Australia director Baz Luhrmann has sought to promote his new film by announcing that, because of racism, US president-elect Barack Obama might never have excelled had he been born in Australia.
The Herald-Sun
Under the Luhrmann interpretation, Mr Obama would have been born in Australia rather than Hawaii before moving with his mother and step-father to Indonesia in 1967. Aborigines Welfare Board officials would apparently have flown to Jakarta the following year to take the young Barack away from his home.
It gets worse: had he been born in Australia, Mr Obama would never have been able to become President of the United States. Australia is that racist.
Mr Luhrmann may have gambled that if he trashes Australia hard enough, Australia will seem great by comparison.
The veteran Australian film director has form: seven years ago he attempted to tie Moulin Rouge! in with the recently-elected Bush administration by claiming that had George Bush moved to the Montmartre district of Paris in 1899 to embrace the Bohemian lifestyle, The Duke of Monroth might have tried to kill him or whatever.