Robyn Malcolm is back as Agent Anna


Don’t bother asking Robyn Malcolm where she is based these days.

Even though she is doing a publicity interview for Agent Anna on a cellphone in Melbourne, where she is filming another comedy series, the actress is not about to answer the question with the word ‘Australia’.

“I don’t know where I’m based,” says Malcolm. “I just go where the work is. My kids and I live in Auckland, but a fair proportion of my work is in Australia. It’s a big juggle.”

Having helped create Agent Anna, Malcolm was thrilled when she discovered the series, which aired on TV1 last year, would be returning.

“I think the network was really encouraged by the audience numbers we got,” she says of the show which won her a TV Guide Best On The Box award.

“We weren’t sure whether it was a comedy or drama or what it was. I like to call it a tragi-comedy because Anna is so tragic. The more tragic she is the funnier she gets.

“But the punters seemed to get into it. The network was encouraged enough to give us a go at making another series, which was lovely.”

Set in a real estate office in an affluent Auckland city-fringe suburb, the show received mixed reviews from TV critics and those working in the property market.

“There was all that protest initially,” says Robyn. “There were various people who were coming out and saying, ‘Real estate’s not like that’ and ‘How dare they’ but generally speaking we got a great response.

“I MCed a couple of real estate events last year. I think it’s the old Oscar Wilde thing of the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

“What I got (from estate agents was) a lot of good-natured stuff in that they enjoyed the satire of it.”

Another criticism of the show was that it did not paint women in a favourable light.

“One of the responses I got – and I’ve thought about it a lot – was that the show was quite misogynistic. All men – even though they might be ***holes at times – were kind of happy in one way or another. And all the women were complete bitches and are awful to Anna. And Anna is this kind of hopeless case.

“Initially I took that as criticism, but then I thought, ‘Actually I quite like that’. I think it’s reflective of a certain truth in that women are women’s worst enemy. We really are.

“We’re worse to each other than men could ever be because women can be utterly foul to each other and not supportive.”

While the first series was six episodes, this time around there are 10. As well as returning cast members Theresa Healey (Sandi) and Roy Billing (Clinton) viewers can expect to see guest appearances from a host of well-known Kiwi actors including former Shortland Street alumni Alison Quigan, Elizabeth McRae, Jodie Rimmer and Peter Elliot. In the opening episode, Joel Tobeck, another ex-Shorty star, plays a rich but sleazy house buyer.

“We were very lucky to get Joel on board,” says Malcolm. “He’s awesome and very funny. I don’t think he gets nearly enough work in New Zealand. He’s brilliant. He’s another one who gets a lot of work in Aussie.”

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And Australia is where Malcolm will be working until the end of June, filming series two of Aussie comedy Upper Middle Bogan. Then it is back to Auckland for a play for a few months and after that she says there are “three or four possibilities floating around”.

So what is it like being in Aussie, while her sons, Charlie, 10, and Pete, eight, remain in New Zealand

“I hate it,” she says, “but it’s a tricky one because I’ve got to earn the money.”

Yes, she would love to do more work in New Zealand but the opportunities are limited.

Malcolm says the second series of Agent Anna is worth watching because of its humour and warmth.

“There is something unusually Kiwi about it. It tells a lovely story about someone who is quite unusual for television.

“It seems to run a wonderful gamut between something that’s very warm and full of heart to something that’s quite bonkers and unpredictable and nuts. I’m very proud of it.”

Agent Anna
TV1, Thursday, 8.30pm

Getting ripped off is not funny


OPINION:

The world was an untrustworthy place this week. Someone tried to email-scam me, I got ripped off by a taxi driver, and the cat bit me while it was still purring.

There are so many horrible scams out there these days, fake house painters defrauding pensioners, people claiming your computer is broken, sea monkeys.

I know of one gentleman whose defence against scammers whenever they ring, is to say cheerily, “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t speak English and I don’t have a phone”, and then hang up. I like to imagine the scammer then spends a couple of quiet moments trying to work through the logic of what he just said.

