Month: May 2019

Former Seven West Media executive John Fitzgerald is now looking after the accounts of small businesses in Sydney's western suburbs, despite facing multimillion-dollar fraud allegations from the broadcaster which are being investigated by the police.

Mr Fitzgerald is listed as the Parramatta franchisee for Shoebox Bookkeeping, a small business accounting and tax advisory service, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have learned.

"John and Michell Fitzgerald are the husband and wife team behind Shoebox Bookkeeping Parramatta. Collectively, they have over 10 years of experience in bookkeeping and small business. They ran their own bookkeeping business for many years, which gives them an insider's knowledge of what it is like to own your own business," says the Shoebox Bookkeeping web site.

"John and Michell are committed to helping small business and tradies get and keep their bookkeeping and BAS up to date."

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Michelle Fitzgerald is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Mr Fitzgerald worked for Seven West, which is controlled by billionaire Kerry Stokes, for more than 15 years. He was controlling the finances of Seven's television programming in 2016, with a budget worth hundreds of millions of dollars, when an audit detected some suspicious transactions. It triggered an internal investigation.

In April 2016, Seven West was granted a New South Wales Supreme Court order freezing millions of dollars worth of shares and properties owned by Mr Fitzgerald. It alleged he defrauded the company by paying false invoices to companies he controlled dating back more than 13 years. It later quantified the alleged fraud at over $8 million and referred the matter to the police.

"It is clear from the material before the court that a serious and ongoing fraud appears to have been committed by Mr Fitzgerald against his employer," said Justice François Kunc in the judgment granting the asset freezing order in April, 2016.

Last year, Mr Fitzgerald and Seven West reached a settlement whereby he repaid the money which had also been invested in his superannuation fund. The 2016 freezing order has now been rescinded.

The police have confirmed an investigation is under way.

"In March 2017, detectives from the Financial Crimes Squad received reports of the misappropriation of funds totalling more than $8 million by a former employee of a media network," said a police spokesperson. "Investigations under Strike Force Hamment are continuing."

Mr Fitzgerald did not respond to inquiries from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, but in an interview last year with News Corp papers he said: “My argument was always it was a legitimate service and it didn’t really affect shareholders because the service had to be done.” He also admitted it was "a ­stupid, stupid thing to do.”

Seven West declined to comment.

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The Shoebox Bookkeeping franchise founder, Yvette Coad, defended the decision to allow Mr Fitzgerald to operate the franchise.

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"As is done for all franchisees, we have conducted the requisite investigations in relation to Mr Fitzgerald, and it is our understanding that there has been no conviction recorded against Mr Fitzgerald in relation to this matter," she said in an email.

"Again, as is done with all franchisees, Mr Fitzgerald is subjected to ongoing compliance, audit and disclosure requirements, so as to protect the clients of Shoebox Books. In the event that any of franchisees breach any of the ongoing compliance requirements, we would consider taking the appropriate measures to immediately address the issue."

The alleged fraud by Mr Fitzgerald was detected months before the Amber Harrison affair became public. Ms Harrison claimed Seven took adverse action against her after her relationship with Seven West chief executive, Tim Worner, soured by initiating an investigation into her alleged misuse of a corporate credit card.

A report by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu identified $262,000 of unauthorised expenditure on her card.
Ms Harrison later refuted most of the claims of unauthorised expenditure.

At the Seven West shareholder meeting in February 2017 Mr Stokes was forced to defend the company's financial controls which had come into question after the two scandals became public.

Mr Stokes assured investors that he was “watching the till”.

Richard Marles is an avid collector of snow globes. Hundreds of them decorate his parliamentary office in Canberra.

Over the past week, the Labor leadership has been thoroughly tipped upside down. And as the dust has settled and the picture made clear again, Marles, 51, has emerged a winner. Later this week, the Victorian MP is expected to be appointed as Labor's new deputy leader.

After Anthony Albanese, who is from the left faction in NSW, became the only nominee for the Labor leadership, this meant his deputy needed to come from the right faction and not from NSW.

This ruled out possible candidates like Tony Burke or Chris Bowen. Finance spokesperson Jim Chalmers is from Queensland and the right faction, but decided not to put his hat in the ring for either leader or deputy. Victoria's Clare O’Neil put her hand up for the deputy’s job, determined there should be a woman in the mix, but did not get the support to continue her run.

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While one Labor MP described Marles' success as a "real scoot through the middle," others insist Marles has been the natural candidate for deputy all along.

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"He takes things seriously that are important, even if they're not glamorous," one Labor source says, pointing to Marles' deep interest in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region.

Others say he is widely respected among Labor's caucus and is known for his consultative work-style, characteristics that will be needed as Labor rebuilds itself in the post-election period.

"His job is to hold the show together," one MP says. "To be the bridge between the caucus and the leader."

Marles' career before coming to Canberra reads like a textbook Labor CV. Raised in Geelong, he studied law at university, before a stint at law firm Slater &Gordon (where Julia Gillard once worked). He then rose through the union ranks, starting at the Transport Workers' Union and then the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

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In 2006, he won a bitter preselection battle in the Geelong-based seat of Corio, and in 2007 entered Parliament as part of the Kevin07 wave. His first speech to Parliament gave shout outs to factional heavyweights Stephen Conroy, Robert Ray, David Feeney and Bill Shorten.

Marles was promoted to the front bench within two years of his election, starting out as the parliamentary secretary for innovation and industry. He was parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs in March 2013, when he was part of a group of frontbenchers who quit after a failed attempt to reinstall Kevin Rudd as leader.

When Rudd finally – and briefly – made it back as leader in July 2013, Marles was appointed trade minister.

In opposition, Marles initially had the difficult job of immigration spokesperson, before he was given the defence portfolio in 2016. There was some chatter before the election, that had Labor won, he would have been made Minister for Home Affairs.

Marles has had a largely controversy-free run in Parliament, although he made headlines in February for an interview he did with Sky News, declaring that the collapse of the global market for thermal coal was “at one level … a good thing” because it implied the world was acting on climate change. He was immediately attacked by the Coalition and forced to backtrack. On Saturday, two Queensland Labor state MPs attacked Marles's candidacy on the basis of his comments, accusing him of being anti-jobs.

While Marles has not enjoyed the public profile of other frontbenchers such as Albanese or Tanya Plibersek, he was the only Labor MP to have his own bonafide TV show. For the last few years, he had a weekly show on Sky News with Christopher Pyne (the creatively-titled "Pyne and Marles").

