Category — Football superstar

The 2012 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was held on the weekend, with American drag superstar RuPaul dismissing forty back-up dancers at the last minute because she wanted to perform solo.

An insider spoke to The Daily Telegraph, saying it was a shock for the dancers, who prepared and rehearsed all day. However, once RuPaul finished her musical number, the troupe of dancers got to do their part, even without the ‘star’.

Meanwhile, another diva was making noise on the saturday, as a bare-chested Kyle Sandilands was trolling around on popular gay men’s ‘dating’ iPhone app, Grindr. His newly-made profile was under the name ‘big gold mic’ and its welcome message was “Happy Mardi Gras darls x”.

Grindr is generally used to cruise for sex, with GPS navigating so people can locate other online members just kilometres away. As Sandilands’s manager explained, “he did it as a joke”. Apparently, the shock jock thought it would be funny to create a profile, after seeing someone else playing with Grindr during an Australia’s Got Talent recording. Could it be Grant Denyer or Brian McFadden?!

Speaking of Australia’s Got Talent, judge Dannii Minogue is in Sydney for the talent quest, but also attended the Mardi Gras to watch sister Kylie perform. However, Dannii’s partner, Kris Smith gave the show a miss as he spent the weekend in Melbourne on ‘daddy duties’ while having a ‘lad’s weekend’. The Football Superstar host said that the Mardi Gras just isn’t his thing.

While Kris hasn’t embraced the gay culture of Mardi Gras, Home and Away‘s Dan Ewing loves to call himself ‘gay-friendly’. The actor and contestant on last year’s Dancing with the Stars, attended the Belvedere/DNA party at the Beresford and was often asked about his sexual orientation. For those who don’t know, DNA is an Australian gay magazine, featuring half-naked models. In the Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Confidential, Ewing says he doesn’t “have a problem going to gay clubs and hanging out on Oxford Street” and attended the event with his fiancé, Marni Little.

This is an open post for Football Superstar fans to discuss the episode. I noticed last year that my posts on this show turned out to be commented on a lot.

At this stage I will not be recapping the episodes.

The show kicks off tonight with the new host Kris Smith.

The contestants are:

Contestants:
Jeremy Walker, 17
Devon Gibson, 18
Julian Zullo, 19
Philippe Bernabao-Madrid, 18
Jared Austin, 19
Liam McCormick, 17
Aaron Turner,18
Jesse McDonell, 17
Nicholas Krousoratis, 16
Ian Kamau, 18
Jesse Fuller, 19
Ahmed Yakou, 19
Elias Tsintzas, 19
Alessandro Stazio, 18
Miki Petkovic,17
Troy Ruthven, 19

Fox 8 announced yesterday that Kris Smith, Danni Minogues partner, and former professional rugby league player, will be the new host of reality show Football Superstar. Lee Furlong will continue to co-host it with him.

Kris takes over from another UK expat, Brian McFadden who has now moved over to Australia’s Got Talent.

Now I like Kris Smith, he is good looking, seems nice, and has some sporting credentials, but are there no Australian male TV presenters who could do the job?

I believe in free trade but it seems that a lot of the roles on our reality TV shows are going to expats.

Currently on TV we have Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston on Masterchef Australia, Brian McFadden on Australia’s Got Talent, Jay-Dee Springbett and Dicko on Australian Idol, and Bonnie Lythgoe on SYTYCDA.

Thankfully antipodean John Torode is Masterchef in the UK, and our Kylie on The X Factor, but I still feel there must be disgruntled presenters and entertainers looking for work in this industry. I hope it is not because of some sort of cultural cringe that these guys are getting the gigs but on pure talent.

Maybe Brian McFadden slagging of his former co-host of Football Superstar Amy Taylor may be a bonanza for the second series of this reality TV show. At the Astra’s apparently he implied Amy was not that bright by saying about his new c0-star Lee Furlong “At least she has a brain.” Quite surprising really considering I would not have thought Delta’s manpet would be a member of MENSA. As shown by once being married to that trainwreck Kerrie Katona who is his children’s primary caregiver.

The Fox 8 show is about finding Australia’s most talented young footballer. The winner receives a one-year scholarship with Melbourne Victory.

It would appear from the Fox 8 press release that they are going to condense or even skip the audition episodes and just go straight into the final 15. I presume this must have been where they lost a lot of viewers last year. 

Melbourne Victory FC Head Coach Ernie Merrick heads up the judging panel this year and is joined by Melbourne Victory assistant coach Aaron Healy and FOOTBALL SUPERSTAR mentor Vitale Ferrante.  

The top 15 contestants are:

New South Wales: Gilly Buckley, 20; Aaron Daly, 16; David McMurray, 19; Daniel Mitwali, 17 and Sebastian Petralito, 20.

Queensland: Jack Petrie, 20; Matthew Heath, 19; Chris Kozionas, 20.

Victoria: John Lazaridis, 20 and Steven Topalovic, 18.

Western Australia: Kynon Melling, 18 and Trent Wood, 19.

South Australia: Michael Marchi, 20 and Thomas Renzi, 19. 

Canberra: Luke Pilkington, 18 

The players are moved into a Melbourne mansion and are judged by Merrick and the panel on their on-field performance and off-field behaviour. So hopefully there will be be some off-field drama to keep the non – soccer viewers entertained. 

Each week the boys will be put through their paces as they compete in a selection of physical and mental challenges and one will be eliminated until there is a final three and then Merrick will decide who will be the winner. 

Football Superstar – Fox 8 – Wednesdays at 7.30pm.