The Fold: Winners and losers from the Voyager Media Awards
Glen Kyne joins Duncan Greive on The Fold to recap a significantly smaller but somehow considerably better Voyager Media Awards. (Apologies to Gulf News and NZ Geographic, each of which had notable wins which didn't get mentioned). Next they discuss the latest, potential the final developments in the NZME board coup saga, before addressing a big financial boost to inbound movie subsidies – and The Spinoff's own major editorial news.
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The Spinoff
2 days ago
- The Spinoff
All the backstage selfies from The Spinoff's live events, ranked
Season two of The Spinoff Live event series is now on sale, and we couldn't think of a better way to highlight this than shamelessly leveraging The Spinoff's most popular format and Kim Hill slaying with a half-smirk. There I was, trapped in a dressing room with Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Kim Hill. The vibes were immaculate. The chat? Surprisingly dirty. All I kept thinking was, I gotta get this selfie. It was the first event from season one of The Spinoff Live. I had been tasked with setting up 10 events across Auckland and Wellington to see if anyone would come to see our writers in the flesh. Toby, or not Toby, that was the question. In the end, our Wellington events sold out, and the Auckland events were bursting at the seams. Today, we are launching the first events for Season two of The Spinoff Live. Join us in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (with more shows to be announced) to hear some clever Spinoff people and special guests debrief on the state of the world. In Wellington, we'll be staging a live version of Joel MacManus's popular column Windbag; In Auckland, our new video journalist Robbie Nicol will be lifting the curtain on his attempt to explain the world in his series Now You Know; the Gone By Lunchtime crew are bringing their popular political analysis to WORD Christchurch; and in November we're running the first ever Big End of Year Spinoff Pub Quiz in Auckland. Tickets to all these events are on sale now. I tried to take a selfie at each of the shows in season one. Head of audience Anna Rawhiti-Connell offhandedly remarked to me that I should rank them, and as stipulated in my contract, I must obey. So to celebrate the launch of our new events, here are my selfies from the last ones, ranked. Note this is no reflection of the shows themselves, all of which were equally fantastic. See you soon. 10 & 9. Singles Club Launch Party and Help Me Hera live in Auckland Good start, no selfies at these ones. 8. Help Me Hera live in Wellington We did two live versions of Hera Lindsay Bird's popular advice column, in conversation with Mad Chapman. I'd missed the moment at the Auckland version of the show, so in Wellington I was determined to get a pre-show snap with these two legends. Only one problem: I'd never met Hera, and Mad and I were still warming up. I interrupted their conversation to make it all about me (deeply embarrassing), resulting in an awkward and out of focus photo of Mad, Hera, Ben and a clothes horse. 7. Year in Review in Wellington Much less awkward but a bit buttoned up. Why didn't we do a silly one? Maria Williams is very silly and Joel MacManus was wearing a hat with a propeller on it for goodness sake. We could have hung onto his arms and pretended like we were all flying away together. By this point, I had nailed the perfect time to get a selfie, moments before chucking everyone on stage. The perfect time for me, but probably the worst time for everyone else. Such is life. Charlotte Cook looks remarkably poised for being roped in that afternoon. 6. The Fold live in Wellington Can you believe we got four generations in one photo? Chills. Lucy Blakiston and Spinoff staffer Te Aihe Butler separately made the joke that it was their dream blunt rotation. I don't want to speculate on Bernard Hickey's dream blunt rotation, but I do want to point out the vintage box TV on the wall of the Hannah Playhouse green room. Not sure why Duncan Greive looks so uncomfortable. 5. The Spinoff Book Club in Wellington This photo has it all — confusion from Duncan Sarkies and Carl Shuker. Susanna Andrew leaping into the frame. The gang signs from Claire Mabey! Especially pleasing are the books gripped by Courtney Johnson, Melissa Oliver and Duncan. They're book people and they've brought books. It's book time. 4. Year in Review in Auckland Worn down by a long year, here are two media rockstars, one real-life doctor and me, all willing to dress up, nut up, and face an equally drained Auckland audience. It should be noted that the premise of these two shows was to recap the entire year, by far the most prep-heavy of the formats we trialled across these events. Nothing scares Anna Rawhiti-Connell, though, in a suit that was described as 'red with the blood of her enemies'. Horns, bells, hat, shaka. 3. Best TV Show Ever in Auckland 'Can I throw lollies into the audience?' Alex Casey asked me. 'Will they like the show more?' She is dressed in props boy's original shirt and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith is dressed as the dog that learned to drive. Of all the selfies this one is framed the best between two walls of Q Theatre posters. Note the shiny flatscreen TV on the wall, we're not in Wellington any more. Stewart Sowman-Lund with the collared shirt of a senior journalist and Rhiannon McCall with the tall drink of a comedian. 