The show did not survive Pyne's recent political retirement.

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A little over a year ago, former Australian cricket captain Steve Smith made a tearful confession and apology to the public, having been banned from cricket for 12 months for ball tampering. Smith’s confession was expected. As Australian captain, he would take responsibility for the indiscretions of the whole team.

Smith’s televised confession and apology, and a later Vodafone advertisement referencing it that leans into a redemption narrative, have paved the way for his atonement and successful return to cricket. Smith recently played for the Australia XI in a game against New Zealand; he and Warner will likely play in the first Ashes in August.

We might interpret these confessions cynically, as a public relations exercise. But it is also clear that, in performing these acts, Smith is following particular, expected cultural templates for confession and apology.

Though confession has its origins within Judeo-Christian faiths, it has evolved to become one of Western society’s most familiar rituals. We see confessions every day: in literature, on television, and now online. Some are more convincing than others.

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While confessions on reality TV programs, on certain current affairs shows, and from YouTubers who thrive on controversy are now quite formulaic, new spaces are constantly opening up for confessional narratives. Anonymous social media spaces such as “Reddit” have shown that there is something potentially liberating about sending an anonymous (or semi-anonymous) confession out into the world. While these do have the potential to cause harm, they show just how strong the confessional impulse can be.

The word confession originates from Latin Middle English via Old French Latin (confession, confiture – meaning “acknowledge”). In the act of confession, people disclose their sins (by speaking to a priest) or as part of the sacrament of reconciliation. But whatever the context for the confession, the listener is essential; only they have the power to judge and absolve.

Secular contexts

Though influenced by its religious origins, confession has become meaningful in secular contexts. It is central to legal discourse. The admission of a crime within a court of law is the first step towards penance and possibly absolution.

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The tradition of literary confession is thought to have begun with Saint Augustine’s Confessions, written between AD397-400. Augustine writes about the sins of his youth and his eventual conversion to Christianity. Along with Jean-Jacques Rosseau’s 1782 autobiography Confessions, Augustine has provided a model for writing the confessional that has endured over time: deep, intimate introspection as the first-person author or speaker admits to having committed sins that they wish to atone for.

“Confessional” is now used to describe any autobiography or memoir that is particularly intimate in its revelations.

Authors such as Lena Dunham, Lindy West, and Amy Schumer have mined the deeply personal subjects of their lives for their memoirs.

In Australia, comedians like Judith Lucy use confession, usually in the form of embarrassing personal disclosure, as the foundation for their stand-up. More recently, Hannah Gadsby, in Nanette, explored the problems that come with confessing for laughs. Gadsby persuasively argued that comedians (particularly those from minority groups) should not use self-deprecating humour to put themselves down. Personal stories should instead be positioned as a powerful means of connecting humanity through mutual understanding. Now, Gadsby continues to tell personal stories, but on her own terms – to share and explore her politics on issues such as gender, sexuality, and power.

In these contexts, where humour, confession, and trauma intersect, the listener is positioned to respond with empathy and without judgement. Such self-disclosures establish a sense of intimacy between performer and audience; this might forge connections in an often individualistic, impersonal world.

Schadenfreude and current affairs TV

Confessions are also a staple of televised entertainment, encouraging a very different listener/spectator dynamic. Contemporary television confessions are usually about an indiscretion and the need to expunge guilt – for personal reasons or because society requires it (like Steve Smith). Or, the confessor might benefit in some way from the confession (for instance, fame, infamy or monetary reward).

Witness the rise of minor celebrities from reality TV shows like Married at First Sight. At the program’s “commitment ceremonies”, those who offered the most salacious disclosures have become the most in/famous participants. Viewers witnessed the indiscretions on previous episodes. And because they know how these programs work, they are aware that the confessions are coming, and will become an integral part of the show’s narrative arc.

Confessional narratives are sometimes positioned as therapeutic for the confessor, but the viewer is invited to engage in schadenfreude – the joy of witnessing someone else’s misfortune. Reality TV confessions are edited and structured for their sensational value, rather than complexity or nuance. The confession exists in a formulaic mode; the genre is rarely transgressed.

On a Sunday evening you will typically witness confessions on 60 Minutes or Sunday Night. The latter recently ran a story titled “Sex, Guys and Videos” in which so-called “football groupies” (women who date famous AFL or NRL players) disclosed their experiences with the sport’s cultures of toxic masculinity (in particular, sex scandals).

Such confessions are constructed as cautionary tales for the viewer: “don’t fall into the traps that I have”. The women discussed their hurt and embarrassment. But these confessions also function as a celebrity exposé and a strong social commentary around power, sexual consent and sexist cultures that seek to silence and degrade women. Confession commonly implicates others.

Confessing online

Not surprisingly, there are myriad outlets for confession online, whether public, semi-public, or anonymous; indeed, the internet has been described as a “global confessing machine”.

There are possibly millions of portals online catering to different genres of confession. On the news, rating and discussion site and app, Reddit, there are various discussion pages or “subreddits” devoted to anonymous confession. One called “Admit your wrongdoings”, has over a million subscribers.

The “rules” of this subreddit state that all submissions must be a confession, ie a statement that “presumes that you are providing information that you believe other people in your life are not aware of, and is frequently associated with an admission of a moral or legal wrong”. Common confessions here include cheating on partners, failing college, and financial failures.

Perhaps the most infamous spaces for online confessions in recent years are anonymous social networking apps such as “Whisper”, and “Confide”. Designed for mobile use, they allow users (most likely young people) to publicly share secrets and confessions, usually through uploading a symbolic image and one-line caption. Confessional subjects include the breakdown of friendships, unrequited love, and family secrets.

Other apps such as “Wut”, “Rumr” and “Sarahah” are described as “semi-anonymous” because users exist in a known network (for instance, a school or work network), but messages are anonymous.

These anonymous messages are not first-person confessions, but confessions directed towards another. They usually take the form of “feedback” to another user (“I said I liked your formal dress, but really I hate it”). This, unsurprisingly, has resulted in instances of bullying and the potential for defamation.

The likely appeal of these anonymous apps is that they offer an antidote to the more public and performative spaces of Facebook and Instagram, enabling young people to engage anonymously outside of their usual social networks.

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As my colleagues and I have found, personal disclosure can be positive and empowering for young people. Online self-representations and self-disclosures can encourage teenagers to take control of their public self-image and how and where it is shared.

There are lots of moral panics about teens over-sharing online, or having stories and images shared without consent. But it is possible that the more experience young people have using different apps and sites, the more skilled, knowledgeable, and comfortable they will be using them to their own benefit.

