An Australian version of the hit TV sitcom The Office is in the works.Casting is quietly under way for an Australian take on the hugely influential series.And in a tantalising twist, the lead character in the Australian remake is understood to be female, rather than the bumbling, dolt-like male character that has led the UK and US versions.The series is expected to film in Sydney mid-year and be produced by Bunya Productions.It is expected on Amazon Prime Video.Rumours initially linked much-loved Australian comedian Jim Jefferies to the project, but he is not believed to be involved.Hollywood funny girl Isla Fisher was also understood to have been approached but is not associated with the production.Actors understood to have been approached to be in the remake include Magda Szubanski, Rachel Griffiths and Wentworth’s Katrina Milosevic. The Office was co-created by Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant. Gervais starred in the original UK series. A highly acclaimed American adaptation, based on the UK original, starring Steve Carell ran for nine seasons and picked up a slew of awards.The original BBC series of The Office followed the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictional Wernham Hogg paper company. Gervais played the lead character David Brent. Bunya Productions produced the acclaimed ABC series Mystery Road.Twitter has been a hotbed of intrigue in recent days about the rumoured local version of The Office.HAS CAREY RISKED IT ALL?Has Wayne Carey risked his TV career on the paltry reward of appearing on the sweaty and sweary celebrity confessional SAS Australia?SAS Australia sells itself as a star-studded extreme bootcamp, but the secret weapon of the show is the interrogation, where mentally and physically exhausted celebrities are probed and prodded about their moments of shame, disgrace, wrong calls or failures — and invariably they crumble and blab all.Sure, Carey will have earned a solid fistful of dollars for his participation in the show.But does the risk outweigh the reward?Carey, a brilliant footballer and insightful and talented footy commentator and analyst who has deals with 7, Triple M and The Age, has run foul of the law on several high-profile occasions and made a number of well-documented poor decisions in his private life.So just why he decided to say yes to SAS Australia is baffling.Surely he had to know the show would back over calamities, such as his affair with Kelli Stevens, the then-wife of his North Melbourne teammate Anthony Stevens, and his arrest in Miami for assaulting police after he allegedly “glassed” his then-girlfriend Kate Neilson when he threw wine in her face during an argument at a restaurant.He has always denied glassing her, saying the glass accidentally touched her lip.Carey has gone out of his way to try to put those incidents and others behind him.They are not topics he has wanted to canvass in the past decade. So why was he putting himself in the firing line of the scandal and confessional-seeking SAS puppet-masters?Just how will the Channel 7 overlords react when the greatest hits of Carey’s worst moments are regurgitated for a new, younger, more aware audience?The key may well be how that audience reacts.And will his confessional on the show spark more scrutiny of his life both privately and professionally?SAS Australia has been a great career redemption for some. Sam Burgess, Candice Warner and Jana Pittman certainly came out of the show having won sympathy, respect and support from viewers. But it doesn’t work for all.Will that win be there for Carey? Or has he kicked an own goal?STRICTLY SECRET CASTINGCameron Daddo has revealed a long held casting secret about the classic Australian film Strictly Ballroom.According to Daddo the choice of who would play the lead role of maverick dancer Scott Hastings came down to a battle between himself and Paul Mercurio.Director Baz Luhrmann opted for Mercurio.Decades later Mercurio and Daddo came face to face again on the dancefloor when a leather-clad Daddo was a contestant on Dancing With The Stars: All Stars.Mercurio was one of the show’s judges.The pair acknowledged their sliding door moment as Mercurio gave Daddo feedback for his patchy tango on the Channel 7 show on Sunday.“I just want to thank you for not getting the Strictly gig,” Mercurio said.“Because I have travelled the world, I have had a great time, I’ve done some films, I even got this job.“So, mate, thank you.”A BLOCK OF MUDLike many, Shaynna Blaze is still figuring out how The Block will fare now that it has left the city for a tree change in South Gisborne.“It is going to be different. You have the fact that the challenge is not just the houses, it is an actual property that they are creating and they (the contestants) are not going to be in close confines with each other, so that is going to be a challenge to get them to interact,” Blaze said.“The dynamics will be so different.”Blaze also forecast harsh winter weather would make filming uncomfortable. “They have not started (filming) yet so it is going to be (filming) in the thick of the worst time of the year,” she said. “You could not renovate at a worse time of year than what they are going to do, so there are the challenges of that. They are going to be full of mud.“Then there is the cold and the fog and where are they going to shop?”Blaze, an interior designer, noted that The Block’s rural location meant it was not just minutes from stores stuffed with cushions, throws and wall decorations necessary for the “faffing and fluffing” of the houses.“Just putting it out there, where are they going to get their fluffy bits,” she mused.“Usually they get in the car and whiz 10 minutes down the road to get things and that still takes them four hours, so how is this going to happen?”SURVIVAL TVExtreme TV just stepped up a notch with SBS confirming it had commissioned Alone Australia.Alone Australia is based on the US series called Alone and will follow a cast of 10 self-reliance, survival experts as they brave the elements and fight to stay alive with nothing but what they carry in on their backs. Their challenge is to live alone in the wild, for as long as they can.The person who lasts the longest takes home the prize.International series have seen contestants dropped in remote locations such as Patagonia, just south of the Arctic Circle and Mongolia.Casting is now under way.LEHMO’S SWIPE AT GOLD SUCCESSAnthony “Lehmo”’ Lehmann believes the success in the Melbourne radio market of Gold FM’s Christian O’Connell is in part because he inherited a winning shift from himself and Jo Stanley.Lehmann and Stanley were stunningly sacked as Gold FM’s breakfast team at the end of 2017 a matter of weeks after taking the shift to No.1 in the Melbourne FM ratings.“I mean, we were No.1. Jo Stanley and I had been doing that show together for less than two years. Now in radio, it’s accepted that you give a show two years to see if it works. Well, we were No.1 in two years,” Lehmann has told Adam Zwar’s 10 Questions With Adam Zwar podcast.“So logically it just never made sense to me. “Clearly, they thought they had a better option in their back pocket and the option they went with (Christian O’Connell), it turns out he’s doing fine. “But I still contend, he’s doing fine, on the shoulders of what we built.”“He (Christian O’Connell) is very good at radio, by the way. He’s an excellent broadcaster and absolutely deserves success. “But I think we, you know, put that shift in a really great position.”
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