Latest news with #Brickman
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hamish Blake left panicking as disastrous trophy unveiling turns dangerous on Lego Masters - forcing the show to pause filming
Hamish Blake was left panicking during Tuesday's episode of Lego Masters as a grand moment went awry. The host was presenting the season's trophy to the contestants and Ryan 'Brickman' McNaught - but it didn't go to plan. The tall and hefty structure, constructed of Lego bricks, began to wobble, threatening to topple off the moving stand that Hamish was wheeling it on. Ryan quickly pointed out that the trophy appeared to be losing the battle the gravity as Hamish continued to push it out. 'Mate, if that lands on your head, it'll hurt' he warned and Hamish became hysterical. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The host was presenting the season's trophy to the contestants and Ryan 'Brickman' McNaught - but it didn't go to plan. The tall and hefty structure, constructed of Lego bricks, began to wobble, threatening to topple off the moving stand that Hamish was wheeling it on 'I'm not gonna break your trophy, Brickman!' he shouted in response - but nonetheless stopped pushing it out. The show then cut to a break while the statuette was stabilised and the segment could continue - the trophy now secure. It comes after Ryan revealed what he really thinks of working with co-host Hamish. The Lego Masters star has shared the screen with Hamish for the past seven years on the hit Channel Nine game show. On the cusp of the premiere of Lego Masters' seventh season - Grandmasters of the Galaxy - Ryan opened up about what it's like working with Hamish. Speaking to Nine, Ryan admitted that, rather than displaying any diva-like behaviour, Hamish has always been incredibly genuine. 'I'm not surprised by how funny he is, because he's exactly the same guy off camera as what he is on camera. So there's nothing hidden from that perspective,' Ryan said. 'He's just incredibly genuine, like, he's the same guy, so it makes it pretty easy to go to work, I'll be brutally honest.' Ryan (pictured) quickly pointed out that the trophy appeared to be losing the battle the gravity as Hamish continued to push it out The Lego doyen added that when the pair first met eight years ago, they hit it off instantly, bonding over eerily similar hobbies and interests. 'Whilst I'm creative with Lego from a professional point of view, and he's obviously a comedian and media personality-type-guy, we both cycle every day to and from the studio,' he said. 'We're both into footy. We both play golf. There's lots of things that we do that are the same, which made for a pretty easy connection, and we have a very similar sense of humour.' The chemistry has obviously translated successfully to the screen with Lego Masters proving quite the ratings hit for Nine. The 2024 series finale boasted a national total reach audience of 1.9million viewers - a figure that remained relatively consistent throughout the season with the premiere bringing in 2.2million fans. Ryan's ringing endorsement comes after Hamish was revealed to be one of the highest-paid TV stars in the country. The Australian's TV Rich List report, released this week, places the comedian third in the top 35 highest-paid stars list at a formidable $2million. He trails behind fellow Nine colleagues Scott Cam, who is on $2.4million and Karl Stefanovic who tops the list at an eye-watering $2.8million. However, the Brickman is nowhere to be seen on the list, with the lowest-placed star, 60 Minutes reporter Amelia Adams bringing in $300,000.
Perth Now
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
From a galaxy far, far away, comes LEGO Star Wars show
Two of the most powerful cultural forces in the universe - Star Wars and LEGO - have combined to create a galaxy-first exhibition. LEGO® Star Wars™: The Exhibition features characters and scenes from the iconic film franchise, painstakingly recreated in tiny plastic bricks - from the light-saber battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, to a two-metre-high recreation of the Death Star. The models were constructed using over eight million bricks - that's four 40-foot shipping containers full of LEGO - by the Brickman team at a workshop in the Melbourne suburb of Tullamarine. The project took dozens of people 25,000 hours to design and build over three years, one brick at a time. "All of these LEGO models here have no instructions," explained Brickman Ryan McNaught, Australia's only LEGO Certified Professional and one of the hosts of the hit television program LEGO Masters. "It's not like a big LEGO set that we buy and we can put them together, it's craftspeople of unique skill and talent putting those together," he said. It's expected more than 350,000 people will visit the exhibition at Melbourne Museum, which has already sold about 7,000 tickets before opening day on May the Fourth - Star Wars Day - otherwise known as this Sunday. Darth Vader and several Storm Troopers showed up at a media preview on Wednesday accompanied by ominous music, and were among the first to enter the exhibition followed by a large contingent of politicians and reporters. On show inside was a lifesize model of C-3PO built from pearl gold and metallic silver bricks, ordered especially from LEGO headquarters in Denmark. There was also a two-metre-high rotating Death Star, with cutaway sections showing hundreds of tiny LEGO baddies at work in various tiny scenes referencing the original trilogy. The Victorian premier Jacinta Allan - well versed in all things Star Wars - even hoped to try out the master of evil Emperor Palpatine's throne from the second Death Star, as Darth Vader and his cronies looked on. Lord Vader, am I allowed to take a seat?" she asked politely, only to get some intimidating deep breathing from the dark side in response. Never mind, she did hit the right buttons in the Millennium Falcon cockpit, sending it briefly into hyper-speed. The LEGO company's first intellectual property deal with a cultural franchise was with Star Wars back in 1999. "I wouldn't think that the Lego brand would be what is today, if it wasn't for Star Wars and that collaboration way back 25 years ago," said Troy Taylor from the LEGO Group. Among the most challenging pieces to build was a model of Darth Vader's helmet - as an iconic piece of pop culture, it had to be exactly right. The eyes of LEGO models are crucial to their success, and in Vader's case some rare windscreen bricks from 2012 managed to impart the appropriate amount of evil. The most challenging build of all, according to McNaught, was a 2.6 metre high model of General Grievous, a purely digital character who appeared in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and had to be a thicker construction in parts to make it structurally sound. Fans visiting the show will be able to make their own creations, such as LEGO light-sabers that illuminate on video screens and can be used for duels. "This sort of stuff has never been done anywhere in the world before, the combination of physical and digital," said McNaught. And as any Star Wars fan would know, building your own light-saber is the ultimate step to becoming a Jedi.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New U.S. Education Department appointee worked on Scott Walker's education policy, Act 10
