Sharyn Ghidella reveals mortifying Logies incident with comedy legends

Popular Aussie TV newsreader Sharyn Ghidella has relived her mortifying moment with two legends of comedy at this year’s Logies.

• Scandals, sensations: Our TV history

Funny things are known to happen at the Logies. Television’s night of nights has thrown up some interesting outcomes over the years. And by that, I’m not referring to the one or two questionable winners of the famed little statue.

No, what I’m referencing on this occasion is the unusual things that happen when a cohort of television identities come together and by the Law of Proximity alone, are all thrust into a single room and are forced to mingle.

I know we often think people who work in the public eye are uber comfortable with attention; that chit chat with strangers or admirers comes easy; that mingling with people you’ve seen up in lights would come naturally.

This column was originally published in October 2024 and has been resurfaced as part of The Courier-Mail summer columnists series.

There is a common denominator, after all. They all work on the small screen. How hard can it be?

Sharyn Ghidella at the TV Week Logie Awards this year.

But the universal truth is – well, in my case anyway – the spotlight is a challenging light to navigate and when you run into someone you’ve watched, admired and looked up to for a long time, that cool, calm demeanour you’ve long prided yourself on, can suddenly disappear.

For proof of this, I use the example of my encounter with two of the most sublime women ever to grace our TV screens. The acclaimed comedians and actors Marg Downey and Kitty Flanagan.

I’m sure you know them well. And when I ran into them, I thought I knew them really well, also.

Trouble was, I’d never met either of them before and when I stumbled into their orbit, I was struck down with a crippling case of Celebrity Worship Syndrome, rendering me completely awe-struck in their presence.

Yes, at 58 years of age, I believe I may have engaged in a rather unedifying display of fangirling that even I never imagined possible.

Kitty Flanagan at this year’s TV Week Logie Awards. Picture: Hanna Lassen

In my defence, it was Kitty Flanagan and Marg Downey, TOGETHER, no less.

Kitty Flanagan is Helen Tudor-Fisk. She’s quick witted, she loves cats, she’s hilarious.

Marg Downey played my journalistic idol, Jana Wendt, sometimes better than Jana herself (if that is actually possible). She stars in the ABC drama The Newsreader. She’s a comedy/acting legend, an idol, one of the greats.

For me, these women are up there with meeting royalty and, short of curtsying, I thought it more royally appropriate to bend over backwards just to let them know how happy I was to see them. Like a human confetti cannon, I began dousing these two poor women with a nonsensical shower of superlatives, a type of verbal verboseness that I couldn’t seem to control.

I think I told them, in an incoherent fashion, that their work had a profound impact on me; I stipulated they were living legends, I lauded their innate comic timing; I may even have told them I loved them!

Marg Downey.

Yes, fangirling, it seems, isn’t just reserved for screaming teenage girls who can’t shake it off when they come face-to-face with Taylor Swift.

Of course, both women proved more than worthy of my idolisation. They happily chatted back; they were engaging, pleasant. They even asked about me, while happily posing for a selfie, which I’ve since blown up for the pool room!

But as charming as they were, I’m sure they left that encounter wondering who on earth I was, who actually let me in, and why hadn’t they just found their table in the ballroom a bit earlier to avoid such an awkward situation.

Avoidance, surely, is always a good way of maintaining boundaries.

If only I’d reminded myself of that, as I made my way around the room or, during the many other previous occasions, where I’d also exhibited an unhealthy sense of fandom.

Which begs the question: Why is it in the company of greatness do so many of us tend to unravel, ramble incoherently and, in my case, forget to act like a normal human being?

Channel 10 Brisbane's all female presenting team Liz Cantor (weather), Sharyn Ghidella (newsreader) and Veronica Eggleton (sports presenter) Picture: Channel 10

Apparently, there is a perfectly reasonable psychological explanation for it all.

When you’ve watched people for an extended period of time, we start to think these characters are more than just actors.

Connecting deeply with a person’s art can make us feel like we have a personal relationship with them. Over time, these actors seem familiar and accessible and we think we know them.

So there you have it.

I can now justify my extreme fangirling.

And even better, for Marg and Kitty, they’ll never be forced to endure my fanatical enthusiasm ever again. Should we cross paths, rest assured, they already have an exit plan in place and I don’t need a psychology textbook to explain why.