Thick-skinned stars savaged by summer scandals

While Brian Tamaki behind bars made headlines here, the world’s biggest anti-vaxxer created bulletin-leading drama round the world when he was detained across the Tasman.

Meanwhile in the UK 'Partygate' revelations forced Britain’s mockery merchants to up their game. But a former Aussie hell-raiser is showing them there is a way back for trashed reputations. 

While some said locking up Brian Tamaki made him a bit of a martyr, one commentator suggested he might actually be auditioning for the TV show I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here. 

Meanwhile in Melbourne Novak Djokovic created enough content for an entire new series of Border Patrol. 

That saga also served up more than a week’s worth of bulletin-leading news - worth its weight in ratings during the seasonal New Year news drought. 

Tabloids like Sydney’s Daily Telegraph dined out on what it called the “Novax Djok-eviction” under the front-page headline “Return of Serb”.

Everyone had strong opinions it seems including these Channel 7 news anchors:

Seven’s news chief pledged to punish the staffer who sent that sweary stuff out into the world, but the source of the leak turned out to be an outfit offering automated on-screen captions called AI-Media. (The culprit turned out not to be a naughty robot - but an employee working remotely due to the Covid-19 outbreak.) 

Even though this Serbia vs Straya tennis tussle had nothing to do with us, editors here led the news with it too in those innocent Omicron-free days.  

The ravings of Djokovic’s rellies in Serbia also added legs to the yarn. They claimed the hotel detention was torture, but it emerged he got exercise gear and special gluten-free food during his four days there.

And then there was the irony that Novak was sharing his detention hotel with asylum seekers, some of whom had been there for more than 3000 days (without gym equipment). 

As the Washington Post pointed out, the only sacrifices that seemed to count for Djokovic were his own. 

Meat for the media 

Australia’s immigration minister finally bit the bullet and sent the Serbian sportsman home on a Friday night - a decision critics claimed was timed to deflect weekend media attention away from the government's handling of the Covid crisis. 

In the UK, a similar accusation was levelled at Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been on the rack all month over Downing Street apparently breaking the law with parties in lockdown. 

The media revealed a plan called ‘Operation Red Meat’ - a series of announcements designed to counter the string of Partygate revelations. One of them was the sudden commitment that the BBC’s current source of licence fee funding would be scrapped in five years.

“It looks like we might be moving from the pandemic to the endemic phase of Downing St apologies. Brits will have to learn to live with them on a daily basis,” said political TV satirist Armando Ianucci. 

And the UK’s mockery merchants struggled to keep up with political life imitating art.  

When comedian Joe Lycett released a spoof summary of the yet-to-be-released official investigation, it was full of outlandish made-up offences that were obviously just a joke. 

Reportedly it caused a panic at Downing Street where some thought it was for real. 

‘Led by Donkeys’ viral videos subjecting BoJo to a Line of Duty style anti-corruption grillings.

Johnson even got it the neck on TikTok from comedy songster Munya Chawawa with the Secret Garden Party Banger, channelling Usher - and Tory-supporting tabloid The Sun even put the boot in with a viral video of a five-year-old’s outrage: 

Even some satirists were saying ‘I give up’ when the next No 10 party revealed was BoJo’s own birthday celebration. 

That followed news of another one that had taken place the night before Prince Philip’s funeral, at which the Queen sat alone in accordance with the UK’s Covid rules.  

And an extra irony:  that story broken by the paper Johnson worked for in the 1990s as a journalist - and which was formerly a big backer of his leadership. 

One theory is that all this was a bid to create great content for future episodes of Netflix’s hit series The Crown. 

(But on that score, the royals had other revelations in the news this month to worry about - with the Andrew formerly known as Prince ... )

Can reputations like those of BoJo and Novax ever come back from the sort of trashing they’ve had in the media this past month? 

For inspiration they can turn to Corey Party Boy Worthington  - public enemy number one in Melbourne fourteen years ago this month. 

Back then Corey refused to be shamed on national TV.

And this month he re-emerged as an advisor to an insurance company on the hazards of renting homes to people like 2008 Corey. 

With the right attitude and connections - there’s always a way back in the media though - like Corey - you might have to play a long game.