My scammage began when I got a desperate email begging for my financial help, supposedly from one of my comedian mates. I immediately knew it wasn’t him, because the grammar was way off, and it didn’t end with an inappropriate joke. Also, the comedy festival was only a month ago, and it mentioned nothing about how well his show had done, so it was clearly a fake.

The email started: “My family and I made a trip to (Ukraine)” with “Ukraine” beautifully in parenthesis, as if replacing the phrase “insert name of troubled faraway country here”, like they’d copied it straight from

Western movie satire wildly hit-or-miss


REVIEW:

When it was revealed that video of Charlize Theron’s reaction to 2013 Academy Awards host Seth MacFarlane’s awards-night ditty We Saw Your Boobs was not spontaneous exasperation but a pre-recorded part of the joke, we learned two things about the Oscar-winning actress.

She’s not only a really good sport, but, boy, can she keep a straight face.

Both of these skills are in evidence in A Million Ways to Die in the West, a broad, wildly hit-or-miss satire of Westerns co-starring Theron and MacFarlane (who also directed, produced and co-wrote the film).

Crude, rude and – in the case of actor Liam Neeson’s derriere – briefly nude, the movie not only taxes Theron’s willingness to crack wise about her lady parts, but demonstrates that she can do so without cracking up on camera.

The same cannot be said of MacFarlane.

Look, no one ever accused the guy of being Sir Laurence Olivier. Best known as the creative jack-of-all-trades behind the cartoon series American Dad, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, MacFarlane, when put in front of a camera, seems caught in a perpetual smirk, as though he’s inordinately pleased with himself.

Perhaps he has some right to be. The new movie – in which MacFarlane plays a cowardly, lovelorn sheep farmer, with Theron as his romantic mentor and Neeson his gunslinging nemesis – is passably funny, assuming you have the stomach for jokes about diarrhoea, sex, death and all manner of body parts (both human and sheep). Judging by the rapid-fire, raunchy humour in the trailer, this is an effective combination.

When stretched out to almost two hours by all the absurdist plotting, pop-culture asides and sometimes painfully awkward silences that MacFarlane is known for, it’s not quite so zingy.

In fairness, MacFarlane knows his own weakness. He’s not the hero of the movie, as his character, Albert, reminds us. Rather, he’s “the guy in the crowd making fun of the hero’s shirt”.

This observational detachment – being in the movie, but not of it – can work, but only to the degree that you let it. As the Village Voice favourably – and aptly – noted, MacFarlane is like the animated Roger Rabbit here, a cartoon stuck in a live action world.

Some viewers, however, may wish for a bit more commitment.

The disconnect between Albert and the world he inhabits is at times off-putting, especially when you compare MacFarlane’s performance with those of his co-stars. Theron is not only quite funny, but also fully invested in the role of Anna, a woman who pretends to be Albert’s girlfriend so that he can make his ex-squeeze, Louise (Amanda Seyfried), jealous. Neil Patrick Harris also fully inhabits the role of Louise’s extravagantly mustachioed and egotistical lover, Foy. Though shallowly written, both parts are grounded in reality.

With a supporting cast as strong as this – supplemented by several surprise cameos from stars I won’t mention – does anyone care that MacFarlane can’t really act It never hurt Jerry Seinfeld, whose paper-thin persona on his self-titled sitcom was made plausible, if not fully three-dimensional, by the top-notch ensemble that the star surrounded himself with.

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No, the problem isn’t MacFarlane’s inch-deep performance. In a way, we need him to splash through the proceedings like a kid in a puddle, making fun of such tropes of the Western genre as the barroom brawl, the bordello girls with hearts of gold, the perfectly choreographed barn-dance blowout and the climactic gunfight. Cutting away from the action to comment on it is the joke. And it has become MacFarlane’s signature style.

The film’s failure isn’t one of restraint, either. As he demonstrated with his Boobs song, MacFarlane’s gift, such as it is, lies in pushing humor to the threshold of decorum and then charging across that line, consequences be damned. That’s what we pay him for.

