Latest news with #JohnSingleton
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Heartbroken mum becomes a recluse after daughter's death
Julie Singleton's heartbreaking statement to a coronial inquest has confirmed claims the mother-of-four has become a virtual recluse in her home, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, since her daughter died in a random attack at Bondi Junction 13 months ago. Friends of the lawyer say she has been held up in her home for over a year, rarely taking phone calls and, apart from regular appearances at the Westfield inquest, barely leaves the house. Sources say the grieving mother has, since her 25-year-old's daughter's tragic death, stopped leaving the house to shop for food and provisions and now has groceries and supplies delivered to her home to help avoid public scrutiny or contact. A second statement tendered to the inquest this week also contradicted media reports the soon-to-be married Dawn had been at Westfield Bondi Junction to shop for make-up for her upcoming wedding. Friends of the deceased have previously informed this column Dawn was set to have her makeup done by a professional on her wedding day, and had no need of wedding-day cosmetics. Having received a stern rebuke from Dawn's younger sister Daisy for granting an interview to 60 Minutes, Dawn's father John Singleton has taken a lower profile since the inquest began on April 28. INTERIM AVO DISMISSED A Sydney court has dismissed an interim AVO taken out on behalf of John Singleton's daughter Sally Singleton-Hawach. The matter was set to return to Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday. According to court records, the application was dismissed in the same court a week earlier. Ms Singleton-Hawach and her estranged husband Pierre Hawach fronted Parramatta Court on March 25 following an alleged domestic incident. It was the second time Ms Singleton-Hawach, executive producer of LAMP Music, singer and art therapist, and Hawach, a Parramatta divorce lawyer, have been before the courts. A similar order was applied for 2021 but withdrawn six months later after the couple, who had briefly separated, reconciled. The couple, who have three young children under eight, have now separated a second time after a decade of marriage The one-time society debutant is the second daughter of legendary adman Singleton and his third wife Belinda Green. She is also the half-sister of Dawn Singleton, the one-time media owner's daughter by his sixth wife, Julie. Dawn was one of six people fatally stabbed by Joel Cauchi at Westfield Bondi Junction last year. ABC GOES AFTER TOP FOODIES MasterChef Australia's three original judges – Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris – are in talks to reunite for a mystery television project. Six years after Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris last collaborated, executives at the ABC are hoping the three can be brought together to recreate the MasterChef magic in a new culinary program on the public broadcaster. Industry sources last week said the trio hoped the yet-to-be-greenlit program would relaunch their prime time television careers. Flamboyant food critic Preston and restaurateur/chefs Calombaris and Mehigan enjoyed 11 seasons as presenters and judges on MasterChef before the three made a pact in 2019 to jointly walk away from the Ten Network reality series if they couldn't extract a better deal. Industry claims, reported by your scribe at the time, had it the men had each demanded a million dollar contract from Ten. This was 18 months after the financially embattled network had been acquired by American media company CBS (later rebranded Paramount) after entering into voluntary administration in 2017. Despite the program's consistently high ratings, Ten refused the trio's demands and the presenters left the program. The following year Preston and Mehigan were signed to Seven's short-lived cooking show, Plate of Origin, alongside chef Manu Feildel. The program lasted just four weeks and was cancelled due to poor ratings however both would be invited to appear on the 2022 season of Seven's My Kitchen Rules. The two have remained regular collaborators and this year have joined forces to conduct food adventure tours in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as a tour of India. Meanwhile prior to and after his departure from MasterChef Calombaris was sunk in financial scandal after it emerged he had underpaid restaurant staff $7.83 million. Following the closure of his 21 restaurants his company went into voluntary administration. He eventually made his return to television in 2022 on Ten with a six-part docu-series entitled Hungry after working diligently to rehabilitate his career and reputation. All three men are said to be keen to re-establish the chemistry that made them household names from 2009 and to relaunch their on-screen partnership, even with the expected downsized ABC pay cuts. SEVEN'S POWER MOVE Departed Nine Network journalist Chris O'Keefe has received an approach from the Seven Network to return to television. Former Seven Perth news director Ray Kuka was only days into his new job as replacement for recently departed