Social media self-representations can be a site for creativity, showcasing photography, clothing ensembles, hair and make-up, making memes and so on. Private, online confessional spaces can offer supportive networks for exploring thoughts and ideas than require a more intimate public and a place for positive exploration of identities with like-minded peers.

The use of anonymous apps suggests that there is something emancipatory about being invisible amidst so much pressure to be active and visible in their everyday public storying to larger networks on Snapchat and Instagram. There’s potentially something thrilling in the risk of being recognised, or of recognising someone else when engaged in online confession. There’s also the promise of social contact, of connection, attention and validation.

But these apps also have the potential to prey on young people’s sense of alienation or loneliness – when confessions are elicited by platforms designed for profit, who holds the power?

Such concerns – about the potential manipulation of young media consumers – are not new; they simply shift according to new media trends. As I found in my research, young people’s engagements with sites such as these anonymous ones are much more complex than we currently know, and are shifting at a pace faster than we can track.

Engagements with social media can be time-consuming, dull, and harmful. They can also be empowering, creative, and community-forming. And they might be everything in between.

Either/or debates are not useful here: we need to develop much more nuanced discussions on this fast-shifting cultural terrain. And these discussions are best driven by young cultural consumers and producers.

YouTube apologies

Another genre of confession that has become very visible online is apologies from “YouTubers”. The usual sequence of events is this: the YouTuber says something inappropriate or offensive in a video on their channel. They receive backlash from the media or from followers. As in the case of Steve Smith, they must conform to established scripts for confession and apology or else risk being “cancelled” by their fans.

As writer Morgan Sung has noted, because their YouTube content is most often autobiographical, covering intimate subjects and perspectives, apologies are expected as an extension of this constructed intimacy between YouTuber and viewer.

For instance, one of the most well-known YouTubers, Shane Dawson, has found himself in an apologetic loop as he tries to evade his own digital footprint. The now 30-year-old Dawson has confessed to, and apologised for, things he said online during his younger days, most notably for offensive jokes he made during his late-teens “shock” phase. He was heavily criticised for his racially offensive humour, inappropriate sexual jokes, and the attention he paid to conspiracy theories.

Just last week we witnessed the rapid fall of YouTube beauty blogger and make up artist James Charles. Charles’s public feud with fellow YouTuber and former mentor Tati Westbrook resulted in him losing over 2.5 million subscribers. Charles’s numerous confessions via apology videos did not initially help his case. However, after a week of excessive social media banter and accusation (and a 40-minute video from Charles titled No More Lies), the feud seems to have settled a little.

James Charles’s apology video.

Apology videos have become so common they are now often the subject of parody for being insincere or exaggerated. These videos have a formulaic structure; they most often function as image repair – to ensure the YouTuber does not lose their followers. Like the reality television confessions, these apology videos follow expected templates.

The confession compulsion

Though confession has evolved considerably since the times of Augustine and Rosseau, we can see familiar patterns in contemporary practices: we are guided by the moral conventions of our time to perform confession and contrition when required, or else suffer the consequences. Confession, whether anonymous or public, has long been positioned as a means for redemption, connection, or simply, a way of feeling better.

Whether or not confession is therapeutic is still up for debate, and no doubt its potential is time and culture-specific.

But if the stakes are high enough; if confession and apology are required for the maintenance of economic livelihood, or fame, these acts, whether believable, will at least be predictable.<!– Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. –><!– End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines –>

Kate Douglas, is a Professor, Flinders University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

What terrible things happened in the brief two year period before their relationship became irretrievably broken in May 2011 we may never know, but fashion designer Camilla Franks and her father Bill Franks seem determined to document the fallout down to its last detail.

Forget about airing the dirty laundry, these feuders have basically scaled the Paddington Town Hall and erected a rotating digital billboard!

As revealed in this place earlier this year, the stoush comes down to the ownership of the high-profile Camilla fashion empire and a number of Vaucluse apartments.

Bill Franks was unceremoniously walked from the Camilla HQ in 2011, when he was allegedly found to have transferred almost $1 million from the company’s accounts to another outfit called BNC Investments, which he controlled. (He denies these allegations.)

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It was four days ago that Camilla Franks was at the centre of a kaftan-themed knees-up at Curtis Stone’s Los Angeles eatery Gwen, celebrating the opening of stores in Orange County and Miami with her pals Tammin Sursok, Ashleigh Brewer and model Ash Hart.

But back in Sydney, just a few days earlier, her lawyers at Speed and Stracey were lodging Supreme Court filings alleging Bill Franks shouldn’t have control of his share of the company — valued at around $32.5 million — partly because he was “a domineering father”.

Not only that but he “was in a position of ascendancy over Camilla” who was at that time reliant on his advice, making her decision to hand him a quarter of the company void, they allege.

Among the long line of Sydney feuds, painstakingly presented here, this showdown makes the Arnaout hotellier family stoush sound like a certified love-in.

Track circular

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It’s taken some time for our friends down in Bleak City to discover that competition with Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys isn’t the sort of glacial jousting (the euphemism, of course, being “gentlemanly”) they had become accustomed to over the years.

If the $14 million Everest race day wasn’t warning enough, the arrival of the $7.5 million Golden Eagle on the same day as Melbourne hosts Derby Day should have been.

It took one of the few female executives at Racing Victoria to come up with something half as exciting for punters as the big money events V’landys and his Australian Turf Club mate Jamie Barkley had begun to roll out in the last two years.

The inaugural $5 million All Star Mile at Flemington ran for the first time in March.

Then, for reasons unknown, the woman who came up with the whole thing departed.

Racing Victoria’s chief commercial officer Jane Ballantyne has been made redundant.

Or as one racing industry source told CBD: “Victoria has struggled to keep pace with V’Landys over the past few years and it looks like they’ve given up trying.''

We’re told Ballantyne’s job disappeared after it was split between Racing Victoria chief financial officer Aaron Morrison and recently-arrived corporate affairs boss Carly Dixon.

Here’s hoping Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson (a Male Champion of Change) gets the house in order, particularly considering the Spring Racing Carnival is but six months away.

From the stands

And while the campaign for the NSW Labor leadership, between water spokesman Chris Minns and transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay got under way on Saturday, who was enjoying the V’landys-provided hospitality at Royal Randwick?

Former opposition leader Michael Daley, champagne in hand, watching Anthony Cummings-trained Prince Fawaz take out the 1400m over favourite Reloaded.

