Latest news with #Binge
Time Out
8 hours ago
- Time Out
Inside look: The most luxurious holiday homes where Australia's wealthiest stay
Think a waterfront penthouse suite in a five-star hotel is the peak of holiday luxury? Cute. Australia's wealthiest are checking into spots that make your fanciest staycation look like a roadside pit stop. We're talking secluded countryside estates, magical treetop hideaways, breathtaking beachfront mansions and even private island resorts. If you're keen for a behind-the-scenes look at how our nation's top one per cent really holiday, we've got the inside look. With nightly rates reaching up to $30,000, Australia's leading luxury villa rental platform Luxico has lifted the curtain on five of its most-in-demand properties booked by Australia's high rollers, including CEOs, professional athletes, world-renowned surgeons, entrepreneurs and global media moguls. The holiday homes alone are jaw-dropping, but what you won't see are the VIP perks, like private butlers, in-villa massages, bespoke events and daily cold-pressed juice deliveries. Here are five of the best... Damia, Byron Bay, NSW Hidden amongst 125 private acres and 4,500 farmed macadamia trees, this Mediterranean-inspired retreat sleeps up to 14 guests across six beautiful bedrooms. The open-living plan features multiple dining areas, a games room, a sunken lounge with an open fireplace, a stylish barn studio, a rustic two-bedroom cabin and a private chef on call. Oh, it's pet-friendly too! Price: From $12,500 per night Sweven Estate, Sydney, NSW Spread across 141 acres of spectacular scenery on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, this stunning treehouse-style retreat was featured on episode three of Binge's Billion Dollar Playground. It features two winged pavilions with five bedrooms, plus expansive gardens, an infinity pool, a lotus-filled lake and plenty of relaxing nooks – all just an hour's drive from Sydney. Price: From $5,500 per night Caba Beach House, Cabarita Beach, NSW Sitting pretty on Cabarita Beach Hill, this striking three-storey property offers direct access to pristine beaches and 360-degree views of the Tweed Coast and Hinterland. It also boasts a dreamy ocean-facing swimming pool, expansive balconies, a fire pit and four spacious bedrooms. Price: From $4,000 per night Beaches at Sunrise, Sunshine Coast, QLD Tucked inside the prestigious 'Beaches' gated estate just minutes from Noosa's Hastings Street, this resort-style escape gives you direct access to one of the most sought-after stretches of sand on the Sunshine Coast. The award-winning property also boasts a rooftop terrace with ocean views, a heated swimming pool and spa, expansive outdoor living spaces and four very bougie bedrooms. Price: From $1,900 per night Domic Noosa, Sunshine Coast, QLD Adjoining Noosa National Park, this six-bedroom, ten-bathroom masterpiece is one of Australia's most coveted beachfront residences. The quirky oceanfront stay features a 25-metre infinity pool, day spa, private cinema, outdoor fire pit and large entertaining areas. You won't have to lift a finger with a concierge on hand to organise everything from a private driver and personal chef to a nanny or personal trainer. Price: From $13,500 per night ⭐️ The best luxury hotels in Australia right now
Perth Now
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
TikTok meets Real Housewives in nepo baby drama
With Clare Rigden sick this week — no doubt bingeing a stack of excellent shows to report back on (between well-deserved naps) — it feels like the right time to reflect on my own go-to sick-day viewing. Watching TV while sick is a very different beast to your usual screen time. The shows don't need to grip you completely because you'll be drifting in and out of sleep, missing scenes between coughing fits and nose-blowing. There will be no Emmy nominations in this line-up, and chances are the shows will fall into either a guilty pleasure or hate-watch category. During a recent bout of the flu, I dove into The Real Housewives universe. And wow, what a world it was. We're talking handbags worth more than the average Aussie's annual salary, drama that veers from petty bickering to near fist fights, and housewives actually going to jail for real-life crimes. It's unhinged — and sick me couldn't get enough. While I'm saving the rest of RHOSLC for my next sick day, I have continued dipping into Next Gen NYC as it drops weekly on Hayu. Please don't judge me — I also watch Severance, The Studio, Hacks and all the other highbrow stuff. I have some taste. But if, like me, you need a bit of sugar with all that substance, this series delivers. It follows 'a tangled web of friends raised in the spotlight — or at least close enough for good lighting — as they stumble into adulthood one brunch, break-up and spontaneous decision at a time'. It's like if TikTok and the Housewives had a baby. Literally. The show features the children of some of the franchise's most iconic reality mums, and they're putting their parents to shame, shouting their way through their own chaotic episodes. There are characters being called 'dirt poor' because they don't get a $10k allowance from their parents, arguments over who should foot the $14k bill for a nightclub booth, and a full-blown spat over . . . something I've already forgotten (but felt very important at the time). And yet, it's all set against an iconic New York backdrop, has flashes of genuine friendship and surprising glimmers of growth. Sick or not, it's the kind of show that lets you switch your brain off — and sometimes, that's exactly what you need. Get well soon Clare! This creepy horror is currently streaming on Binge. Credit: Universal Pictures Australia / TheWest