Ita from the block

This woman is fascinating. Their relationship is fascinating, actually. I don't know what you'll be doing at 8:30 tonight but I for one will be glued to ABC1 to watch Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. It better bloody be an awesome insight into Kerry and Ita and their ACP adventures because I am very fond of both of them and I hope they've been portrayed well. Oh hell, it'll be worth it just to see Rob Carlton play a young(ish) Kerry Packer! Fun fact: do you know I shared a lift once with Kerry Packer? I was but a young, green workie in the ACP building who nodded and made vague polite small talk, blithely unaware of just exactly who this friendly old man was.. until that moment of recognition hit after I exited the lift and I stood in the foyer whacking my head against the wall. You know, I read The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer back before I started my journalism degree and I was always convinced I was going to be a fab media mogul just like ol' KP.

Back to his once right-hand woman, there was a stellar profile on Ita in one of the weekend mags last week. She is a trailblazer! The thing I find so wonderful about Cleo is that it's so very Australian and it's cheeky and naughty, and sure Cosmo had all that going for it as well and played the sexual liberation card well, but Cosmo will always be an international brand and who'd want to take all that glory away from Helen Gurley Brown? No matter what incarnations of Cleo pop up in NZ or Indonesia, it will always be firmly Australian in my heart and I know a lot of women in this country can say they grew up with it. Nothing can take away from the fact that it was a firm literary (cough) fixture of my teen years; those formative years when my mag obsession really began its chokehold on my wallet

So 'fess up. Who has a soft spot for Cleo? Who'll be watching this? Has anyone bought Ita's etiquette book yet? Who snickered a little bit at her etiquette rap? Yo, Ita from the block! Look, it may have been poorly executed but I really do feel there's something in that rap for everyone.