Channel surfing

With some fondness — and some irritation — we recall asking our friends at the ABC in mid-April about the possibility of Sky News Australia political editor David Speers becoming the new host of Insiders, with filming likely to move to Aunty's Canberra bureau.

“Sounds like pretty wild speculation,” one said.

Now we’re told former Weekend Today host Peter Stefanovic is bound for the Sky News bureau – not just for the well-publicised Lawyer X project about the life of Melbourne defence barrister Nicola Gobbo – but to host the channel’s morning show.

Could Stefanovic be announced as part of the First Edition team alongside Sky News stalwart Laura Jayes as early as Monday? It would certainly explain the glowing write-up of the former Nine journalist in The Sunday Telegraph in which he "revealed his shame" after a secret recording of him and his brother Karl made by an Uber driver picked up their thoughts on some of their closest colleagues.

Meanwhile, guess who (don’t sue) — which Nine News reporter was spotted dining with Sky News Australia’s news editor Chris Willis last week?

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Television personalities Amanda Keller, Tom Gleeson and Waleed Aly have been announced as finalists for this year's Gold Logie, an award recognising the most popular personality on Australian television.

Also nominated for the top gong, awarded next month after a public vote, are actors Rodger Corser and Eve Morey, Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis, and Sunrise weather presenter Sam Mac.

It is the third nomination for Aly, who won the Gold Logie in 2016, and the third nomination for Corser, while Keller is up for the award for the second time. Georgiadis, Morey, Mac and Gleeson have all been nominated for the first time.

The nominations were announced on Sunday afternoon, with the annual television industry awards to be held at the Gold Coast on June 30.

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A mixture of news, drama and reality TV shows have been nominated over a range of categories, including most outstanding entertainment program, most outstanding sports coverage, and most outstanding news coverage.

Oscar-nominated actor Jacki Weaver and Gold Logie winner Asher Keddie are both nominated in the most outstanding supporting actress category, Keddie for ABC series The Cry and Weaver for mystery series Bloom on streaming service Stan.

A handful of international personalities are also up for awards, including singer Joe Jonas nominated in the most popular new talent category for his appearance on The Voice Australia, and English actor Jenna Coleman for her role in The Cry.

Here are the full nominations:

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Tv Week Gold Logie – Most Popular Personality On Australian TV

• Amanda Keller (The Living Room/Dancing With The Stars, 10)
• Costa Georgiadis (Gardening Australia, ABC)
• Eve Morey (Neighbours, 10)
• Rodger Corser (Doctor Doctor, Nine Network)
• Sam Mac (Sunrise, Channel Seven)
• Tom Gleeson (Hard Quiz, ABC)
• Waleed Aly (The Project, 10)

Most Popular Actor

• Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road, ABC)
• Guy Pearce (Jack Irish, ABC)
• Luke McGregor (Rosehaven, ABC)
• Ray Meagher (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
• Rodger Corser (Doctor Doctor, Nine Network)
• Ryan Moloney (Neighbours, 10)

Most Popular Actress

• Asher Keddie (The Cry, ABC)
• Celia Pacquola (Rosehaven, ABC)
• Deborah Mailman (Bite Club/Mystery Road, Nine Network/ABC)
• Eve Morey (Neighbours, 10)
• Jenna Coleman (The Cry, ABC)
• Marta Dusseldorp (A Place To Call Home/Jack Irish, Foxtel/ABC)

Most Popular Presenter

• Amanda Keller (The Living Room/Dancing With The Stars, 10)
• Carrie Bickmore (The Project, 10)
• Costa Georgiadis (Gardening Australia, ABC)
• Julia Morris (Blind Date/I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here/Chris & Julia’s Sunday Night Takeaway, 10)
• Tom Gleeson (Hard Quiz, ABC)
• Waleed Aly (The Project, 10)

Graham Kennedy Award For Most Popular New Talent

• Bonnie Anderson (Neighbours, 10)
• Courtney Miller (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
• Dylan Alcott (The Set, ABC)
• Eddie Woo (Teenage Boss, ABC)
• Joe Jonas (The Voice Australia, Nine Network)
• Tasia Zalar (Mystery Road, ABC)

Most Popular Drama Program

• Doctor Doctor (Nine Network)
• Home And Away (Channel Seven)
• Mystery Road (ABC)
• Neighbours (10)
• The Cry (ABC)
• Wentworth (Foxtel)

Most Popular Entertainment Program

• Anh’s Brush With Fame (ABC)
• Dancing With The Stars (10)
• Gogglebox Australia (Foxtel/10)
• Gruen (ABC)
• Hard Quiz (ABC)
• The Voice Australia (Nine Network)

Most Popular Comedy Program

• Have You Been Paying Attention? (10)
• Hughesy, We Have A Problem (10)
• Rosehaven (ABC)
• Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures (10)
• Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (ABC)
• True Story With Hamish & Andy (Nine Network)

Most Popular Reality Program

• Australian Survivor: Champions Vs Contenders (10)
• I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! (10)
• Married At First Sight (Nine Network)
• MasterChef Australia (10)
• My Kitchen Rules (Channel Seven)
• The Block (Nine Network)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program

• Back In Time For Dinner (ABC)
• Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)
• Gardening Australia (ABC)
• Selling Houses Australia (Foxtel)
• The Living Room (10)
• Travel Guides (Nine Network)

Most Popular Panel Or Current Affairs Program

• 7.30 (ABC)
• 60 Minutes (Nine Network)
• A Current Affair (Nine Network)
• Australian Story (ABC)
• Four Corners (ABC)
• The Project (10)

Most Popular Television Commercial

• Dundee: Australia's Tourism Ad In Disguise – Tourism Australia
• Frank – Westpac
• I Am The Captain Of My Own Soul – Invictus Games
• Naked Wrestling – KFC
• Santa Crashes Christmas – Aldi
• Serena Project: I Touch Myself – Berlei

Most Outstanding Drama Series

• Doctor Doctor (Nine Network)
• Mystery Road (ABC)
• Neighbours (10)
• Secret City: Under The Eagle (Foxtel)
• Wentworth (Foxtel)

Most Outstanding Miniseries Or Telemovie

• Bloom (Stan)
• Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You (Channel Seven)
• On The Ropes (SBS)
• Pine Gap (ABC)
• The Cry (ABC)

Most Outstanding Actor

• Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road, ABC)
• Bryan Brown (Bloom, Stan)
• Jay Ryan (Fighting Season, Foxtel)
• Robbie Magasiva (Wentworth, Foxtel)
• Scott Ryan (Mr Inbetween, Foxtel)

