Happy Birthday Home & Away

[dnp52td]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/t...9350628989.html

Bubbles and soap

August 7, 2009

Michael Idato is uplifted as the stars of Home and Away party with their fans.

In the heady world of invitations, frocks and parties, nothing separates the men from the boys more than the arrival of a couple of bus-loads of contest winners.

To Sydney’s A-list, resplendent in their borrowed baubles, no sound is more terrifying than a Mercedes-Benz OC500LE’s air brakes wheezing down and the clack of cheap shoes on the front steps.

The ever-instructive Plus One has taught me much about this over the years, partly because she is a doyen of the global social circuit, whose dinner parties are toasted from Mustique to Martha’s Vineyard, but largely because her sister dabbles in the dark art of publicity and once worked on a show known to the international television industry as Prisoner: Cell Block H.

Not only did we learn how to wrangle contest winners with ease, we can also operate an MVP-35 Commercial Grade Maxi Steam Press. Ah, life skills.

This particular topic was significant because of plans to open the 21st birthday of legendary soap opera Home and Away to a guest list not just composed of media, VIPs, dignitaries and the former crowned heads of Europe but to a couple of bus-loads of contest winners, who had undoubtedly won their tickets by participating in some kind of demeaning radio skit staged by 2DayFM. You know – the sort that tends to offend everyone except the 10- to 17-year-old audience to whom the show is pitched.

In they stormed, wave after wave of contest winners. An explosion of polyester, nylon and hair mousse. As the Cargo Bar filled to bursting – appropriate, given the somewhat flimsy attire that passes for fashionable clothing these days – we sighed in relief at the smoke-free policy. With so much aerosol propellant, vinyl acetate and elastesse in the air, one stray ciggie and we could have been looking at a redux of the ’05 barn explosion that claimed the life of psychotic psychiatric nurse Zoe McAllister.

The guest list was stellar, spanning the show’s 21-year history – from Nicolle Dickson (pint-sized town bad girl Bobby), Emily Symons (dizzy Marilyn), Norman Coburn (po-faced Fisher) and Tempany Deckert (Selina) to Martin Dingle-Wall (Flynn), Ada Nicodemou (Leah), Cornelia Frances (Morag), Jessica Tovey (Belle), Josh Quong Tart (Miles) and the legendary Ray Meagher, who plays Alf, the town’s father, protector and purveyor of ludicrous expressions, the most beloved of which is ‘‘flaming oath’’.

This was a party unlike most – an up-close-and-personal with the fans, which clearly didn’t suit all tastes. At least one member of the media pack, who always looks so resplendent in last season’s pret-a-freebie, sniffed and huffed unsurprisingly at the prospect of having to rub shoulders with some real people. It certainly made a change from the facile and shallow leeches who seem to overpopulate guests lists these days.

But the result was magical. The actors revelled in the mayhem and the fans, with the exception of one or two who were, frankly, a little grabby, seemed to love blurring the uncertain line between fact, fiction, real life and Home and Away. It wasn’t the great surf club shindig of ’03 but it was an absolute ripper.

Reckon? Flamin’ oath.

[buttybabe]

Would someone mind posting the links to any photos not already here please. I have the 2FM and the getty site. I would also be delighted to see Norman and Emily re-united but perhaps she could be cured rather than dying so they can live happily ever after..........aahhh! Another request - does anyone have the full version of a 1995 episode in which Don, Marilyn & Stephen have a party in Fisher's office after the exams have finished. It's very funny - they all get drunk and have a conga round the office. It leads up to Shane being knocked off his motorbike and the ensuing story of who 'did it'.

Thanks in advance.

[cocoblush]

a few more pics here http://fotoglif.com/f/8zy6eq0si3ef/ngn1g9oonvp6