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Around Town

CANZA hops for charity

By Benjamin Thomas Cunningham
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 28th, 2007 issue

It musta been the kangaroos.

Folks in the crowd of close to 300 started hopping up and down when the auction started at the Czech Australian New Zealand Association charity ball Nov. 24 at the Intercontinental Hotel.
They vied for a chance to get on the set and to be extras in the new flick Solomon Kane (an action-adventure tale adapted from stories written by Robert E. Howard, the guy who brought us Conan the Barbarian). Shooting is slated to start in January in Prague.
Producer Michael Bassett has a soft spot in his heart for the Czech Republic after making the low-budget horror movie Deathwatch here in 2002. He is being joined by Philip Wiley, a producer and co-owner of International Production Co. based in London and in Prague, and Kevan Van Thompson, another film producer heavyweight. Even though the cost of doing business has risen sharply since Bassett was last in town, he said he feels loyal to the Czech scene after Deathwatch did well in theaters.
We won’t say who walked away with the “movie star” auction item, although it just might be someone related to a very well-known international mobile phone company working in Prague. Norman Birse, owner of the popular Old Town bar Fat Boys, dropped out of the bidding before it moved into the stratosphere.
Attendees also snapped up signed soccer jerseys from the ever-popular, ever-controversial SK Slavia Praha and from FC Chelsea (in the United Kingdom). They loved the business-class round-trip tickets on Czech Airlines, too.
We might be exaggerating about the hopping. Slightly.
But when you have nine almost life-size toy kangaroos also being auctioned off for Fond ohrožených dětí, or Children in Need, which helps abandoned children, you just have to get in on the act. As the foundation’s name suggests, its members help kids with tragic histories, from babies left in boxes at the hospital to children abused by family members.
Olina and Len Edney, the organizer, held down the fort from a table stage left. The couple is working on getting the Underwater World Oceanarium going, an aquarium project slated for a pre-existing space underneath the Metronome on Letná.
Vera Egameyer, honorary consul for New Zealand, and Petr Vodvářka, honorary consul for Australia, also joined in the fun, as did Steven Rees from Accenture and his date, Alena Vatková.
Schelie Nielsen, (aka Dr. Klutz) from Sydney, had British pounds in his pocket, which he makes disappear and reappear in a very effective magic trick. We’re going to need Nielsen soon to see if he can help us make some more money appear in our accounts for the holiday season.
We also met Richard York, the tech lawyer, who was running around handling various organizational activities. David Chirnside was with Martina Vondrová. Bohuslav Matuška, a lawyer at Giese & Partner, said his parents have always called him Bob (but you can call him either name, just so long as you call him).
Petr Kříž, client service director at Headmade, and Tom Barwick told me all about their country house. Their friends Justine and Chris Rea (who works for Toyota in the Czech Republic) used to live outside of Prague, too, until Justine begged to be “a city girl.”
Metrostav head Jan Cuc and his wife Alena looked like they were getting ready to dance when we left them.
And those kangaroos? They all hopped away with new owners.

Benjamin Thomas Cunningham can be reached at bcunningham@praguepost.com


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