Most Outstanding Actress

• Danielle Cormack (Secret City: Under The Eagle, Foxtel)
• Jenna Coleman (The Cry, ABC)
• Judy Davis (Mystery Road, ABC)
• Leah Purcell (Wentworth, Foxtel)
• Nicole Chamoun (On The Ropes, SBS)

Most Outstanding Supporting Actor

• Bernard Curry (Wentworth, Foxtel)
• Ewen Leslie (Fighting Season, Foxtel)
• Frankie J Holden (A Place To Call Home, Foxtel)
• Ian Meadows (Dead Lucky, SBS)
• Wayne Blair (Mystery Road, ABC)

Most Outstanding Supporting Actress

• Asher Keddie (The Cry, ABC)
• Celia Ireland (Wentworth, Foxtel)
• Jacki Weaver (Bloom, Stan)
• Keisha Castle-Hughes (On The Ropes, SBS)
• Susie Porter (The Second, Stan)

Most Outstanding Entertainment Program

• Australian Ninja Warrior (Nine Network)
• Eurovision – Australia Decides 2018 (SBS)
• Gogglebox Australia (Foxtel/10)
• Have You Been Paying Attention? (10)
• True Story With Hamish & Andy (Nine Network)

Most Outstanding Children's Program

• Bluey (ABC)
• Grace Beside Me (SBS/NITV)
• Mustangs FC (ABC)
• Teenage Boss (ABC)
• The Bureau Of Magical Things (10)

Most Outstanding Sports Coverage

• Australia Vs India; Second Test In Perth (Foxtel)
• Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (Channel Seven)
• Invictus Games Sydney 2018 (ABC)
• Supercars Championship: Bathurst (10)
• The 2018 FIFA World Cup (SBS)

Most Outstanding News Coverage Or Public Affairs Report

• “James Comey Interview” (7.30, ABC)
• “Leadership Spill” (Sky News, Foxtel)
• “Out Of The Dark” (Four Corners, ABC)
• “Townsville Flood Disaster” (7 News, Channel Seven)
• “Who Cares?” (Four Corners, ABC)

Most Outstanding Factual Or Documentary Program

• Employable Me (ABC)
• Exposed: The Case Of Keli Lane (ABC)
• Ron Iddles: The Good Cop (Foxtel)
• Taboo (10)
• The Pacific – In The Wake Of Captain Cook With Sam Neil (Foxtel)

Most Outstanding Reality Program

• Australian Survivor: Champions Vs Contenders (10)
• House Rules (Channel Seven)
• Married At First Sight (Nine Network)
• MasterChef Australia (10)
• The Block (Nine Network)

James Bond fans will have to wait until April 2020 for the next instalment in the iconic film franchise, but already everyone wants to know more about the brandnew Bond girl, Ana de Armas. The stunning Cuban actor, 31, who will be starring alongside Daniel Craig and Oscar-winner Rami Malek, first found fame on Spanish television, but is still a relative newcomer to Hollywood. Here she talks about her humble beginnings, pure determination and new life in LA.

When did you decide you wanted to be an actor?

I was very young. I would watch movies on the couch in my house. If I saw a scene played by a woman or a man, I would right away run to the mirror and repeat it and do it again. We moved to Havana when I was nine and I heard there was a theatre school. That was the day I said, "Oh, if there is a school, then that's what I want to do, where I want to go." And I made my parents take me for the auditions. That's how it started.

Did your acting dream seem real?

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It was real. You can dream very high, but very few people dream that they can really go outside and have the balls to make that dream happen.

You had the balls to do it, but when did the opportunity come about?

I had the balls and a Spanish passport. So when I was 18 and I graduated from school, it came to my mind: "I want to go to Spain to just try and audition for something and see what happens." I bought a ticket and told my mom, "When I run out of money, I'll come back." I went to Spain with 200 euros in my pocket. I was lucky enough to meet a big casting director a week after I got there. He cast me for one of the biggest TV series ever made in Spain. And I never came back, because I started shooting.

What did you love about Spain?

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I loved being independent for real, like finally. To me, my family means everything. I have a very small family, and I'm very close to all of them. But at the same time, I like to do my thing alone. And in Spain, I had that freedom. So when I moved to Spain, that was a great feeling.

Were you quick to adapt to working in English rather than Spanish?

I had to be. I guess your brain gets into survival mode or something. It was like I was learning a new superpower and how to use it. I always saw actors like Penélope [Cruz]. I could tell how hard it was for her at the beginning to feel and to act in English, because it's a different part of your brain. I always thought, "I have to get good at that. I have to be able to be able to feel and not to think about what I'm saying." I just want to feel it.

I always tell my agents, "I'm doing classes, but I want to go to meetings now, and I want to audition now."

"No, but your accent …"

"I don't care about the accent. I don't care. I want to do it, and I don't want to audition for Maria, and Juana, none of that. I want to audition for the same parts everyone else is auditioning for. And I'll make the difference. I'll make them change their minds."

At the beginning, it was a disaster. Nobody understood what I was saying. Even myself couldn't understand the context of what I was reading. I remember little phrases like "I beg your pardon?" or stuff like that. I had no clue what I was saying. But I knew emotionally what the scene was about. So my feelings were in the right place; my mouth was going somewhere else.

How do you mix putting yourself out there with being particular about the parts that you want to play?

There are two things. First, what they think that you can bring to the table, what you can bring to the character to offer, and what you can really offer. But sometimes they already make a decision before you ever get there.

And once you get there, there is another step: You don't look how I was imagining you. Because some of them, they don't even bother to google your photo. "Oh, but you're blonde, and green eyes, and so white. Are you Cuban? Cuban from where? From Miami?"

"No, from Cuba."

"You're Cuban, you're from Cuba?" Like all those kind of steps of being labelled, or being put in just the image they have in their heads.

The next step is that you get in the room for the audition. Then you can try to do your best and convince them that maybe that part that was not written for someone with an accent, or Latina, just someone in the world. It doesn't matter from where. You can play that, and you can do something special, and you can make that part remarkable and something different.

So it is something that, every day, I still have to do it. It's a puzzle.

How often do you get back to Cuba?

It depends on how busy I am that year. Some years I've only been once. So it always depends. I'm on the phone with my parents all the time. I'm in touch with my people always. I don't feel I'm disconnected or even not being there. Probably you pay more attention when you're not there.

Have you adapted to living in LA?

