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On Monday, July 26, famed rock producer, manager, and lyricist Sandy Pearlman died at the age of 72. His Wikipedia page says he "was the recipient of 17 gold and platinum records." He managed that despite not actually producing many bands, or even albums -- but he left a big imprint on every one he worked on.

Born in Rockaway (Queens), NY in 1943, he got a college degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island in 1966.

A year later, still in the Stony Brook area, he recruited a band so he could have a series of science-fiction poems he'd written (the Imaginos saga, about a group secretly controlling world history) set to music and performed. He named the band Soft White Underbelly after Winston Churchill's epithet for Italy, but changed its name to Oaxaca after Soft White Underbelly got a negative review at a big concert.

In a 2005 interview on Enough Rope, Dave Grohl claimed that music was his religion; that he couldn’t focus without it. And we’re glad for this, for without Grohl, the landscape of modern rock (and definitely my iPod), would not be the same. For whether it’s a one-off performance, an occasional album or a long-term project; it’s getting harder to name bands that he hasn’t been in, than those he has. It’s understandable, as Grohl’s been on the rock scene for 29 years. He started out in the late 80’s, as a drummer for Scream, before moving on to Nirvana. However, now he’s probably most famous for being the front-man of the Foo Fighters, a band which has been popular since the 90’s.

Here we have compiled a list of the ten must-hear Dave Grohl songs that spans his career so far. Please note...

I always thought that being a footballer must be one of the worst jobs in the world. Having thousands of people watching you up close and howling at your every error.

If I tried to cope with that in my day job, my spelling would be even worse than it is already.

But being a TV programmer must be worse.

There aren’t many gigs where millions of people judge your work every single day.

Every morning at 8.30am, the ratings come through – and we all find out if they are dunces or geniuses.

Right now, it’s the turn of Ten’s David Mott in the firing line. This year, he took a chance on several new pieces of Australian-made programming and so far most of them have not fired.

Which leaves the network struggling for audience share and facing dreadful headlines.

I’m part of that problem, by the way.

One of the independent TV production sector’s most successful collaborations is coming to an end with Anita Jacoby reported to be departing Zapruder’s Other Films, the company she created with Andrew Denton.

Zof merged with Cordell Jigsaw earlier this year.

Zof’s many successful productions have included The Gruen Transfer, Enough Rope and Hungry Beast. The company is also responsible for Can of Worms, Randling and ABC1′s Country Town Rescue.

Jacoby told The Australian: “I only came together with Andrew for 13 weeks to make Enough Rope but it lasted 11 years.”

Jacoby and Denton in a video interview with Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes two years ago:...

This article originally appeared in If Magazine #147 (June-July 2011).

Anita Jacoby

I met Andrew in the early 1990s because I used to work with Jen Byrne, his other half, at 60 Minutes. I did a lot of stories with her so I met Andrew socially.

In 1995 I was asked by Seven to produce a one-hour special on Kevin Costner and Andrew and I worked fairly closely on that. Then in about 1999, when I was executive producing an interview show for Foxtel hosted by John Laws, I asked Andrew to come on as a guest. He did and was probably one of our best interviews in the three years.

I also asked him to be a guest at one of Foxtel.s seminars at which professionals in the industry talk about how they got started, what they like about the industry and so on. I got to know him more then too.

I...

Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder’s and the Australian Writers’ Foundation has opened its call for entries for the 2012 Kit Denton Disfellowship, which sees a writer secure a grant of $30,000 to help create a screen production.

The announcement:

Cordell Jigsaw Zapruders (Cjz) with the Australian Writers’ Foundation (Awf) is calling for entries for the 2012 Kit Denton Disfellowship.

The Disfellowship supports writers with courageous ideas. The competition aims to find ideas of substance, intelligence and purpose that will take viewers outside their comfort zone and challenge the status quo.

According to Andrew Denton, “We are hoping to attract strong, exciting, subversive ideas; a project of exceptional quality and innovation that will make for great Australian television, film or new media”.

2012 is the 6th year of The Disfellowship. Originally known as the Kit Denton Fellowship, the competition was relaunched in 2011 as a Disfellowship (because winning it may mean that “your nan disowns you, your...

