This $20m balloon is the priciest art ever given to the National Gallery
The American artist's Balloon Venus Dolni Vestonice (Yellow) 2013-17, a 2.7-metre high stainless steel sculpture inspired by a palaeolithic figurine, has been gifted to the Canberra institution by Steve Shelley, co-founder of tech unicorn Deputy. He had loaned it to NGA since 2019.
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Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
All the rage: The shocking new Rose Byrne film that tackles the mother load
Rose Byrne is in every frame of If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, the remarkable, funny, and slightly scandalous movie that opens the Melbourne International Film Festival tonight. The camera sits tight – really tight – on her flawless face, tracking every twitch, grimace, scowl and frown as Linda, a therapist and the mother of a very sick child, descends into a psychological hell from which she can see no escape. It's called motherhood. 'What I wanted to do was something I have never seen before,' says the movie's American writer-director, Mary Bronstein, who is in Australia as a guest of the festival. 'I wanted to make an expressive piece of work about what it's like to be a caretaker in a very serious, high-stakes situation, where you feel like the entire universe is against you.' For most of the film, Linda's husband is nothing more than an angry voice (Christian Slater's, to be precise) on the other end of the phone, offering unwanted advice about how to fix things. The child – heard but not seen – won't or can't eat, and demands almost constant care. Their home has become unlivable because a leak in the apartment above has caused the ceiling to collapse, so mother and child have moved into a motel room, whose tiny space is filled with the beeps and flashing lights of the machine that pumps life-sustaining nutrients into the child. Linda seeks relief in alcohol, drugs, and sly escapes from the nightmarish claustrophobia of her situation. There's nothing heroic or stoic about this long-suffering woman – whose tribulations may be real or may be at least partly manufactured in her mind – but she's absolutely anchored in truth. 'The tiny seed that started the entire movie is a real situation I lived through with my daughter – she's 15 now – when she was seven,' says Bronstein. 'She was very seriously ill.' Bronstein and her husband live in New York City, and the treatment their daughter needed was in San Diego, on the other side of the country. 'So my daughter and I lived together as sort of demented roommates in a small motel room for eight months, and I had a full existential crisis. I was so focused on the situation at hand, which was everything to do with her, that I felt like I was disappearing, literally.' The things that happen in the film, she adds, aren't all drawn from her actual experience, and she isn't interested in detailing what's factual and what's not. 'What is important to me to get across is that it's all emotionally true.' Bronstein, who started as an actor before making her directing debut 17 years ago with Yeast (in which she co-starred alongside Barbie writer-director Greta Gerwig), has a small role in this movie, as the doctor in charge of the sick child's care. And her view of Linda is not a particularly kind one. Doctor Spring represents, Bronstein concedes, the 'self-hatred' she felt at the time. 'But in a more general sense, it is a judgement of mothers who are not being perfect all the time, who are having their problems, who are struggling, who maybe are faced with something they can't handle and need help [with]. You know, there's a lot of helpers in the film, and there's a lot of listeners, or potential listeners, but Linda feels as if she's screaming into the wind and the void and nobody is hearing or helping.' There is a lot of very dark humour in the film, alongside a deep sense of frustration and confusion. Above all, it's about a side of motherhood that rarely gets addressed in cinema. Loading 'I want it to spark a conversation about female rage, and why that makes people so uncomfortable,' Bronstein says. 'It makes women uncomfortable too, not just men. It makes everybody uncomfortable, the idea of female rage, because it feels bottomless.' The love for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You has been almost bottomless too. Since its debut at Sundance in January, it has garnered rave reviews, and earned Rose Byrne the best actress prize at Berlin the following month. But there's a special burden that comes with being the opening-night film at MIFF, one of the biggest film festivals on the planet – namely, that it should spark chatter at the after-party without killing the vibe. There's every chance it will succeed on both scores. But exactly what sort of chatter are you hoping for, Mary Bronstein? 'I hope electric, that's the word I'm going to use,' she says. 'Curious, with people excited at seeing something they haven't seen before.' And, she adds, she hopes for 'a lot of car conversations on the way home. That's my goal.'