2. Gone by Lunchtime live in Wellington The event that started them all. Back when I still thought The Spinoff was fancy. Look, I put a blazer on and everything. Toby and Ben are serving unexpected fierceness, or maybe the lights were in their eyes. Kim Hill slaying with the half smirk, and a coquettish look from Annabelle rounds it out. Truly 10/10, no notes. 1. Gone by Lunchtime live in Auckland Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire were sick at this show. Very sick. Toby described Ben as being held together purely by pseudoephedrine and he himself had brought back some kind of European pox from a recent trip. Minutes before going on stage he turned to me and rasped out one word ' Water'. I held my breath in and out of their dressing room so a selfie was out of the question. A more fitting end to these 10 events was a hasty, dark piccy in the ops box at the back of Q Theatre with podcast manager and all round gc Te Aihe Butler, and senior producer/when-she's-involved-all-my-problems-melt-away Jin Fellet. It's fun to take a swing at a big project like this, or in Te Aihe's words 'it would have been hard for someone not as good as us'. Thanks to everyone who was involved. The first events from season two of The Spinoff Live are on sale now.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
Fast Favourites: The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman
Madeleine Chapman will be stepping down from her role as editor of news and culture website The Spinoff later this year. Chapman has been in the position for four years and first started at the website in 2016 as an intern. Of Samoan, Tuvaluan and Chinese descent, Chapman also co-wrote basketballer Steven Adams' autobiography and in 2019, wrote a biography of then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern, A New Kind of Leader . Madeleine Chapman joins Culture 101 for Fast Favourites, sharing her cultural recommendations.
Newsroom
5 days ago
- Newsroom
The Secret Diary of the .. Coldplay affair scandal
Winston Peters from NZ First I have sent a strongly worded letter joining 25 other world leaders to object to the Coldplay affair scandal. We, the undersigned, have called for an end to: The affair. It must cease immediately. Coldplay. They must lay down their instruments, and disband. Astronomer. It must go into receivership. Jumbotrons. The plug must be pulled. It is a public menace. We are confident of a result. Rawiri Waititi from Te Pāti Māori Astronomer CEO Andy Bryson, white. His co-worker Kristin Cabot, white. Coldplay, producers of the whitest music ever recorded. Read into that what you will but I will only add that Māori did not have affairs before white people came to Aotearoa. It was a society based on fidelity, loyalty, peace, harmony, freedom, liberty, equality, and filing audited financial statements. Scott Robertson from the All Blacks Andy and Kristin were just there to play footy with each other and they were in a good place. You could see they were feeling it. I mean once Chris Martin starts singing 'Yellow' then that's when the heat is on and desire is going to lean into the maul. But the Jumbotron incident was against the run of play. Things took a wicked bounce and that's just one of those unfortunate things with modern stadiums. Everyone is watching everyone else, and one thing we know about footy is that you can run but you can't hide. AI-generated content from NZME During a July 16, 2025 Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium (Boston), Astronomer executives Andy Bryson and Kristin Cabot were unexpectedly filmed on the venue's kiss cam, sparking viral attention as they appeared very close on camera (e.g., hugging, whispering). Chris Martin quipped: 'Either they're having an affair or they're very shy,' which became symbolic of the moment's viral nature. In other news dominating the NZME homepage which reflects New Zealand current events, wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan dies aged 71. Natalia Cleland from Wellington's Downtown Community Ministry A new report warns that the number of homeless people in New Zealand has increased at a rate faster than New Zealand's population growth. Christopher Luxon from David Seymour's government Look, what I will say to you is that I'm in no mood to answer any frickin' questions about homelessness or anything else that is part of some media-generated beat-up campaign to discredit the government and the real gains we are making in inflation, in education, in health, and in boot camps, above all in boot camps, you should see them for yourselves, frightened children from bad houses are learning to make their beds and get yelled at if they don't, I'd like to see what Chris frickin' Hipkins think is a better idea, he landed us all in this mess in the first place, but all anyone wants to talk about is the widespread perception that I am some sort of frickin' weakling led around by his nose and that I have manifestly failed to inspire confidence in my leadership, so look let's all just change the subject and talk about the Astronomer affair scandal and how they more or less got busted frickin'.