Two prestigious Australian independent production companies have joined forces.

Sydney companies Cordell Jigsaw . established by Michael Cordell and Nick Murray . and Zapruder.s Other Films . led by Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby and Peter Thompson . have formed Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder (Cjz).

The combined company, touted as the biggest privately-owned production company in Australia, currently has 10 shows in the works for ABC, Nine, Ten, Sbs and Foxtel. Such series include quiz show Randling (ABC), telemovie The Great Mint Swindle (Nine), Mega Truckers (Foxtel) and Country Town Rescue (ABC). The first show goes to air this Wednesday morning on ABC3 . You're Skitting Me . which was previously known as Lol. The children's sketch show is a first for Australia.

Established in 2005, Cordell Jigsaw has been responsible for such productions as Bondi Rescue, Hardliners, Recruits, O.Loughlin and the popular Go Back To Where You Came From. The latter . Sbs. highest-rated show of 2011 . saw Cordell...

The end of the year is fast approaching, which means Certain People (I name no names) realize that they need to use up their vacation days or lose them.

Changing subjects entirely, today I took off from work, and most of what I did was bop into the city to do some book-shopping. (I had a vague idea of doing Xmas shopping as well, and even walked quickly through part of that agglomeration of festive selling huts in Union Square, but that portion of the day’s festivities was not successful.)

First I hit Forbidden Planet — pretty much as an aperitif — which I hadn’t been in for several years. (My mental map of Fp is from the days when they had back issues in the basement — yes, that long ago.) I got issues of two comics for the boys, and also two extremely different graphic novels:

Brody’s Ghost,...

In The Kingdom Of The Blind …

Back in the seventies, my grandad used to love watching Columbo. He loved the way he missed nothing and always managed to get the suspect to tie themselves in knots. “He’s a clever one, that Columbo”, he told me. Of course, my grandad had never heard of Peter Falk. Columbo was real to him and, in a way, he was right to think so.

Typecasting is a common fear among TV actors – although, of course, it’s something they all secretly pray for – but there are few who have deserved it and embraced it as much as Falk. William Link and Richard Levinson may have created Columbo, but Falk owned him.

It was not inevitably so. Falk wasn’t even the first person to play him. The character first appeared in the person of one Bert Freed as part of a 1960 TV show called The Chevy Mystery Show,...

The latest episode of Nurse Jackie played right into my biggest pet peeve when it comes to medical shows: cases that directly reflect what a character is going through.

This was one of the main reasons why I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy, as it's just lazy to have a patient with a unique ailment come in and - what do you know?!? - his/her disease/struggle/diagnosis just happens to be a perfect complement to whatever life issue is affecting the professional treating him.

It's even a bit insulting. On "Enough Rope," for example, did we really need Jackie to go off about the Dnr dude and how some people just want to be left alone? Hey... wait! That's just how Jackie feels about Kevin and O'Hara butting into her life. Amazing!

Sarcasm aside, I was left with a similar feeling here as I had after the third season premiere.

Nurse Jackie returned for a third season this week with a few relationships changed.

O'Hara is angry at Jackie; Kevin is distrusting of his wife; and Zoey had sex with Lenny.

On next week's new episode, "Enough Rope," we'll see Jackie feel badly when O'Hara considers a new job, Eddie tell his ex-lover that he must be honest with her husband, and Akalitus announce that Michele Obama might stop by for a visit. Check out the following trailer and sneak peeks:

Enough Rope Preview

Enough Rope Sneak Peek

Enough Rope Clip...

It's midday and Australian tv legend Andrew Denton and his producing partner Anita Jacoby are locked in a cell.

There are bars on the one external window, the floors and ceilings are reinforced steel and only two other people besides Denton and Jacoby know the codes to get into the small room. To be here Denton and Jacoby have been granted top secret security clearance.

Andrew Denton   But this is not an episode of the Aussie version of "Lockup." It's actually an edit suite for Denton and Jacoby's new observational documentary series, "Afp" (Australian Federal Police), which follows the inner-workings of Australia's equivalent of the FBI.

The 16-part series, filmed all over the world, is the most ambitious show in Denton's slate of original hit TV shows, and comes as he begins to increasingly eye global markets for his formats.

