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In our column that takes you inside the world of media: We look at the case for and against Blake Lively | ABC makes a big mistake when copying and pasting | Mariah Carey failed to dazzle as Netflix makes NFL history.
*A video version of this article is available in the player below
ABC BOSS DOES A BASIC GRAPH IN COPY AND PASTE
Former commando Heston Russell’s ongoing dispute with ABC has taken another dramatic turn, this time just two days before Christmas.
Russell won a defamation battle against the national broadcaster after a review found “editing errors” in footage where Russell was accused of firing six shots from a helicopter, a charge that was completely false. He was awarded $390,000 in damages for that story, but now comes the latest insult.
On December 2, Russell wrote to the ABC expressing concern about an independent review of these editing errors, which cleared the ABC of any wrongdoing.
Outgoing managing director David Anderson responded on December 23, standing by the report and confirming that “the ABC has accepted all of Mr Sunderland’s recommendations and is in the process of implementing them”.
Then the letter takes a strange turn and starts talking about charity:
“Unfortunately, we are unable to add another charity partner at this stage as we are working exclusively with Foodbank in all states and territories (except Tasmania) for this campaign.”
It looks like a copy and paste error occurred where two letters were somehow merged.
As you can imagine, Russell was not impressed, posting on X: “Here’s an early Christmas present from the ABC managing director — his reply to my letter rejecting their inquiry because it was not ‘independent’ by any qualification. Note the last paragraph…cut and paste gone wrong! Taxpayer funded hard at work and #ABC display accuracy #Fail”.
ABC declined to comment when approached by INSIDE MEDIA.
It’s a bad look for ABC, who refused to take Russell seriously even after the organization was found to have defamed him.
BLAKE LIVELY ENFORCEMENT OR VICTIM? THE ANSWER IS COMPLEX
Actress Blake Lively made headlines this Christmas after she filed a complaint against co-star and It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and an alleged coordinated effort to destroy her reputation.
Allegations of sexual harassment are serious, and during filming led to meetings between Lively and the film’s producers to address ongoing concerns.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the meeting includes:
· No showing nude videos or images of Lively women.
· No further mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous “pornography addiction”.
· No more discussions of sexual experiences in front of Lively and others.
· No more references to cast and crew genitalia.
· No more inquiries about Lively’s weight.
· End of Lively adding sex scenes, oral sex, or on-camera climax outside the scope of the script approved by Lively when signing on to the project.
The document also lifts the lid on the dark arts of crisis management in Hollywood. Additional allegations from Lively allege that Baldoni engaged in a campaign of “social manipulation” to “destroy” her reputation. To support this claim, Lively has included 22 pages of red tape between Baldoni’s publicist and Melissa Nathan, who runs a crisis PR firm.
There’s no doubt that Lively has taken a PR hit recently, especially when a 2016 interview resurfaced where she flipped out on interviewer Kjersti Flaa after making an innocent remark about Lively’s baby.
The video uploaded to YouTube is called: “The Blake Lively Interview That Made Me Quit My Job” (you can see the video in the player below).
In it, you see Lively basically ignore the interviewer for four minutes and only talk to her co-star Parker Posey. The viewing is embarrassing and made headlines around the world, but Lively refused to apologize.
This journalist is now forced to defend herself and state that she was not part of the organized PR campaign against Lively.
To be honest, it doesn’t even matter if she was – while Lively’s claims against her co-star/director are serious, that doesn’t absolve her of her own behavior and she should be judged accordingly.
MARIAH CAREY DISAPPOINTS ON NETFLIX
This morning I caught Netflix’s big game day event and watched Mariah Carey’s pre-recorded clip of her Christmas classic All I Want For Christmas.
Oh dear, I’ll get to that in a moment.
Forbes estimates that the singer makes $2.5 million each year, so you’d think she’d be happy that the song is still relevant 30 years after its original release (and let me tell you, it’s a major part from the McKnight household).
So, with a potential global audience of over 100 million, you’d think she’d be happy to be part of Netflix’s big Christmas NFL event (Boxing Day here in Australia).
Apparently not.
Perched on a snow-adorned roof (available in the video player below), Carey looked bored as she belted out her infamous holiday song. Sometimes I even wondered if he remembered the words. The performance was so bad that no amount of quick editing cuts could save it as the singer barely moved her body.
Reminded me of that 80’s movie Weekend at Bernie’s, although the dead man in that movie was more animated!
There is no doubt that Carrey would have received a big payday for this performance, it’s a shame the viewers didn’t get their money’s worth.
Luckily, Beyoncé was there to show Mariah how it’s done with an incredible performance that began with her entering the stadium on a white horse, even if that segment was pre-recorded.
GAVIN AND STACY FINAL
And a quick shout out to James Corden and Ruth Jones who delivered a wonderful finale to the comedy hit Gavin and Stacey.
The episode provided a LOT of laughs and references to classic moments from the 17-year run. And for those who read the previous edition of INSIDE MEDIA, McKnight was right about what we were going to learn about THIS fishing trip.
INSIDE MEDIA is published every Monday and Thursday.
Rob McKnight co-owns TV Blackbox
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