Jungle tensions as celeb threatens to quit reality show over Nathan Buckley’s huge pay cheque
Tension has grown between football stars Nathan Buckley and Beau Ryan, after money talked on the set of I’m a Celebrity. Here’s what went down in the jungle.
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A whopping paycheck is believed to be the catalyst for former NRL star turned TV host Beau Ryan, threatening to walk out of the jungle.
Ryan lost his cool when AFL legend Nathan Buckley revealed his $300,000 appearance fee to appear on Network Ten’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, while the pair were performing tasks for the top rating program.
A witness working in the jungle fed us the goss on the breakdown, when Bucks told Ryan of his fee.
Ryan was overheard responding angrily he was in the jungle free of charge as he is an employee of the Ten Network.
We put in a call to network bosses relating to the star’s meltdown, and heard crickets.
BOXER DISAPPOINTED IN PREMIER ANDREWS
An Olympic medallist has voiced his disappointment in Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, after receiving a letter highlighting his achievements in Tokyo.
Boxing bronze medallist Harry Garside suspects the perceived insincere letter from the busy Premier was the result of a wellwishing politician but organised by his personal assistant.
“No disrespect to Daniel Andrews, he’s doing his job. It’s been a stressful couple of years that’s for sure and I definitely wouldn’t want to be in his shoes, but it was just one of those letters that you could tell he had nothing to do with writing,” Garside said.
Garside pulled off a stunning victory over Kazakhstan‘s Zakir Safiullin in the lightweight quarterfinals to become Australia’s first Olympic medallist since Spike Cheney in 1988.
“If he (Premier Andrews) had called me, and I know he has millions of other more important things than to call an athlete, and I understand that, but I was like ‘this doesn’t mean much’, because I knew he didn’t write it himself.
“If he had come up and shook my hand and said ‘congratulations’, I would have 100 per cent shook his hand and looked him in the eye.
“(But) it was a digital signature on an email, not a personally signed letter
“It would be the same if the Queen wrote me a letter. It sounds bad but I’m working class,” the 24-year-old said.
KEKOVICH’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH LAMB TRUMP
AFL legend Sam Kekovich has slammed Americans and their lack of support for his ‘mate’, Donald Trump.
The 1975 North Melbourne premiership star wants to reconnect with Trump now that he is out office, and praise him for what he claims are his herculean efforts in ‘making America great again’.
Kekovich refers to America’s ‘underbelly deep state’, which was allegedly against a second term for the 45th President.
“I don’t care what side of politics you are on but if you think (US president) Joe Biden is the best candidate out of 330 million Americans, well you have to be god damn delusional,” Kekovich declared.
“He (Trump) is dead right, you gotta clean the swamp out. I don’t care what anyone says, Trump was one of the last bastions to save democracy.
“It’s a tyranny against democracy at the moment.
“He exposed China, he exposed Iran, he exposed the United Nations, the Middle East . . .
(Barak) Obama and (Bill) Clinton lauded themselves as fine statesman, all they did was sell the farm and give everything away.
“Trump saw it and thought, ‘well I’ve gotta clean the swamp out’.”
The 71-year-old AFL legend, wordsmith and comedian, formed a close bond with Trump when they were asked by MLA (Meat and Livestock Australia) to appear in advertisements promoting lamb.
“In 2010 we shot the lamb campaign around the world and I thought we’d embark on a global campaign, and to do so we thought we needed the assistance of a global figure.
“At the time he (Trump) was doing The Apprentice and the MLA approached him and paid him a moderate fee.
“I don’t know what they paid him but they were very, very delighted with the fee.
“I think he was more delighted to do the gig because he had an opinion of Australians though Miss Universe and Jennifer Hawkins.”
The pair struck up a lifelong friendship, with Trump apparently offering Kekovich anything he wanted when in New York.
Limousines, exclusive restaurants, tickets to shows; anything Kekovich wanted, he says, Trump promised he would organise.
