I'm currently reading Geffen: A Biography of New Hollywood by Tom King. It is a biography of David Geffen, the billionaire part-owner of DreamWorks SKG. I'm finding it fascinating. Learning a lot about the machinations of Hollywood (notably Geffen's first attempts at studio moviemaking-after he had made his name in the music industry-and his brutal introduction to the power politics of Hollywood production). Oh, and on that note, I'm a fan of film-industry biographies: I recommend the works of John Baxter. He's done biographies on George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen, among others. He gets right to the point (you don't have to read five chapters on Spielberg's great-grandmother to get to the good stuff...although, that said, I'm sure she was a great lady!).

Since this is the first edition of this section, I have several things to comment on this week:

1. I have delivered the edited draft of AREA 7. I'm very pleased with it. It's big. It out-actions ICE STATION in every respect!

2. I have contributed a short story to the second GIRLS' NIGHT IN anthology (it's by invitation only). It's a 24-page super-charged actioner called ALTITUDE RUSH. Can't tell you what it's about at this stage. All royalties from sales of the anthology go to the War Child charity.

3. On more important matters, I was shattered last week watching the Aussies lose the test series to India (apologies to American readers: this is cricket talk!). I guess our winning run had to come to an end sometime, and it took a superhuman innings from VVS Laxman to do it. Don't worry boys, I'll still back you! The nail-biting final overs of that Third Test really showed why test cricket still commands respect.

4. And finally, Russell Crowe and his Best Actor Oscar: what a legend. Great actor, great speech, and from what I hear, great bloke as well. Plus, you don't get to where he's got without a lot of hard work. Well done, mate (and sorry about the Bunnies; my dad watched his league team just disappear into thin air). As for the rumours of Russell Crowe playing James Bond...why would he want to play Bond when he could play Shane Schofield! He'd have my vote.

THE END

Cheers and see you later!

Matthew Reilly
Sydney, Australia