Renee Bargh opens up on her ties with Brad Pitt and George Clooney
She’s had ‘embarrassing’ moments with Brad Pitt, been praised by Oprah and danced with John Travolta. Queensland TV presenter Renee Bargh shares her extraordinary Hollywood life.
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She’s gushed over family photos with George Clooney as he showed her rare pictures of his twins.
She mailed a pair of overalls to Jennifer Aniston for her birthday because she knew Aniston would like them, and she credits John Travolta for landing her a job in Hollywood.
These have become “normal” moments for Queensland TV presenter Renee Bargh as she lives the life of a high profile Hollywood showbiz reporter.
“George Clooney, I just love to death,” says Bargh, 33, down the phone from her home in Venice Beach in Los Angeles.
She quickly moves on.
“John Travolta has always been so kind to me and one of the most genuine people in Hollywood, and Nicole Kidman, I just love her and love talking to her, she’s so down to earth.
“Oh and Brad Pitt,” she laughs, “I’ve had so many embarrassing moments with him, all I do is fawn over him.
“But I’ll never forget Oprah telling me I was doing a great job and that was all the reassurance I needed.”
Ten years ago, Bargh left her job at Channel V in Australia to become a host on popular US TV entertainment show Extra, in LA.
It was the beginning of an incredible rise and she was propelled on to red carpets and award ceremonies, by the sides of global stars, whom she now calls her friends.
A decade on and the novelty isn’t lost on Bargh. A Gold Coast-born girl, who grew up in the hills of the Byron Bay region, mixing with stars she grew up idolising.
And as she talks to U on Sunday, it’s clear she’s become a star herself.
Ten years on, Bargh knows she’s living the sweet life, especially now as she returns to Australian television screens for the first time in a decade to co-host The Voice alongside Darren McMullen.
She’s also working with her best friend, long-time show judge, Delta Goodrem.
“It has been a dream of mine for years,” she says, having taken over the role from Sonia Kruger.
“I’m a very big believer of manifesting your dreams and speaking it out until it comes true.
“I put it out in the universe and said to my agent and my friends I wanted to come home and do The Voice and that’s the show I want to work on.
“I love that show and I’ve always wanted to work with Delta.”
The pair met “a long time ago” when Bargh was a backing vocalist for Goodrem at an ARIAs night. They became best mates when they were both in LA, and later flatmates.
Goodrem couldn’t be happier her best friend is now a colleague.
“It’s something we both dreamt of since I started the show,” Goodrem says.
“We would watch the episodes when we lived together, so I feel like she’s already been part of the journey with me for the past eight years.
“I think Australia is going to fall in love with her like I love her.”
Bargh braved international travel this week and made the journey from LA to Australia to resume filming for the show. While she rides out her two-week quarantine, she’s grateful to be home.
“I’ve done this journey so many times over the years but never experienced it like this. The plane was almost empty,” she says.
“As bizarre as the whole thing is – being screened at the airport, shuttled to a hotel and being confined to a room for two weeks – it still feels nice to be home.”
Growing up, Bargh loved to perform. She was enrolled in dance classes early in her life, and during her later years at Mullumbimby High School she couldn’t get enough.
At 18, she left to study performing arts in Sydney before joining Girlband, a pop group put together by Sony BMG and manager Mark Byrne from popular Australian band Rogue Traders.
“Oh god,” quips Bargh, “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to go there,” she jokes.
“It was fun but it continues to hang over my head as a thing people can tease me about for the rest of my life.”
She was 19 and, she admits, clueless. There’s little trace of the band’s existence bar a few photos. But as much as she cringes at the thought now, back then, it was an open door into a cutthroat industry so she grabbed it with both hands.
“I was a dancer and that is what I wanted to do. It was fun; we toured Australia with Rogue Traders and did a Bollywood film in India,” she recalls.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do, I felt lucky that I’d been given the opportunity to have a record deal and didn’t think about the direction I wanted to go in, or creative control.”
As short-lived as her stint as a popstar was, those days shaped her career and her name was out there.
It wasn’t long before the television networks came calling and she scored hosting gigs on Seven’s National Bingo Night before securing a sought-after spot on popular music channel Channel V.
In 2010, Bargh decided to make the move to LA and it didn’t take long before she nabbed a hosting spot on Extra. A job she says she landed because of John Travolta.
“John was my first ever interview for Extra and he was so gracious and kind,” says Bargh, who interviewed Travolta in Australia while he was in the country.
“I innocently asked him if he’d thought of a name for his baby who was due to be born a few days away and he told me, Benjamin.
“I didn’t think much of it at the time but that interview broke news and impressed my bosses enough to offer me a contract and the opportunity to move to LA.”
Years, and countless interviews with celebrities, later, the novelty has not worn off. She recounts one of her favourite “pinch-me” moments.
“I remember after George Clooney had the twins, before the camera was rolling, he asked if I wanted to see pictures of them and there are no pictures of them out anywhere,” she says.
“He scrolled through his phone and showed me. He’s just a proud dad like any dad would be.”
She’s full of these titbits: Singing Lion King songs during an interview with Michael Douglas; getting into silly conversations with Paul Rudd; and having the Secret Service stitch her back into her outfit after her pants split moments before an interview with former vice-president Joe Biden.
Bargh has an impressive resume and now it’s not a case of who she’s interviewed but who is left on the list.
“Two people,” she says simply, “Barack Obama and Beyonce.”
It’s a job that’s taken her to places people only dream of, but behind the glamour, she admits, is an unforgiving lifestyle.
Having endured her “fair share of heartbreak” in the public eye, Bargh, who is currently single, has learned the importance of finding balance in her life.
“I’m really big on self-care,” says Bargh, who meditates regularly.
“It took me a long time to understand the importance of it but in the last few years I’ve become really big on taking time for myself.”
It’s how she keeps her feet on the ground.
As Bargh looks back on the past decade, she can’t believe how far she’s come. But of all her achievements, including her show Extra winning a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment News Program in 2014, there’s one thing she’s particularly proud of.
“I’ve worked very hard to keep my accent,” she laughs.
“They’ve tried to beat it out of me and I’m constantly getting pulled up on things they can’t understand in my accent but it’s a choice to drop your accent, it’s not contagious.”
With her family still on the Gold Coast, Bargh has never felt more connected to her roots.
She’s also never been more grateful for what she has as the COVID-19 pandemic grips the world and the US death toll nears 100,000.
It’s a moment in time that’s allowed Bargh to take stock and like most of us, she’s counting her blessings.
“I feel really lucky to have work and everyone I love is healthy and safe.”
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