Pride & Joy

QWeekend
By Megan Lehmann
May 12, 2015

NOT long after takeoff, the afternoon sun is bouncing off wings angled toward theglittery hub of the French Riviera and I’m locked in the bathroom, crunching Valium and struggling to breathe. This plane is flying in the wrong direction.
Ahead lie ten days of demanding, gratifying and, yes, thrilling work at the Cannes International Film Festival, but behind me are my babies. I’ve made a big mistake. Stupid, stupid selfish me. I’ve left them, two little girls aged two and six, to pursue my own interests, to do something for me. And my heart is breaking.
Full story: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qweekend-how-to-survive-being-a-mother/story-fnn8dlfs-1227350308728

Noosa's Back, Baby!

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
April 25, 2015

The light is fading and something quite magical is happening in the treetops along Noosa’s Hastings Street.
Cars on the pedestrian-friendly boulevard slow to a crawl. A little girl’s strawberry gelato drips gently as her eyes grow wide. Even the famed holiday strip’s signature brush turkeys, loitering in the bushes like a street-gang of young toughs, seem to pause mid-scratch. Everyone looks up as strings of delicate fairy lights flick on, hundreds of metres of lights looping the length of the street, each one beaming out 24 watts of environmentally friendly optimism and bringing a sprite-like sparkle to the heart of a town where until recently gloom reigned.
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/noosa-booming-how-the-holiday-town-rediscovered-its-mojo/story-e6frg8h6-1227318453007

Profile: Ben Mendelsohn

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
May 9, 2015

Eye drops. A bottle of prescription pills. Two Minties. A phone. Ben Mendelsohn unpacks the pockets of his bulky wool overcoat and lines them up neatly on the table, inspecting them in the neon-pink seepage from the party flickering into life next door. “Better take these out,” he deadpans, striking a pose and tracing the rumpled outline of his coat with a fashion-model flourish. “They’ll ruin the line.”
There are plenty of fine-looking show ponies backstage at the Netflix Australia launch, marking time, flicking their polished manes as ­minders juggle headsets and clipboards while warning them to watch their heels on the soggy red ­carpet. Mendelsohn, 46, is not a show pony.
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/ben-mendelsohn-in-bloodline-hollywoods-dark-and-dangerous-new-star/story-e6frg8h6-1227346815106
        

Profile: Carla Zampatti

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
April 9, 2015

Two huge gilt-framed mirrors do ­double duty in the sitting room of Carla Zampatti’s home in Sydney’s eastern ­suburbs. Reflecting the Italianate balustrades of the balcony opposite and the lush vegetation beyond, they make a large room seem even bigger. They are also "terribly useful", the Australian fashion trailblazer says, in the design process. "I stand in front of them and drape different fabrics on me to see how they will look on the body, because eventually a design has to make you feel and look beautiful." Male designers have muses; Zampatti, who maintains a cat-like grace into her '70s, has herself.
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/success-or-bust/story-fnolgd60-1227276018589
        

Profile: Heather Ridout

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
April 25, 2015

People listen when Heather Ridout speaks. During her 33 years with the Australian Industry Group, one of the largest employer groups in the country, the petite chief executive with the convivial disposition had the ear of prime ministers, union heavy-hitters and top-end-of-town tycoons. Her voice has been front and centre through top-level debates over tax reform, fair work legislation, the GFC and climate change. 
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/defining-moments-heather-ridout/story-fnolgd60-1227317549932
       

Profile: Ann Sherry

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
April 11, 2015

Two ships passing in the night: Queen Mary 2, the unfathomably large 151,000-tonne flagship of the Carnival-owned Cunard cruise line, and her younger sister ship, Queen Victoria, all 90,000 tonnes of her. 
It was a grand spectacle, an awesome display of maritime grace and power marked by fireworks and cheering crowds. Presiding over the historic meeting on Sydney Harbour last month was another indomitable force, Carnival Australia’s go-getting CEO Ann Sherry.
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bold-vision/story-fnolgd60-1227297364783
        

Profile: Holly Kramer

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
May 1, 2015

Former Telstra chief Sol Trujillo has been called many things — brash, undiplomatic, culturally insensitive. Holly Kramer uses a different word: inspirational. The outgoing chief executive of discount clothing chain Best & Less says her former boss helped shape her belief that the destiny of a business is not predetermined.
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/defining-moments-holly-kramer/story-fnolgd60-1227330238358

        

Profile: Penelope Seidler

The Weekend Australian Magazine
By Megan Lehmann
April 16, 2015

Standing like a dun-coloured sentinel on the north shore of Sydney Harbour, Blues Point Tower is possibly the most pilloried building in Sydney. Penelope Seidler looks at it daily, from the art-filled eyrie of her office and penthouse at Milsons Point, and what she sees is a grand piece of modernist architecture radiating the strength and dynamism of her late husband. 
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/defining-moments-penelope-seidler/story-fnolgd60-1227306648879       

Profile: Geraldine Doogue

The Weekend Australian
By Megan Lehmann
April 4, 2015




Geraldine Doogue saw herself in the young woman seeking her advice upon returning to work at the ABC after having children.
So it made sense to steer the new-mum journo towards a position at Life Matters, the ABC Radio National social affairs program Doogue created in 1992 and hosted for 11 years. What didn’t make sense was the response: But what will the boys in news and current affairs think about that?
Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/matters-of-the-heart/story-fnolgd60-1227287452248

Profile: Tim Minchin

 

Megan Lehmann

The Weekend Australian Magazine

March 14, 2015

   

STRIP away the rock-star ­regalia, the adoring global audience, critical hosannas — Genius! Phenomenon! — and the nice new house in the Hollywood Hills, and Tim Minchin is just another guy who likes lolly snakes.      