The real problem with A Million Ways to Die in the West is one of editing. There are a million jokes in it, but only 500,000 of them are funny.

A Million Ways to Die in the West (R16) 115 mins

– Washington Post/Bloomberg

Brad Pitt’s attacker gets restraining order


A Ukrainian prankster who struck actor Brad Pitt in the face as he signed autographs at the Los Angeles premiere of Maleficent has had a restraining order issued against him by police.

Pitt, 50, sought an emergency protective order against 25-year-old Vitalii Sediuk, who had leaped over a fence and hit him at the premiere of his partner Angelina Jolie’s movie, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Officer Wendy Reyes said.

Sediuk, who is a television personality in his own country, remained in police custody on Thursday, pending payment of US$20,000 ($24,000) bail. Pitt was unhurt after being struck.

The prankster has become infamous for crashing celebrity red carpets and events, most recently breaching a red carpet at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in

Prebble basks in completion of BA


In between plot twists Antonia Prebble was hitting the books.

The actress, who became a household name in 2005 playing Loretta West – the youngest member of the criminal West family in the hit show Outrageous Fortune – graduated from Massey University yesterday with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English Literature.

The feat slotted in just before her self-imposed deadline of graduating before she turned 30, with the actress’ birthday next week.

“I’ve been studying quietly away one paper per year for the last few years toward my BA and now I’m basking in its completion,” the proud graduate said.

She set herself the 30th birthday deadline

Blue Wiggle returns to his musical roots


Anthony Field is happy to Wiggle out of his skivvy and become a Cockroach again.

Field, alongside brothers John and Paul and former Wiggle Jeff Fatt, are re-forming their energetic band the Cockroaches after 25 years.

Field’s youngest fans probably don’t know that Field and Fatt were rockers before they became children’s entertainers.

“The Cockroaches were a great party band in the ’80s and early ’90s,” Field says. “If you went out on a Friday or Saturday night, mainly in Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and all up the coast, you’d go see the Cockies because you were guaranteed a great party time.”

During Wiggles shows, Field says he often notices some nostalgia for the Cockroaches, but the demand is not coming from their young fans.

“I’ve been on the road constantly with the Wiggles and I get a lot of parents at the shows – this is how old we’d be – their mums came and saw the Cockroaches, so it’s the grandparents of the kids” he says.

The desire from diehard Cockroaches fans for a reunion has started to appear on social media.

“A lot of the audience members are writing to me on Twitter,” Field says.

“One lady wrote to me and said, ‘I’ve got the words for all your songs and I’ve been memorising them in case you forget them’.”

Field’s brother Paul has been behind the scenes working as the Wiggles’ manager, and will now be back up front for the coming gigs.

“I’ll be taking a back seat, which will be really lovely,” Field says. “I’m playing the guitar and enjoying watching the other guys. The heat’s off me.

“Paul’s the lead singer. My brothers Johnny and Paul are kind of the guys who did the most work.”

But Field is used to playing with Fatt, having spent about 20 years performing in the Wiggles before Fatt left in 2012. Field admits he’s looking forward to “seeing Jeff on my right again, playing the piano”.

“I reckon we’ll be getting some Wiggles requests when we get up there, which will be funny,” he says.

“But we’ll stick to the Cockies, I think.”

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– AAP

Currently chilled


Music is both protector and reminder of mortality and Martin Phillipps, of seminal New Zealand band The Chills, believes a new album will bring their reputation “up to date”.

“A lot of people refer back to the 80s and 90s with us,” Phillipps says. “I’ve always been thankful we’re not a one-hit wonder band. We have a range of material that people are familiar with now. In different countries we’re known for a different song.

“Here it’s I Love My Leather Jacket, in America it’s Heavenly Pop Hit and in Europe it’s Pink Frost.”

Because their songs are melodic, Phillipps says the influential band’s sound is often incorrectly labelled as pop.

“People have always called us a pop band but the songs are delivered much more as a rock band, with post punk beginnings. It’s always had that intensity but because we don’t sound like a normal rock band we fall in the middle somewhere.”