I like LA. It was tough at the beginning, because it can feel very lonely. It's hard to meet people. Everything happens in a house. So if you don't know anybody who invites you to the house, you're not anywhere. But now I have my friends, a great group of people. But also there are a few things that I don't adapt to.

As a human being, you always want to fit in. You don't want to be pointed out. Until the day you realise that you're just different – you cannot be from the same colour. They're all grey and you're pink. And that's your strength. The best thing I have is that nobody's me.

You don't have to try to fit. You have to just be yourself and do what you have to do. Why would you want it to be someone else that already exists? You can't. It's taken. Be you, and do what you've got.

Is there anything about the lifestyle in LA that you embraced that you hadn't experienced before?

There is something about LA that's all this healthy life, but in a good way. There is this nice routine in the mornings when you go get a juice, go for a walk with your dog, or go for a hike. In Cuba, I grew up with so many trees, and by the ocean, and walking a lot. It was something so regular for me, like so ordinary, that you forget what you're seeing. It's just your every day.

I remember when I moved from Cuba to Spain, all I wanted to have was a very clean, new apartment with new windows, and airconditioned. Because [in Cuba] all I had was a balcony with messy plants hanging around me, and it was hot. So you always want what you don't have. I realised how much I miss that nature, and I can see how here people really appreciate that.

Do you look for certain kinds of roles or take each one as they come?

So far, I've done the best with what I've got. Of course I see projects that I really want to do, and the parts that I really would love to play, and I can get to that. I want to do everything and beyond.

I want to create some impact. Until now, I've been always the wife or the girlfriend of the lead actor in a movie. I've learnt a lot, and I really enjoyed it, and I played it because I really wanted the part. But there's more than that. There are great female roles that are not only reacting or creating the situation for him to be the hero. I want to show how strong and smart women are.

We go through so much. We need to see that on screen. Those female parts, not many, but they are out there, and I have to find some. I want that chance.

Do you have a career masterplan?

I don't think about that. I just don't want to do that to myself. I don't want to create that anticipation and expectations to myself. Because I know for sure, because they've never done it, my parents are not waiting for me to come back home with a trophy or anything to prove. So the only one that can get in my head is just me, and I don't want to do that. Whatever happens, happens.

OUR FAVOURITE BOND GIRLS
Ana de Armas is following in the footsteps of many memorable women who have wooed 007. Here are 10 who lead the way.

• MARY GOODNIGHT who was played by Britt Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun.
• WAI LIN who was played by Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies.
• SOLITAIRE who was played by Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die.
• HONEY RYDER who was played by Ursula Andress in Dr No.
• MAY DAY who was played by Grace Jones in A View to a Kill.
• GIACINTA “JINX” JOHNSON who was played by Halle Berry in Die Another Day.
• TATIANA ROMANOVA who was played by Daniela Bianchi in From Russia with Love.
• TRACY BOND who was played by Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
• PUSSY GALORE who played Honor Blackman in Goldfinger.
• VESPER LYND who was played by Eva Green in Casino Royale.

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale May 26.

House Democrats, under the leadership of Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are slowly marching themselves toward the opening of an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. What seemed out of the question earlier in the year now seems, if not inevitable, increasingly difficult to resist.

Pelosi will not say anything like that at this point. She will continue to try to communicate to both sides of her divided party, nodding to hard-liners by suggesting that Trump's actions constitute potentially impeachable offences while bowing to vulnerable members in swing districts by speaking cautiously about impeachment itself.

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"We're not at that place," Pelosi said at a Thursday news conference, when the question of impeachment came up.

That caution came after she noted that the investigations currently underway in the House could lead to "a place that is unavoidable in terms of impeachment". She also asserted that the White house "is just crying out" for impeachment, which she likely sees as a trap.

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Trump has certainly put the Democrats in a difficult position. His past actions to disrupt and interfere with the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller are spelled out in detail in Mueller's report.

Attorney-General William Barr has said the evidence does not constitute obstruction of justice. Others strongly disagree, including many House Democrats who want to hear more about those episodes.

Beyond the contents of the Mueller report and what they say about the question of obstruction, the administration has further inflamed things by blocking virtually all requests from congressional committees for documents for investigations into various Trump-related matters.

The President also ordered former White House counsel Donald McGahn not to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. When McGahn defied a subpoena from the committee, chairman Jerrold Nadler threatened to hold a vote to hold him in contempt.

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The administration's resistance has put before Pelosi and other House leaders the question of whether an administration can indefinitely stonewall the legislative branch with impunity, a question with constitutional and practical significance for this and future presidencies. The time for an answer might still be premature, given current legal proceedings.

But as Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren put it during a CNN town hall last month, "There is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution".

The politics of impeachment remain fraught. Many Democrats still believe the party should focus all its energies on the 2020 election and seek to deny the President a second term through the ballot box. That's a far cleaner remedy than the high stakes of an impeachment proceeding that would die in the Senate if it reached fruition in the House.

But for Democrats, there is no guarantee of victory in the 2020 election. For all his vulnerabilities, Trump presides over a strong economy and enjoys the power of incumbency, which he is prepared to use to the fullest.

Few Democrats are unduly optimistic about victory in 2020, despite the party's strong performance in the 2018 midterm elections and signs of continued energy by the same kinds of voters who helped deliver that election outcome. The Democrats remain scarred by what happened in 2016.

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Pelosi knows that public opinion overall is not on the side of the Democrats. A majority of Americans continue to oppose impeachment. But public opinion among Democrats is in a different place. That's why a number of candidates for the Democratic nomination have expressed their support for at least the opening of an inquiry. It's a popular position with the base.

Pelosi can play both sides only for so long. At some point, she and her committee chairs will have to make a decision. That may not be for months, given the legal machinery now clanking along. She will try to keep deferring an ultimate decision, but the consequences of acting or not acting become more pressing as time passes.

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Pelosi and Trump continue to circle one another with taunts and insults. Pelosi criticised Trump for abruptly walking out of a meeting with congressional leaders on infrastructure on Wednesday at the Oval Office, after she had accused him of a coverup during a meeting with her own troops.

Pelosi on Thursday said the President could benefit from a "leave of absence" and perhaps needs “an intervention, for the good of the country” by family or staff.

Trump responded on Thursday by polling his staff at a news conference, asking them to explain to reporters that he wasn't angry or intemperate when he walked out of the meeting with Pelosi and other congressional leaders. It was an extraordinary display on the part of a President.

