Gay abandon

Polls naming the world's most liveable cities are a dime a dozen but one by Monocle magazine caught the eye. Sydney came 13th and the usual suspects of sun, surf, restaurants were singled out for praise. However, the City of Sydney council copped a serve for allowing the Western Metro to languish on the drawing boards.

Erroneously attributing the responsibilities of the Premier, Nathan Rees, to Clover Moore is passing strange. After all, the magazine, headquartered in London, and aimed at readers in first-class lounges around the world's airports, has bureaus in Tokyo, Zurich and New York, as well as Sydney, so one would presume it would be able to inform itself of the differing responsibilities of state and local governments.

Maybe something about Moore made Monocle myopic, for the egregious mistakes continued: "Sydney has a relationship register but civil unions were rejected again by the Rudd Government in 2009. Clover Moore, Mayor of Sydney, is gay," the magazine said, explaining how Sydney's tolerance levels compared with other world cities.

Open book

The memoirs of the surveyor of the Queen's pictures and so-called "fourth man" in the Cambridge Five spy ring, Sir Anthony Blunt, have been made public after gathering dust

in the British Library for 25 years. The 30,000-word bio sheds new light on his friendship with fellow gay Guy Burgess, but there are no details about espionage activities, and nor does he implicate anyone not already under suspicion or name his Russian contacts.

Blunt died lonely and ashamed in 1983. He had confessed in 1964, but the British Establishment permitted him to continue his privileged life until 1979 when the magazine Private Eye named him as trying to prevent publication of a book about the spy ring.

Big weekend for John Howard

It is the former prime minister's birthday on Sunday. During his 11 years in office such an event was cause for many soft-focus media interviews and much speculation: How long could he hang on to power? Would he give Peter Costello a go? Could he beat Robert Menzies' 16-year prime ministership? Now, coming up for two

years since Kevn Rudd swept him from office, Howard intends spending a quiet Sunday in Sydney with the family to celebrate his 70th.

Stay in Touch

With hairdos of state

THE US first lady Michelle Obama was lauded as a trailblazer for all women with biceps when she appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine in the US in a sleeveless dress, a look that has become her staple. Now Obama has got the US media all in a tither again with a new cropped hairstyle.

The LA Times website compared the cut to other iconic hairstyles, such as Jennifer Aniston's "Rachel" cut on the television series Friends and the late Farrah Fawcett's famous layered style. However, the paper branded the new bob style "a bit matronly" and asked readers to vote on what they thought.

"We knew she had great arms. But thanks to a new, cropped hairstyle, Michelle Obama's flashing another sleek feature: her neck," crowed The Boston Herald, while the Chicago Tribune compared the cut- which Obama showed off for the first time this week during a performance by country musicians at the White House - to fashion trendsetter Jackie Kennedy's bob.

The Celebrity gossip website TMZ was not so generous in its appraisal, comparing the new-look Obama to the immediate former first lady, Laura Bush. "One of them is 62 years old," TMZ quipped.

The President is yet to comment on the new style.

With the ratings race

WHEN faced with spending an evening with Australia's Perfect Couple or the World's Strictest Parents, Australian television viewers opted for the latter on Wednesday night. Australia's Perfect Couple attracted an audience of less than 800,000 viewers for Nine and was the second disappointing launch of a new reality television series this week for the network, following Tuesday's launch of Dance Your Ass Off.

Despite inheriting an audience of just over 1.2 million from Two and a Half Men, before the end of the episode - which follows couples living in a house and competing in a series of games - more than more than 400,000 viewers had deserted, many of them for Seven's new series World's Strictest Parents, which drew an average audience of more than 1.5 million, up 300,000 on the previous timeslot occupier Home and Away.

There will be some sweaty palms over at Ten, meanwhile, after the MasterChef: Australia timeslot replacement series The 7pm Project took another dive. After drawing an initial audience of 1.3 million on Monday, and 1.1 million on Tuesday, it fell to an ominous 874,000 on Wednesday. The halcyon days of MasterChef are over for Ten and with results like this The 7pm Project's days are surely numbered.

Seven won the night, with a share of 27.6 per cent to Nine's 24.8 per cent. Ten ran a distant third with 19.8 per cent, followed closely by the ABC with 19.2 per cent and SBS with 8.5 per cent.

With fine dining

The Royal Australian Navy abolished the rum ration 88 years ago, and now we find out it has gone all multicultural: sailors on HMAS Toowoomba are demanding pizza and pasta.

Under the curious heading "The Italian Job", the Department of Defence announced that the crew's change of taste followed a personal exchange at sea with the Italian Navy's Borsini.

Sailors swapped jobs for a day, and the Italians introduced Toowoomba's chef, Able Seaman Cook Scott Tysoe to Tuscan cooking. Able Seaman Marine Technician Kane Turco liked eating out, and it was made more enjoyable by the fact he could speak Italian. "The food they served us was just like my nonna used to make," he told Department of Defence media.