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AFL star released on bail following burglary charges

Richmond AFL premiership player Marlion Pickett has been granted bail after allegedly stealing more than $380,000 during a series of burglaries of commercial properties. The athlete faced Perth Magistrates Court on June 12 for at least 12 separate charges, including aggravated burglary, criminal damage and stealing. The charges relate to a string of alleged incidents which police claim occurred between December 2022 and January 2023, during the AFL off-season. Pickett was arrested by WA Police on June 11, just hours after helping his team score a 15-point win over the Fremantle Dockers at Perth Stadium. He was freed from custody the following day after securing $50,000 bail and depositing a further $50,000 surety. Pickett has over 70 games with the Richmond Tigers under his belt following his debut in the 2019 AFL Grand Final, the first player to have done so in almost 70 years. The Richmond Football Club told the ACB in a statement that it “would continue to support Marlion and his family while these matters are dealt with”. Pickett’s Perth-based manager Anthony Van Der Wielen told the broadcaster that the AFL giant intended to fight the charges. “Due to the ongoing legal nature of the proceedings, Marlion, or myself will not be able to provide any further details, comment or clarification about the matter at this stage,” he said in a statement. “We understand and respect the public’s interest in this matter, but we also implore all to respect the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise, and to allow the legal proceedings to follow their due course without prejudice.” Pickett is due to face the same court in August. Image credit: Getty

Legal

Beloved General Hospital actor dies "sitting on a horse" while filming

Veteran soap opera actor Jay Pickett, has died at age 60. His wife, Elena Pickett, was the one to confirm his death. Best known for his roles in General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and Port Charles, Pickett passed away while away from his family in Idaho. News broke of the actor’s death on Friday when actor and film producer Jim Heffel shared a touching note about their friendship on Facebook. “Yesterday I lost a good friend and the world lost a great person,” Heffel wrote. “Jay Pickett decided to ride off into the Heavens. Jay died sitting on a horse ready to rope a steer in the movie Treasure Valley in Idaho. The way of a true cowboy.” He went on to say: “Jay wrote the story and starred in it. He was also coproducer with myself and Vernon Walker. He will be truly missed. “Ride like the wind partner.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSDQdQrKsPT/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSDQdQrKsPT/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by ElizanTV YouTube Channel. (@elizantv)</a> </div> </blockquote> He was filming a scene for his upcoming movie Treasure Valley when he passed, his film's director, Travis Mills went on to say in a touching post. "Jay Pickett, our leading man, writer, producer, and creator of this movie passed away suddenly while we were on location preparing to film a scene," Mills posted on the film's official Facebook page. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSCUBWCH5I6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSCUBWCH5I6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by 12 Westerns in 12 Months (@12westerns)</a> </div> </blockquote> "Our hearts are broken, and we grieve for his family who are so devastated by this shocking tragedy." "He was doing what he loved: acting, riding horses, making movies. And he was magnificent," he continued. Mills said that while his death is not confirm, it seems he passed from “a heart attack.” Mills added that everyone who was there did their best "to keep him alive." He went on to describe Pickett as an “incredible man” who was “kind, sweet and generous.” “He was one of the best actors I ever worked with and it was an honor to collaborate with him,” he continued. “Everyone who met him, even for the briefest moment, could feel his warmth, his wonderful spirit. It is difficult to find the words right now to say more. His closest friends have said that he was very happy making Treasure Valley and my hope is that he truly was.” The director finished his devastating post with a touching note, writing, “He was doing what he loved: acting, riding horses, making movies. And he was magnificent.” Jay is survived by his wife Elena, and their three children, Maegan, Michaela and Tyler.

