Voting Opens for the 2012 TV Week Logie Awards

Voting has opened for the 2012 TV Week Logie Awards - Australia's night of nights in terms of fan-voted television awards. Winners last year included actors Asher Keddie (Dr Nina Proudman, Offspring) for Most Popular Actress, and Hugh Sheridan (Ben Rafter, Packed to the Rafters) for Most Popular Actor. I think it was the first year that I can remember where an actor or actress from Aussie suds Home and Away or Neighbours hasn't won the Logie for Most Popular New Talent! Let's see if we can change that this year with a nomination for Steve Peacocke (Brax, Home and Away), Demi Harman (Sasha, Home and Away) or Gemma Pranita (Jade, Neighbours).

I'm not sure if Denial Islanders outside of Australia can vote, but try the link anyway. Voting closes February 19, 2012. The Logie (pronounced low-gies (as if you were saying get, not geez)) Awards are usually held the first week in May at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, and two years ago boasted international guests Kristian Alfonso and Peter Reckell from US soap Days of our Lives.

Jessica Tovey on Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo

Part one of ABC1's mini series Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo aired tonight in Australia, starring Asher Keddie (Nina, Offspring) as Ita Buttrose, Rob Carlton as Kerry Packer, and former Home and Away actress Jessica Tovey (ex-Belle Taylor) as Leslie Carpenter.

Paper Giants is the story of the creation of Australian women's magazine Cleo. ABC Australia website provides the following synopsis:

In 1972, two ambitious, young upstarts, Ita Buttrose and Kerry Packer, created Cleo, a bold and naughty magazine that became one of the most dramatic sensations in Australian publishing history.

Bold and naughty is right! Cleo was the first magazine to feature a naked male centrefold (Australian actor Jack Thompson), which in 1972 was very risque. Even still, the centrefold was not full nudity, with Thompson's hand artistically draped over his body. Regardless, the idea of publishing a nude male centerfold in a women's magazine had the tongues wagging - Cleo was accused of being the female equivalent of porn!  And all because it educated women on birth control, sexual pleasures and featured an almost naked man. The shame!

Paper Giants concludes with part two tonight (Monday) at 8.30pm (AEST) on ABC1.