the leadership. The old guard that seemed so insurmountable for so long has now evaporated, after John Key and Bill English’s departures. But rather than step around Joyce’s infamous preelection claim that Labour had a $11.7 billion hole in its books, Joyce’s replacement Amy Adams has opted to double down, telling media that the gap could even be ‘‘considerably more’’ than Joyce predicted. ‘‘It’s not a great start for Amy Adams to keep digging Steven Joyce’s discredited hole,’’ Labour’s Grant Robertson said. Pass the shovel.
Earthquake spies?
Over the past few weeks we have seen renewed interest in Christchurch’s post-earthquake period from national media, whether it’s EQC scrutinised on RNZ’s Checkpoint or Newshub’s Patrick Gower investigating Crown-owned insurer Southern Response’s use of private investigators to keep tabs on disgruntled earthquake claimants. The latter prompted a speedy response from the State Services Commission, which has already launched an inquiry into whether Southern Response breached integrity and standards. All of which is yet another reminder of what strange, fraught times they were in Christchurch. Southern Response was reportedly worried about a repeat of the Ashburton Winz office shooting – that’s how hot the protests looked from its side. It was a week in which being sued by a porn star was not the most eventful thing that happened to the President of the United States. Adult movie actress Stormy Daniels’ case against Trump concerns the details of a reported US$130,000 pay out to keep their affair quiet before the 2016 election. But that backfired and now everyone knows the not very sordid details of their encounter. Trump’s spontaneous announcement of tariffs of 25 per cent on foreign-made steel and 10 percent on aluminum are a little bit more important than the president’s sex life: while Canada and Mexico will be exempt from the new tariffs, Germany, South Korea and Brazil will be hard hit. China will be much less affected, despite all of Trump’s populist rhetoric.