The Breaking Bad finale broke Australian piracy records, Angelina Jolie will be shooting her new film in New South Wales, and Stacy Keibler has a new boyfriend.
By Chloe Schneider
Breaking Bad Breaks Piracy Records
Despite a US government shutdown, Julia Gillard’s first public appearance since being ousted as Prime Minister, and the usual slew of Mondayitis complaints, last night #breakingbad absolutely dominated our Twitter and Facebook feeds.
This alone was an indication that the much-anticipated season finale would be breaking some records down under, but the milestones hit were perhaps not the ones we expected…
As it turns out, last night proved Australia to be one of the most pirate nations in the world with Aussies making up an impressive 18 per cent of those downloading the Breaking Bad season finale with a huge 500,000 illegal downloads.
That means one in five of the copies viewed was downloaded and, despite our comparatively low population, we managed to download the episode more than those in the US, UK, Canada, or India.
And in the interminable Melbourne vs. Sydney rivalry, Melbournites will be pleased (or perhaps ashamed) to have beaten Sydney in the pirate race with 5.4 per cent of all downloads of the finale attributed to their fine city while Sydney hit 3 per cent.
To be fair, most Australian Breaking Bad fans cited speed over cost as the reason for downloading the episode.
Angelina Jolie Chooses Shooting Locations
Both the New South Wales and Queensland governments are celebrating today as the shooting locations for Angelina Jolie’s new film have been revealed.
Ange has been in Australia location scouting and extra hiring for about a month now, frequently being spotted out and about with her brood of kids, but until now nothing was known of where the film, her second directorial foray, will actually be filmed.
Now, the NSW Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Stoner let the cat out of the bag, announcing, “Securing production of Unbroken in NSW will inject millions of dollars into the state’s economy and is expected to create more than 300 jobs for NSW-based crew alone, and more for cast and extras.”
Meanwhile, Queensland’s Arts Minister is in celebrations too, saying, “Unbroken is projected to contribute millions to the Queensland economy. It will increase the skills and experience of local crews and talent and boost employment as well as economic benefits for wider business and the flow on effect for tourism.”
Rumour has it Unbroken, which is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling book about the life of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini, will be filmed in a few small Aussie towns including Tamworth, Werris Creek, and Scone. In Queensland, the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast will host Ange and her crew.
Universal Pictures has scheduled the movie for release in the US on Christmas Day 2014.
Stacy Keibler’s New Man
It’s been two months since Stacy Keibler split with George Clooney after a long-for-Clooney two years together and already managed to score herself a suitably fabulous new beau.
The gorgeous former wrestler posted a photo to Instagram showing the pair enjoying a glass of wine together in Paris with the telling caption, “Love being in the city of love!”
And the new man? His name is Jared Pobre and he’s a tech entrepreneur who lives in Orange County in California.
Will it last? Watch this space!
