It's in the Stars Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne, on the north island of New Zealand in 1944. Her father was Māori, and her mother was of Irish descent. When she was just five weeks old, she was adopted by another couple of similar background, Tom and Nell Te Kanawa. They gave the child the name by which she would become famous.

Soon after Dame Kiri Te Kanawa left high school, she started winning prizes and acclaim for her soprano voice. Eventually, after a stint as a pop star and entertainer at clubs in New Zealand, she moved to the UK to study at the London Opera Centre in 1966. Here she starred in numerous operas and her reputation grew such that she was invited to sing at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. She won many accolades and prizes, starting with winning the Melbourne Sun-Aria contest and including the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, an appointment as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour and the Edison Classical Music Award, among others. Apart from opera, she appeared on one of "Downton Abbey" televison drama series as Dame Nellie Melba. She retired in 2016.

This question was added to the play bill by Phoenix Rising member VegemiteKid.

Answer: Cream

Neil Finn was a member of all these bands except Cream - not all at the same time, of course! He was with Split Enz from 1977-1984, Crowded House for the next 11 years, and then toured with Fleetwood Mac in 2018-19. He also spent a lot of time singing with his brother Tim and releasing solo albums. Crowded House reformed in the 2020s with his help.

Finn was born into a musical family, the youngest of four children. He reportedly had a happy, uncomplicated childhood, having been born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand, to an Irish mother and a farming father of Italian parentage. The family used to have sing-alongs around the piano; as a child he performed in prisons and hospitals, and continued his charitable works well into his adult years, performing in the Sound Relief concert in Melbourne, as well as for Oxfam, for New Zealand charities and in support of childhood cancer charities.

This question was fleetingly crowded into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's VegemiteKid, who then split. The Enz.

Answer: Russell Crowe

New Zealanders often joke that the moment one of their countrymen succeeds on the world stage they are stolen and claimed as Australians. However, in the case of Russell Crowe, and as a nod to the controversy that has followed him in the past, they say that the Aussies can keep him. Crowe, a cousin of the famous Kiwi cricketing legends Martin and Jeff Crowe, was born in the Wellington suburb of Strathmore Park and moved, with his parents to Sydney when he was four. He would return to New Zealand ten years later, where he completed his schooling and sought opportunities as an actor. He would return to Australia on a permanent basis some seven years later.

He gained roles in the New Zealand stage show of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (as Eddie in 1986) and then roles in the television shows "Neighbours" (1987) and "Police Rescue" (1992). In 1992 he would win the AFI (Australian Film Institute) Award for Best Actor for his performance as a racist skinhead in the film "Romper Stomper". This led to work in America where he appeared alongside Denzel Washington ("Virtuosity") and Sharon Stone ("The Quick and the Dead"), both in 1995. Then came a spell where he appeared in a run of films that were all nominated for the Best Picture Oscar; "L.A. Confidential" (1997), "The Insider" (1999), "Gladiator" (2000), "A Beautiful Mind" (2001) and "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003). Both "Gladiator" and "A Beautiful Mind" would win the Best Picture Oscar, which made Crowe the first man since Walter Pidgeon (in 1941 and 1942) to star in back-to-back Best Picture winners. Individually, Crowe would win the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the troubled genius, John Nash, in "A Beautiful Mind".

During this time he also drew the ire of the public for a number of ugly confrontations that raised concerns about his temperament. One particular incident saw him hurl a telephone at a concierge that led to him being arrested by the NYPD and charged with second degree assault. However, he is also known for his charity work, in particular in his area of residence in Nana Glen in New South Wales. He is also a member of the rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and is a strong supporter of rugby league in the state.

This question came from the beautiful mind of Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.

Answer: Keith Urban

Keith Urban was born in 1967 in Whangarei, New Zealand, to Polish immigrant parents. At two years of age his parents moved to Caboolture, Queensland, Australia, where he grew up. In 2006, Urban married actress Nicole Kidman who had been born in Hawaii to Australian parents, so she has dual US/Australian citizenship. Kidman grew up in Australia.

Urban has parlayed his country music career into a television career where he has been a judge and mentor on the Australian version of "The Voice" as well as serving as judge for three seasons on "American Idol" on the FOX network in the United States.

Using his celebrity status he offered a signature guitar line on the "Home Shopping Network" in 2013 with some of the proceeds going to The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation and the Grammy Foundation.

This question was lyrically entered into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Dwarf planet

Lucy Lawless was first cast as Xena the warrior princess in "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (1995). The character was well-received and sparked a spin-off series, "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995) that lasted for six seasons. The drama and her character Xena proved popular and propelled Lucy into international stardom, so much so that "Xena" was used as the interim name for a dwarf planet that was discovered in 2005. Even though the dwarf planet was eventually officially named Eris, Lucy still has a celestial object named in indirect tribute to her: Eris' moon, Dysnomia, named after the Greek goddess of lawlessness.

Besides acting on screen, Lucy has also provided the voice for Wonder Woman in the 2008 animated film "Justice League: The New Frontier" and Goldmoon, a barbarian of prominence in another 2008 animated film, "Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight". Lucy also dabbled in singing, performing on Broadway's "Grease" in 1997 and competing on "Celebrity Duets", an American reality TV programme.

