Days before The Hollywood Reporter Australia launched itself as \u201cthe trusted voice of Australia\u2019s entertainment industry,\u201d the trusted voice published an all-caps EXCLUSIVE: Patrick Brammall would host the Logies. A few hours later, every other outlet confirmed the gig had gone to wildlife warrior-turned-TV heartthrob Robert Irwin, and the post quietly vanished.<\/p>\n
Neither man was in attendance at Thursday night\u2019s launch party.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually received two industry sources that told us that information,\u201d publisher Paris Raine sighed to me about the blunder, eye-roll included. \u201cWhich, typically, that\u2019s enough for us to produce something. But it\u2019s unfortunate circumstances \u2014 the two sources gave misleading information. So, we corrected it, we removed it. And \u2026 moving forward!\u201d<\/p>\n
Every outlet makes the occasional mistake. They just don\u2019t usually do it in the days before launching a masthead whose entire pitch is authority. Consider it an accidental preview of the night ahead.<\/p>\n
For the uninitiated: THR Australia is the latest entry in our grand local tradition of licensing a famous American masthead and hoping the prestige survives the Qantas flight over.<\/p>\n
Raine is a 26-year-old Sydney model and influencer \u2014 300,000 Instagram followers, a feed full of red carpet poses at movie screenings \u2014 and, now, a fledgling publisher. The Hollywood Reporter is her first publication.<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll tell you romantically how this glamorous-sounding venture came to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitting quietly to myself,\u201d she told Thursday\u2019s crowd, \u201cand that\u2019s when the idea arrived. I heard: The Hollywood Reporter \u2026 Australia. And I didn\u2019t know what that meant. And it definitely felt so much bigger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raine had considered licensing Deadline \u2014 another US-based trade media outlet focusing on entertainment \u2014 but held back.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing gave me the same spark. I go off a feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her editor-in-chief is Sean Sennett, previously of Time Off, a free street-press magazine in Brisbane. They met at a movie premiere about a year ago, sat next to each other, and she shared the vision. He describes the staff of six as \u201ca very lean, mean beast\u201d and called Raine \u201can amazing visionary who manifested the f**k out of this\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s launch at Town Hall \u2014 one of Sydney\u2019s most iconic rooms \u2014 certainly looked like a THING. There was a banner at the entrance: THE TRUSTED VOICE OF AUSTRALIA\u2019S ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. And there was a fairy-princess ball gown, worn by Raine.<\/p>\n
Moments before Australia\u2019s newest media maven took to the microphone to address the guests, I spotted her backstage doing guided breathing exercises combined with air squats.<\/p>\n
Despite all the gushing about championing Australia\u2019s arts scene and spotlighting local talent, it all seemed less Vanity Fair and more vanity project.<\/p>\n
The canap\u00e9s included a bread buffet (carbs? So not Hollywood), and the night\u2019s true cover star was Raine herself, floating around the room, pausing for photos.<\/p>\n
Conspicuously missing? Australia\u2019s entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
Because across town, on the very same night, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) was throwing a televised 40th-anniversary Hall of Fame celebration for music icons like Kate Ceberano and Gurrumul, with actors like Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill and Eddie Perfect in the room.<\/p>\n
When I asked Sennett why the launch was scheduled head-to-head with the biggest industry event of the week, he raced to brush it off: \u201cThat\u2019s a whole different world. It\u2019s a whole different universe. I mean, if it was held on a different night, I\u2019m sure a lot of those people would be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy gosh. What a room we have here!\u201d Raine told the crowd, marvelling at the guests surrounding her.<\/p>\n
The starriest names at THR\u2019s bash: Dean Wells \u2014 the Married At First Sight villain, class of 2018 \u2014 and his fianc\u00e9e Aimee Woolley, a Beauty and the Geek alumna.<\/p>\n
Wells, asked to describe Raine, offered: \u201cShe\u2019s a model and sort of \u2026 socialite, kind of \u2026 I dunno. I just met her at a bunch of events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Content creator Isaias Vego, 29, was queuing to take a photo in front of the media wall. He wants to break into marketing and has been relentlessly going for a bunch of job interviews (\u201cbut they\u2019ve been telling me, \u2018Don\u2019t call us, we\u2019ll call you\u2019. Apparently, I need a degree even though I\u2019m good\u201d). <\/p>\n
Of the magazine, he said: \u201cApparently it\u2019s big in America. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He seemed more familiar with Raine than the publication she\u2019s hoping to turn into a cultural force.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s an influencer. I know her from parties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Raine\u2019s IMDb bio describes her as an actress \u201cwith flexibility for international projects\u201d who has \u201cperformed in an array of noteworthy productions\u201d. Her StarNow profile fills in the detail: stand-in extra on Married At First Sight, 2020; featured extra on Married At First Sight, 2021; extra on Home and Away. She was also, in 2015, a state winner and national finalist in the Miss NSW Teen Galaxy pageant. Her latest role now is cosplaying as a 2000s magazine editrix.<\/p>\n
When the velvet curtain dropped to unveil the debut cover star (actress Phoebe Tonkin, with a special edition featuring Heartbreak High actor Josh Heuston to follow) the room cheered, then murmured.<\/p>\n
Paris declared that within the past week they\u2019d doubled their print run because Coles and Woolworths had agreed to stock the magazine in supermarkets nationwide. One obvious question lingered: Are mums in the cereal aisle paying 15 bucks for a trade mag featuring a guy from a teen Netflix show on the cover?<\/p>\n
One media identity said they swung by the party to figure out what exactly this whole thing was attempting to achieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI \u2026 think \u2026 it\u2019s great \u2026 they\u2019re \u2026 supporting the industry?\u201d they winced, before mouthing they couldn\u2019t speak truthfully.<\/p>\n
The Hollywood Reporter is famous for its Oscar-season roundtables with nominated actors. Raine wants to do the same locally. The trouble is Nicole, Cate and Margot don\u2019t need the knock-off version when they already do the real thing with the actual edition of The Hollywood Reporter. Y\u2019know \u2026 the one in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard not to imagine the Aussie roundtable line-up: Delta Goodrem, Jessica Mauboy and Natalie Bassingthwaighte. Nothing wrong with that. Just perhaps not the cultural gravitas the banner at the door promises.<\/p>\n
As the team handed out the inaugural issue \u2014 a first look before it hits newsstands on June 22 at $14.99 \u2014 I grabbed a copy, jumped in a taxi, and started thumbing through.<\/p>\n
Within 10 seconds, a typo glared out from the page. (Well, several typos. But I\u2019m trying to be generous.)<\/p>\n
Pick up a copy at Coles and see if you can find them all.<\/p>\n
james.weir@news.com.au<\/b><\/p>\n