Australian Women’s Weekly NZ October 2020

Hello! It’s so nice to be here writing to you and reconnecting with our treasured community of readers. For a time, like many of you out there, we weren’t sure what the future picture looked like for our industry. But it is with great happiness and excitement that we’re back. And back doing what we love – telling stories, sharing experiences and encouraging inspiration. If the year 2020 has taught us anything, it is that life is unpredictable. That the world can change in what seems like a blink of an eye and that the life plan most of us have so carefully crafted may as well be fish and chip paper at this point. Yet through all the change and challenge around us, there has been one constant –…

Diana & Debicki AS THE CROWN approaches its climactic final seasons, Australian star Elizabeth Debicki has revealed she’ll step into the role of Diana, Princess of Wales. Since lighting up the screen as the coolly beautiful golfer, Jordan Baker, in The Great Gatsby, Melbourne-raised Elizabeth has given gripping performances in The Night Manager, The Kettering Incident and Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Tenet. But it seems her latest role is her most coveted yet, with Elizabeth saying, “Princess Diana’s spirit, her words and actions live in the hearts of so many. It’s my true privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series.” A star-studded baby boom IN A WORLD full of uncertainty, life finds a way, and some of The Weekly’s favourite couples have annouced the very best kind of news.…

TWO LITTLE DEVILS Conservation organisation Aussie Ark has welcomed two tiny Tasmanian Devil joeys, Itchy and Scratchy, who are being hand-raised by keeper Hewin Hochkins. PENGUINS ON SHOW The whole world can now watch the nightly march of the fairy penguins at Phillip Island, which is being livestreamed from 6pm to give relief to a pandemic-weary world. View at penguins.org.au A DOG’S LIFE Pets of the Homeless cares for the pets of those at risk of or experiencing homelessness, like cute pup Vindi (above) who found a loving temporary home. For details visit petsofthehomeless.org.au…

In the mass redundancies that hit New Zealand following the first wave of COVID-19, thousands of Kiwis lost their jobs. One of those people was Wendy Petrie, who had the double-edged sword of both losing her job publicly but then having to continue to do said job, on a national stage, every night. In a very 2020 twist, on what was supposed to be her final day in the 1 News chair, after almost 15 years, Auckland went back into lockdown and her job was then extended another two weeks. It’s been a year of stop-starts, of unexpected interruptions, of being unable to plan more than three days in advance. Maintaining a dark sense of humour about the entire thing is really the best way to make it through. Luckily,…

In a fire-engine red wool coat purchased “on sale at Neiman Marcus [department store]” for maximum impact – and warmth – her hands waving aloft and lashed together with sharp, plastic zip-lock cuffs, octogenarian actor Jane Fonda is out of her comfort zone but in her element. From Capitol Hill she bellows thanks to BAFTA for the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film as police lead her away to the jailhouse. It’s a scene that lit up news channels around the world last October and featured in the iconic actor’s acceptance video, played with pomp and glory on a big screen at the Beverly Hills BAFTA gala she couldn’t attend. To the uninitiated it looked like a piece of choreographed theatre, filmed in Washington D.C. perhaps for a…

While COVID-19 has played havoc with the royal diary, it was comforting to see some things haven’t changed, as Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh left Windsor Castle to take up residence in Balmoral for their annual summer holiday in the Scottish Highlands. A Palace spokesperson was eager to point out that all arrangements would be “in line with the relevant guidelines and advice”, but otherwise it was a return to normal life for the couple in the place they most love, probably the only place they feel truly free. What that means for the 94-year-old monarch and her 99-year-old husband has been described by granddaughter Princess Eugenie as “walks, picnics, dogs”. Add horse-riding for Her Majesty and al fresco staff-free barbies on the estate and you…