Actualités

Featuring: Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Greg Page, Jeff Fatt, Jackie Cannizzaro, Evie Ferris, Lachlan Gillespie, Tsehay Hawkins, Caterina Mete | Directed by Sally Aitken

Described as The Beatles for toddlers, The Wiggles are an Australian musical group who were once the country’s top entertainment earners – making more than stars like Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. With Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles director Sally Aitken crafts a behind-the-scenes look focusing on the most widely known iteration of the group – made up of Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt – while not being limited to that version.

The original line-up was a group of friends that met at university while taking an Early Childhood course, with some already members of the band ‘The Cockroaches.’ Bringing together a range of musical styles, they combined their teachings with a love of music to become a band that successfully sold albums.

In 2020, 18-year-old Billie Eilish’s alternative pop album that was created in her Los Angeles bedroom helped her become the youngest act to sweep the top four categories at the Grammys.

A year later, the pop-rock sound of Olivia Rodrigo made her a global superstar and the poster child for modern teen angst. That same year, fellow 17-year-old The Kid Laroi topped the charts with his Justin Bieber-assisted banger “Stay.” And in 2022, Yahritza Martínez, of the trio Yahritza y Su Esencia, was 14 when she wrote “Soy el Único,” which became a No. 1 Latin hit and reached No. 20 on the pop charts.

And let us not forget about the phenomenon of “Baby Shark.”

Young talent has always been a good investment for the music industry. It’s an area that Republic Records — home to Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Ariana Grande — is focusing on with the launch of a children’s division.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Warner Archive has released the 1968 thriller Kona Coast, based on the novel Bimini Gal by popular mystery writer John D. MacDonald. The modestly-budgeted production reminds one of John Ford's Donovan's Reef in the sense that one suspects both movies were primarily used as justifications for cast and crew to take a nice vacation in Hawaii. Boone plays Sam Moran, a charter boat captain living the good life in Honolulu, where he routinely indulges in drinking binges and womanizing. When his teenaged daughter falls in with a local high living drug peddler named Kryer (Steve Inhat), she is accidentally given a heroin overdose at a drug-fueled party. Rather than deal with the consequences, Kryer orders her to be murdered. When her body washes ashore, the police think it's a drowning but Sam suspects foul play from the beginning. As he begins his own investigation, he is severely beaten,...