By Crikey reporter Sophie Vorrath


The stench of Steve Vizard’s dodgy business dealings has wafted across the Pacific and been noted on the pages of America’s Variety
magazine. The US entertainment
industry’s “newspaper of record” last Friday gleefully reported on the penalties dished out to
the “TV bizzer and former Oz talk show host,” and touched
on the “media circus” whipped up by the civil trial – with “numerous column
inches
devoted to unusually energetic character assassinations” of
Vizard.

The article
also compared Steve with fallen US
media heroine Martha Stewart, as an “unlikely candidate for corporate
skulduggery.” It’s a nice enough line, but from our vantage point the similarities aren’t so compelling – Martha’s better
looking than Steve, she served her time in jail, and as far as we know
Steve’s gift for Vizardry and deception doesn’t extend to
cross-stitching.

And in other Vizard-related news, Crikey subscriber Tony informs us of another meaning of the disgraced businessman’s name.

We know the definition for Vizard in the Oxford Dictionary
ie a mask for disguise or protection. How about this computer program? Vizard Virtual Reality Toolkit is everything you
need to build complete, interactive 3D content! Mr Steve Vizard must
have invested in this program!