While we're talking nepo babies, this vampire horror featuring Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny Depp and singer-model Vanessa Paradis) and Bill Skarsgard (son of actor Stellan Skarsgard) is dropping on Binge. This is one you'll want to watch at full health, phone face down with all the lights on. Everyone's favourite angry chef is back with Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service. Credit: Supplied Back bef or e there was streaming and we had to hope something decent was on TV or that our pocket money could cover a new release at the video shop, it was always a great day when you stumbled across a Gordon Ramsay show. Whether he was calling someone an idiot sandwich, saving a restaurant that didn't particularly appreciate his style of tough love or making rising chefs reconsider their career path, it was nothing if not entertaining. It's fair to say he's softened a little over the years, so it will be interesting to see how spicy his new series is. This time Ramsay sends an insider undercover at a struggling restaurant who squirrels out information back to him. What could go wrong except for, well, everything. Ingrid (Sally Phillips), Austin (Michael Theo) and Julian (Ben Miller) are all back for season two of Austin. Credit: Supplied For viewing that feels like a warm hug, it's hard to go past this lovely show starring Michael Theo, Sally Phillips, Ben Miller and Perth's Claire Lovering. Season two picks back up on Austin's Game Of Scones: Doing Britain On The Spectrum (my book club would read that!) snapped up by a publisher before the newfound fame goes to his head. Can't wait to jump in the back seat with Claudia Karvan and Steph Tisdell for Great Australian Road Trips. Credit: Supplied There is nothing like a road trip to really get to know someone — the good, the bad and the 'let me out here please' — though we can't imagine there will be any of the latter between the hosts of this new series. Claudia Karvan joins Steph Tisdell while Melissa Leong is in the driver's seat with Nazeem Hussain as they take on some of Australia's best drives, including the Great Barrier Reef Drive in Queensland to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
ABC News
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Comedian Mark Humphries tackles housing crisis in documentary Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream?
"If a D-grade celebrity like me can't afford to buy a home, who can?" It's a cracking first line from satirical wit and sometime ABC star Mark Humphries in his surprisingly jolly rage against the housing crisis, SOLD! Who Broke the Australian Dream? Fast Facts about Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream What: A tragicomic documentary about the housing crisis Directed by: Mark Humphries Starring: Humphries, Alan Kohler, Purple Pingers and more When: Streaming on Binge now Likely to make you feel: Mad as hell, unless you already own ten houses Not that the Binge documentary, directed by Bill Code, is all about him. A huge swath of Australians, young and old, believe they'll be forever renters. Many who have managed to claw their way onto the lowest rungs of the property ladder are struggling to pay their mortgage. But it wasn't always this way. As bubble-bath-bound financial journalist Alan Kohler (they couldn't afford Margot Robbie) explains in the doco, everything changed in 1999. That's when former prime minister John Howard heavily discounted capital gains tax and ramped up negative gearing, with house prices spiralling ever upwards since. "Howard once said, 'No-one ever complained to me about the value of their house going up,' and that's the issue," Humphries says. "Owners outnumber renters two-to-one. And if you're a politician, you're obviously going to appeal to the majority." Especially when that majority includes roughly 65 per cent of our elected politicians who own at least two properties, with both Labor's Michelle Ananda-Rajah and the LNP's Karen Andrews having seven each. "You want to believe that those people are still capable of recognising the problem and seeing what they have to do," Humphries says. "But it's very hard to imagine change occurring when it's in so many people's best interests to keep things as they are. "But what sort of a system is that? It's grotesque." From The Feed on SBS to The Chaser's War on the ABC and The Project on Network 10, Humphries and regular co-writer Evan Williams have carved sterling careers out of channelling their indignance at injustice into snort-inducing comedy. "The reality is, people don't want to hear you ranting for over 52 minutes," Humphries says. "It's not appealing, so you try to help the medicine go down. But it's coming from a true place of anger." So, what does he believe is the cure for the housing crisis? It's complicated, but Humphries says course-correcting on capital gains and negative gearing is key. Former Labor leader Bill Shorten pops up in Sold! to defend his election-losing policies on that front (plus his democracy sausage-eating skills). "He was a good sport," Humphries says. As is Humphries' dad, former weatherman Allan. "My love of TV was probably a result of going and seeing him at the ABC studios when I was seven," Humphries says. "He did a great job considering he's used to adlibbing, rather than sticking to a script. Sold! also features Jordan van den Lamb — AKA Purple Pingers — the prominent (especially on social media) housing rights activist who also ran on a senate ticket for the Socialist Party in Victoria. "One of the things I really admire about him is that, although there is clearly seething rage underneath what he does, he has this ironic delivery that's so dry." Van den Lamb gleefully takes