Boned by whom?
Submitted by debritz on May 28, 2008 - 14:59.
Thanks to this article, we now know that Tracey Spicer is not the author of the TV expose Boned. So who is? This might be a bit left-field, but my money's on Eddie McGuire. Let's face it, Eddie likes to keep busy, he's got a lot of time on his hands right now - and it's a clever way to keep himself in the spotlight (since the whole concept of the novel is based on something he allegedly said).
PS: It's interesting to note all this talk about women over 40 being washed up. That must be a Sydney and Melbourne thing. Both Brisbane's senior female commercial television anchors - Kay McGrath and Heather Foord* - have been on the "wrong" side of that magic number for some time, and they are still going strong.
PPS: The comments after Spicer's piece make very interesting reading. Misogyny aside, I think the consensus is that reading the news is no biggie and that it doesn't matter about gener or age just how well it's done.
* In a slip of the keyboard, I originally wrote "Heather Paige". Thanks to Anonymous for correcting me.
I think you mean Heather
I think you mean Heather Foord not Heather Paige. She just celebrated 20 years at Nine so kudos to both of them.
Eddie may not be the final
Eddie may not be the final answer, Brett. Two names have been rolling around my head lately, Brisbane's own Sharon Ghidella (who still worked at Nine on the Today Show when the "boning" incident took place) or "The 12th Man" Billy Birmingham (whose most recent cricket comedy album [released in 2006] was called "Boned!")
Tell me what you think, Brett.
(By the way Brett, Heather Foord and Kay McGrath are the two shining beacons of Queensland's TV news in my eyes (in the case of Kay McGrath, a possible comparison to Barbara Walters can be made because of their longevity in news [Kay with nearly 30 years experience reading/reporting news, Barbara Walters with 45 years experience] and both have proven that 40 can be easily smashed, as Kay is 52 and Barbara is 78.) because of their longevity (in a industry where women traditionally have shorter working lives then men) and the fact that they have never really left television to raise a family, but instead have built their families around their profession.)
I was being a bit
I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek about Eddie - and funnly enough I was thinking about Billy Birmingham when I wrote it. One of his albums had Eddie wanting to be a cricket commentator because he was doing everything else (including, as I recall, playing Humphrey B. Bear). I'm not sure about Sharon, but my guess is that it's a journo, but not necessarily one from television. Perhaps we should be looking in the direction of newspaper or magazine journalists who have written about television. They may not be household names but they'd be in the know.
It wasn't me - but since it'll make some money, I wish it was!
As for the comparisons with Barbara Walters, they are true to a certain extent. However, no Australian journalist has really reached the heights Walters has - jetsetting, doing the big interviews and hosting her own show. Apart from hosting the odd fashion parade, our newsreaders of both genders generally just read news.
Here is another excerpt of
Here is another excerpt of the great article by Tracey Spicer (who is a Brisbane girl by the way, which is one thing that I actually never knew about Tracey.)
"Boned is written by one of two people.
One is a man who worked in newsrooms 20 years ago, when female newsreaders were hard-drinking players who gave as good as they got, not the insipid, polite, Evian sipping creatures we have become."
Then she reflects on her early career.
"I(Tracey) started my television career in the halcyon days of the 1980's. During my first week, the boss yelled out to a female colleague, in front of the entire newsroom, "I want an inch off your hair and an inch off your a**e."
After my first newsreading shift, I was advised to "stick my t**s out more".
And it was once suggested that I should have a word with another newsreader because she was "porking up a bit". Interestingly, her profile has since risen in inverse proportion to her shrinking frame."
Who do you think Tracey is referring to?
But thanks to Tracey's clue, my list in my mind, has extended ten-fold.
- Gerald Stone (former 60 Minutes producer)
- Mal Walden (Ten News Melbourne lead newsreader)
- Geoff Mullins (former Ten News Brisbane newsreader)
- Mike London (former Nine News Brisbane lead newsreader)
- Gretel Killeen (former Big Brother host)
- Des McWilliam (former TV0 News Director and lead newsreader)
- Jana Wendt (former Ten News Melbourne newsreader)
- Jo Pearson (former Ten News Melbourne newsreader)
- (long shot) Marie-Louise Theile (former Ten News Melbourne and Brisbane Newsreader)
Only three out of that list have had published works (Stone (two books about Channel 9 in 2000 and 2007),Mal Walden (a history of ATV-10 in 2004) and Killeen(multiple childrens titles) and only Gretel has had books published by Penguin.
You be the judge Brett,.
You've done a very
You've done a very thorough job, there. Not sure about the "porked-up" person, but I still think the Boned author isn't somebody from TV land. From your list, though, I'd pick Gretel Killeen, as she's the only one with enough wit to carry it off.
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