THE GOSS
Leader: Carrie Bickmore. Photo: Peter Brew-Bevan for WHO
After a tough few years, golden girl Carrie Bickmore is on top of the world.
With her five-year-old son Ollie, her boyfriend [producer] Chris Walker and a second Gold Logie nomination just announced, Bickmore says life is "very, very good; I'm in a really good place, thank you".
The TV presenter of The Project tragically lost her husband and the father of her son, Greg Lange, after a long struggle with cancer in 2010. Now, on top of the Logies, there's more good news for Bickmore. S can exclusively reveal she is in the running for the coveted InStyle and Audi Women of Style Awards – to be announced tomorrow – in the entertainment category against Rachel Griffiths and Susie Porter.
In training: Kym Johnson in Hawaii. Photo: Splash
She is in esteemed company. Previous winners who met InStyle editor Kirsten Galliott's brief to find women who "are true leaders in their field . . . intelligent, compassionate and engaging," have included Asher Keddie, Juanita Phillips, Nicole Kidman and Toni Collette. The awards are announced at a soiree in May.
"When I look at people I'm up against, it's such lovely company," Bickmore told S last week, admitting her award nominations still had her pinching herself.
"I'll take it! Last year when I was nominated for a gold [Logie], I was laughing. I never thought in my entire career I would ever be up for the top award, and to be up for it again, it's this same weird feeling. It's nice to know people watch the show and enjoy what you do."
Sung, fit: Jon Stevens and Jodhi Meares. Photo: Toni Caldwell
Of her own role model in the style stakes, Bickmore says her hard-working mum Jennie is her inspiration: "I'm not one of those people who is celebrity mad. The best role model for me is my mum. I look up to her more than anyone. She is an education lecturer and she worked very hard her whole life. I always buy cheap clothes and she buys lovely pieces that she'll be wearing in 30 years' time; she's such a stylish woman and a wonderful grandma.
"And while there were times growing up where I would have loved to have come home to baked banana bread, it's so wonderful to see that your mum is in the workplace in a community. I would always come home blown away that mum had this skill that people loved so much."
Bickmore says her mother has alleviated some of her own motherhood guilt and she is perplexed by the question "can women have it all?"
"That question implies there's greed involved in wanting it all. I don't feel working, being part of a community and having something to offer everyone is greedy. I want to contribute and set a great example to my little boy, and of course there are times I don't do my job or the mummy things as well as I would like but I still expect to be able to do everything, even if I could manage my time better."
This year, that involves working around a new school schedule, with Ollie starting kindergarten. "I don't go out as much as used to; I don't know how other women get to school on time! But I'm happiest at home on a Saturday night with Ollie watching a DVD and hanging out with him."
And a tip for her red-carpet Logie look? "Steven Khalil. Absolutely. I saw a dress he made for Jessica Mauboy at the AACTAs and I knew he was it!"
Perfect fit
She is single and looking for love, S hears. Showing off her killer ab-tastic body in a peach bikini on a Hawaiian beach last week, Celebrity Apprentice competitor and Dancing with the Stars standout Kym Johnson doesn't look as though she would have any problems getting a date.
But friends in Sydney have revealed the dancer is still hoping to find love, preferably with an Aussie in Los Angeles where she is based. "She's single, can you believe?" a friend said.
The one-time girlfriend of Tom Williams, who has performed with Joey Fatone, Jerry Springer, David Hasselhoff and Donny Osmond, doesn't have much time on her hands to search.
She has been partnered with fellow Aussie Ingo Rademacher (remember him from Gold Coast shame Paradise Beach?) for the 16th season of the US version of Dancing with the Stars, which launches on Monday night.
Rademacher, a General Hospital soap stud, is married with two boys. He and Johnson spent the week in Hawaii training for the series under Johnson's tutelage. "Athletes go to high altitude for training, dancers go to the heat and get a real tan," she quips.
Rademacher, who is an amateur diver, joked of the training regime: "The week before the comp starts, we'll be training really hard and I can walk outside and get some sun and dive to the bottom of the ocean and sit there for a while and get away from it all."
The power walk of love
Clearly the couple who exercise together, stay together. The latest reports had them heading for a trip down the aisle, and super-fit duo Jodhi Meares and Jon Stevens showed their strides are utterly in sync at Bronte Beach last week.
The photogenic, but super-private, pair held hands as they took a seaside stroll on Wednesday. Meares was married to James Packer for three years, before separating in 2002, while Stevens, the former frontman of Noiseworks, split from his wife Tracey in 2007 after a 20-year marriage.
Stevens is in rehearsals for Jesus Christ Superstar, the British production that heads to Perth in May and Sydney in June. While he played the role of Judas Iscariot in the 1992 Australian arena production, he is now returning in the role of Pontius Pilate, alongside Andrew O'Keefe as King Herod and Spice Girl Mel C as Mary Magdalene.
Meares is still clearly focusing on her exercise regime, far away from the stress of public life. Who can ever forget her opting out at the last minute of the live finale of Australia's Next Top Model when she hosted it?
There should be no such problems this year. Our on-set moles report that new host Jennifer Hawkins (pictured) is nailing it, leaving little chance she'll suffer a case of live-show butterflies.
Former Miss Universe Hawkins wouldn't commit herself when asked last week, but word from the set is she's definitely capable.
"Jen's wowed producers, the girls are enamoured by Jen and everyone is in awe of her," a crew member for the series, which goes to air in July, revealed.
Morsels
One positively beaming face in among the meatballs, soap actors and footballers at the 10th-anniversary celebrations for Darling Harbour restaurant Criniti's on Tuesday night was newlywed Rachael Finch. Hiding a bump under her orange peplum dress, the TV presenter, who is 3 months pregnant, was heard proclaiming from the red carpet "she was hoping for a boy" and she was thrilled not to have to watch her weight. She did a positive pregnancy test on her honeymoon in Thailand after her fairytale marriage to Dancing with the Stars partner Michael Miziner. "I was . . . sleeping all day . . . Mishy was staring at me while I was sleeping and would then say, 'Do you wanna play basketball?' " Finch said. "It was so wonderful seeing the ultrasound, there's two hearts beating inside of me!"
Reports from the Big Apple say Sydney chef Michael Moore turned heads last week with his healthy recipes and cookbook Blood Sugar, focused on food diabetics can eat. Appearing on morning TV shows, Moore was also special guest at a lunch on Tuesday hosted by Tourism Australian at the Aussie-run restaurant The Sunburnt Calf on Manhattan's Upper West Side. "It's not just about promoting the book but it's about starting a conversation about how you can treat illnesses like diabetes with flavour and dishes that you want to eat rather than those bland dishes you're told to eat," said Moore, a diabetic and stroke survivor.
Still in NYC, Sydney-born publicist Matt Dillon and his client, the controversial amputee star of The Real Housewives of New York City, Aviva Drescher, are the faces of a new campaign, "So Gay So What", which was launched as part of the Shineout Music Festival, part of Gay Pride in NYC. "We chose the duo as the relationship truly reflects this global message of furthering equality," festival founder Darren Melchiorre told S.
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