Hey, they aren't our words !.
Another recent joiner Tim Stone says "he should be cryogenically frozen so future generations can be annoyed."
Poor Eddie. We feel guilty. He really is a nice chap. Eddie is a regular at Graeme Goldberg's Dee Bees cafe in Double Bay and on nodding terms with tSS. He calls in after picking his kids up from the nearby snooty Cranbrook School.
What would former Channel Nine boss the late Kerry Packer say about Eddie's crass homophobic remarks on the men's skating efforts at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games ?. Probably a lot after the number of complaints that have flooded the Nine switchboards. The current owners of the Nine network. PBL Media didn't return our calls.
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| Rob Astbury at his 2006 book launch |
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| The King |
Instead we turned to the nation's former top sport's broadcaster who reigned at the Nine network for years, the openly gay
Rob Astbury who now lives in Thailand where he is a property developer.
Astbury, a good friend of McGuire's isn't saying much. He referred us to Peter Jess who mangers the biggest names in Australian sport including Olympian and aboriginal Cathy Freeman whose book, which Jess promoted, was a best seller. Jess has contracted Astbury to promote his upcoming autobiography Twice As Hard. Jess told tSS Astbury’s book will reveal intimate details about some of the nation's top sporting personalities and the biggest names in television. Jess says Astbury’s account of his personal and business life in Thailand will ensure the book is a block buster that is sure to amuse, bemuse and shock.
Astbury's 2006 book King & I, about his long time relationship with the King of Television, the late Graham Kennedy was a best selling despite ruffling feathers in the media..
46 year old McGuire has had a meteoric rise from his working class background. He is president of the Collingwood Football Club and hosts a number of TV and radio shows. He is reputed to earn up to $5M a year.
He was appointed the CEO of the Nine Network in 2006 in a surpise move after the departure of David Gyngell whose father, the legendary Bruce Gyngell was the first person to appear on Oz TV and Channel Nine in 1956.
McGuire lasted nearly a year and presided over plunging ratings before Gyngell was lured back from the USA.
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| Jessica-boned |
His famous quip "bone her"-a directive to sack newsreader Jessica Rowe has become common lexicon after an internal memo was leaked. Jessica had the last laugh-her husband Peter Overton is now the network's top newsreader. Eddie is also a good friend of Kerry Packer's son James.
It's hard to believe McGuire would actually be anti-gay. Comments like those of his and Olympic's co-host Mike Molloy are pretty much standard football language. The Footy Show is a perfect example with hardly a week going by without a footballer climbing into drag for an amusing sketch.Not for long though.
The rumour mill inside the Nine network is in overdrive with the current bosses including Gyngell said to be alarmed at the backlash.
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| Sir Frank and son Kerry |
# The founder of the Nine network Sir Frank Packer was a noted homophobe who abhored the number of gays in the budding TV industry.
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| Barton-"fluid" sexuality |
# Sir Frank's sons and heirs Kerry and Clyde talked tough but rebelled against their father's views. Clyde used to attend publisher
Gordon Barton's famous "anything goes" parties where one's sexuality was expected to be "fluid". Whilst Kerry Packer took care of business, his older brother Clude roamed Sydney in a Bentley convertible, his enormous girth encassed in flowing brightly coloured caftans. He could have been the lead float at any Mardi Gras.
# Cranbrook School-the expensive private boarding school in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs where the Packer, Gyngell & Murdoch clans were tutored was the butt of endless jokes in it's early years including the raunchy song that ended with the words-"if you can't get a girl get a Cranbrook boy "!
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| Cranbrook |
# # tSS is travelling to Thailand next month to interview Rob Astbury amongst other expatriates who live there. Astbury’s manager, Peter Jess says, “Astbury is ready to blow a trumpet which will make King and I seem like comparing a wave to a tsunami.” According to Jess, Astbury, in his book Twice as Hard, describes television as a “despicable industry” and he will name stars with first hand account tales about top executives which will have lawyers working overtime. Is the raw truth a defence?.
# Bruce Gyngell was the driving force behind the successful networks-TV am and Yorkshire Television in the UK.
# Expect a float dedicated to Eddie McGuire in the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras on Saturday week.
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| Eddie's houseguest-Johnny Weir |
# Eddie has invited top US skater
Johnny Weir to stay with him during his upcoming visit to Australia.
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Everyone is invited to join the Social Shuttle team in the Champagne Bar in the Member's Stand at the Pink Stiletto Race Day tomorrow (Friday) from 1pm at Royal Randwick racecourse.
If you make a substantial donation to the Bobby Goldsmith Fund we may even introduce you to singer Maria Venuti !
There was a time when the Picnic Races had to be cancelled for a number of years due to the attendees imbibing just a little too much in alcoholic refreshments and basically running amok. Now they have returned to calmer times and really are a wonderful day out in a superb location.
Noticeable attendees: broadcaster Alan Jones who tends to be to the right of politics but his new friendship with the former Australian Labor Party candidate for Prime Minister Mark Latham has taken on all the attributes of a bromance. Latham seems to have veered to the right at a rapid pace and now writes for the right-wing website Rebel Media and when he's not castigating "snowflakes" he's cosying up to that Milo character or getting stuck into former Labor colleagues like ex-PM Kevin Rudd and former NSW premier Kristina Keneally who has a real chance of picking up the Bennelong seat in the upcoming by-election which could put Labor in power and PM Malcolm Turnbull out.
