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Jessica has resisted the raunch culture that many in her peer group can't. She's proud of herself _ as she should be - but what's unusual is that she says so and gets tears in her eyes about it. What does a young girl who only has Paris to emulate have to be proud of? Only things that will make her mother weep. The original and the best Oz Idol, Guy Sebastian, set the standard, the very high standard, of how to be an Australian Idol. He has always taken the mantle seriously and prides himself on being a positive role model. "There's a lot of power that goes with that and that power is a power to influence,'' he says. "You can be a bad influence, lose the plot and be a bad boy or a bad girl and fit that whole thing. Or you can be a great influence, do stuff for charities, have good moral standards and be a bit of a light. "Or you can just be neutral and just be nothing and I sometimes think being nothing can be the worst. "But I definitely realised that power very early on and I wanted to be as good a role model as I can be. "It's an important aspect to being on Idol. People do idolise you and they do model themselves on you as well, sometimes.'' Which comes back to my problem with Damien. Yes, he's a good bloke, from what I've seen, without a doubt. Yes, he leads a great life - wife, kiddie, steady income and living in one of the world's best cities. Yes, he has a fantastic voice, no argument (well, a small one. The falsetto business is starting to grate, but let's not be too picky here). But just who is it that's going to idolise him, put him on a pedestal? His peers are other 30-year-old blokes. If they've made it to 30 without doing something really stupid to ruin the rest of their lives, then they probably think they've done all right for themselves, thank you very much. It will be their mums who adore Damien, who will wish their sons "would turn out to be nice boys like that Irish fellow from the television''. Australia - and Ireland, it would seem - have an abundance of good, decent, talented blokes to admire. About the worst we can do is Shane Warne and it's hard to really hate him when not even his ex-wife Simone does. We also have an abundance of young women like Jessica but it's much harder to hear them over the din of the party girls. |
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Christmas lights at Darling Harbour, Sydney Kids’ entertainment, including face painting and an appearance from Santa, begins at noon. A concert featuring Guy Sebastian and the Young Divas starts at 7.30pm. See the Christmas tree with 60,000 lights turn at 8.55pm, followed by a fireworks display over Cockle Bay. Dec 2, Darling Harbour, www.shfa.nsw.gov.au. |
(thanks to scanners, I think Coco)..