When Magda Szubanski came out as a lesbian on national TV just over a year ago, she was expecting to feel relieved, but she had no idea just how much the admission would change her life. Magda, 51, had been keeping her sexuality a secret from her devoted fans for decades — so long that […]

Hollywood has anointed human growth hormone as the latest anti-ageing miracle drug and some local doctors say it’s enjoying a rise in popularity here. Yet, as Susan Horsburgh reports, is it the elixir of youth or a risky waste of money? Once the domain of the dodgy athlete or the bodybuilder resembling a bag of […]

Have you ever had a splitting headache and thought to yourself, “I hope this isn’t a brain tumour”? You are not alone. Of course, very few headaches turn out to be brain cancer, but for those who are diagnosed with this devastating and life-threatening condition, the journey is going to be tough. Gus Larkin from […]

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, Allen & Unwin, $29.99. This astonishing return to form from US best-selling author Jodi Picoult, whose last two books were comparatively lacklustre, is surely her most outstanding work to date. Sage Singer, 25, is a brilliant baker at Our Daily Bread in small town Westerbrook, run by former nun, Mary […]

Prince Harry only recently arrived back in the UK from a four-month tour of Afghanistan, but his itchy feet and charitable instincts have seen the prince travel to Africa on a three-day tour on behalf of his charity. Harry is due to stop in Lesotho and South Africa where he will tour some of the […]

Nineteen years after her diagnosis, ovarian cancer survivor Margaret Rose told an Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day leaders forum today the reason the disease isn’t talked about as much as other women’s health issues is because “not many of us survive”. An average of 1200 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, and of […]

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, Text Publishing, $29.99. After winning the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for best unpublished manuscript last June, interest in Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project has catapulted from low hum to very loud buzz in the literary world, with 30 countries snapping up the rights, earning the Melbourne-based debut author more […]

Take a look at the best-dressed at the annual Vanity Fair Oscars party.

A French fashion magazine has caused controversy by “blacking up” 16-year-old white model for a photo shoot entitled “African Queen”. Ondria Hardin appears in the March issue of Numéro magazine “heavily bronzed” to resemble a black woman. The teen model — who usually sports blonde hair and very pale skin — wears an African-style headdress […]

If the sight of one breastfeeding woman disgusted staff at a Sydney café on the weekend, we’d love to know how they felt when more than 50 mothers descended on the Newtown eatery at lunchtime today. Lactivists Australia staged a “nurse-in” at the Satellite Café in the trendy inner-city suburb this afternoon after a waitress […]