Trump called himself a "stable genius". He said the Speaker is a "different person" than the leader he began dealing with earlier. He called her "crazy Nancy". He said, "She's lost it."

Such is the state of the relationship between the President and the most powerful Democrat in the country.

Pelosi bested Trump earlier in the year during the government shutdown when she called his bluff and forced him to reopen agencies without giving him funding for his border wall. He responded later by declaring a national emergency to allow him to take the money from other funds in the Defence Department.

In this latest standoff, each has pushed the other into a corner. Pelosi certainly knows how to provoke the President, as she demonstrated again the past few days. But his defiance of Congress has left her with the most difficult of choices, for the country and for her party.

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Trump is pushing the country toward a constitutional crisis – many believe it is already here. His actions have riled the Democrats on Capitol Hill and generated anger in the party's base. Pelosi is now buffeted as she weighs what to do. Sliding into impeachment is hardly the preferred choice, but can she resist the political forces inside her party that are pushing in that direction?

The Speaker plays a long game. As Trump has learned, she is shrewd, tough and experienced. Still, the coming test over impeachment could be the most difficult of her career.

The Washington Post

Dexter Fletcher is leaning forward on a table, thinking about the first Elton John song he ever heard.

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, ‘round at my cousin Caroline’s house, back in the 1970s when it came out,” he says. “I couldn’t have been more than eight years old or something like that.”

Over the past few years the music of the 1970s has become somewhat of a specialty subject for the British director, who is sitting in a harbour-view room, all wild grey hair and spectacles, at the Park Hyatt in Sydney to promote his Elton John biopic Rocketman.

In fact, if this was Hard Quiz, you could narrow Fletcher’s speciality down even further to, say, gay British music superstars of the 1970s and '80s who enjoyed glittering one-piece stage outfits, had memorable teeth and prodigious drug habits.

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Rocketman follows last year’s Oscar-winning Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, of which Fletcher was a ring-in director after the original director Bryan Singer was fired from the project.

But where Bohemian Rhapsody was accused of glossing over singer Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and drug use, Rocketman jumps right in with graphic-enough sex, scenes of John snorting cocaine and, in case there was any confusion, with John saying outright: “I’m gay.”

“It doesn’t try to shy away from the darker aspects of this journey that Elton goes on and that – a musical that has darkness as well as light – was a really exhilarating and exciting idea,” says Fletcher, who at 53 is still just as well known for the children’s show Press Gang, where he played Spike to Julia Sawalha’s Lynda.

Both Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody had heavy involvement from their subjects – John and his husband David Furnish produced Rocketman, while Mercury’s bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor were consultants on Bohemian Rhapsody and it was produced by the band’s manager Jim Beach – which can raise questions of impartiality. Can you ever really tell someone’s truth if they’re paying the bills?

“With Freddie’s story, for example, he’s not here to defend himself,” says Fletcher. “That is a film made by people who love him or loved him, so rightly or wrongly, they defend it in the way that they do, or they protect him in the way that they do. And that answers why that film is the way that it is.

“Similarly, Elton is here to defend himself. And if there’s something I get wildly wrong, or people go, ‘God that’s outrageous’, he can defend himself. He’s a big boy.”

The one thing Rocketman does skip over slightly is John’s 1984 wedding to Renate Blauel at St Mark's in Sydney’s Darling Point. The marriage lasted only four years, but it only receives about four minutes in the film.

Was that something John didn’t want mentioned?

“It wasn’t even in the original script when I got it,” says Fletcher. “It was something that I put in. I never got ‘No no, no don’t put that in’. There’s many things I wanted to know about and put in, and I never got no.”

Rocketman is but the latest in a conga line of musical films heading into cinemas this year, with the Beatles-inspired Yesterday opening in July, the Bruce Springsteen fan fiction Blinded by the Light due in August and the George Michael-soundtracked  Last Christmas opening in December.

Is there anyone whose life story, or music, is unfilmable?

“You could do a story about anyone,” says Fletcher, who gave Scottish group the Proclaimers their musical moment in his first film Sunshine on Leith. “But what’s the in, what’s the compelling element of it?”

What about the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards? People might want to know how he’s still alive after years of, ahem, free living.

“I can’t answer to that,” says Fletcher, smiling. “It’s the endless fascination to him. I’m sure there’s people who know who can tell you the secrets, I can’t.”

Rocketman opens on May 30. 

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The Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker Ava DuVernay was 16-years-old in April 1989 when five teenage boys from Harlem were charged with the brutal attack and rape of a female jogger in New York’s Central Park. DuVernay lived in Los Angeles, on the other side of the country, but the strident reporting and racial overtones of the story, which dominated newspaper headlines and television newscasts, came through clearly: the victim was white, while four of the accused were African-American and the other was Hispanic.

The crime, and the subsequent investigation, rapid arrest and conviction of the five juveniles, complete with confessions, galvanises When They See Us, DuVernay’s compelling new Netflix limited series about the teenagers who would become th

e Central Park Five – a title used to initially identify their crime, and later their innocence. In 2002 the convictions of the five men were vacated, after the actual attacker confessed, and they were subsequently awarded US$41 million in damages after suing the city of New York.

“The subject matter has to reach me in a really personal place if I’m going to marry myself to it for years. I started working on this in 2015, and I really felt this one,” DuVernay says. “The story is an epic tale and there is a lot of tragedy in it, but it ends triumphantly. These men are alive, they’re well, they’re thriving, and justice was served. It’s rare for a story like this to end like this.”

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Fresh off a flight back home to Los Angeles, where the 46-year-old has carved out a career in feature films (Selma, A Wrinkle in Time), documentaries (13th), and television series (Queen Sugar), DuVernay talks about the real life events and the five hours she dramatised about it with a mixture of incisive detail and lyrical power. The four episodes of When They See Us have the same sense of intimate experience and historic judgment – it’s a shocking and immersive viewing experience, but one elevated by lyrical reflection.

“It could have easily been a procedural, as true crime dramas are all the rage right now, and it has all the makings of that,” DuVernay says, “but I realised that if I was doing this so the men can be heard, then I should always stay with them. Even on the set, when I had ideas in the middle of shooting a scene, I would remind myself, ‘this is about those boys’.”

“Everything I did, every script, every scene, every cut, every decision about a

costume or location,” she adds, “was about how

to design the story around the perspective of these five men and the people who loved them.”

