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

THE GUIDE 21 3 The unit is keeping their research material under wraps, with outsiders positively discouraged from popping in for a look. CM 8 SI. if" oo G- 1 JACQUELINE LEE LEWES W1 THE NINE Network has appointed Kris Noble as head of drama, a title which has sat on a shelf for the past couple of years. Choosing the network's drama and sitcoms has been the job of the network programmer since Kennedy Millers brief and unhappy flirtation "Tit with the network. But with programmer Koss Plapp heading for Hong Kong (and what-rumour has it is a very, very THE WAR between the newsrooms continues This week there were rumblings at Ten and Seven over footage shown on Channel Nine of Kathryn Greiner giving diarist Terry Metherell a bucketing.

Channel Nine arrived late at the lunch and missed Mrs Greiner calling Metherell a "drama While Nine didn't show footage that night, the next evening the clip was included in its bulletin. So where did the footage come from? There was nothing sinister in it, says Nine's director of news, Ian Cook. No, it wasn't recorded off another news program. "We were beaten fair and square and we wouldn't record off air in those circumstances," said Cook. It turns out that the ABC gave Nine the vision the next day.

lucrative job) and his work at Nine being taken over by a committee of three, Nine has decided to dust off the title and give it to Noble. He II be looking after sitcoms, serials and mini-series and so on. There are a in a g.M I 2 in I Si a rs O.I 0 Off 1 a. ob 2 5 -g 4) 5 .2 fC Sj 2 2 'reasonable" number of projects on the drawing board, says Noble, including some really exciting ones for next From now on, Hendo will be personally editing out any Nine News stories about gay roosters. year.

Some of the programs will be made Other sources say the ABC costed a fully fledged sports program for the slot, in-house, while others will be made by independent production houses working closely with Noble. "I'm hoping people out it wouia nave oeen too expensive. will be banging on the doors to talk about projects," says Noble. ON THE grapevine comes word of a pilot for a chat show with Noelene Hogan and Stuart Wagstaff as co-hosts. THE ABC's Every Body (this is the way the ABC says the title is spelt, even though its own promos for the program refuse to capitalise the b) is under siege from the commercial networks.

The Seven Network wants Lisa Forrest for its Barcelona Olympics commentary team and chef Geoff Jansz has been approached by a commercial network to do a pilot. The ABC doesn't mind about Lisa and Barcelona, but there are mutterings about the possibility of losing Jansz. The current series of EveryBody is almost finished production and the timing of the next series is under discussion at the moment. No decision yet as to whether it will be this year or next. LIVE and Sweaty is billing this week's "Celebrity Tenpin Bowling Challenge" between Andrew Denton and Opposition Leader Dr John Hewson as the Dork vs the Dwarf.

I wonder who's who? On arrival, the Opposition Leader was given a T-shirt to wear with the inscription "I Like Strikes" on the front and back. Dr Hewson also challenged Paul Keating to come on the show, an invitation extended by Andrew Denton on several occasions, but which the PM has turned down. Denton hasn't given up, though. There's talk of a gorilla-gram being sent to Parliament House in Canberra bearing yet another challenge. Wagstaff agentmanager, Martin Bedford, won't give any of the who, what and why details.

He would only say it is one of four pilots being done by A READER rang wondering about a call he received from a company doing a phone survey about pay television. One of the questions was: "Who would you prefer to run pay TV in this country Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer or the The company wouldn't say who had commissioned the survey, but my caller reckons that because some of the questions begged answers favouring the ABC, it must have been the ABC. Not so, says the ABC's pay TV man, Kim Williams. The ABC isn't involved in any surveys. However, he had heard that several studies had been undertaken by groups of students and that the results were "very He intends chasing them up.

Wagstaff, who is also busy theatrically with a new production in July and an offer for another play later in the year. Bedford is also discussing pilots with Ita Buttrose. NOT SURPRISINGLY, the oeoole at SBS have got themselves into a right tizz over rumours that the ABC plans a 6 pm sports program to go up against its hour-long World Sports program, which begins at 5.30 pm. SBS is still coming to terms with the ABC's decision to screen DAVID LYLE, executive producer of Nine's new holiday and leisure program, Getaway, never hangs round for the first ratings of any of his programs. On Friday, just minutes before the ratings were released, he boarded a plane with Doug Mulray.

The show features celebrity guests and their favourite holiday spot and Mulray chose Lizard Island. Before leaving, Lyle said he expected "some good grog" to be waiting at the island resort if the program's debut ratings were good. They were it rated 25. Nine arranged for several drops of red to be waiting for Lyle on the island. Foreign Correspondent against its Sat TALES are emerging about what it's like working on Channel Nine's Sex series.

Staffers have to spend a considerable amount of time watching X-rated videos and reading raunchy literature as they research everything there is to know about sex. At first there were shocked gasps. Now insiders say the unit has become desensitised to even the bluest material. One cameraman, however, claims the series is doing wonders for his sex life. His wife, he says, is grateful because of what he calls "a new sense of libidinal OOPS.

Brian Henderson-has learnt that throwaway lines don't always go down well with some viewers. On Thursday night, Nine's news ran a story about a king-sized rooster whose cock-a-doodle-doo wasn't up to scratch. Hendo questioned the bird's sexuality perhaps it was a gay rooster, he said and the phones began ringing immediately. Hendo is mortified and has offered an apology for any offence he caused. urday edition of Dateline.

ABC programmer Bob Donoghue says the ABC is testing A Dog's Life: The tlushs Australian Sheepdog Challenge from Mav 29 at 6 om and. if it works. then he may look round for other minority sports for that timeslot. Create Your Own In Home Theatre With 'a SET if'- llytf WALLV For the best SONY deal in Sydney ring The most exciting visual experience ever seen in Australia. "True Home Adjustable picture size up to 3.04 metres (120 inches diagonal).

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