national news boss Anthony De Ceglie when Kuka started canvasing for an experienced hand to take the reins of his Sydney newsroom. The approach follows this column's revelation Seven's Sydney news director Sean Power, promoted under De Ceglie to move across from executive producer of Sunrise to run Seven's Sydney newsroom, is headed home to Melbourne. On Friday morning, the Seven Network released a statement confirming Power's move to Melbourne, while announcing him as the Network's new 'Director of News Integration and Strategy'. Current 7NEWS Sydney Executive Producer Geoff Dunn will step into the News Director, while revealing Gemma Acton - who was promoted to Director of News Operations - has quit the Network and will relocate with her family to Dubai 'for a new career opportunity'. O'Keefe, who was a reporter for Nine for over a decade before trying his hand at talk radio on Nine-owned Sydney station 2GB, quit the media, and Nine, at the end of last year. After announcing he was to start his own political advocacy business he surprised former colleagues by joining the Clean Energy Council as its national spokesman. According to our Seven sources, O'Keefe didn't hesitate in declining Kuka's offer leaving the Perth news veteran, another chairman's pick by Kerry Stokes or so we hear, to go hunting for a new contender. PAY PARITY TAKES BACKWARD STEP AT NINE The last word for the week must surely go to a report in The Australian earlier this week that Sarah Abo is earning $800k-a-year as co-anchor of Nine's Today show. The figure is roughly a quarter (or 28.5 per cent based on the lowest end of his estimate) of the salary currently being paid to her co-host Karl Stefanovic whose salary has been put at between $2.8 million and $3 million. Now this injustice should stick in the craw of Nine's news boss Fiona Dear, the first woman ever installed to run Nine's TV news division. If Dear (and Nine CEO Matt Stanton) has crunched the numbers, as indeed we have, the gender pay gap between the two Today co-hosts has grown since former anchor Lisa Wilkinson lost her job at Nine in 2017 for fighting hard – some have claimed too hard which we reckon is nonsense – to achieve pay parity with Stefanovic. While comedian and radio host Dave Hughes will always be a hero in our eyes for taking a pay cut in 2017 to ensure his co-host Kate Langbroek, who was on 40 per cent less, was given an equitable salary bump and even Kyle Sandilands insisted early in his radio partnership with Jackie 'O' that his 2DAYFM increase her salary from $80k to an equitable arrangement, it seems sexism is still king in television or at least in Nine's light news division.
ABC News
7 days ago
- ABC News
NSW police commissioner cleared of misconduct over alleged leaking of Bondi victim's name
Outgoing NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has been cleared of misconduct allegations after she was accused of releasing the name of Bondi Junction stabbing victim Dawn Singleton to former talkback host Ray Hadley on the day of the attack. The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) said on Tuesday that it received a complaint that Commissioner Webb "breached the NSW Police Force Media Policy by releasing the confidential details of a deceased person … prior to the deceased's next of kin being notified". On April 13 last year, Joel Cauchi killed six people and injured 10 with a knife during a rampage at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Sydney's east. 2GB radio host Ben Fordham on Tuesday recounted Hadley's versions of events. "It was the commissioner's way of saying it without saying it." Fordham said Hadley called the police commissioner on behalf of Ms Singleton's father, prominent businessman John Singleton. "He [Mr Singleton] said, 'I think my Dawnie is one of those who lost their life, and I can't confirm it,'" Hadley recounted on Fordham's show. The LECC said the investigation was concluded in March this year and that it was "satisfied that there was no misconduct by the Commissioner of Police in relation to this matter". The ABC reached out to NSW Police for comment. A coronial inquest into the stabbing attack remains underway to investigate the lessons that can be learned. Sue Chrysanthou, SC, the lawyer representing some victims' families, including Ms Singleton's, questioned Assistant Police Commissioner Peter McKenna on Tuesday. Victims of crime cannot be identified by police until their next of kin have been informed, have had reasonable time to tell others, and have given consent for identification, the court heard. Assistant Commissioner McKenna agreed under cross-examination that the code of conduct and ethics applied to "all police officers", including the police commissioner in relation to the release of information publicly. However, he emphasised that policies in place were "guidelines". "There are certain circumstances with some nuances where you may have to step outside of [them]," he said. Ms Chrysanthou said some of her clients "think there's been a major issue" that "hasn't been appropriately dealt with". Neither Dawn Singleton nor Ray Hadley were named in this line of inquiry. The hearing, in its last week, continues.