The new music has been growing in stages, and has been for ages, just singing and floating and free.

Last year The Chills released the digital only single Molten Gold and they are currently road-testing new material with a tour of the main centres.

“After we do these three shows in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, we go into a world class studio in Dunedin, it’s pretty much Abbey Road 2, on schedule to have a new album out by the end of the year I think.”

He describes the demos as “familiar territory” for The Chills but says that sonically it sounds like a contemporary record.

“The band is all pretty excited about it, it’s the first proper full album release since 1995, it’s been a long time coming.”

The new songs also signal a change in direction in his songwriting.

“As much as I’ve always shied away from writing protest songs or political commentary, a lot of these songs seemed to want to head in that direction. There are a lot of important things that needed to be said, whether I wanted to or not, that’s what came through. It’s not in a preachy kind of way, I was contemplating the environment.

“There are serious things going on at the moment. I couldn’t see a point in just putting out more pop music because there’s a lot of that out there already. It had to be worthwhile for me.”

The lineup of Erica Scally, Oli Wilson, James Dickson and Todd Knudson has been the same for some years.

“Todd and James have been with the band 14 years now, Erica for eight years, and Oli has played keyboards with us for about five years,” Phillipps says. “People always talk about The Chills’ revolving door policy but I think after 14 years we’ve only lost one member now so that should just be put to rest.

“Because of what’s happened over the last year or so, the whole band is just fired up, we have something to aim for. Previously we were just playing five or six times a year, now we have an overseas tour coming up.”

He’s making plans for the great escape and with 10 gigs in Europe over 16 dates in July it’d take a Superman to supervise.

“Berlin, Amsterdam, Dublin, and a few more are stll being finalised. We’ve been asked to play on Mark Ryder’s show on BBC to over one million people. I’ll stay on in London after the tour and mix the album.”

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The Chills remain signed to the Flying Nun Records label in New Zealand but the new album will be distributed in the United Kingdom via Fire Records through Far South Editions who released Somewhere Beautiful, a collaboration between The Chills and artist Shane Cotton, last year. It was limited to 150 editions and came with a price tag of $6500.

Phillipps professes to being anxious about maintaining his voice on the overseas tour.

“Obviously I’m excited about it but I’m also quite nervous because I haven’t done a set of gigs like this in a long time. I’m worried about singing night after night, I’ll need to pace myself.

“There are certain songs, like Heavenly Pop Hit, which are hard to sing.

“I don’t really consider myself a singer, I consider myself a songwriter.”

Don’t let his modesty fool you. Phillipps’ back catalogue is more than deserving of his enduring cult-like status both in New Zealand and abroad.

For the upcoming tour, he is particularly curious about returning to Berlin.

Recently he saw photographs for the first time of The Chills playing in East Berlin some years before the wall came down.

“We were the fourth band from the west ever to play there. We think they let us in because of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear ships policy at the time.

“We had the KGB following us the entire time. I’m probably one of just a few musicians who could say that they’ve had that experience.”

He hopes to cross paths with friends made on that visit.

“When the Berlin wall did come down a friend we made over there, a photographer, called me up at about 4am one morning to say he was out. It would be nice to run into him again.”

Phillipps has never stopped writing songs. He has built up a large collection of material over the years but says he had “no real outlet” for it in terms of recording.

“I also had all my riffs scattered over cassettes, micro cassettes, reel to reel. . . but I’ve managed to get them all digitised. Some of the material for the album is based on stuff from the 90s, some of it is just brand new.”

If the overseas tour goes well it might signal a return to the festival touring circuit.

“There seems to be a whole new generation of people who have discovered our music. I’m really not sure what age groups we will be playing to overseas. We get contacted by very young people right through to people in their 50s. I don’t know how far we will go.”

How far See that star . . .

THE DETAILS:

The Chills play at Juice Bar in Auckland on Saturday, at Churchills in Christchurch on Sunday and at Dunedin’s Fuel Bar on June 6. Pre-sale tickets $30 from eventfinder.co.nz

– The Press