And a happy birthday eve to Sir David Attenborough, who turns 100 tomorrow! I have so much to say about this cherished global icon that I forced the TDA team to let me do an Attenborough themed podcast episode. Keep an eye out for that one tomorrow morning.

Back home, Australian actor and Golden Globe/Emmy/Tony award winner Sarah Snook blessed the humble halls of a suburban Sydney community theatre production this week… and she stayed for drinks!

The Theatre on Chester in Epping wrapped its season of Away – the beloved Aussie play by Michael Gow – on the weekend. In a move I’ve decided to coin a ‘Sneaky Snook’, the Succession star was in the audience for closing night, and even hung around to pose for selfies with the cast and crew during their after-party. What an absolute legend.

“My mom, they tried to take my placenta away from her at the hospital… she fought for it, so now I carry it around. She put it in the oven, wrapped it up in a box, stuck it in the basement. We found it. Throw it in the blender. Pop it in a necklace. Work.”
Kesha has revealed she carries a piece of her placenta with her “everywhere she goes” inside a gold pendant necklace. The singer shared the… (how to put this nicely) interesting… detail about her necklace during an episode of Call Her Daddy. Kesha told host Alex Cooper your placenta “helps open your third eye.” Good for her. I think I’ll stick with eyeballs one and two for now.

25
The number of Pulitzer Prizes awarded this week for excellence in journalism, literature, music, and theatre. The 2026 Pulitzer Prizes honoured multiple works examining the impact of policies by U.S. President Donald Trump, including The Washington Post (public service journalism winner) and The New York Times (for investigative reporting).

Rihanna, Heidi Klum, and A$AP Rocky havin’ a laff during this week’s Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art”. Klum – the queen of ‘taking it too far’ – paid homage to Rafaelle Monti’s 1847 sculpture, The Veiled Vestal. Using a 3D scan of her body, prosthetic makeup designer Mike Marino “transformed fabric into sculpture, manipulating latex and spandex with extraordinary precision to mirror the stillness, delicacy and illusion of carved marble,” Klum said.

AI actors and writers will not be eligible for Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced.

Actors can also now be nominated for multiple roles within the same category.

New rules clarify that acting and writing must be ‌performed by humans ‌to be eligible for the movie industry's highest honours.

The change also rules out four-legged stars. The Canines in Hollywood union (led by Lassie, Marley of Marley & Me and Scooby-Doo) is threatening to boycott cinema’s night of nights.

The debut ⁠last year ‌of an ​AI-generated “actress” dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer’s ​boasts of interest ‌from studio executives, added to concerns and ​sparked a backlash from the SAG-AFTRA actors union.

Under the Academy’s new rules, filmmakers can ​use ​AI tools but ​a “synthetic” actor such as Norwood ‌would be ineligible for an Oscar, the group said in a statement.

The updated regulations will apply to submissions for the ‌next Oscars ‌ceremony, scheduled ⁠for March 2027.

The Academy said screenplays must be “human-authored” to be considered for a nomination. The rules state the ​Academy can request additional information to verify submissions were ⁠created by humans.

“Only roles credited in the film's legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible,” it noted.

While dual nominations were already permitted in categories such as directing, actors have been blocked from receiving multiple nominations in a single category. This clause will be scrapped from next year’s ceremony, allowing performers to be nominated multiple times for different roles. (Which is great news for the likes of Anne Hathaway, who is starring in approx. 543 films in 2026.)

Major changes were also announced to the International Feature Film category.

Until now, there could only be one official selection per country in the international feature category.

Under the new rules, a non-English language film can also be submitted for consideration by winning a “qualifying award” at an international film festival. For example, the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Another change is that the film itself, rather than the submitting country, will be credited as the nominee.

The 99th Oscars will be held on 14 March, 2027.

