For many years, the Tips and Rumours section has been one of the must-read parts of the Crikey newsletter, with the inside word on the weird, wonderful and wrong things going on in Australian politics, business and media. Over the years, many names have popped up in the section, with much of the news less than complimentary. Our tips cover policy cock-ups, who lost their job and why, and the miscellaneous tidbits that our loyal tipsters send us. To mark Crikey‘s 15th birthday and many thousands of tips and rumours, we asked some of our favourite celebrities to read tips about themselves, and the results are above. If it seems similar to Jimmy Kimmel’s series of Celebrities Read Mean Tweets, that’s because he was our inspiration.
ABC Melbourne broadcaster Jon Faine tells us that he almost sued for defamation over the claim that his Volvo had been pulled over for an exhaust check up in 2011 — he’s an old Citroen driver and would never touch a Volvo. He corrected the record at the time, telling us it was a 1974 BMW 3.0 CSi (a very nice car indeed), and it passed its check-up with flying colours.
Former NSW premier Kristina Kenneally’s attempts at a Kiwi accent, while admirable, proved our tipster wrong — she says she hasn’t got an accent makeover, and federal Labor MP Graham Perrett is shocked that he would drink wine with mining execs — he’s a beer man.
The ABC’s Annabel Crabb ignited a flurry of both praise and censure when she filled in for Leigh Sales as host of 7:30 in 2013. Razor-sharp as ever, it seems Crabb knows the source of the more scathing reviews.
Annabel can do wrong.
Really Crikey, did you? But sweet. Should make more.