FOR the benefit of Generation Y who don't remember televisions being the size of a tank, actor Reg Gorman, 79, played Jack the barman in The Sullivans many moons ago. Now he is mentoring young ones by starring in a low-budget film made by 22-year-old producer Joel Mitchell and 21-year-old director Edward Drake. In Animals, a sci-fi/drama set in Melbourne, Gorman plays Minister Patterson, a military-man-turned-politician, and stars alongside Jeremy Kewley, Kevin Summers, Melissa Howard and Scott Brennan, actors also donating their time under a deferred payments contract whereby if the film makes a profit, they get paid. Gorman met Mitchell and Drake at the St Kilda Film Festival and was eager to help because they were so enthusiastic. ''It's a good ego trip because I know so much now and I'm passing it on. They're like sponges.'' Mitchell told me: ''Many people have come on board because of how much they enjoy the story.'' In the film when a pandemic strikes the city, Gorman said his character channelled lord mayor Robert Doyle during the eviction of Occupy Melbourne protesters from the City Square. Scenes were filmed at Parliament House and that great vaudeville theatre that is Spring Street made Gorman feel at home. He also does his bit for oldies in retirement homes by touring the state with his vaudeville act.

Gillard's in the red corner

IT'S been a tough week for Julia Gillard after Four Corners cornered her over the leadership but there's exciting news in the Ranga world. Aaron Webb, of the Red and Nearly Ginger Association, relays that in association with the Australian Genome Research Facility, RANGA will be launching the ''world's first publicly available DNA screen for red-hairedness'' on February 25. The PM already knows what colour her hair is but it sounds like a useful service for the unborn. At RANGA's annual SummerGINGE fund-raiser for orangutans in Borneo at the St Kilda Lifesaving Club, the ''flush'' of redheads (the collective noun) will discuss the fact that fair skin increases a person's ability to retain heat. Not necessarily the leadership. And apparently redheads have better sex lives.

Reg Gorman.

The female with intuition

YOU may not know that your chakras are blocked - or even know what chakras are - until you see intuitive healer Karina Godwin from the Flying Souls Institute of Healing in Brighton (or ''Brayton'' to the locals). Appearing on The Circle with Gorgi Coghlan and Yumi Stynes, the former nurse with celebrity clients explained that chakras are energy centres that can get blocked, prompting guest Meschel Laurie to ask: ''Is it a fibre issue?'' Not exactly, but Godwin will explain at her open day on Sunday when she lectures on ''connecting with your intuition'' and ''creating the life you dream of''. On the show, she detected that comedian Colin Lane had good energy but had patches of black around the throat, restricting his communication and creativity. The right colour should be baby blue and she suggested putting that colour over the throat with a scarf. Here's something that will darken the Adam's apple of Matt Preston. Godwin said: ''Cravats have had their time.''

When the minimum chips are down

IN THE week we discovered that Rupert Murdoch's Australian is in high demand as fish and chip wrapping at the old-world Tasmanian Anchovy Fishing and Processing company in Dunalley, reader Ash Long, who has long been a connoisseur of KFC and other fried morsels, has chipped in with information about his local fish and chip shop. At Mr Chips in Diamond Creek (postcode 3089), customers can buy ''half-minimum chips'' for $2. An incredulous Long said: Half-minimum? Out our way, the English language - as well as the fish - takes a battering!'' One newspaper Long never wraps his order in is the showbiz weekly, the Melbourne Observer. He edits it.