The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 51

JACQUELINE LEE LEWES Pearson doing the networked bit Is this true? "No," said Alan Bateman, Ten's group general manager of production and operations. Referring to the way in which rumours are usually worked up in the television industry, he added: "It was probably that extra glass of red wine." THE GUIDEss jS Nv N1 -ii "III s--" 2 CHANNEL Nine's contribution to Australia's cultural identity, Supermarket Sweep, has been axed. No more shows are being taped and its brief but loud appearance on the box will cease on May 1. TALK within the ABC is that the national broadcaster's interest in Bob Hawke's "Profiles of Power" may be on the wane. Insiders say that the ABC's top.

brass aren't overly tickled by the amount of press coverage Hawke has received identifying him as a 60 Minutes reporter. Of course, there may have been a change of feeling since Bob made his reporting debut. Despite the wardrobe changes, I thought he did rather well. But isn't it amazing how quickly newcomers pick up that peculiar 60 Minutes way of talking? John Westa-cott, the program's executive producer, won't give any clues as to what we can expect next from the former PM not even the country in which he'll strut his stuff. I CRAWFORDS is to make a new pilot of sitcom The Newlyweds which will go to the Seven Network.

Apparently, Crawfords was unhappy with some of its casting and will recast some of the characters for the new pilot Did Real Life really fork out $25,000 for last week's Jason Donovan interview? Gerald Stone's lips are sealed. prompted this odd observation by co-anchor Lisa McRee: "Australian news is actually very good the people look so good so healthy they all have such great tans AN ADVERTISEMENT in The New York Times sums up how American programming has become. The night's viewing on the CNBC channel includes The Real Story, Real Life and something called Real Personal. Now what do you think the last one could be about? GERALD Stone, the Seven network's current affairs director, is thinking about another program for Seven. Stone says: "Now that Real Life has settled down, there is time to think about the next step." It follows that the next step would be an hour-long weekly show, but Stone would only say it would be current affairs if he's involved.

But these days, current affairs ranges from Four Comers to Hard Copy. "There is a lot of room," says Stone. Meanwhile, the talk is that Real Life paid $20,000 to $25,000 for last week's Jason Donovan interview, a sum which unfortunately didn't translate into ratings. Mr Stone wouldn't comment JUST days before his week of English shows, Steve Vizard was saying he was hoping a royal personage would be joining his lunch at the Ritz. He must have been talking about someone other than Princess Michael of Kent She was asked, but according to my sources close to the Palace (I have always wanted to write that), she courteously refused the invitation at the beginning of March.

untitled "tough and gritty" actuality series, has been inundated with more than 300 applications for jobs with the program. Producer appointments so far include Shane Maguire who is moving over from 60 Minutes and Fiona Baker who was with The 7.30 Report last year and, before that, 60 Minutes. Mooney says those working on the program will be a mix of experienced hands and new talent The latter includes Mark Savage, a young film-maker from Melbourne, who has made a heap of low-budget movies. They include the thriller The Marauders, which he wrote, directed and produced (David Stratton praised his work on this one), the direction of No Way Back and Trespassers which he directed, wrote and co-produced. A couple of reporters have already been signed, but no names are being released until they resign from the jobs they have.

Shooting on the first stories will begin in the next couple of weeks. DUE TO arrive in Australia yesterday was Jon Scott, a senior reporter with the American program Inside Edition, screened by Network Ten. Scott is here for 10 days to do five stories. Background notes say he has covered stories ranging from the Chernobyl disaster to the Gulf War and the Alaskan oil spill. mond is coming back down from Brisbane to be the network news director.

Thurston won't be joining the dole queue. He was once executive producer of Nine's 6 pm news bulletin and later worked for A Current Affair and Nine would dearly love to have him back. "He's a very good operator," said Ian Cook, Nine's news director, who was on the phone to Thurston as soon as he heard about his departure from Ten, which, incidentally, was before Thurston himself had been told. Why does this always seem to happen at Ten that the person concerned is always the last to know and heshe is given the news by people who work elsewhere? When will they get it right? Channel Seven is also believed to be talking to Thurston who -isn't giving anything away about his future plans: "I've been talking to people at both networks, but not necessarily about work," he said. In the wake of Thurston's exit from Ten, there have been fresh rumours that the network was planning to split its hour-long bulletin into a half-hour networked national news followed by a half-hour local news with possibly Melbourne's David Johnston and Jo SBS's new news slogan featuring Mary Kostakidis is now hitting the billboards and backs of buses.

Replacing "Mary tells you more than Brian told you" is "Mary brings you world affairs not Liz Taylor's." In about a month, the emphasis will switch to Paul Murphy and SBS's Dateline program. BRIAN Henderson has been telling three million Americans the way it is down under for the past three weeks. American broadcasting giant ABC has incorporated a 10-minute chunk from Nine's news in its new midnight-to-dawn news program. Nine's news is beamed to the US daily and the ABC then takes what it wants. One of the first stories was about Aboriginal deaths in custody which, according to Nine's North American correspondent, Mark Burrows, CHANNEL Nine reports it has received more than 50 requests from secondary schools, private and government, all around the country, for tapes of Sophie Lee's Sex special to use as resource material in their libraries.

Nine was more than happy to oblige. The special will be repeated on Thursday, April 23, and will also be made into a series. CHANNEL Ten has changed its Sydney news director yet again. Graham Thurston has been replaced by Kieran Gill and Stewart Rich NEIL Mooney, co-executive producer of Mike Willesee's new as yet DENON ft- I- I Hi I For the best SONY deal in Sydney ring (9) a Example SONY 4 HEAD VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER WITH AUTOMATIC 1 i HEAD CLEANING We've reduced die price, not the quality Also features: Digital automatic tracking NTSC playback on PAL TVs Auto head cleaning 4 head, still slow motion Rental picture enhancement system RRP $729. lirmnlavfivprtrarernrriinarime THIS WEK ONLY The D-60 Mini Hi-Fi system represents outstanding value and is now available from these leading DENON stockists: the same sound quality as DENON's world famous larger models.

The remote-controlled D-60 includes a pair of bass-reflex speakers for superb sound reproduction. DENON D-60 Component system. In separate units, the horizontal-loading twin cassette deck, CD player and 38W38W amptuner, stand only 260mm tall. Yet they produce Camcorder friendly with front panel line in terminals On screen menu Shuttle Ring DENON SYDNEY Quality Hi-Fi, 93 York Street Ph: 299 1005 DRUMMOYNE Audiocom Hi-Fi, Shop 4, Birkenhead Poinr Shopping Complex Ph: 81 3132 WOOLLAHRA Hi-Fi Junction, 290 Oxford Street Ph: 389 4000 RYDE Eversound, Shop 1 1 2 Top Ryde Shopping Square Ph: 808 3099 NEWCASTLE Eastern Hi-Fi, 549 Hunter Street Ph: (049) 25623 fast" P0 2S SMH The Guide, Monday, April 13, 1992.