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
All the rage: The shocking new Rose Byrne film that tackles the mother load
Rose Byrne is in every frame of If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, the remarkable, funny, and slightly scandalous movie that opens the Melbourne International Film Festival tonight. The camera sits tight – really tight – on her flawless face, tracking every twitch, grimace, scowl and frown as Linda, a therapist and the mother of a very sick child, descends into a psychological hell from which she can see no escape. It's called motherhood. 'What I wanted to do was something I have never seen before,' says the movie's American writer-director, Mary Bronstein, who is in Australia as a guest of the festival. 'I wanted to make an expressive piece of work about what it's like to be a caretaker in a very serious, high-stakes situation, where you feel like the entire universe is against you.' For most of the film, Linda's husband is nothing more than an angry voice (Christian Slater's, to be precise) on the other end of the phone, offering unwanted advice about how to fix things. The child – heard but not seen – won't or can't eat, and demands almost constant care. Their home has become unlivable because a leak in the apartment above has caused the ceiling to collapse, so mother and child have moved into a motel room, whose tiny space is filled with the beeps and flashing lights of the machine that pumps life-sustaining nutrients into the child. Linda seeks relief in alcohol, drugs, and sly escapes from the nightmarish claustrophobia of her situation. There's nothing heroic or stoic about this long-suffering woman – whose tribulations may be real or may be at least partly manufactured in her mind – but she's absolutely anchored in truth. 'The tiny seed that started the entire movie is a real situation I lived through with my daughter – she's 15 now – when she was seven,' says Bronstein. 'She was very seriously ill.' Bronstein and her husband live in New York City, and the treatment their daughter needed was in San Diego, on the other side of the country. 'So my daughter and I lived together as sort of demented roommates in a small motel room for eight months, and I had a full existential crisis. I was so focused on the situation at hand, which was everything to do with her, that I felt like I was disappearing, literally.' The things that happen in the film, she adds, aren't all drawn from her actual experience, and she isn't interested in detailing what's factual and what's not. 'What is important to me to get across is that it's all emotionally true.' Bronstein, who started as an actor before making her directing debut 17 years ago with Yeast (in which she co-starred alongside Barbie writer-director Greta Gerwig), has a small role in this movie, as the doctor in charge of the sick child's care. And her view of Linda is not a particularly kind one. Doctor Spring represents, Bronstein concedes, the 'self-hatred' she felt at the time. 'But in a more general sense, it is a judgement of mothers who are not being perfect all the time, who are having their problems, who are struggling, who maybe are faced with something they can't handle and need help [with]. You know, there's a lot of helpers in the film, and there's a lot of listeners, or potential listeners, but Linda feels as if she's screaming into the wind and the void and nobody is hearing or helping.' There is a lot of very dark humour in the film, alongside a deep sense of frustration and confusion. Above all, it's about a side of motherhood that rarely gets addressed in cinema. Loading 'I want it to spark a conversation about female rage, and why that makes people so uncomfortable,' Bronstein says. 'It makes women uncomfortable too, not just men. It makes everybody uncomfortable, the idea of female rage, because it feels bottomless.' The love for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You has been almost bottomless too. Since its debut at Sundance in January, it has garnered rave reviews, and earned Rose Byrne the best actress prize at Berlin the following month. But there's a special burden that comes with being the opening-night film at MIFF, one of the biggest film festivals on the planet – namely, that it should spark chatter at the after-party without killing the vibe. There's every chance it will succeed on both scores. But exactly what sort of chatter are you hoping for, Mary Bronstein? 'I hope electric, that's the word I'm going to use,' she says. 'Curious, with people excited at seeing something they haven't seen before.' And, she adds, she hopes for 'a lot of car conversations on the way home. That's my goal.'
