Behind the scenes of last night’s Hey Hey episode: It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to see your idol perform live in a television studio, but all two hours of being an audience member of Hey Hey last night left me with was “I’ve got SO much to Tweet right now”.

Oh, and by idol – I mean Kylie Minogue – not the Abbott, as the papers are reporting this morning. I’m sorry, but putting Tony in Speedos doesn’t make him a gay icon. Give us SOME credit.

The Red Faces segment that everyone is talking about was the most cringe-worthy moment of the night. Red Symons came out beforehand to make sure we all booed him on his entrance — OK, fine.

But what I was most nervous about was the Opposition Leader’s entrance which was also laced with boos and hisses. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan, and he certainly won’t be getting my vote. I don’t want a leader of our country preaching the Bible and telling me he’s threatened by what I do in the bedroom, but who would have thought the mullet wearing, hoodie-clad, hair-dyed studio audience of Hey Hey it’s Saturday would have been so vocal and, can I say, progressive? Probably not, but they still booed.

The producers were not impressed, as they paced the studio floor, with their hands on their shaking heads. Russell Gilbert even tried to calm the audience, which was even less effective than him trying to make them laugh in the commercial breaks.

… and I’ll admit — I joined in the booing, but I feel a little bad about it now.

He’s just trying to do his job, isn’t he? [albeit, badly]. Tony Abbott is still a living, breathing person, isn’t he? [albeit, possibly a poor excuse for one]… but I was caught up in the moment. Booing Tony Abbott was kind of like shaking someone’s soft drink before giving it to them… You get so much pleasure out of doing it — but at the end of the day, they’re sprayed with humiliation. — Crikey reader James Findlay (@james_findlay)

Think global, act local All very noble of Darebin’s Labor mayor Vince Fontana to promote Amcor’s $100 million plus river front site in Alphington as a good location to build a refugee processing centre in the media yesterday.

But you’d have to wonder if politics is driving this given that Darebin is a Labor-controlled council, the Greens are causing lots of damage to Labor on the refugees issue and the 2009 Darebin mayor, Diana Asmar, is married to David Asmar, a long time Stephen Conroy staffer as detailed in this story in The Age from 2005.

As Lindsay Tanner’s seat looks likely to fall to the Greens, are some local Labor figures attempting to soften the party’s image on refugees after the factional hard-heads urged Julia Gillard to take control and then take the party to the right to neutralise Tony Abbott? — Stephen Mayne

Socialist Alliance take the letterbox lead. Bob Brown has made a habit of name-checking the Socialist Alliance as possible preference buddies to deflect criticism of The Greens’ deal with the ALP, but the Socialists themselves haven’t been waiting around for his seal of approval. In Anthony Albanese’s fiefdom of Grayndler, which the PM visited yesterday, Alliance candidate Pip Hinman has been on the front foot, distributing this flyer hours after Gillard visited Government House. It features a laundry list of policies lugubrious lefties would jump on if Labor announced them, including a “100%” renewable energy target by 2020. Hinman snared 1,394 first preference votes in 2007 and a strong preference flow to Greens candidate Sam Byrne could see Albo out of a job. But as Hinman circles, voters are still waiting on a response from their local member.

socialistalliance

Albo isn’t the only candidate yet to make a letterbox deposit. Grayndler locals also report nothing so far from the “nice Irish guy” who spruiks amusing communist cant outside the Marrickville Metro on Saturday mornings. — Andrew Crook

How embarrassment Over in the UK news of our preference for MasterChef over the leaders debate embarrassingly made The Guardian:

“They take their tucker seriously in Australia. So when the traditional political leaders’ debate for the forthcoming federal election campaign came up against the scheduled final of MasterChef there was only one winner. And it wasn’t the politicians.”

The wha wha? Page1 Courier-Mail. I have read it several times and still cannot comprehend what it’s saying:

The Courier-Mail learned of Mr Rudd’s career prospects in New York on the same day he belatedly entered the campaign to retain his safe Brisbane seat. Mr Rudd, through his office, did not guarantee he would serve a full term as the member for Griffith, saying only: “If elected, Mr Rudd intends to serve a full term.” — Crikey reader Terry Towelling

On/Off the record. ABC radio was yesterday running bites of the media pack’s seagull-like frenzy around the retired Reverend Bishop (great name) who had just bumped into Julia on the campaign trail in Western Sydney, and had offered advice on various issues, including asylum seekers.

The bubbly, forthcoming and frank woman gave a quick account of what she had told the PM, confirming at least twice that as far as she was concerned, what she was recounting was off the record. “Don’t go saying I said that,” she said, aghast that she was possibly being recorded.

Obviously when a pollie asks to be off the record, this is observed, but the same right is not accorded to an ordinary citizen? — Terry Towelling

Forget democracy, we want zombies Possible evidence that political parties are wasting their time, money and effort on the campaign trail. (Screen dumps were approximately 30 seconds apart.) Unless of course the parties’ ad agencies can work out a way of incorporating this “research” in their campaigns.

voterinterest

Come to think of it, given the characters they have to work with: probably not too difficult, actually! — Crikey reader Greg Williams