He’s sitting here, in an ornate nook of the heritage-listed Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, Sydney, tearing the head off a red one with his teeth. World ­domination is tiring and he needs the sugar hit.

Full story: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/tim-minchins-rise-from-rocknroll-nerd-to-stadium-superstar/story-e6frg8h6-1227261509585

Profile: Marta Dusseldorp

Dutch looks: “It hasn’t always been an easy face to sell,” says Dusseldorp. Picture: Ellis Parrinder              

 

By: Megan Lehmann

From: The Weekend Australian Magazine

November 29, 2014

TAKING a long run-up from the kitchen, Marta Dusseldorp executes a faultless slide to the front door of her 19th century terrace in ­Paddington, Sydney.

“Come in, come in,” she says, flashing a dimpled grin and clicking open the latch. As the 41-year-old star of television dramas Crownies, A Place to Call Home and Janet King heads to the kitchen to make tea, the secret to her crackerjack floor skate can be seen peeking out from below the knife-edge crease of her trousers: fluffy bed socks.

Full story here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/marta-dusseldorp-tvs-leading-lady-finds-a-place-to-call-home/story-e6frg8h6-1227137410328

Profile: Alex Gunning

Talent plus hard work: Alex Gunning. Picture: Julian Kingma             

By: Megan Lehmann

From: The Weekend Australian Magazine

October 18, 2014

ALEX Gunning is not very good at the trumpet.

He glances cheerfully at the offending instrument, propped in a sunlit corner of the room fronting this inner-Melbourne home, as his three younger sisters and step-mum Katherine, a music teacher, subject him to a good-­natured ribbing. “It’s because he never practises,” says Katherine, quietly chiding three-year-old Genevieve for bouncing around on the piano stool and scattering biscuit crumbs all over a floral-patterned rug. “In our family it’s like, ‘Do music or else!’ ” chimes in violin-­playing Cathy, 12, while 10-year-old Victoria (clarinet, cello and recorder) nods vigorously.

Full story here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/inside-the-mind-of-teenage-maths-genius-alex-gunning/story-e6frg8h6-1227092735512

Profile: Cosentino

The magician and his props. Picture: James Geer             

                          
By: Megan Lehmann
From: The Weekend Australian Magazine
September 27, 2014

IN a black, unmarked building on Melbourne’s outskirts, where the air is spiked with the allure of mystery and the spirit of Harry Houdini casts shadows on the walls, the man who would succeed him is showing me a trick.         
      It’s called The Ambitious Card and it’s famous for having snookered Houdini, still considered the greatest magician of all time. “I’ll run my thumb down the pack; you call stop and pick a random card,” says Cosentino, his long fingers nimbly palming a deck that’s always to hand. I choose the six of hearts — a very ­ambitious card, it seems, for however the deck is tumbled and shuffled and rearranged, it ­continues to sneak its way to the top.
Cosentino is enjoying himself hugely, my bafflement urging him on. Then he goes for the clincher: I crease my chosen card, push it deep into the middle of the pack. He clicks his fingers sharply and my heart skips a beat: the card on top is the four of hearts, not the six. Oh no, he’s blown it. Composing my features, I look up to see the young magician grinning like a Cheshire cat, the six of hearts between his teeth.

Full story here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/cosentino-is-the-great-pretender/story-e6frg8h6-1227069405998

Profile: Danielle Cormack

Wild streak: Danielle Cormack. Picture: Hugh Stewart Source: News Corp Australia

By Megan Lehmann

The Weekend Australian Magazine

February 07, 2015

   
YOU hear her before she arrives, this wild, wild woman, this warrior queen.

The customised exhaust system on her big, bad Yamaha produces a snarl that all but peels up the bitumen on Parramatta Road in Sydney’s inner west. That declarative roar peters out on a cough as she kicks down the stand and strides into Deus Ex Machina, ground zero for Sydney’s motorcycle community and one of the few cafes where a swaggerific woman in full leathers doesn’t look out of place.
Danielle Cormack likes to move and she finds she gets there fastest on a motorcycle. She bought her custom 400cc cruiser seven months ago and drove it up from Melbourne, 15 hours straight, thundering through the night. “I had to get it here somehow,” she shrugs.

Full story here:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/wentworth-star-danielle-cormack-loves-the-thrill-of-the-ride/story-e6frg8h6-1227207845922

Surviving Separation

THERE’S a little girl in Brisbane, she’s five: cascades of brown hair, huge blue eyes, all cuteness. Speech therapy once a fortnight and a special education program are bringing her up to speed and, hopefully, she’ll be able to go to school this year.            
She’s struggling, though. Her development stalled two years ago when her parents split in an ugly eruption of rage, resentment and false accusations. Her mother fled with her in the night amid claims of domestic violence and it would take eight months of police investigations, psychiatric assessments and court proceedings before she was back home with her father, a 33-year-old mechanic named David* whose daughter is the centre of his world. He was devastated to see how she’d grown.
She was at least 4cm taller. Sweet rolls of baby fat, gone. Not to have been there for those incremental changes hurt. Worse – at an age when the little girl should have been babbling like a brook, labelling the world and her place in it, she was able to speak only three words. They were: Mum, Dad and Sorry.

Full story here:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/headed-for-divorce-find-a-way-to-love-your-kids-more-than-you-hate-your-ex/story-fnihsrf2-1227182490872