Saturday, December 28, 2013

Kevin Rudd

My next celebrity autograph blog once again delves into my catalogue of political figures, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.


In 2006, Kevin Rudd successfully challenged Kim Beazley and was elected as leader of the federal Labor Party, which was (at the time) in opposition to the Liberal Party led by John Howard (please refer to one of my previous blogs, or Wikipedia, for further information - everyone does it).

The timing couldn't have been better for "K-Rudd" as he was dubbed by the media, for a shot as Prime Minister.  Building on a platform of change, the brand "Kevin 07" and for Kevin Rudd's willingness to use a more social form of media, including Facebook, Twitter, and an appearance on Channel Ten's "Rove", captured the attention of the younger generation of Australia.


In contrast, the Liberal Party was suffering from in-fighting, in particular the stagnated issue of the John Howard / Peter Costello leadership change-over, the Party's decision to restrict it's use of alternate forms of media, and their introduction of the WorkChoices legislation - left of lot of voters either unhappy or (at best) out of the loop.

So, when the Australian public cast their vote on 24 November 2007, the Kevin Rudd led Labor Party won the election, in a land-slide, and Kevin Rudd was sworn in on 3 December 2007.


Kevin Rudd then acted quickly to dismantle the WorkChoices legislation, signed the Kyoto Protocol, made a federal apology to the Stolen Generation of Indigenous Australians, and introduced the Australian 2020 Summit (which was meant to be forum for Australian's best and brightest - to discuss and shape the future of the nation).  He also picked Julia Gillard as his deputy.


After continued rumours of Kevin Rudd's leadership style, and his treatment of staff, on 23 June 2010 Julia Gillard challenged Kevin for the Labor Party leadership and the party caucus elected Julia Gillard to succeed Kevin Rudd, thereby making Julia Gillard Australia's first female Prime Minster.

Kevin Rudd was then given the position of Foreign Minister, but there were continued media rumours of a leadership challenge.

On 27 February 2012 Julia Gillard opened the leadership up for election - with Kevin Rudd running against her, but again the Labor caucus voted in her favour.  Then again on 21 March 2013, Julia Gillard responded to media rumours by opening up the leadership for election, this time Kevin Rudd did not run and Julia Gillard was re-elected unopposed.  Then, once again, as a response to media speculation and low approval rating, Julia Gillard opened up the leadership of the Labor Party on 26 June 2013, which Kevin Rudd won 57-43.

On 27 June 2013, Kevin Rudd was sworn in as Australian Prime Minister for the second time.  Using the ground-swell of support, Kevin Rudd decided to send Australia to the polls on 7 September 2013, facing off against the Tony Abbott-led Liberal Party, unfortunately for Kevin Rudd, the Liberals won.  After the result, Kevin Rudd resigned from leadership of the Labor Party, and on 22 November 2013 he formally ended his political career - resigning from politics altogether.

Now, onto the autograph!  During the honeymoon period from his 2007 election win, I sent an email to the Prime Minister congratulating him on his success and requesting an autograph.  Not long after I received this signed 3x5 photo in the mail:


Until next time!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ray Park

My next celebrity autograph blog is Ray Park.



Ray is a British stunt man who has progressed his career as an actor, including such memorable performances as Darth Maul from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, one of the best characters from the whole movie, who was unfortunately killed near the end (sorry, spoilers):


From here, Ray appeared in the first X-Men movie as Toad.  The movie wanted to make the characters as realistic as possible, replacing coloured spandex costumes with leather uniforms, or in Toad's case, street gear.  I think it worked.






In 2009, Ray appeared as Snake Eyes in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and again in the 2013 sequel GI Joe: Retaliation.  Here's a promo image from the first movie, Ray is on the left. The left. If you can stop staring at Rachel Nichols, Ray is on the left.



Anyway, onto the autograph.  Ray appeared at a pop culture convention here in Melbourne during mid-2013 and whilst I wasn't able to attend, a friend of my brother was able to pick up this inscribed 8x10 of Ray as Darth Maul.  Awesome!



Until next time.


Thursday, December 19, 2013

Jo Guest - former Page 3 girl

My next celebrity autograph blog is the wonderful Jo Guest.


In the 1990's, Jo first came to attention as one of the world-famous Page 3 Girls, featuring all her beauty in page 3 of the UK newspaper The Sun, along with many other fine women.



From here, Jo went onto appear in many other publications, such as Loaded, FHM, then Escort, Mayfair, Men Only, etc, with each photo-shoot getting racier and racier.  Jo also extended her career into TV, hosting shows on the Men And Motors channel in the UK.  She also appeared in the music video for Blur's "Country Life".


In the late 2000's the number and frequency of Jo's photo-shoots started to decline, and in 2008 she announced she was suffering from fibromyalgia.  This is where the autographed photo comes into play... Knowing it would be difficult for me to meet Jo in person (since I live in Australia), I found a seller on eBay who is also Jo's sister - selling a wide collection of Jo's photos and magazines, as a way to raise funds for Jo.  So, here's the photo:



If you'd like a signed photo (or a magazine) I suggest you go on eBay.