Newsweek
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
How 'Friday' Gave A Refreshing Sense of Humanity of Working-Class Black Neighborhoods
Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, young, Black, coming-of-age films followed the blueprint pioneered by the late and great John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood. A litany of compelling dramas about being a young Black man or boy growing up fast in divested, inner-city neighborhoods were depicted in films like South Central (1992), Juice (1992), Menace II Society (1993), and Fresh (1994)—later projecting a popular narrative. These predominantly lower- and working-class Black communities in film were hyper-violent zones where the only thing destined for young Black males was constant tragedy. These movies spoke to a close-to-home reality for many, especially as some showed the horrible impact left behind by the crack epidemic and gang violence of the late '80s and early '90s. However, what stood out about these culturally defining "hood" movies compared to many coming of age films centering young white males in the '90s (1994's Clerks, 1995's Kids, et cetera) is that very rarely were Black kids allowed to learn from mistakes without learning the hard way, often fatally. And the narrative of all these neighborhoods were flattened as violent, war-torn areas, rather than ordinary, nuanced, and closely-knit communities where people went to work every day, owned their homes for decades, and laughed more than they cried. Ice Cube speaks onstage during the hand and footprint in cement ceremony for Ice Cube at TCL Chinese Theater on April 15, 2025, in Hollywood, Calif. Ice Cube speaks onstage during the hand and footprint in cement ceremony for Ice Cube at TCL Chinese Theater on April 15, 2025, in Hollywood, Ice Cube and legendary California hip hop producer DJ Pooh wrote and created the hilarious stoner comedy Friday (1995) 30 years ago, they practically broke the mold on what a "hood" film could be. With fellow Los Angeles native and director F. Gary Gray at the helm, Friday showed audiences the nuanced, lighthearted parts of Black communities that made these places home. The fullness of blue collared Black Americana was hilariously depicted via the Jones Family, the iconic weed head drug dealer Smokey, and its West Athens neighborhood. Friday showed Black families in an authentically humane way without leaning into tragedy or stereotypes. In a 2024 interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Ice Cube explained how Friday was the antithesis of films about the hood that were coming out beforehand, though impactful in their own ways. "Everything that was coming out was depressing. Colors, Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, South Central. Yo, this is a hell zone. I was like ... did you remember it like that? Don't we laugh around here all the time? Let's show how it really is for us around here," Ice Cube said. Growing up in Chicago and having lived in South Jackson, Miss. throughout my college years, Craig Jones' life was miles closer to my reality than Doughboy's was (ironically, both played by Ice Cube). Craig was a regular 22-year-old in L.A. who unfairly lost his job, and needed to figure it out quickly before his parents, who were homeowners, kicked him out. His neighborhood was similar to my childhood South Shore neighborhood—homeowners, working class and poor people living among each other in harmony and hijinks. People who were addicted to drugs, due to residual effects of the crack epidemic, were still lovable people like Friday's Ezal (played by the late A.J. Johnson), despite being responsible for why Craig lost his job in the first place (see director's cut). One could even argue that Friday closely resembled Ice Cube's own childhood upbringing in South Central L.A. While even Friday has its moments of unsettling danger, like the well-executed omnipresence of Big Worm (played by Faizon Love), who was owed $200, and the menacing threat from the neighborhood bully Deebo (played by the late Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), it showed that even dangerous moments can lead to growth without dire consequences. Craig's beatdown on Deebo was a meditation on manhood and levelheaded decision-making as he could have easily altered his life by pulling the trigger, instead of, wisely, handing the gun to his father, Willie Jones (played by the late, great John Witherspoon). And the climatic drive-by scene, soundtracked by E A Ski's Blast If I Have To, could have ended in tragedy, but resulted in some of the film's funniest moments. It perfectly captured that strange sense of humor gained from surviving a near death experience. Thankfully, this formula proved to be a box office success. Friday went on to gross $6,589,341 during its opening week, double its $3.5 million budget, according to IMDb. Beyond its two sequels, Next Friday (2000) and Friday After Next (2002), its influence was impactful throughout Black film and television. Shows like canceled HBO Max sitcom South Side (2019) and Atlanta (2016) showed predominantly Black neighborhoods in Chicago and Atlanta for their lighthearted, but grounded portrayal of their respective neighborhoods. And the buddy chemistry between Craig and Smokey in Friday, for all their contrasts, paved the way for the type of seamless pairing (and money woes) we see in Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) in 2025's One of Them Days. What makes Friday special in the pantheon of Black cinema was that it was one of the first "hood" films of its kind in the '90s that showed and humanized working-class Black communities. It's a timeless, culturally rich, and outrageous comedy that has passed itself down to generations of Black movie fans. It showed the world that no matter what neighborhood you're from, all it takes is one random Friday to spark a lifetime of memories. Mark P. Braboy is an award-winning music and culture multimedia journalist from Chicago. Through his writing and photography, he documents music culture and the world that shapes it. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
