A SURREAL EXPERIENCEWith the Academy Awards days away, the Australian producer of The King's Speech hasn't yet made it to Los Angeles. Emile Sherman is over east, making a drama about a New Yorker ''who gets lost in sexual oblivion''. Called Shame, it's being directed by the English video artist turned filmmaker Steve McQueen - director of the stunning 2008 drama Hunger - and stars Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, soon headed to Sydney for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Sherman says the highlight of the awards season so far has been the British Academy awards. ''To be there for the BAFTAs and to win both Best British Film and Best Film, which apparently hasn't been done before, was a surreal experience,'' he told the Herald's red carpet correspondent, Garry Maddox. The marathon Hollywood awards season also includes little-known events such as the ceremony run by AARP, a huge-selling American magazine aimed at retirees. ''We won the Best Film For Grown-ups,'' says the 38-year-old. ''I felt slightly youthful.'' So what are the Oscar chances for The King's Speech? ''I don't really feel qualified to know what our chances are more than what I read and what the betting sites say,'' Sherman says. So, what do the betting sites say? According to Sportsbet, The King's Speech is a ludicrously short-priced favourite to win both best original screenplay and best film. Time to charge the glasses.BIG DAY FOR A TRUMPET INVOLUNTARYThree weeks ago Channel Nine trumpeted Ben Elton's new Australian show as ''100 per cent comedy - a great night out without leaving the couch''. Today - not so much. The axe fell on Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth yesterday after three episodes failed to excite audiences. "Comedy is always risky, and live comedy is the riskiest of all,'' said Michael Healy, Nine's director of television. ''We are pleased to have taken the chance to support the local industry." Elton wrote, produced and presented the show, which featured his stand-up routines as well as sketches, guests, comedians, music acts and celebrities. Ratings were poor, with an average audience of just 384,000 in its second week, down from 455,000 in the first. Tuesday night's delayed screening after schedules were moved to cover the Christchurch earthquake managed only 189,000. Elton knew the axe was hovering. Last week, saying the show would need time to find an audience, he told Melbourne ABC Radio: ''I have found it astonishing the feeding frenzy that has gone on this week. I do find it funny that the Australian public plays the ratings game.''

STATE OF BETTINGSpeaking of mugs and punters, betting is already under way on the state election, with bookies supporting a landslide Coalition victory and predicting Labor will retain just 16 to 20 seats in the lower house. As odds-on correspondent Jo Tovey reports, Sportingbet has been offering odds of the Coalition at $1.04, compared to Labor at $9. Eager punters are now turning their attention to marginal seats, with the most popular battle in Education Minister Verity Firth's electorate of Balmain. ''Punters certainly think Verity Firth is on the way out,'' says Sportingbet trader Bill Richmond, whose agency puts the Leichhardt mayor and Greens candidate Jamie Parker at $1.20 and Firth at $3.50. In Marrickville, the Greens' Fiona Byrne is just ahead of Carmel Tebbutt; in Coogee, Lib Bruce Notley-Smith is a short-odds favourite to beat Labor's Paul Pearce; and in Sydney, Clover Moore is at $1.02 to win again. Meanwhile, rival betting agency Sportsbet is taking bets on who will be the Labor (opposition) leader at the 2015 election, with the Minister for Transport, John Robertson, the favourite at $1.50, followed by the Minister for Police, Michael Daley, at $4 and Kristina Keneally and David Borger at a distant $7.

HEARTBROKEN? YAY!''You like someone. They're in a relationship. Be the first to know when they're out of it.'' With a tagline like that, it's no surprise Breakup Notifier has had more than 100,000 downloads in under 24 hours. The new app for Facebook promises to put you in pole position for rebound guy/girl by notifying you when someone changes their relationship status. ''I think a lot of people out there think I'm some sort of weirdo Facebook stalker,'' Dan Loewenherz told the New York Daily News. ''But I made this mostly as a joke and … I'm just blown away how many people are using it.''STAY IN TOUCH . . . WITH TWITTER RAGE

THE idea behind social media was, well, social. Unfortunately, the results are sometimes anti-social. With the rise of Facebook, Twitter and TwitBook (yes, it exists), cyberspace isn't always a dinner party. All too often it's a boxing match. Bout One: Josh Thomas v Ruby Rose - night out at strip club ends in tit-for-tat on Twitter after Thomas is left holding $600 bill for champagne. Bout Two: Ryan Murphy v Nathan Followill - the Glee co-creator calls the Kings of Leon drummer homophobic after the band refuse to let their music be used on the TV show; in response, Followill tweets, ''Dear Ryan Murphy, let it go. See a therapist, get a manicure, buy a new bra. Zip your lip and focus on educating 7yr olds how to say f---.'' Bout three: Kurt Sutter v online reviewer. Sutter is the executive producer of the lauded TV series Sons of Anarchy, a gritty drama about bikies (currently airing on Showtime and coming to Eleven later this year). On his blog Sutterink, Sutter wrote that he was offended by an online reviewer who quoted the show's star, Charlie Hunnam, pictured in character as Jackson ''Jax'' Teller. ''My beef with the blog is not what Charlie said, but how it was presented,'' wrote Sutter. ''It painted Charlie as a disgruntled actor who has no respect for the writing. That was the intent, that was how the blogosphere interpreted it.'' From there, Sutter got nasty, invoking language that might make a Hells Angel blush. When the rant caused a flurry of responses, Sutter responded with a more gentle post that concentrated on the positive. ''I thought in the name of fairness, I'd list some blogs that are written by intelligent, fair-minded, non-c---s.'' On the web, clearly, a mere mouse click separates hate from love.WITH HUTCHENCE: THE MUSICAL

IT'S enough to make a feted Oz rocker roll in his grave. The life and tragic death of Michael Hutchence, pictured, could be turned into a Broadway musical after a US talent and literary agency, APA, announced it had signed a deal with the estate of the former INXS lead singer to exploit the rights to his name, image, story and more. Already we're envisaging a spectacular choral rendition of Need You Tonight accompanied by a tap-dancing, fake-tanned Hutchence played by Hugh Jackman. Or maybe Anthony Warlow. While the Los Angeles agent Keith Naisbitt was coy about whether this would mean previously unreleased music from Hutchence would see the light of day, he did confirm to The Diary's elegantly wasted correspondent Karl Quinn that the dramatic possibilities of his life are huge. ''He was one of the great rock stars, probably the last great rock star, with all that that implies. In recent years what the band has been up to has perhaps overshadowed what Michael is all about, and we want to shine a light on him as the great performer he was.'' Naisbitt said a documentary film was likely to be the first project.WITH OLD TENNIS SHOESDUNLOP, maker of the famous Volley tennis shoe, has discovered gaps in its archives and is asking Australians to search their sheds and basements for old styles of the iconic design created in 1939 by the Australian tennis champion Adrian Quist. Already an 80-year-old man from Queensland has sent in four pairs of old Volleys in pristine condition, including the ''Past Time'' and ''Sunbeam'' from 1967. Even Dunlop didn't know they existed. Ultimately, the aim is to find a style from 30 or 50 years ago that can be re-created and credited to the person who sent it in.

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