The Advertiser
4 hours ago
- The Advertiser
The entitlement of the rich leaves the rest of us in the drink
This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to The marvellous journalist Tina Brown has a very telling story in her latest column on Substack. Very shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, she and hyper-rich, former media mogul and current convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein managed to get into the still-smoking ruins of Ground Zero, she as a journalist, he as a voyeur. "He was itching for the inside track, as if it was a VIP area at a U2 concert. 'Get us in,' he commanded Matt Hiltzik, his comms guru and fixer, who could have secured an all-access pass to Kim Jong Un's private compound in 20 minutes, if that was Harvey's demand. "It was raining, so the dust stuck to our feet as we tramped past the ghostly figures of ash-covered first responders and gazed up at the anguished, twisted metal that was once the Twin Towers. It was here, in this epic site of tragedy and loss, that I heard Harvey yell at his Afghan driver, 'Assan! Get me a Diet Coke!' It arrived, of course, but was deemed 'not cold enough'." Tina Brown's observation is: "Everyday asshole behavior becomes a badge of power." Forgive the crudity and the American spelling - but I think she has a point. Not all rich people behave badly, but there is an unattractive sense of entitlement among many of them. Where once the rich behaving badly seemed disgraceful, now it seems a badge of pride. Think of Jeff Bezos' disgusting wedding, which, to my mind, showed a contempt for ordinary people through its flaunting of gross wealth. Maybe I'm just being a snob but wealth now seems more showy and vulgar. Trump's golden toilets might be symbols of our time. The Australian psychologist Martina Luongo wrote (citing an article in an American academic journal): "The research highlights that people with more money tend to have an increased sense of self-importance and inflated self-esteem. They often feel that they are entitled to more positive experiences than others, which can lead to feelings of superiority and grandiosity." It's true that we in Australia don't have the shocking examples of moneyed entitlement evident in the United States - no Weinstein, Epstein, or, let's face it, Trump. But, all the same, we do have entitlement - that sense that the rich are entitled to jump the queues that the little people must stay in. Or not dirty their hands too much. Billionaire eco-warrior and private jet traveller Mike Cannon-Brookes recently told more than a hundred staff they were surplus to requirements, according to the Australian Financial Review and The Australian. He did so, they said, over a video message. "The progressive billionaire couldn't even set aside some time for a Zoom, or organise a town hall," the Financial Review reported. "He delivered the bad news dead-eyed, then screen-to-black, followed by employees locked-out of their laptops." Mr Cannon-Brookes did nothing illegal. And he's no doubt a very busy man - but what signal does that "dead-eyed" message send about his concern for the mere minions in his company? The chasm between the rich and the rest of us is widening. A study done at the University of NSW found that "the gap between those with the most and those with the least has blown out over the past two decades, with the average wealth of the highest 20 per cent growing at four times the rate of the lowest 20 per cent". There was a time when people with serious money still seemed to believe they were part of the general community. It still felt like they were in the same boat as the rest of us - maybe in a cabin on an upper deck rather than steerage, but at least in the same boat. That is no longer true. We live in a world where wealth seems untrammelled, a world of flaunted money; private schools; private hospitals; private jets; gated communities; special access; special treatment in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge. Where will it all end? Whatever became of Australia's famed egalitarianism? HAVE YOUR SAY: Send your thoughts to echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - News Corp's revenue rose by 2 per cent to US$8.5 billion (A$13.1 billion), despite fading income from its news media. - Australian music legend Col Joye, famous for his hit single Bye Bye Baby, has died aged 89. The ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, whose career spanned almost 67 years, was the first homegrown rock and roll singer to have a number one record Australia-wide. - A woman charged with selling Friends star Matthew Perry the dose of ketamine that killed him is headed for a September trial. THEY SAID IT: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different." - F. Scott Fitzgerald. YOU SAID IT: I opined, slightly tongue in cheek I thought, that the voting age should be raised, Many of you agreed. But Christopher did not: "Calling it the 'cult of youth' tells us all we need to know about your biases. This Echidna is not the Echidna I like to read each morning - middle-aged drivel." I should say that I