COULD the Vinnies CEO Sleepout fundraising tallies of our local MLAs be a harbinger of the upcoming election result?

For those looking for signs – Opposition Leader Zed Seselja, who manfully overcame a sleeping bag malfunction (the zip wouldn’t open) to blitz the political field, raising $2515 for Canberra’s homeless. Greens Action Man MLA Shane Rattenbury managed $470 and Labor’s Minister for Community Services (and housing) Joy Burch could squeeze the comrades for only, ahem, $460.

Topping the star-studded list of 155 participants was Zoo Advertising’s top banana Clinton Hutchinson with a credible $16,200. All up, our CEOs raised $457,213.26.

Brodt burghers

“CC” never misses an edition of the Member for Canberra’s lavish newsletter “The Brodtmann Bulletin”. We can’t, it arrives in the letterbox despite the menacing presence of a large “no junk mail” sign and a small white dog. However, before it begins its journey into the recycling stream, we like to count how many photos of herself Gai Brodtmann can fit into the six pages. Alas, only 10 this time because two of the pages were devoted to a map and list of all the schools in the electorate benefiting from the Labor’s education largesse.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Katy Gallagher’s more modest pre-election pitch to the good burghers of Molongolo is limited to only five self-portraits over four pages.

Grum reaper?

MICHAEL Stevens, succeeding editor of “The Canberra Times” after lunching treasure Jack Waterford was Rudded by the Rural Press regime, is said to be returning to the paper to oversee a move of some editorial services (sub-editing?) to Fairfax’s hateful Auckland sweatshop where, after leaving Fyshwick, he was sent to head up an online and computing transformation in NZ.

He is best remembered by the paper’s now endangered scribblers for when Dame Edna inveigled him and his wife on to the Canberra Theatre stage some years ago and gave them marriage counselling. The event found its way to the paper’s arts gossip column with the alliteration-rich heading: “Edna Everage educates the editor”.

Wot, no director?

ROBYN Archer’s year-long centenary mardi gras is set to kick off in a matter of months, but the Centenary of Canberra director Sarah Hitchcock has resigned before a single firework goes off. How so? It was a “personal decision”, she told us.

Hitchcock is heading off to be head of education and visitor services at the Australian War Memorial.

She won’t start on Anzac Parade until a centenary replacement for her has been found, which may be as late as October – after the Centenary’s full program is announced. “Most of the heavy-lifting, backend work has been done,” she said reassuringly.

Saucy minx…

THE last time saucy minx Penny Ashton (pictured) was in town she was 14 and here for a Music in Education conference. Twenty four years later, she’s “looking forward to titillating the capital” with her acclaimed solo show called “Hot Pink Bits” – a “burlesque-esque history of the sex industry,” she says. It’s at Vivaldi Theatre Restaurant, July 14.

… and saucy men

AND if hot, pink bits don’t rock your boat, how about some beefcake? The male-stripper ensemble Sydney Hotshots (that’s Gene pictured) will be braving Canberra’s withering cold to present their “Funtasia” show at Calwell Bar and Bistro, Calwell shops, on Tuesday, July 17. They say the “show is jam-packed with sensational bodies, dancing, acrobatics, comedy and even a little romance to heat things up!”

Sweet rewards

HERE’S something rather sweet. Each Monday, the teaching staff of Canberra Boys’ Grammar gather in gentle anticipation as principal Justin Garrick awards an enormous block of chocolate to any chalkie who can get their name (and the school’s) into the media, including “CityNews”. So come on down Burgmann House’s gold star Jenny Holbrook, that sweet brick is finally yours!