pot shots at greedy landlords and homes left purposefully vacant. "That really opened my eyes," Humphries says. "It's easy to be critical of someone because they're living in someone else's space. But isn't it more grotesque to have a house that's designed to house people and choose not to and just let it increase in value?" In Melbourne alone, 97,000 properties are vacant, with around 37,000 people homeless. Vast stocks of public housing were sold off in a fire sale lit by former PM Robert Menzies in 1956. And then there's the bogeyman finger-wagging at foreign buyers, who only account for 1 per cent of property purchases, according to the AFR. "The political answer is always, 'Supply, supply, supply,' but we might actually have a good chunk of that supply already there. We're just not using it," says Humphries. "The other thing is, if you're going to increase supply but still have these tax incentives in place, a big chunk will just be eaten up by investors. So how much do you really achieve?" There seems to be little political will to do what must be done to restore faith in the Australian dream. "It's been 25 years since those tax changes came in and this attitude of housing as something that increases in value, of investments and property portfolios," Humphries says. "People have forgotten that it's weird. That this wasn't how it used to be." Maybe things will change again. "I'm choosing to be hopeful because it's unsustainable," Humphries says. "Maybe it has to get worse before it gets better, but when we start seeing issues with social cohesion, and have situations where companies are under-staffed because no-one can live close enough to work, then the shit really hits the fan." Essential workers like nurses deserve to be able to afford a home of their own that's close to their work, Humphries says. Then, just as we're wrapping up, he confesses, full disclosure, that he has, in fact, managed to buy a home since filming Sold! "Don't hate me," he whelps. "I've just crossed the threshold, anxiously observing interest rate levels, but at what cost? I've completely wiped myself out, signing up for a 30-year mortgage at 39." He insists he's keeping it real (estate). "I want people like me not to forget that it's still f***ing shit and it shouldn't be this f***ing hard," he insists. "You should easily be able to afford a home and have money spare to buy an almond latte a day and dumb stuff like a Labubu."
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Get angry about it': Mark Humphries' doco Sold! unpacks Australia's housing crisis
Sometimes, it feels as if you can't turn on a TV without seeing news bulletins devoted to interest rate updates, fake-tanned celebrity realtors hawking white McMansions, or middle-aged men in chore jackets stroking their chins at a tasteful mid-century reno. Our free-to-air and streaming services are full of content to fuel our national obsession with home ownership. But when it comes to the real-life housing market, you might be left thinking there's a bigger picture just out of shot from those million-dollar views. Into the breach rides Mark Humphries, Australia's leading – albeit frequently axed – TV news satirist-for-hire. In his new hour-long Foxtel and Binge special Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? Humphries fronts up to the challenge of Australia's housing crisis with the frustration and fatigue of a long-term renter – because he is one. 'If a D-Grade celebrity like me can't afford a home, who can?' he asks, before joining the queue at another rental inspection. Sold! sees Humphries attempt to unpick the history, economic settings and popular myths that underpin the current housing affordability crisis – and an orthodoxy that few in the mainstream media or politics dare or care to challenge. Foreign investment, immigration and international students are favourite scapegoats, but Prof Nicole Gurran from the University of Sydney tells Humphries these factors have had only a minor impact. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning 'I have heard people tell me that there's a lot of foreign investors and they go to auctions for instance and that's how they know,' Gurran says. 'I'm always amazed at their X-ray vision, to be able to recognise someone's citizenship just by looking.' Humphries also speaks to Jordan van den Lamb, AKA Victorian Socialists candidate and social media star Purple Pingers, to expose the woeful conditions Australian renters endure to keep a roof over their heads – even if it has black mould. Humphries even borrows a trick from Adam McKay's Oscar-winning satire The Big Short by putting economics journalist Alan Kohler into a bubble bath, Margot Robbie-style. Kohler sips champagne while explaining how a turn-of-the-millennium decision by the Howard government to introduce a 50% tax discount on capital gains, along with negative gearing, 'supercharged the perceived benefits of owning property'. 'Housing was no longer seen as just a shelter, a place to live,' Kohler says. 'It was also an investment and the best way to build wealth.' In his pursuit of answers, Humphries also learns about build-to-rent schemes, meets public housing tenants for whom basic shelter is life-changing, and speaks to a trio of squatters who have opted out of the system entirely by moving into one of an estimated 97,000 vacant homes in greater Melbourne. He also introduces us to a 'heartless boomer investor' who turns out to be a nice lady and former colleague of Humphries who happens to own two properties. That she is an empathetic member of society – not an 'evil investor' – is subtly signalled by the books casually piled on her coffee table. After all, would a 'property hoarder' own a copy of Rick Morton's robodebt exposé Mean Streak, Stan Grant's Talking To My Country, or an essay collection from the Australia Institute? Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion It's a gentle contradiction that nonetheless captures the kind of defensive self-interest that seems to paralyse any real reform or debate, even when the reality is right there on the coffee table. When it comes to property, it seems we think we're Daryl Kerrigan from The Castle, but perhaps we're closer to Mr Gribble from Round the Twist. By the time Humphries finds himself chatting to a 3D-printing entrepreneur pioneering cheap, fast and very weird-looking homes, you get the sense that maybe it's not that big a riddle after all. If it was that complicated, Sold! would probably have ended up as a stunt-driven ABC miniseries fronted by Craig Reucassel instead of a one-hour special. Instead, the Chaser and War on Waste host produced, co-wrote and makes a cameo appearance. But that might be for the best. Rarely do we see anyone on Aunty turn quite as righteously enraged as Humphries does by the end of his fact-finding mission – you can see the whites of his exasperated eyes. 'I gotta be honest, this is not good enough,' he groans to the camera. 'It's a mindset issue we have in this country, where we are viewing property as a pathway to wealth as opposed to something which is designed for people to live in … this is wrong – it's actually morally wrong what we're doing,' he pleads. 'So get angry about it, because I bloody well am.' Humphries might have prolonged his own rental woes by putting himself on the shit list of every real estate agent with a Binge subscription – but it's hard to disagree with him. Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? premieres on 21 July at 8.30pm on FOX8 on Foxtel and on Binge from noon.
Perth Now
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Keeley Hawes is menopausal and murderous in new TV drama
A prickly, no-effs-to-give menopausal woman who's also a trained assassin? Has there ever been a more terrifying proposition? I think we all know the answer to that one, and it's a resounding no. British screen star Keeley Hawes plays the aforementioned, a woman who was once a feared gun-for-hire, now living out her retirement on an idyllic Greek island, suffering hot flushes and random bouts of irritability like the rest of us. Though she'd probably like to unleash her very particular set of skills on some of the village's more annoying inhabitants — there's a very funny scene where she gets unreasonably peeved with having to wait in line at the butchers for a steak (I've never related to something more) — she's so far managed to rein in her worst impulses and is living a pretty mundane life. That is, until her estranged adult son, played by The Good Doctor's Freddie Highmore, comes to visit, and her entire life is upended. To elaborate would be to spoil things for viewers, but let's just say the show begins as one thing and does a radical 180. By the time you get to the end of the second episode, it's very evident this is something else entirely. Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore in The Assassin, coming to Stan. Credit: Supplied I probably should have known it would veer in a different direction — the creative duo responsible for Stan's equally twisty-turny drama The Tourist are also behind this, and it shows. The Williams brothers love a plot twist and a savage fight scene or two, so you can guess where this is headed. Joining Hawes and Highmore is a stellar ensemble cast, including Jack Davenport (a personal fave since my days watching This Life in the 90s), Neighbours legend Alan Dale, Perth-raised Baby Reindeer star Shalom Brune-Franklin and screen siren Gina Gershon. Something tells me this series is going to make quite the splash when it lands. Mark your diaries. Outrageous is streaming on BritBox. Credit: Supplied Almost a century on from when they were kicking around, the Mitford sisters continue to fascinate and now they're the subject of this period drama. Not heard of these historical ladies? Ooh boy, are you in for a treat as you take a deep dive down the Google hole to research the six wildly different, wildly glamorous aristocratic sisters 'who shocked 1930s Britain with their scandalous choices and deeply divided loyalties'. Think of them as the Kardashians of old, if you will. Nancy was a novelist and probably the most famous of the clan at first. In later years, her sisters Unity and Diana overtook her in the notoriety stakes, the latter by marrying the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley and the former by being close friends with Hitler. Rightly repulsed, Jessica, known as Decca, left home and became a committed communist, well-known journalist and author. Interest piqued? You won't want to miss this one. Sold! Who Broke The Australian Dream is streaming on Binge. Credit: Supplied Spoiler alert: it wasn't anyone under the age of 45! Mark Humphries goes deep into the Aussie housing market to find out why so many of us are locked out of home ownership. Depressing and illuminating in equal measure. Based on May Cobb's book, this series sees Brittany Snow play Sophie, who moves with her family to a new town and becomes close with society queen bee Margot (Malin Akerman). She lives an affluent life in a small East Texas town — but all is not as it seems. Chrissy Metz and Dermot Mulroney also star. Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming on Netflix. Credit: Scott Yamano / Netflix The legendary character comes back to life via a sequel, only 30 years in the making. Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen and Christopher McDonald all reprise their roles. Can't wait!