dream of being middle-aged. Andrea (68) also disagreed, though with less anger: "My partner (73) and I would prefer to lower the voting age - in our experience, most young people are thoughtful and caring and concerned for their future - while at the same time introducing an age cap on voting, say 70 or 75." Others agreed with me. Brian went a step further, suggesting a test: "There should be some form of exam to show that a person understands the fundamentals of what they're voting for." Lynette said: "I wouldn't have wanted my children or grandchildren to vote at 16. They think they know everything about life but know very little. Twenty-one is a better age." Deb felt: "Lower the voting age? Sounds like the only answer that the many scared, weak and shallow politicians have to try to protect themselves from the scrutiny of an ageing and much wiser population." John said: "Let them grow up first, we, when younger were a little fast to judge everything. Some maturity solves these problems and common sense fights back. So NO to younger age voting." I should say, finally, that I have some sympathy with Christopher's view. "The point of democracy (like a jury) is that it gathers the views of all to get a better collective decision - and worthwhile differing perspectives come from all groups, young and old, male and female, black and white, poor and rich." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to The marvellous journalist Tina Brown has a very telling story in her latest column on Substack. Very shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, she and hyper-rich, former media mogul and current convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein managed to get into the still-smoking ruins of Ground Zero, she as a journalist, he as a voyeur. "He was itching for the inside track, as if it was a VIP area at a U2 concert. 'Get us in,' he commanded Matt Hiltzik, his comms guru and fixer, who could have secured an all-access pass to Kim Jong Un's private compound in 20 minutes, if that was Harvey's demand. "It was raining, so the dust stuck to our feet as we tramped past the ghostly figures of ash-covered first responders and gazed up at the anguished, twisted metal that was once the Twin Towers. It was here, in this epic site of tragedy and loss, that I heard Harvey yell at his Afghan driver, 'Assan! Get me a Diet Coke!' It arrived, of course, but was deemed 'not cold enough'." Tina Brown's observation is: "Everyday asshole behavior becomes a badge of power." Forgive the crudity and the American spelling - but I think she has a point. Not all rich people behave badly, but there is an unattractive sense of entitlement among many of them. Where once the rich behaving badly seemed disgraceful, now it seems a badge of pride. Think of Jeff Bezos' disgusting wedding, which, to my mind, showed a contempt for ordinary people through its flaunting of gross wealth. Maybe I'm just being a snob but wealth now seems more showy and vulgar. Trump's golden toilets might be symbols of our time. The Australian psychologist Martina Luongo wrote (citing an article in an American academic journal): "The research highlights that people with more money tend to have an increased sense of self-importance and inflated self-esteem. They often feel that they are entitled to more positive experiences than others, which can lead to feelings of superiority and grandiosity." It's true that we in Australia don't have the shocking examples of moneyed entitlement evident in the United States - no Weinstein, Epstein, or, let's face it, Trump. But, all the same, we do have entitlement - that sense that the rich are entitled to jump the queues that the little people must stay in. Or not dirty their hands too much. Billionaire eco-warrior and private jet traveller Mike Cannon-Brookes recently told more than a hundred staff they were surplus to requirements, according to the Australian Financial Review and The Australian. He did so, they said, over a video message. "The progressive billionaire couldn't even set aside some time for a Zoom, or organise a town hall," the Financial Review reported. "He delivered the bad news dead-eyed, then screen-to-black, followed by employees locked-out of their laptops." Mr Cannon-Brookes did nothing illegal. And he's no doubt a very busy man - but what signal does that "dead-eyed" message send about his concern for the mere minions in his company? The chasm between the rich and the rest of us is widening. A study done at the University of NSW found that "the gap between those with the most and those with the least has blown out over the past two decades, with the average wealth of the highest 20 per cent growing at four times the rate of the lowest 20 per cent". There was a time when people with serious money still seemed to believe they were part of the general community. It still felt like they were in the same boat as the rest of us - maybe in a cabin on an upper deck rather than steerage, but at least in the same boat. That is no longer true. We live in a world where wealth seems untrammelled, a world of flaunted money; private schools; private