Fear of underwear lands Kiri in court

Kiri Te Kanawa has wound up facing legal action after pulling out of a planned series of concerts with John Farnham.

Apparently, TeKanawa had had a series of misgivings about the hoiking together of high culture and its country cousin, pop culture, but finally drew the line when she discovered that people sometimes throw underwear at John Farnham.

(We're not entirely sure we believe the claims that Farnham gets pants tossed in his direction - unless he's taken on a small tour of strip joints and doesn't site his piano that wisely.)

Concert promoter Leading Edge Events is suing the New Zealand-born Te Kanawa and her former manager, Nick Grace, for more than more than 600,000 Australian dollars (US$464,000; €359,662) for alleged breach of contract after the soprano pulled out of a series of concerts in 2005.

Te Kanawa, from her side, has filed a counter-suit.