THE AGE
UNDERBELLY THE MUSICAL: The Threepenny Opera reveals our obsession
Roses at Flemington in winter
Theyre off in the celluloid Cup and Media Puzzle leads
By KARL QUINN
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
STANDING trackside at Flem-
ington yesterday, Damien Oliver
saw his life flash before his eyes.
Its surreal, mate, he said as he
watched the film version of him-
self parade around the mount-
ing yard. Im not feeling
emotional about it I expect
that will come later but its
very strange.
Oliver and several hundred
Wheel of Fortune hostess Soldiers face boot after another drug shame
Adriana Xenides dies at 54
By MICHAEL IDATO
GAME show hostess Adriana
Xenides was a rare jewel in tele-
vision who will be remembered
for her generosity towards oth-
ers, her former colleague John
Burgess said last night.
Adriana had a heart of gold
and she couldnt do enough for
people, Burgess said. She
always put other people ahead
of herself. Weve lost a good
person.
Xenides, 54, co-host of the
long-running game show Wheel
of Fortune for 18 years, was
admitted to Liverpool Hospital
in Sydney last week with stom-
ach pain.
She died just before 5pm yes-
terday from a ruptured intest-
ine. Her family were at her
bedside. Burgess had visited her
earlier in the day. Im pleased
she went peacefully, he said.
Burgess said Xenides had
struggled since leaving the lime-
light in 1999. She appeared
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with the criminal underworld is a universal and timeless dilemma.
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others were at Flemington to
catch a glimpse of The Cup, the
feature film Simon Wincer is
making about Olivers win in the
2002 Melbourne Cup aboard
Media Puzzle. He is played in
the movie by Stephen Curry,
who has shed much weight for
the role and learnt to ride but
still found himself almost being
thrown by one of the three
horses playing his steed.
Theres no shame in that,
though, as Oliver could attest.
John Burgess with Adriana Xenides,
who died yesterday in Sydney.
occasionally on the panel show
Beauty and the Beast and was on
Celebrity Big Brother in 2002.
We worked for 12 years
together on Wheel of Fortune
and never had a blue, never had
an argument, in all that time,
which is remarkable for the
business were in, Burgess said.
In the mid-1990s, at the
height of her fame, Xenides
endured a very public battle
As the jockey returned to the
mounting yard after his 2002
victory, his horse threw him out
of the saddle and to the ground.
Ooh, there you go, comment-
ator Bruce McAvaney said at the
time. It can happen to the great
ones.
Oliver and Curry chatted
amiably during the long morn-
ing of many takes, though its
not clear whether they dis-
cussed dismounting tech-
niques. Its unlikely Curry
with depression and had a phys-
ical breakdown. When she
returned to the set of Wheel of
Fortune then the top-rating
game show on TV after a
seven-month break, she said: A
difficult chapter has closed, and
tomorrow is a blank page.
Xenides was born in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, and emigrated
to Adelaide in her teens,
spending most of her working
life in the South Australian cap-
ital, where Wheel of Fortune was
filmed.
Her publicist and friend for
more than two decades Michael
Shephard yesterday acknowl-
edged a side of Xenides which
was rarely seen by the public.
She was well-educated,
came from a great family and
spoke five languages, he said.
She had such an amazing
insight into life and the world,
and a great passion for anim-
als.
Funeral details have not yet
been announced.
quizzed Oliver too hard about
motivation, either. That one is
written in big black letters on
the side of his white jodhpurs:
J. Oliver.
Oliver rode in the 2002 Cup
just three days after his brother
Jason died in a training fall in
Western Australia, and he wore
his brothers silks on the day.
Interviewed on his victory lap,
Oliver said: Mate, Melbourne
cups dont mean a thing to me
any more. Id give it back right
By DAN OAKES
DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT
FOUR Australian special forces
soldiers have been sent home in
disgrace from Afghanistan after
being caught abusing anabolic
steroids.
The troops, stationed at the
Special Operations Task Group
camp at Tarin Kowt, are likely to
be kicked out of the Defence
Force.
The revelation comes days
after an Australian commando
apparently overdosed on what is
Singer to urge Victorians to board the peace train
YUSUF Islam, the recording
artist formerly known as Cat
Stevens, will take time out from
his Australian tour to speak
about peace at a gala dinner in
the National Gallery of Victoria.
His first visit to Australia was
36 years ago, when he was at the
height of his fame with songs
such as Peace Train, Father and
Son and Wild World.
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The crowd watch the big race being enacted for the cameras at
Flemington yesterday. Actor Stephen Curry tries to calm his steed and
meets his role model Damien Oliver (below).
now to have my brother back.
Thats the loss that will give
The Cup its heart and soul, but
its body is all about the details.
And wont the train spotters
have fun with this one.
It was cloudy at Flemington
yesterday; on Cup day 2002, it
was sunny. The jockey in orange
yesterday was one of the shor-
test there; the jockey he was
playing, Steven Arnold, is one of
the tallest, at 175 centimetres.
The racecourse on Cup day is a
believed to have been an opiate
at the same special forces base,
in the southern province of
Oruzgan. He is in a serious con-
dition at a United States military
hospital in Germany.
In answer to questions from
The Age, Defence confirmed
that two special forces soldiers
were caught with steroids in
February or March. Two more
soldiers tested positive to ster-
oids, and all four were sent back
to Australia.
A Defence spokesman said:
Australian Defence Force
He changed his name to
Yusuf Islam after converting to
Islam in 1977.