hospitals; private jets; gated communities; special access; special treatment in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge. Where will it all end? Whatever became of Australia's famed egalitarianism? HAVE YOUR SAY: Send your thoughts to echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - News Corp's revenue rose by 2 per cent to US$8.5 billion (A$13.1 billion), despite fading income from its news media. - Australian music legend Col Joye, famous for his hit single Bye Bye Baby, has died aged 89. The ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, whose career spanned almost 67 years, was the first homegrown rock and roll singer to have a number one record Australia-wide. - A woman charged with selling Friends star Matthew Perry the dose of ketamine that killed him is headed for a September trial. THEY SAID IT: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different." - F. Scott Fitzgerald. YOU SAID IT: I opined, slightly tongue in cheek I thought, that the voting age should be raised, Many of you agreed. But Christopher did not: "Calling it the 'cult of youth' tells us all we need to know about your biases. This Echidna is not the Echidna I like to read each morning - middle-aged drivel." I should say that I dream of being middle-aged. Andrea (68) also disagreed, though with less anger: "My partner (73) and I would prefer to lower the voting age - in our experience, most young people are thoughtful and caring and concerned for their future - while at the same time introducing an age cap on voting, say 70 or 75." Others agreed with me. Brian went a step further, suggesting a test: "There should be some form of exam to show that a person understands the fundamentals of what they're voting for." Lynette said: "I wouldn't have wanted my children or grandchildren to vote at 16. They think they know everything about life but know very little. Twenty-one is a better age." Deb felt: "Lower the voting age? Sounds like the only answer that the many scared, weak and shallow politicians have to try to protect themselves from the scrutiny of an ageing and much wiser population." John said: "Let them grow up first, we, when younger were a little fast to judge everything. Some maturity solves these problems and common sense fights back. So NO to younger age voting." I should say, finally, that I have some sympathy with Christopher's view. "The point of democracy (like a jury) is that it gathers the views of all to get a better collective decision - and worthwhile differing perspectives come from all groups, young and old, male and female, black and white, poor and rich." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to The marvellous journalist Tina Brown has a very telling story in her latest column on Substack. Very shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, she and hyper-rich, former media mogul and current convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein managed to get into the still-smoking ruins of Ground Zero, she as a journalist, he as a voyeur. "He was itching for the inside track, as if it was a VIP area at a U2 concert. 'Get us in,' he commanded Matt Hiltzik, his comms guru and fixer, who could have secured an all-access pass to Kim Jong Un's private compound in 20 minutes, if that was Harvey's demand. "It was raining, so the dust stuck to our feet as we tramped past the ghostly figures of ash-covered first responders and gazed up at the anguished, twisted metal that was once the Twin Towers. It was here, in this epic site of tragedy and loss, that I heard Harvey yell at his Afghan driver, 'Assan! Get me a Diet Coke!' It arrived, of course, but was deemed 'not cold enough'." Tina Brown's observation is: "Everyday asshole behavior becomes a badge of power." Forgive the crudity and the American spelling - but I think she has a point. Not all rich people behave badly, but there is an unattractive sense of entitlement among many of them. Where once the rich behaving badly seemed disgraceful, now it seems a badge of pride. Think of Jeff Bezos' disgusting wedding, which, to my mind, showed a contempt for ordinary people through its flaunting of gross wealth. Maybe I'm just being a snob but wealth now seems more showy and vulgar. Trump's golden toilets might be symbols of our time. The Australian psychologist Martina Luongo wrote (citing an article in an American academic journal): "The research highlights that people with more money tend to have an increased sense of self-importance and inflated self-esteem. They often feel that they are entitled to more positive experiences than others, which can lead to feelings of superiority and grandiosity." It's true that we in Australia don't have the shocking examples of moneyed entitlement evident in the United States - no Weinstein, Epstein, or, let's face it, Trump. But, all the same, we do have entitlement - that sense that the rich are entitled to jump the queues that the little people must stay in. Or not dirty their hands too much. Billionaire eco-warrior and private jet traveller Mike Cannon-Brookes recently told more than a hundred staff they were surplus to