DuVernay has an activist’s energy and a storyteller’s eye. She’d long followed the case in the media, and in 2015 as her profile blossomed with the success of Selma, her searing examination of Dr Martin Luther King’s 1965 civil rights march in America’s segregated south, she found a tweet sent to her by Raymond Santana jnr, one of the five men in the Central Park Five. “What’s your next film gonna be on?” he asked, with the hashtags #centralpark5 and #fingerscrossed offering his hopeful answer.

The director soon met Santana for dinner, then with what he calls his “brothers”: Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise and Antron McCray. DuVernay instinctively knew that their story had a classic three-act structure, perfect for a film or series, but beyond that she sensed that so much of the work she’d done to date, going back to her 2012 independent feature Middle of Nowhere, was a kind of preparation for telling the complete story of the Central Park Five.

“This is the fourth work I’ve made that looks at different aspects of the criminal justice system,” DuVernay says, “Middle of Nowhere showed me the impact of incarceration on families, while 13th explained the structure of a fixed system and Selma talked about resistance and how to push back. I feel like When They See Us is the sum total of everything I’ve made up to this point.”

That authority comes to bear from the first episode, which identifies the boys and their lives, as well as their presence in Central Park on the night in question, before dashing it upon a police and investigatory system that is institutionally racist.

Felicity Huffman’s Linda Fairstein, the then head of the Sex Crimes Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, is the first to identify the boys as “animals”, and the investigating detectives under her in turn coerce confessions and abridge the legal rights of minors. There is no official dissenting voice, even from African-American or Hispanic police officers.

“What I’m hoping people can see is that once you’re ensnared in the system it is you against the state. When you look at the documents of people trying to defend themselves against alleged crimes in this country, you see that person’s name versus the state,” DuVernay says. “A whole state is putting all its resources against one person, and that person may not have any resources or be educated to their rights. It’s an overwhelming experience and it is designed to overwhelm.”

Shot on location in New York by DuVernay and her long-time collaborator, cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma, Arrival), When They See Us folds in the American media’s rush to judgment and the inflammatory actions of then New York property developer Donald Trump, but it always returns to the humanity of those involved. The first episode ends with the boys meeting after they’ve been railroaded, a bittersweet moment of camaraderie and shame.

“Hopefully people can understand that these aren’t criminals, they’re people ensnared in the system where every twist and turn is designed to take you deeper and deeper into an abyss and away from being a part of society,” DuVernay says. “They were human beings – they weren’t a wolf pack, they weren’t animals. It’s the same with so many people behind bars: they have families, dreams and beating hearts.”

When They See Us premieres on Netflix, Friday, May 31.

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Daniel Henshall is so skilled at playing evil characters like Snowtown's serial killer John Bunting that he's become used to people feeling let down when they meet him in real life.

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"There's often a hint of disappointment that there isn't that gravitas or intensity they were expecting," says the softly spoken Sydney-born, Brooklyn-based actor. "I've got used to going, 'Sorry'."

The latest addition to the 36-year-old's catalogue of nasties is the late painter Adam Cullen in Acute Misfortune. In it, he tortures – mentally and, occasionally, physically – the young journalist Erik Jensen, on whose book the film is based.

He lived with the role of Cullen for years, helping director Thomas M. Wright, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jensen, to shape the character. He learnt to paint, to shoot, to skin an animal. He put on weight – and, later, shed it – for the shoot too. But, says Henshall, he never felt he was being subsumed by Cullen.

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"I definitely never stay in character," he says. "I like playing the fool on set, making jokes, chilling out. When it's time to lock in I lock in, but I find that the easier it is on set – the less tense it is when it doesn't need to be – the better the environment to work in. You don't need the earnestness and the seriousness to be front-and-centre every day."

It's a relief to hear that hanging around Henshall while he's working isn't likely to be life-threatening, especially since he can also be seen in next month's Sydney Film Festival playing a violent Nazi skinhead in the American feature Skin. But he's dubious anyway about those tales of actors who stay in character for months at a time while working on a film.

"I think there's a reverence around that notion that isn't completely honest," he says. "It's a great selling point – 'He stayed in character' – but it isn't necessarily true."

What Henshall does do is find a way to empathise with the character he is playing, no matter how vile they might appear to be.

In the case of the alcoholic and hyper-masculine Cullen, that meant understanding him as someone who had never recovered from a failed relationship, someone who was, despite his success (including as a serial finalist in and, in 2000, winner of the Archibald Prize), "a very isolated and lonely, sensitive person who leaned on very self-destructive practices to keep himself from the rejection of the art world".

In the case of Bunting, who was found guilty in 2003 of murdering 11 people, Henshall honed in on the suggestion that he had been sexually abused as a child. "I've never been abused but there was something in that, I could see a lost child who didn't develop emotionally," he says. "That was the key to locking in to John – this little child that wasn't necessarily loved in a way he deserved to be."

That willingness to go deep is what breathes such intensity and authenticity into Henshall's performances. But for those who know him best, it can also make for unsettling viewing.

Just the day before we sit down to chat – me with my recorder, he with his notebook full of jottings because he's a bit jet-lagged and has a tendency "to wander off the path fairly easily" – his mother had told him how difficult she finds it to see him in the kind of violent men in which he seems to specialise.

"She said, ‘It’s hard for me to separate my son, in whom I instilled these values and who is a gentle person – though I know he can be angry too – and these roles'," he says.

His parents are strongly Anglican, and still involved in community and charity work through the church. And while he says he's "absolutely not" religious, perhaps some of that caring rubbed off regardless.

"I try to instil in these characters an affability, to give them a chance to be heard," he says of his studies in toxic masculinity. "Not just to look at the behaviour, but to what led to that behaviour."

Henshall says he and his wife, costume designer Stacey O'Connor (the pair share a place in Green Point, Brooklyn, with fellow Aussie actor Sarah Snook) are hoping to start a family soon. That's both a mark of age – "I feel like I'm finally turning into an adult nearing the age of 37" – and proof of the confidence he finally feels in his career, thanks to a four-season stint in the American Revolutionary drama Turn: Washington's Spies and roles in Hollywood films Ghost in the Shell and Okja, as well as a part alongside Chris Captain America Evans in Defending Jacob, a forthcoming series for Apple.

He's not always cast as the villain, of course; in both the recent Stan drama Bloom and Foxtel's forthcoming Lambs of God, he plays a cop. But if his future path includes more bad guys, he won't be complaining.

"I find it really interesting to unpick the facade of masculinity," he says. "Really unpicking some of those complex emotions and insecurities, that fascinates me."

No fear of being typecast then?

"I wish you would," he says softly. "Bring it on."

Follow the author on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on twitter @karlkwin