Marcus Einfeld's Four Corners interview has sparked a spat between the Sydney Great Synagogue and the ABC. A furious synagogue president, Rosalind Fischl, emailed the congregation yesterday after members complained about footage of Einfeld singing with the synagogue choir was broadcast during Sarah Ferguson's report on Monday. The Diary understands they were upset about having the disgraced judge so publicly associated with their synagogue. Fischl blames Einfeld and the current affairs program. "The board had refused permission for the Four Corners crew to film during Law Service [a ceremony marking the start of the legal year]," Fischl writes. "On the second Monday following Law Service the Four Corners TV crew, without prior knowledge or consent of anyone on the board of management or of the administrative staff, arrived at the synagogue to film during choir rehearsal at the invitation of Mr Einfeld. We subsequently learned that the Four Corners crew had already filmed in the synagogue at a choir rehearsal on the Monday before Law Service, again by prior arrangement with Mr Einfeld himself". Fischl complained to the ABC and received a letter back that the broadcaster accepted "there may be conflicting accounts". Apparently Four Corners says it received permission from the choir master, who we understand was pressured by Einfeld, and has since received a severe dressing down. This column reported on Wednesday that a separate sequence from the same program, showing Einfeld riding in the back of a car without his seatbelt, has prompted NSW police to review the footage with a view to fining him.
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Festival funds flicker
The Sydney Film Festival is rethinking its sponsorship arrangements for this year in light of the global financial crisis. The Diary understands the prestigious position of "principal sponsor" is to be ditched in favour of a number of "major sponsors" to fill the void. Under an agreement with the festival, the ethical fund management company Hunter Hall has vacated the position after three years, but will continue to stump up $60,000 cash for the Sydney Film Prize. We also hear that Hunter Hall will expand its role with this year's festival.
MP mistaken on drugs
The former NSW Christian Democrat MP Gordon Moyes may have beaten the world's tabloids to an international scoop. Debating legislation in the upper house that proposes safeguards on using children as models, Moyes referred to the British model Kate Moss. "Many top models such as Kate Moss are well-known heroin addicts," he told the Legislative Council. "Being addicted is one way they stay so skinny." This column is aware of the problems Moss has had with cocaine, but heroin?
Perhaps he was confusing Moss with her former boyfriend Pete Doherty, the musician, who does have a history of heroin use. Thank God for parliamentary privilege.
Testing times at Weekly
Rumours persist that the bean-counters at ACP Magazines want to close the test kitchen of The Australian Women's Weekly. A source said the company was in "serious discussions" about closing the kitchen, run by the food guru Pamela Clark, who joined the magazine in 1969. The editor-in-chief, Robyn Foyster, scoffed at the rumours yesterday. "The test kitchen is part and parcel of the Australian Women's Weekly ? we have always triple-tested our foods and we will always continue to triple test our foods."
Strewth! Mac knifed
The cuts continue at News Limited. The long-serving columnist with The Australian, D.D. McNicoll, was called into the office of editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, yesterday afternoon and told he was being made redundant.
Ladette coughs up
Silence from Channel Nine over yesterday's item on the topless Valentine's Day antics of Aussie Ladette To Lady contestants, including Skye, Bianca and Kristyn. But some good news for the hotel involved, The Sebel. A cleaning bill for one of the trashed rooms , for several hundred dollars, was paid after Nine sent it to the show's London production house, which tracked down the ladette responsible. But The Diary understands Nine's written apology to the hotel has still not arrived more than a month later.
GOT A TIP?Contact diary@smh.com.au or 92822179.
* Swimmer Nick D'Arcy to be sentenced, Sydney
* Bandaged Bear Day
* Socceroos Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer host the Flood and Fire Benefit Dinner, Sydney
* Hearing into privatisation of NSW prisons, Sydney
* Hearing into carbon pollution reduction scheme, Sydney
WITH AWARDS PALAVER
ANYONE would have thought Madonna was in town yesterday when MTV, the pay-TV music channel, held a photo-call at the Hilton Sydney to promote its annual awards at Darling Harbour tonight.
The awards will be hosted by the Fall Out Boy guitarist Pete Wentz, in town with his pop singer wife Ashlee Simpson, and the US reality television star Audrina Patridge will host the red-carpet arrivals beforehand.
Wentz and Patridge paraded at the photo call for a small group of media who had been instructed not to ask any questions of the "stars". And with good reason. Patridge, 23 (pictured), who appears in the cult half-reality half-scripted series The Hills, is seemingly ill-prepared for cross-examination.
She may soon star in her own spin-off reality series - focused on "her personal and professional life" - but in interviews this week Patridge was stumped to name her favourite Australian designers. Asked who she looked forward to seeing perform at the awards, she answered "Pink" - who performed in 2007 but is not on the guest-list this year.
The show will be produced by the US MTV bigwig Alex Coletti - best known for engineering attention-seeking TV stunts such as the Madonna/Britney Spears kiss in 2003 and the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show.
Duties for the MTV Australia awards will be performed by Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers, who are performing at the V Festival in Sydney tomorrow. Presenters at the awards include Delta Goodrem, Dannii Minogue and the Welsh Grammy-winning songstress Duffy.
WITH DIVORCE ON THE CHEAP
THE comedian John Cleese is breathing a sigh of relief after halving his ?1.3 million ($2.7 million) annual divorce payment to his third wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger, 64, an American psychotherapist to whom he was married for 15 years.
Cleese now has to pay ?650,000 a year, after a US judge ruled that the original amount was excessive in the face of the recession, which had slashed the value of the actor's property portfolio.
Cleese is not alone. A host of former high earners in Britain are now seeking cut-price divorces, with former husbands returning to the courts to battle for reduced settlements and payments in line with their shrinking earning power.
Recent prominent cases include that of Brian Myerson, a fund manager who claimed his post-divorce fortune had been wiped out, meaning he could no longer afford the ?9.5 million he owed to Ingrid, his former wife.
In the original settlement Mrs Myerson received 43 per cent of her husband's assets. Myerson's 57 per cent share, however, was tied up in the shares of his investment company, which have plunged in value, and would leave him ?500,000 in the red if he complied with the divorce order.
And the advice from Mr Myerson's lawyer, Raymond Tooth, to men considering divorce? "Move on now while your star is low in the sky. You can escape with less."