Fashion Week hair, minus the backstage pass

AFC Australian Fashion Week is back, and this year, the runway glow-up is powered by Shark Beauty. Returning as presenting partner of AFW 2026, Shark Beauty is bringing salon-level styling to the front row, backstage, and beyond – with designer partnerships spanning Carla Zampatti, Alix Higgins and Hansen & Gretel.

At the centre of it all? The immersive Glam & Glow Salon, where guests can book complimentary styling sessions using the new Shark Glam Hot Tool Air Drying & Styling System. Think glossy, fashion-week hair without the heat damage. Plus, there’s LED skincare tech, backstage beauty secrets, and a headline Hair Masterclass celebrating looks for all hair kinds. Because great hair shouldn’t be runway-exclusive.

Bluey, the animated children’s series about a family of Blue Heelers living in Brisbane, has become a global hit, now airing in over 140 countries.

The Aussie program was the most-streamed show in the U.S. last year.

Not the most-streamed kids show. The most-streamed show full stop – beating out the likes of Grey’s Anatomy and Stranger Things.

Americans watched 45.2 billion minutes of Bluey in 2025. A feature film hits cinemas globally in 2027.

Beloved by parents and children alike, the local production has well and truly grown into a money-making machine.

And the ABC reckons it's lost out on about $300 million in potential revenue from it.

Confused? Don't worry, I'll walk you through it.

In 2017, the ABC and BBC Studios signed a deal co-commissioning Bluey from Brisbane's Ludo Studio. The ABC paid for the majority of production costs, while the BBC covered about 30%.

Under this agreement, the ABC secured the Australian broadcast rights to Bluey. The deal gave the BBC control of Bluey’s broadcast and commercial rights everywhere else in the world. That includes merchandise, meaning the money from every Bluey hoodie, plush toy and lunchbox sold goes to the UK.

In 2019, BBC Studios signed an international broadcasting deal with Disney, securing Bluey’s future as a global juggernaut. But as the show exploded in popularity all over the world, especially with American audiences, critics in Australia began questioning the original deal, and why the ABC wasn’t benefiting from Bluey merch.

The lopsided merch arrangement is back in the spotlight after Australian entrepreneur Charlie Gearside shared a video, calling the arrangement one of the worst commercial decisions in Australian history.

Gearside reckons the figure is even higher. By his rough calculation, looking at how much the BBC's revenue has grown in recent years, Bluey could be generating closer to $2.5 billion a year, roughly double the ABC's entire annual budget of $1.2 billion.

Despite the deal, the show itself remains a Brisbane production. Ludo Studio still makes Bluey out of its Queensland base, employing dozens of local animators.

It should also be noted that significant money from Bluey’s international success does flow back to Australia, in the form of royalties and revenue for the show’s creators.

Australian Children's Television Foundation CEO Jenny Buckland said she’s “concerned that the narrative now is that the ABC should be speculating on which shows will generate a financial return for it.”

In a piece for the Financial Review, Buckland acknowledged “BBC Studios secured a spectacular deal,” but she warned against the ABC prioritising revenue in its commissioning decisions.

“We wouldn’t accept that logic for adult audiences. We expect an array of content on our public broadcaster… for different purposes and different audiences, reflecting the breadth of our nation back to us,” Buckland wrote.

Speaking at the Screen Forever conference last week, ABC managing director Hugh Marks said the loss of Bluey's overseas rights had cost the Australian industry hundreds of millions, and that the money could have transformed local production.

"If it was coming to Australia, [it] actually would change a lot of the people's lives in this room," Marks told the conference. "If that was able to be reinvested in the industry, that would be more production activity, more orders, more flexibility in the sorts of shows we do, big, little, small, all of that would be possible just from one show."

Marks, who took over as ABC managing director last year (eight years after the deal was signed), used the speech to argue that Australian broadcasters need to start taking bigger risks on locally created intellectual property, so the country can actually benefit from the next global hit.

The Bluey film is set to be distributed by Disney in 2027, meaning the merch machine is about to get a lot bigger… and none of it is coming back to the public broadcaster.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.