It's four hours into a 14-hour day for Denton...

It’s been four years since Encore published its Top 20 Directors and Producers list, and we felt it was time to compile a new, more comprehensive list that included professionals working across all areas – film, television and Tvc production – as well as the leaders and decision-makers that determine the direction of the industry.

Instead of having a limited list of panellists, we consulted with the main agencies and organisations, and also asked our readers to nominate their candidates. We ended up with a list of more than 200 screen industry professionals, and deciding the final 50 was indeed a difficult task. Of course, some other very influential and successful people didn’t make the final cut, but there were only 50 spots and too many talented men and women!

We hope you’ll enjoy – or not, and if so, debate it passionately – the selection of what will become our annual Power 50 list.

1. Christopher Mapp...

Former Neighbours star Ian Smith has scored his first ever Gold Logie nomination. The veteran actor will face competition from ex-Home And Away stalwart Kate Ritchie, who hopes to make it three wins in a row. Smith, whose final scenes as Harold Bishop screened in Australia in February, was the focus of a very public campaign by Neighbours to give him a golden sendoff. Celebrities including Tom Jones, Rick Astley and WWE wrestler John Cena urged fans to vote for Smith as part of the 'We Heart Harold' campaign. Ritchie's nomination, her third, comes a year after she last appeared as Sally Fletcher.

Smith and Ritchie will go head-to-head with six other nominees: Natalie Bassingthwaighte (So You Think You Can Dance Australia), Andrew Denton (Enough Rope With Andrew Denton), Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters), (more)...

Lisa Marie Presley has stepped forward to declare that she never saw her ex-husband Michael Jackson engage in inappropriate behavior with children. The singer said she saw "things going on that I couldn't do anything about" during her 20-month marriage to Jackson in an interview with Aussie talk show host Andrew Denton on Monday. And when asked on primetime program Enough Rope to elaborate, Presley then replied, "And don't ask me what sort of things, because I'm not going to answer. But just stuff." Presley is now keen to distance herself from her comments, arguing they were taken out of context. In a statement released by her publicist Paul Bloch, she says, "I was in no way referring to seeing something inappropriate with children, as I have stated publicly before. I never have. Unfortunately, due to the recent media frenzy surrounding Michael Jackson, my comments during a recent TV interview in Australia regarding him were completely taken out of context and erroneously read into. In saying I saw things, I was specifically referring to things in that relationship with us that went on between us at the time as husband and wife." Jackson has pleaded innocent to seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, reportedly wine. He is free on $3 million bail pending trial.

Californian police want to question Lisa Marie Presley concerning her revelations about ex-husband Michael Jackson on Australian television yesterday. The Lights Out singer told Aussie talk show host Andrew Denton she saw "things going on that I couldn't do anything about" during her 20-month marriage to the self-proclaimed King Of Pop. When asked on primetime program Enough Rope to elaborate, Presley replied, "And don't ask me what sort of things, because I'm not going to answer. But just stuff." Santa Barbara cops are planning to quiz Presley about her life with the Thriller star, upon her return to America. Jackson is currently awaiting trial to fight charges of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and administering an intoxicating agent.

Singer Lisa Marie Presley saw "things I couldn't do anything about" during her 20-month marriage to Michael Jackson. Presley reveals she had concerns about troubled singer Jackson's lifestyle in an interview with Australian TV interviewer Andrew Denton on his Enough Rope talk show, to be broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. channel Monday. Presley, daughter of late music legend Elvis Presley, and Jackson shocked the world when they tied the knot in the Dominican Republic in May 1994. Presley went on to file for divorce in January 1996, citing "irreconcilable differences". In the interview to promote her singing career in Australia, Presley says she felt "powerless in a lot of ways, in terms of realizing that I was part of a machine, and seeing things going on that I couldn't do anything about. And don't ask me what sort of things, because I'm not going to answer. But just stuff." When asked by Denton if it was difficult to be in a marriage where she felt powerless, Presley replies, "It was, that's why I left." Referring to how she feels about Jackson now, Presley explains, "It's really bizarre, I feel nothing." Presley's second husband Jackson is currently awaiting trial in California to fight charges of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and administering an intoxicating agent.