On June 19 he will take the
stage at the Great Hall of the gal-
lery on his belief that a peaceful
world can be restored by people
committing themselves to the
10 Commandments.
The director of the Interfaith
Centre of Melbourne, Reverend
PICTURES: PAT SCALA
riot of roses; yesterday, only a
few sturdy survivors could be
seen, though where it mattered
in front of the camera 4000
fakes did a great job of making it
look like the first Tuesday in
November.
Oh, and one more thing. The
women in the crowd of nearly
400 extras shivered in their
strapless dresses, but they didnt
have a drop of champagne to
dull the pain.
Now thats surreal.
members testing positive to
prohibited substances are nor-
mally discharged, as the use of
prohibited substances is not
compatible with an effective
and efficient defence force.
Anabolic steroids are used to
increase body mass and
strength, particularly in the
upper body, but have been
linked to psychological side
effects such as increased aggres-
sion and mania, known collo-
quially as roid rage, and
physical problems such as high
blood pressure and the
Helen Summers, said this would
be Islams only public appear-
ance outside his concert tour.
Last month, Victorian MP
Peter Kavanagh called on Immi-
gration Minister Chris Evans
and the federal government to
block his entry to Australia.
Mr Kavanagh, a member of
the Democratic Labor Party,
said in Parliament that Islam
TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2010
Bid to halt
patenting
of genes
Landmark case to test legality
By JANE LYONS
A LANDMARK court case is set
to challenge the legality of an
Australian-issued patent for a
breast and ovarian cancer gene.
If successful, the case could
set a precedent leading to other
gene patents being overturned.
The case could also
strengthen calls by researchers,
doctors and healthcare advoc-
ates to stop the practice of gene
patenting altogether.
There are about 16,000 gene
patents worldwide, covering the
breadth of human affliction
from breast cancer, epilepsy and
hepatitis C to cystic fibrosis and
hemochromatosis.
The fact that monopoly rights
over gene patents can be bought
has raised concerns over impedi-
ments to genetic research, as
well as the higher cost for
patients forced to use the gene
test offered by the patent owner.
Researchers are also often forced
to pay large licence fees.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn
will file the patent challenge in
the Federal Court today. The
move comes after a New York
court recently invalidated the
US patent for the same breast
and ovarian cancer gene, and as
an Australian Senate inquiry
into the impact of gene patents
prepares to release its report.
Maurice Blackburn principal
Rebecca Gilsenan said the legal-
ity of gene patents had never
been challenged in Australia.
She said the patents agency,
IP Australia, was giving these
[patents] out theyre privat-
ising [genes] . . . and its never
been clarified by anybody.
The court challenge will seek
to overturn the Australian pat-
ent to the genetic mutations
BRCA 1 and BRCA, which is
owned by a US biotech com-
pany and two international
research organisations.
She said the main legal argu-
ment against the patent was one
of discovery over invention, but
there were also big ethical and
philosophical questions about
whether the body could be
privatised. Its a healthcare
rights issue and an issue of
increased risk of heart disease.
They can be administered orally,
by injection or through skin
patches.
Defence Force chief Angus
Houston held an extraordinary
news conference last week to
announce that a commando
had apparently overdosed in his
quarters at Tarin Kowt.
A bottle of pills and a white
powder, which Air Chief Mar-
shal Houston said appeared to
be an opiate, were found in the
privates room. Opiates are
derived from opium poppies
had supported a decree issued
by Irans Ayatollah Khomeini
that encouraged Muslims to kill
author Salman Rushdie over his
1988 novel The Satanic Verses.
Islam has repeatedly denied
supporting the decree.
Islam was denied entry to the
US in 2004 in what he later
wrote was a case of mistaken
identity. AAP
The world.
3
NEWS
freedom of research into the
fundamental building blocks of
our being, Ms Gilsenan said.
She said Maurice Blackburns
interest in gene patents had
been galvanised in 2008 when
Australian-based Genetic Tech-
nologies tried to enforce its
licensee patent rights to BRCA 1
and BRCA 2.
The company backed down
after a public outcry and gov-
ernment intervention.
Genetic Technologies, along
with the patent co-owners
Myriad Genetics, Centre de Rec-
herce de Chul in Canada and
The Cancer Institute ( Japan),
are respondents in this case.
About 400 gene patents have
been granted in Australia.
Access to the genes, whether for
research or diagnostics, is at the
behest of the company, which
holds the patent for 20 years.
But with genetic medicine
and development of targeted
treatment to be the next leap for-
ward in healthcare, it was imper-
ative that all gene information
remained in the public domain,
said John Stubbs, chief executive
of Cancer Voices, one of two
applicants in the court case.
If researchers can isolate a
part of a gene that can have an
impact on a cancer, we believe
that the information should stay
in the public domain, Mr
Stubbs said. As a cancer patient
you want to feel that you retain
ownership, that you retain
control over your treatment.
Yvonne DArcy, 64, a cervical
and breast cancer sufferer and
the second case applicant,
agrees. Its morally and ethically
corrupt [to own the rights to a
gene], Ms DArcy said.
A spokesman for Genetic
Technologies, Greg McPherson,
said public institutions had
previously taken months, and
sometimes years, to provide
BRCA 1 and 2 results. His com-
pany could determine a womans
risk in as little as two weeks.
Genetic Technologies has
always operated within the exist-
ing legal and patent framework.
Should the rules change, the
company will operate within the
new rules, he said.
and include morphine and
heroin.
Air Chief Marshal Houston
said that until now there had
been no indication of illicit drug
use among Australian troops in
Afghanistan, but he admitted
some troops had been discip-
lined for abusing steroids.
All of Australias 300 special
forces troops in Afghanistan
including commandos, members
of the Special Air Service Regi-
ment and support units have
been or will be drug tested as a
result of the apparent overdose.
Yusuf Islam
Your world.
NATAGE A003