Caring

Russell Crowe remembers hilarious prank Nicole Kidman pulled on Jay Leno

Nicole Kidman may have pulled off the greatest television prank of all time – and it’s taken years for anyone to realise. The Australian Oscar-winning actress known for her class and poise once tricked late night talk show host Jay Leno into using a very crude Aussie slang term countless times on his show, as he had no idea what the word meant. Many were surprised the term was in Kidman’s vocabulary. Kidman was left giggling after she had convinced the host that “crack a fat” meant something far more innocent that its true meaning (relating to male arousal). Leno then casually dropped the phrase every chance he got according to the star’s close friend, Russell Crowe. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Crowe recalled the hilarious incident which happened a few years ago. “She said it (‘crack a fat’) and Jay kept repeating it over and over again, and Nicole realised the hole she’d dug herself into,” Crowe explained. “Jay kept saying things like, ‘We’ll be right back after this break to crack a fat with Nicole Kidman!’ And that sent Nicole into giggles.” Crowe and Kidman have been close friends for years, after they met in Sydney many years ago. Crowe apparently did a “shoey” (the act of drinking an alcoholic beverage out of someone's shoe) at a party that Kidman had thrown. “It was at a house party that I threw in Darlinghurst with my then-boyfriend,” Kidman, 53, told News Corp in 2018 of meeting Crowe. She went on to say their friendship blossomed when they both began working in the US. “I have an enormous amount of love and affection for him because we have been friends literally our whole life. It’s an admirable thing when you forge your way through, decade after decade.”

International Travel

UK critic’s scathing review rips Australian cafe to shreds

Australian cuisine generally goes down well in London, especially when you consider how many Aussie expats call the British capital home. But this wasn’t the case for one cafe, which has been ripped to shreds by a scathing review. <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/au" target="_blank">The Guardian’s</a> Jay Rayner has penned an excruciating review of Farm Girl café, which describes itself as “a holistic yet comfortingly simple approach to Australian cafe culture.” <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fabcnews.au%2Fvideos%2F10156697527774988%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe> To say Rayner was underwhelmed, would be an understatement. “We don’t stay for dessert, we’ve suffered enough,” he said. “There’s V for Vegan. There’s GF for Gluten Free. There’s DF for Dairy Free. I think they’re missing a few. There should be TF for Taste Free and JF for Joy Free and AAHYWEH for Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here,” he wrote. And that was just the start for the café, situation in Chelsea. “It fills quickly on a cold winter’s evening with blonde-tressed Chelsea women just bubbling with intolerances,” Rayner continues. “It’s not just the dismal cooking that pains me here. It’s the squandering of ingredients and of people’s time and the tiresome narrative of ‘wellness’ with which it’s been flogged. “I find myself eyeing the Yorkshire terrier, greedily. Just hand him over, give me access to the grill, and five minutes.” <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fthejayrayner%2Fposts%2F1863407513733710&width=500" width="500" height="551" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> Rayner has a reputation for being a particularly hard marker, but to her credit Farm Girl’s founder Rose Mann took the piece in good humour. “We think it’s a very entertaining piece and rather enjoyed reading it,” she wrote on Facebook. What do you think? Does the review go too far?

Books

Family with 13 boys try one last time for a baby girl

It’s not uncommon for parents who have multiple children of one sex to want to try for just one more baby of the opposite gender, but imagine going through that over a dozen times. That’s the case for Michigan parents Jay and Kateri Schwandt, who are hoping it’ll be 14th time lucky. The Schwandts welcomed their first baby boy 25 years ago and have been adding more and more males to their brood ever since. Despite originally agreeing baby number 13 would be their last, the couple simply couldn’t resist giving it one more go to see if they can finally have a girl – although they claim the gender isn’t important. Kateri, 42, who is one of 14 kids herself, said having another baby is about “the miracle of life,” and not about having a girl. “We are just as excited about this pregnancy as we have been about all of the others,” Jay told <a href="https://www.today.com/parents/oh-baby-michigan-couple-13-sons-expecting-again-t122669" target="_blank">Today</a>. “We miss having a baby around. But in general terms, we are beginning to feel like we might be done after this.” Talking to <a href="http://woodtv.com/2018/02/04/rockford-couple-expecting-14th-child-in-april/" target="_blank">WOOD-TV</a>, Kateri said that logistically, an extra family member won’t put much of a strain on their day-to-day lives, anyway. “If you have three, it’s the same as having 10 at this point, if you ask me,” she said. “It’s just more chaos, more noise. It’s nothing we’re not used to at this point.” The couple are expecting baby number 14 in April but are waiting until the big day arrives before they learn the sex. “I would love to have a girl, but I just don’t think it’s in the cards,” Jay added. Image credit: Jay Schwandt/Facebook.

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