From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

After him, he’s got a press pass! Press gallery types have been rather unhappy of late as new screening arrangements mean they still get screened while plenty of others do not. Yesterday on Twitter, West Australian federal political reporter Nick Butterly lashed out at the “mind-blowingly stupid policy to drop x-rays for everybody except reporters entering Parliament house”. He then mused someone was “obviously concerned someone from the Fin Review might go nuts with a Glock”. The tweet prompted much hearty support from other press gallery journos. As one told Crikey: “Some journos are pissed and feel everyone else is getting in while we go through screening. Also, security guards are getting paid for doing almost nothing — just screening journos.”

We put the question to Parliament House, and a spokesman told us there’s no way everybody’s getting in unscreened, but there had recently been a policy change from the Department of Parliamentary Service to allow certain pass-holders to enter un-screened. The media still requires daily screening. Sorry, journos — what’s that about the pen being mightier anyway?

A wink to where it came from. “Grudge, grudge, wink, wink: Left guns for Abbott,” The Australian thundered on its front page. As David Crowe reported:

“Debate over the federal budget has been steered into a ditch as Tony Abbott’s critics go berserk over his every move — even a wink to a radio host.”

But hang on, didn’t Sky News actually “break” wink-gate wide open? That would be the news network preferred by Coalition types in Parliament House. ABC types were deflecting blame this morning, convinced it was Sky that started the ball rolling.

Adam Boland’s return to TV … delayed. When Adam Boland came to the Ten Network to launch the ill-fated Wake Up, he hired former Nine promo producer Rob McKnight as showrunner for its infomercial-laden sister Studio 10. An ill Boland quit, Wake Up was boned this week, but McKnight’s show has won a reprieve. Yesterday, McKnight said on Twitter that Boland — now studying and living away from the public gaze in Canberra — would appear on Studio 10 today to talk about “where it all went wrong for @WakeUp“.

This morning he failed to appear. Gossip hound Peter Ford wondered aloud whether there was “editorial interference”. To which McKnight insisted “I made the decision”. The pair got into more of a spat, but questions to McKnight on why he cancelled his mate’s appearance went unanswered. With everything going on at Ten, having a ex-staffer document the woes on their own network was probably never a good idea …

A break in the MH370 case? A seemingly well-informed anonymous tipster writes:

“MH370 could have had a neutral buoyancy if it hit the water intact and drifted a long way midway in the ocean depth column, making the Chinese hydrophone reception feasible.”

No, we don’t know what that means either.

X-Men. Murdochs, pere et fils, were in esteemed company at the premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past …

X-Men

Ms Tips admits to a spot of jealousy over Murdoch the younger’s bro-hug with Scottish hunk James McAvoy. But some commenters were less than excited by Rupert’s hobnobbing …

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