From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

The boss’s choice. Tips is getting into the swing of the Melbourne Cup — and so, it seems, is James Packer. We hear that bar staff at Packer’s luxurious Crown tent at Flemington have been busy pouring the best top shelf liquor from around the globe, but a mole reckons they’ve been told that a “special selection” of the big boss’s more mundane choices have been secreted below the bar to fulfil his personal requirements. James’ picks: could it be true that he likes inexpensive scotch and middle of the road tequila? Crikey moles who are out in their glad rags at Flemington today can fill us in on the gossip — and rest assured you can stay anonymous. Bottoms up!

Mamamia, I’ve been sacked. New Sunday Telegraph editor Mick Carroll has moved quickly to put his stamp on the top-selling tabloid by axing Mia Freedman’s column. Carroll, we hear, wasn’t a fan of the columnist, who was apparently paid a generous six figure salary for her weekly musings. Murdoch staffers also long grumbled about Freedman using the Tele’s valuable real estate to promote her rival Mamamia website. Freedman’s decision to jump ship from Fairfax two years ago isn’t looking like such a wise move now. You can read her response to the axing here.

Getting Crabby. Annabel Crabb is ever-present on Aunty and it seems one insider is miffed about it. Crabb will bring her inimitable style to Foreign Correspondent tonight as she tastes the political waters of the swing state of Florida. A mole reckons the gig should have gone to a seasoned foreign correspondent or political reporter like Craig McMurtrie, Lisa Millar, Michael Brissenden, Mark Simkin, Leigh Sales etc.

They reckon Crabb may not have the foreign correspondent nouse, and has not been working as a hard news/current affairs correspondent, her current role lying more in colour and commentary. The mole says Crabb is a favourite of Mark Scott and some staff are tiring of the “Annabel Broadcasting Corporation”.

“Ever since Foreign Correspondent began, getting to do a FCP piece was the ultimate reward for reporters who’d done the hard slog day-to-day, year-to-year reporting to horrendous deadlines. Doing the monkey grinder stuff for AM, PM, TWT, TV news, 7.30, Lateline and, lately, the voracious News 24. FCP has been a glorious escape where you play with pictures and harness all your collective experience into a beautifully crafted piece — mostly with the help of skilled long-form producers … Scott has pushed Crabb at every opportunity. She is omnipresent, an MC, panellist and a launcher who is there for every opening of every one of Scott’s empire envelopes.”

For our part, we reckon Crabb makes great TV — and it’s worth noting that she worked as London correspondent for Fairfax’s Sunday titles for a time. She cuts through the dull drone of political reporting; the promo for tonight’s Foreign Correspondent looks promising. We report, you decide. Check out the show tonight and let us know whether you think Crabb has got what it takes (or leave your review in the comments below).

Geelong gets catty. We hear that the imminent arrival of Metro’s new Weekly Review Greater Geelong has got News Limited — who run the Geelong Advertiser — running scared on advertising revenue from real estate. Metro’s new weekly rag, due to launch next week, will be free. It’s the next horse in the stable (see what we did there?) for Metro Media CEO Antony Catalano, who runs the Melbourne Weekly.

There are rumours that 80-90% of real estate advertising may be leaching to the newcomer. Our tipster reckons News Ltd has got its “top ad folk from Sydney” onto the case, and that efforts are being made to squeeze out the new kid on the block. Have there been meetings between council folk, a local PR firm etc? And, in separate news from Sleepy Hollow, is the Geelong Times about to close its doors?

Missing in action. There’s nothing that enrages Tips more than when we buy our favourite Saturday paper and get it home and realise the inserts are missing — they’re often the best bits! First world problems really suck. This Melbourne tipster agrees:

“On Saturday morning I trudged around my local Richmond newspaper vendors (five including 7/11, newsagent, milkbar, trendy deli), looking for a complete Weekend Australian discovering that none had The Review or Australian Magazine inserts. Seems to be strange — maybe they’re cutting costs? Has anyone else experienced this?”

Did anyone else miss out on their inserts? If you know what happened, drop us a line.

My Cup runneth over. The juxtaposition of the RBA’s interest rates decision and the Melbourne Cup always proves too much for our journalists, commentators and politicians, who vie with each other for the lamest gag joining the two events. Tips is betting on some great lines, and you can give us a leg up by emailing in the best — and the worst — racing/RBA gag you see today.

Julia Gillard is a left-field contender — she’s using the Melbourne Cup to allude to the US election, by backing Americain. “I’m not an expert when it comes to horse racing so I’m not suggesting people should be necessarily following my tips,” Gillard said from the horse-racing mecca of Laos. Quite.

*Do you know more? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form.