requirements, according to the Australian Financial Review and The Australian. He did so, they said, over a video message. "The progressive billionaire couldn't even set aside some time for a Zoom, or organise a town hall," the Financial Review reported. "He delivered the bad news dead-eyed, then screen-to-black, followed by employees locked-out of their laptops." Mr Cannon-Brookes did nothing illegal. And he's no doubt a very busy man - but what signal does that "dead-eyed" message send about his concern for the mere minions in his company? The chasm between the rich and the rest of us is widening. A study done at the University of NSW found that "the gap between those with the most and those with the least has blown out over the past two decades, with the average wealth of the highest 20 per cent growing at four times the rate of the lowest 20 per cent". There was a time when people with serious money still seemed to believe they were part of the general community. It still felt like they were in the same boat as the rest of us - maybe in a cabin on an upper deck rather than steerage, but at least in the same boat. That is no longer true. We live in a world where wealth seems untrammelled, a world of flaunted money; private schools; private hospitals; private jets; gated communities; special access; special treatment in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge. Where will it all end? Whatever became of Australia's famed egalitarianism? HAVE YOUR SAY: Send your thoughts to echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - News Corp's revenue rose by 2 per cent to US$8.5 billion (A$13.1 billion), despite fading income from its news media. - Australian music legend Col Joye, famous for his hit single Bye Bye Baby, has died aged 89. The ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, whose career spanned almost 67 years, was the first homegrown rock and roll singer to have a number one record Australia-wide. - A woman charged with selling Friends star Matthew Perry the dose of ketamine that killed him is headed for a September trial. THEY SAID IT: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different." - F. Scott Fitzgerald. YOU SAID IT: I opined, slightly tongue in cheek I thought, that the voting age should be raised, Many of you agreed. But Christopher did not: "Calling it the 'cult of youth' tells us all we need to know about your biases. This Echidna is not the Echidna I like to read each morning - middle-aged drivel." I should say that I dream of being middle-aged. Andrea (68) also disagreed, though with less anger: "My partner (73) and I would prefer to lower the voting age - in our experience, most young people are thoughtful and caring and concerned for their future - while at the same time introducing an age cap on voting, say 70 or 75." Others agreed with me. Brian went a step further, suggesting a test: "There should be some form of exam to show that a person understands the fundamentals of what they're voting for." Lynette said: "I wouldn't have wanted my children or grandchildren to vote at 16. They think they know everything about life but know very little. Twenty-one is a better age." Deb felt: "Lower the voting age? Sounds like the only answer that the many scared, weak and shallow politicians have to try to protect themselves from the scrutiny of an ageing and much wiser population." John said: "Let them grow up first, we, when younger were a little fast to judge everything. Some maturity solves these problems and common sense fights back. So NO to younger age voting." I should say, finally, that I have some sympathy with Christopher's view. "The point of democracy (like a jury) is that it gathers the views of all to get a better collective decision - and worthwhile differing perspectives come from all groups, young and old, male and female, black and white, poor and rich." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to The marvellous journalist Tina Brown has a very telling story in her latest column on Substack. Very shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, she and hyper-rich, former media mogul and current convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein managed to get into the still-smoking ruins of Ground Zero, she as a journalist, he as a voyeur. "He was itching for the inside track, as if it was a VIP area at a U2 concert. 