One of the newest U.S. Department of Education appointees worked on Wisconsin's Act 10 and private school voucher expansion under former Gov. Scott Walker, according to a Department of Education news release. Michael Brickman, now-senior adviser at the education department, worked on education policy for Walker from 2011 to 2013, and worked in communications on Walker's campaign from 2009 to 2010. In that time, Walker passed Act 10, which banned most collective bargaining among public employees, including teachers and professors. The act was overturned last December but put on hold, meaning it's still in effect while the case is in progress. Walker, with Brickman as an adviser, grew private school voucher programs, creating the statewide Wisconsin Parental Choice Program and eliminating the enrollment cap for Milwaukee's choice program. In a Fordham Institute post from 2013, Brickman cites the Walker administration also expanded charter schools, virtual schools and open enrollment. The early Walker administration also led school accountability efforts, like the school report card system. It initially tied state test scores to NAEP standards, a move that's been back in the news in recent months after state superintendent Jill Underly decoupled score benchmarks from those national standards. Gov. Tony Evers recently vetoed a Republican-led bill that would have reversed Underly's decision. Brickman has worked for the Department of Education and the conservative think tanks American Enterprise Institute and Cicero Institute in the past. He has also served as a senior education fellow for the Institute for Reforming Government, a conservative nonprofit. Contact Green Bay education reporter Nadia Scharf at nscharf@ or on X at @nadiaascharf. This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: New U.S. Education Dept. appointee led Scott Walker's education policy
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Attorney General Ken Paxton's former aides win $6.6 million in whistleblower case
A Travis County district court judge on Friday awarded $6.6 million to four former senior aides to Attorney General Ken Paxton who said they were improperly fired after reporting Paxton to the FBI. Judge Catherine Mauzy stated in her judgment that the plaintiffs — Blake Brickman, Mark Penley, David Maxwell and Ryan Vassar — had proven by a 'preponderance of the evidence' that Paxton's office had violated the Texas Whistleblower Act. Each of the four were awarded between $1.1 and $2.1 million for wages lost, compensation for emotional pain, attorney's fees and various other costs as a result of the trial. The judgment also said Paxton's office did not dispute any issue of fact in the case, which stopped the Attorney General's office from further contesting their liability. Tom Nesbitt, the attorney for Brickman and Maxwell, said in a statement that Paxton 'admitted' to breaking the law to avoid being questioned under oath. "It should shock all Texans that their chief law enforcement officer, Ken Paxton, admitted to violating the law, but that is exactly what happened in this case,' Nesbitt said in the statement. In a statement to the Tribune from his office, Paxton called the ruling 'a ridiculous judgment that is not based on the facts or the law' and pointed blame at former Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who led the Texas House effort to impeach him in 2023. 'We will appeal this bogus ruling as we continue to clean up Dade Phelan's mess," Paxton said in the statement. The judgment also ordered that the plaintiffs are entitled to additional attorney's fees if they successfully defend or prosecute appeals, including up to $20,000 per plaintiff for various stages of review at the Supreme Court of Texas. Late Friday, Brickman criticized Paxton's intent to appeal the judgment in a post on X, calling the attorney general ' lawless and shameless' and claiming the judgment came because Paxton was avoiding a deposition. 'Paxton now wants to appeal? He literally already admitted he broke the law to @SupremeCourt_TX and the Travis County District Court — all to stop his own deposition,' Brickman wrote. The case was sparked when eight former aides, including the four plaintiffs, reported Paxton to federal authorities in September 2020 over his relations with Nate Paul, a friend and Austin real estate investor. The whistleblowers accused Paxton of abusing his office to do favors for Paul, including by hiring an outside lawyer to investigate claims made by Paul and providing him confidential law enforcement documents. In the days and weeks after the whistleblowers met with federal agents — a development they reported to Paxton — the attorney general fired them. Four of them sued Paxton in November 2020, alleging their dismissals were illegal under state law. Paxton disagreed but offered to settle the suit and pay the whistleblowers $3.3 million. But when Paxton asked the Texas House for the money in 2023, lawmakers wanted him to publicly answer questions about why Texas taxpayers should foot the bill. The House's ethics committee began investigating Paxton, and in May that year, the chamber impeached him on corruption and bribery charges based heavily on the whistleblowers' testimony. House investigators claimed that, in return for favors from Paxton, Paul paid for renovations at an Austin home owned by Paxton and his wife and also employed a woman with whom Paxton was having an extramarital affair. After a two-week, high-profile trial, the Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of 16 charges and dismissed the remaining four. That trial cost the state roughly $5.1 million, according to a State Auditor's Office report released in March that was requested by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Months later, in the still-pending whistleblower case in state court, Paxton said he would no longer contest the facts of the case — despite the fact that the allegations by the whistleblowers were similar to the ones his lawyers had vigorously disputed during the impeachment trial. In November 2024, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Paxton and three of his top deputies did not have to sit for depositions under oath, because Paxton's agreement not to contest the lawsuit made the sworn testimony unnecessary. Paxton also dodged a federal lawsuit, the Associated Press reported Thursday, when the Department of Justice declined to prosecute him in the final days of former President Joe Biden's administration. Still, Paxton levied culpability on Biden in his statement to the Tribune on Friday night, claiming the House's impeachment efforts were 'in collusion with Joe Biden's corrupt DOJ.' Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