Outside of acting and singing, Lucy is a trustee of Starship Foundation, the charity division of Starship Children's Health hospital in New Zealand. In terms of activism, Lucy is a gay rights' supporter and an activist for Greenpeace.

Pluto is the prototypical dwarf planet.

This question was unEarthed by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: MasterChef (BBC)

Born in Taradale, a suburb of Napier, New Zealand, in 1968, Burden attributed his love of cooking to his grandmother's influence. He started his working life as a model to put himself through university where he studied zoology; the subject intrigued him after a carefree childhood exploring local swamps and waterways.

Like many antipodeans he found his way to the UK where he worked in a bar, and worked as cook. He entered the BBC version of "MasterChef" and became a household name participating in shows like "Ready Steady Cook" and "The Big Breakfast"; he authored and co-authored a series of cookbooks; and found his way to the USA where he presented on numerous themed cooking specials. He was also a private chef to celebs such as Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.

Heading back to New Zealand, he was a judge on the first series of "MasterChef New Zealand" and commenced a course in Māori language. He became ill with leukemia and died aged 45 in 2014.

This question was baked into the quiz by VegemiteKid, Phoenix Rising's wannabe MasterChef.

Answer: Rachel Hunter

Rachel Hunter was born in Glenfield, New Zealand, in 1969 and was featured with supermodels Elle MacPherson and Kathy Ireland on the 1994 "Dream Team" cover of "Sports Illustrated" magazine's annual swimsuit issue. In 2006 she again was on the cover of the magazine's swimsuit issue, but this time solo.

In 1990, Hunter married rockstar Rod Stewart, 24 years her senior. She has two children with Stewart - Renée born in 1992 and Liam born in 1994. They separated in 1999 and their divorce became final in 2006.

Hunter has used her celebrity status as an ambassador for The Born Free Foundation and established the Rachel Hunter Lowland Gorilla Fund.

She is the host and brains behind her project "Rachel Hunter's Tour of Beauty" where she travels the world discovering what different cultures think beauty is and their secrets of obtaining it.

Elle MacPherson is an Australian and both Cindy Crawford and Christie Brinkley are Americans.

This question was photographed into the quiz on location by Phoenix Rising member and budding fashion photographer (in his dreams) tazman6619.

Answer: Karl Urban

Karl Urban got his big break on the TV shows "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess". From there he went on to movie roles playing Éomer in two "Lord of the Rings" (LOTR) movies, Bones in the "Star Trek" reboot, and Kirill in "The Bourne Supremacy". In 2019, he started playing the role of William "Billy" Butcher in the Amazon series "The Boys".

Urban serves as a celebrity ambassador for KidsCan, a New Zealand charity serving underprivileged youth. In 2022, he became an official ambassador for UNICEF Aotearoa New Zealand.

This question was spied into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Food

Rose Matafeo started doing stand-up comedy at age 15 as part of New Zealand Comedy Trust's "Class Comedians" programme. Since then she has won several awards for comedy including Nailed It on the Night (New Zealand International Comedy Festival, 2007), Best Newcomer (New Zealand International Comedy Festival, 2010), the Billy T Award (2013), and the Edinburgh Comedy Award (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2018).

Besides stand-up comedy, Rose has also branched into presenting, acting and directing. She presented TVNZ U's entertainment programme "U Live" (2011-2013), acted in the film "Baby Done" (2020) and the comedy "Starstruck" (2021), and directed a few episodes of another comedy "Golden Boy" (2019).

Rose is a self-professed fan of mukbang, an eating show in which the host eats a large amount of food while interacting with the audience. In collaboration with "The Spinoff", an online magazine, Rose Matafeo created her own mukbang video in 2018. She ordered NZ$60 worth of takeaways and endeavoured to consume them all in front of the camera. While she didn't quite manage to finish her mountain of food, it was still a decent attempt and she was glad to have had this experience.

This question was binge-fed by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Lorde

Lorde is a singer-songwriter whose works settle comfortably in the electro-pop genre. She announced herself on the world stage with the chart-topping debut single "Royals". The track topped the charts in her homeland, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the United States. However, it wasn't as easy as that. She only started to draw attention from labels after she had started self-releasing her work on Soundcloud in 2012. From there she attracted the attention of UMG who released her EP "The Love Club", an extended play that had the aforementioned "Royals" on it. By the end of the year her first full-length album, "Pure Heroine", would be released and go on to sell in excess of six million copies across the globe.

Lorde's style has been described as "unconventional" and she has drawn influence from the likes of Billie Holiday, Etta James and Otis Redding. In her own words, she enjoyed "harvesting their suffering" for inspiration. The response to her work has been positive by critics around the globe and she has been seen as musically and lyrically mature, which is high praise considering she was only sixteen when she released her first album. A staunch feminist, she is now seen as the "Queen of Alternative" in some circles.

She is also noted for her philanthropic work, using her influence to raise funds for the preservation of Tibetan culture, research into the cure of Batten disease, and lunches for underprivileged school children. She is also a patron of MusicHelps, previously known as the New Zealand Music Foundation.

This princely question was coronated by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.