The Lin family was forced to ask Nine to remove it from its website

THE DIARY THE strange spectacle of the Channel Seven crime reporter Robert Ovadia emceeing the memorial service last Saturday for the Lin family, whose brutal murders he was also reporting on, has prompted talk about other media covering the event. The official version has Ovadia being approached to speak at the service by the Lin family lawyer, Daniel Sheen, after another television reporter, Nine's Jessica Rich, initially accepted but later changed her mind due to ''ethical concerns''. Ovadia, it has been reported, gallantly stepped in to save the day.But we hear Rich suggested herself for the role, rather than being asked. After she declined to also read a eulogy, deeming it inappropriate, she was told her services were no longer needed. Rich did not return The Diary's call. Separately, we hear the video file from the service, featuring a heartbreaking address from surviving daughter Brenda Lin, was used by Channel Nine without the family's permission. The Lin family was forced to ask Nine to remove it from its website. Ovadia's appearance might have been bizarre but it is not unprecedented. The Channel Nine reporter Damian Ryan emceed the funeral of an 18-year-old woman who died after falling from an apartment balcony when trying to escape from a rapist in Waterloo last year. A QUEER NOTION Advertisement: Story continues below Tony Abbott has been called many things in his parliamentary career, but yesterday he revealed the insult to top them all. Speaking at the launch of an anti-drugs program, How to Drug-Proof Your Kids, Abbott revealed his 18-year-old daughter had branded him a '' lame, gay, churchy loser'' when he had tried to have a quiet chat about the issue. ''Perhaps I might learn some much better communication techniques from this DVD,'' Abbott chuckled. But the joke appeared to backfire on the Opposition spokesman for families, angering a gay youth support group. The developmental manager for Twenty10, David Moutou, said ''gay'' was not synonymous with ''bad'' and was disappointed it would be repeated Rosetta Stone that way by a respected member of parliament. ''Young people in their school environment are hypersensitive to the use of words, like 'gay', with negative connotations,'' he said. ''Mr Abbott's daughter isn't just talking about gay people either, it's also about people with disabilities.'' CLUBBED TO DEATH A crisis meeting was being held last night to rescue one of the oldest and most exclusive clubs for chaps, Tattersalls Club, from impending financial ruin. The men-only dinosaur is facing extinction only a year after its 150th anniversary, with debts of $3 million to the National Australia Bank. Competitor clubs such as The Union and University Schools clubs have merged and others such as The American Club have closed, but Tattersalls - whose members have included John Alexander, Chris Anderson, Malcolm Turnbull, Tom Hughes and Neville Wran - has remained stoic in the face of declining revenue, refusing to add to its coffers by allowing the other half of the population in as members. Passing the hat around raised just $1 million, so the club was forced to ask members for permission to sell off major assets, including its Elizabeth Street headquarters, at the meeting.the meeting. BAGGING THE NATS Anthony Albanese's painful existence as a die-hard Rabbitohs fan finally paid off on the weekend when he scored a clean sweep in the tipping comp run out of the office of the federal Nationals leader, Warren Truss, by his media adviser, Paul Chamberlin. Albo scored himself the grand prize of a one-third share of the $0 pot. When Chamberlin called his office to inquire as to how the money should be delivered, the reply was: ''Just the usual National Party manner, in a brown paper bag.'' Chamberlin told The Diary he was ''going to my Fitzgerald inquiry file to see what I can find''.

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