NEAL DOUBTER OUT A month ago, Norm Hanscombe was one of the men encouraging Gosford's federal iguana, Belinda Neal, not to seek preselection in the seat of Robertson on Saturday. He said everyone would like to see her stand down, ''except of course the Liberals''. But on Monday it was Hanscome standing down, withdrawing his name from the re-election ballot for president of the Labor Party's Ourimbah branch. He has held the position on and off since 1972 - and probably with more than the 0.1 per cent margin with which Neal clings to her seat. ''I only took the job on for a purpose and the purpose is fulfilled,'' he told the Herald in somewhat worn-out tones. ''I was there to service the nation's interest. Does that sound pompous enough?'' Hanscombe says he was not pushed out of the position by Neal and nor was she at the meeting. VIVID VIRAL JARGON The genial chief executive of Events NSW, Geoff Parmenter, might know how to put on a good festival, but when it comes to separating the artistic content from the business side of things he appears to be struggling. At yesterday's announcement that Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson would curate the next Vivid Festival in Sydney, Parmenter chose to describe how the different parts of the festival have come together thus: ''There's been a massive leap forward in the collaboration between the partners,'' he said. ''This year we really have got a completely synergised brand presentation.'' One onlooker noted that Parmenter's corporatised language was oddly appropriate: one of Anderson's well known songs is Language Is a Virus, from her album Home of the Brave. $330 METRO TICKET

The state government's announcement that it will scrap the metro is at least keeping the NSW Liberal Party spin machine gainfully employed. It has already produced a fake CityRail station announcement detailing a litany of rail policy backflips and stuff-ups, finishing with: ''Thank you for your attention and enjoy another day on the overcrowded, outdated and always late Labor-run public transport network.'' Yesterday, party operatives were spotted handing out mocked-up weekly train tickets at Wynyard station. The cost of the ticket, $330, represents ''$330 million = the bill for cancelling Labor's Rozelle metro or $330 for each each commuter = the NSW taxpayer forced to pay''. A BIG DAY FOR MEAT LOAF THERE'S one way to ensure someone will bother to listen to your new concept album, and Meat Loaf demonstrated it yesterday. Any Sydney media wishing to speak to the US singer of such hits as 1977's You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth and 1994's I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) had a mandatory hour wait - in which time they had to attend a ''listening session'' of his new album, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. Those joining Teddy might have found it worth the chill time. The Herald's Rachael Jones certainly found herself getting some bigger answers than expected in the one-on-one interview. ''The secret of life is this,'' he said. ''You want to improve every day, you want to learn every day and you need to know how to love.'' If not, you at least need to know how to call in a favour. Jack Black, Queen's Brian May, and House star Hugh Laurie (on piano) are among those featured on the album, which is out in April. STAY IN TOUCH ... ...WITH PACIFIC PORTRAYAL

AUSTRALIA, but not as we know it, is continuing its roll out across the US. While there was no Baz and no Nicole, the executive producer Tom Hanks and his cast made it to New Orleans this week for another premiere screening of The Pacific. The HBO series tells the story of three US marines fighting in the Pacific theatre during World War II - depicting some of the war's bloodiest battles including Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Associated Press reports. Filmed in locations across Melbourne, Geelong and Port Douglas in 2007 and 2008, the mini-series was estimated to cost as much as $223 million - making it perhaps the most expensive of its kind ever made in Australia. Not that it is Hanks's first dabble in the genre. The star of Saving Private Ryan teamed up with the series' fellow executive producers, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, for Band of Brothers in 2001, a war mini-series set in Europe during the same period. The Pacific will screen in the US on March 14, and is expected to be seen here on the Seven Network in April. ...WITH FASHION POLICE IT SEEMS the temperamental Naomi Campbell has struck again. A man hired as the British model's chauffeur in Manhattan for the day alleges that she hit him so hard on the back of the head that his head slammed into the steering wheel of the moving car, bruising him beneath the eye. He pulled over and got out to speak to a traffic officer, who alerted police, but by the time they arrived Campbell had catwalked, sauntered or otherwise left. ''The driver said Miss Campbell had fled the scene on foot,'' a police spokesman said. The driver has since decided not to pursue the matter, but it is not the first time Campbell has been accused of violent tendencies. The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to assaulting an assistant with a phone in 2000, throwing her phone at her housekeeper in 2007, and chucking a hissy and attacking police at London's Heathrow Airport after a piece of luggage went missing in 2008. As for the incident this week, her spokesman, Jeff Raymond, said she would co-operate with police and there was ''more to the story than meets the eye''. Whether he meant the driver's eye is unclear. ...WITH THAT SUIT THE agreement to donate the suit worn by O.J. Simpson when acquitted of the 1994 murders of Ron Goldman and ex-wife Nicole was almost in tatters yesterday after the recipient declared it didn't want it. Goldman's father, Fred, dropped his claim for the camel suit after a settlement meeting where it was agreed it should be given to the Smithsonian Institution instead. Even the now-jailed Simpson agreed to wear the decision, but the museum's curators and director didn't. ''The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will not be collecting O.J. Simpson's suit,'' the museum told the Los Angeles Times in a statement. Goldman sought the suit as a means to recoup some of the $33.5 million Simpson was ordered to pay in a civil suit in 1997.

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