As most of the United States struggles under a blanket of crippling winter snow, the media spotlight has been shining brightly on Aussie expats in sunny LA preparing to attend the annual G’day USA circus in downtown Hollywood.

Every January a parade of A-listers are wheeled out to promote “brand Australia” in the hokiest terms possible on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Local hacks are shoved on 14-hour Qantas flights to cover the festivities, which inevitably involve luminaries such as Russell Crowe spieling drolly about how laconic we all are amid tables groaning with “Greg Norman Wagyu beef”. Major sponsor Rupert Murdoch usually makes an appearance with his newspapers providing the requisite beat-ups.

True to form, the News stable has been promoting G’day USA relentlessly over the silly season, with a steady stream of stories on Australian exporters, Simon Baker’s house and a “centrepiece” Jennifer Hawkins fashion parade.

This morning in its Confidential column, the Herald Sun got in on the act with a spiel on Hawkins’ apparent aspirations to dance with John Travolta after a few Penfolds. Bizarrely, the paper included an unrelated photo of the bogan Miss Universe alongside some slickly attired Qantas cabin crew.

Unrelated that is, until you consider that Qantas and Myer are also major sponsors of G’day USA, with both behemoths tipping in planeloads of cash and Qantas using the event as a vehicle to spruik $US900 return air fares to Sydney. Of course, the Herald Sun, and other News Limited rags, never make any mention of either Qantas, Myer or News Corporation’s lucrative support or the corralling of journalists into pre-paid junkets. It appears even cursory disclosure goes the way of the Tasmanian Tiger when it comes to promoting our not-unsubstantial Hollywood hand print.

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The Herald Sun‘s infatuation with Hawkins and Myer is starting to look embarrassing. When Hawkins copped flak after her decision to pose nude sans Photoshop in Marie Claire, the paper leapt to her defence, gifting Jen prime column inches to claim everything was OK because she was doing it for the Butterfly Foundation. Myer is a major advertiser in all the News tabloids, with stocktake sale promotions recently consuming large slabs of the early pages. Rival David Jones is said to be livid over the dwindling attention paid to it and its own “face”, Megan Gale.

Herald Sun Confidential columnists Alice Coster and Shannon Deery and acting-editor Jill Baker did not respond to Crikey‘s queries before deadline. Phone calls to G’Day USA organisers at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade requesting a list of attending journalists went unreturned.