'Get us in,' he commanded Matt Hiltzik, his comms guru and fixer, who could have secured an all-access pass to Kim Jong Un's private compound in 20 minutes, if that was Harvey's demand. "It was raining, so the dust stuck to our feet as we tramped past the ghostly figures of ash-covered first responders and gazed up at the anguished, twisted metal that was once the Twin Towers. It was here, in this epic site of tragedy and loss, that I heard Harvey yell at his Afghan driver, 'Assan! Get me a Diet Coke!' It arrived, of course, but was deemed 'not cold enough'." Tina Brown's observation is: "Everyday asshole behavior becomes a badge of power." Forgive the crudity and the American spelling - but I think she has a point. Not all rich people behave badly, but there is an unattractive sense of entitlement among many of them. Where once the rich behaving badly seemed disgraceful, now it seems a badge of pride. Think of Jeff Bezos' disgusting wedding, which, to my mind, showed a contempt for ordinary people through its flaunting of gross wealth. Maybe I'm just being a snob but wealth now seems more showy and vulgar. Trump's golden toilets might be symbols of our time. The Australian psychologist Martina Luongo wrote (citing an article in an American academic journal): "The research highlights that people with more money tend to have an increased sense of self-importance and inflated self-esteem. They often feel that they are entitled to more positive experiences than others, which can lead to feelings of superiority and grandiosity." It's true that we in Australia don't have the shocking examples of moneyed entitlement evident in the United States - no Weinstein, Epstein, or, let's face it, Trump. But, all the same, we do have entitlement - that sense that the rich are entitled to jump the queues that the little people must stay in. Or not dirty their hands too much. Billionaire eco-warrior and private jet traveller Mike Cannon-Brookes recently told more than a hundred staff they were surplus to requirements, according to the Australian Financial Review and The Australian. He did so, they said, over a video message. "The progressive billionaire couldn't even set aside some time for a Zoom, or organise a town hall," the Financial Review reported. "He delivered the bad news dead-eyed, then screen-to-black, followed by employees locked-out of their laptops." Mr Cannon-Brookes did nothing illegal. And he's no doubt a very busy man - but what signal does that "dead-eyed" message send about his concern for the mere minions in his company? The chasm between the rich and the rest of us is widening. A study done at the University of NSW found that "the gap between those with the most and those with the least has blown out over the past two decades, with the average wealth of the highest 20 per cent growing at four times the rate of the lowest 20 per cent". There was a time when people with serious money still seemed to believe they were part of the general community. It still felt like they were in the same boat as the rest of us - maybe in a cabin on an upper deck rather than steerage, but at least in the same boat. That is no longer true. We live in a world where wealth seems untrammelled, a world of flaunted money; private schools; private hospitals; private jets; gated communities; special access; special treatment in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge. Where will it all end? Whatever became of Australia's famed egalitarianism? HAVE YOUR SAY: Send your thoughts to echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - News Corp's revenue rose by 2 per cent to US$8.5 billion (A$13.1 billion), despite fading income from its news media. - Australian music legend Col Joye, famous for his hit single Bye Bye Baby, has died aged 89. The ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, whose career spanned almost 67 years, was the first homegrown rock and roll singer to have a number one record Australia-wide. - A woman charged with selling Friends star Matthew Perry the dose of ketamine that killed him is headed for a September trial. THEY SAID IT: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different." - F. Scott Fitzgerald. YOU SAID IT: I opined, slightly tongue in cheek I thought, that the voting age should be raised, Many of you agreed. But Christopher did not: "Calling it the 'cult of youth' tells us all we need to know about your biases. This Echidna is not the Echidna I like to read each morning - middle-aged drivel." I should say that I dream of being middle-aged. Andrea (68) also disagreed, though with less anger: "My partner (73) and I would prefer to lower the voting age - in our experience, most young people are thoughtful and caring and concerned for their future - while at the same time introducing an age cap on voting, say 70 or 75." Others agreed with me. Brian went a step further, suggesting a test: "There should be some form of exam to show that a person understands the fundamentals of what they're voting for." Lynette said: "I wouldn't have wanted my children or grandchildren to vote at 16. They think they know everything about life but know very little. Twenty-one is a better age." Deb felt: "Lower the voting age? Sounds like the only answer that the many scared, weak and shallow politicians have to try to protect themselves from the scrutiny of an ageing and much wiser population." John said: "Let them grow up first, we, when younger were a little fast to judge everything. Some maturity solves these problems and common sense fights back. So NO to younger age voting." I should say, finally, that I have some sympathy with Christopher's view. "The point of democracy (like a jury) is that it gathers the views of all to get a better collective decision - and worthwhile differing perspectives come from all groups, young and old, male and female, black and white, poor and rich."
