It’s a case of having friends in high places for the radio shock-jock Kyle Sandilands who is marrying his former assistant on Saturday.
Readers flocked to mourn and celebrate,but sometimes tick off,Barry Humphries.
Before his death,the one-of-a-kind entertainer explored his family tree for an episode of the SBS genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?
A bit of a Barry at the theatre.
Not even Australia’s handful of cultural elders - those who prised open the windows of our stultifying mid-century suburbia to let in fresh air - are spared cancellation these days.
Making saints of sinners after they’ve left us is tempting,but the ultimate posthumous disrespect to an intelligent man like Barry Humphries is to brush over his bad behaviour.
How would you like to be remembered after you have gone from the world? Back in 1981,Age editors asked Barry Humphries,then a columnist for the paper,to write his own obituary. He knew how to make an exit.
Like a fish out of water (but not out of plaice).
Allow me now to attempt the impossible by defending both Barry Humphries and the festival in 800 words or less without being cancelled myself.
The decade of trickle-down,neoliberal,hyper-competitiveness mixed with materialistic individualism and nepotism have taken us down a slippery housing slope
Director Susan Provan has defended the festival’s decision not to pay an official tribute to the late comedian,but insists he has not been “snubbed”.