“He invited me up to his office and to meet his secretary of (many) years,” Kekovich said.
“I’ll never forget what she said when I got in the lift: ‘I don’t know what you’ve done but you struck a very good chord with him because nobody ever gets invited up to his personal office. There’s only one other Australian who has and that’s Kerry Packer’.”
We asked Kekovich what he will say to his mate if and when they speak again.
“That’s a good point, what am I going to say to him?” he pondered.
“How are you going? I thought you did a great job.
“That it’s an absolute disgrace what’s going on in America at the moment.”
Kekovich continued in his enthusiastic praise of Trump, claiming the Republicans had done more for America in one term than the Democrats had done in 100 years.
AFL CLUB EXECUTIVE RUSHED TO HOSPITAL
Former Carlton player turned club executive Ian Prendergast was rushed to hospital this week after slicing his finger with a knife.
Prendergast was at his Melbourne home when his finger came into contact with a razor sharp knife, which sliced his finger open, causing blood to spurt everywhere.
The ice cool businessman went to the nearest hospital and was in surgery Thursday morning to have the vessel and tendon repaired.
On Friday, the former Blues backman, who played 65 games between 2001 and 2006 messaged us revealing he didn’t do too much damage to the tendon, which means it’ll be a quick recovery.
But is hardly ideal given the timing.
Prendergast is back in business after returning to Melbourne to take an executive role with the Blues, following a stint in Sydney as the chief of the NRL Players’ Association.
“I’m weighing up whether I jump back into a full time gig next year as I’m enjoying the flexibility of consulting work at the moment,” Prendergast revealed.
We wish him a speedy recovery in time for Christmas.
BILLIONAIRE JAMES PACKER IN AMERICA FOR WHITE CHRISTMAS
Two months at his multimillion-dollar ranch in Argentina has rejuvenated billionaire bachelor James Packer, after a tumultuous year as Crown Resorts major shareholder.
Packer took off to his ranch Ellerstina near the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires in late October for some R and R, spending the next eight weeks out of the spotlight dealing with his business interests from South America as his baby Crown went through its greatest upheaval since its birth back in 1997.
Packer’s Crown Resorts is still a major backer of sport in this country with millions invested in the NRL’s Melbourne Storm and Russell Crowe’s South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Friends of Packer tell Sheahan Ink he will now spend the festive season between his Aspen hideaway and Los Angeles and is in a much better headspace after time spent in Argentina.
HOLLYWOOD STAR SHOPPING AT AUSSIE BONDS
Actor Julia Roberts walked into the Bonds store inside Surfers Paradise shopping mall Pacific Fair startling young staff, who instantly recognised her.
The retail assistant is the daughter of an AFL club analyst and was given the fright of her life last Sunday when she looked up and saw the Pretty Woman star and her female friend waiting to pay for her clothing.
Roberts is currently on the Gold Coast filming movie Ticket To Paradise alongside pal George Clooney.
GARSIDE STORY
Blood is said to be thicker than water, or at least that’s what we’re led to believe.
But boxing’s newest star is struggling with his family just days away from becoming a professional fighter.
Harry Garside, the self-confessed working class fella from Melbourne’s outskirts, who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, is dealing with his brother being incarcerated due to drug addiction, ageing grandparents and … worst of all, he says, having failure instilled in him since he was a little boy.
The 24-year-old has been wrestling with his decision to move away from the family dynamic in Melbourne and take up residence in Sydney with his new girlfriend, to spread his professional wings.
“There’s people close to me, family members, that are my life; that said, I can’t achieve things, I can’t do this, I couldn’t go to the Olympics and I want to prove them all wrong.
“I love when people say I can’t do something because it always makes me train harder, believe in myself and want to prove myself right and prove them wrong.
“(But) I am fighting for my family. My family is working class. My dad is a roof tiler, he is 53 and he is still on the roof. Before I turned 10, both my parents worked two jobs and so I want to earn millions and millions of dollars and be really successful as an athlete and allow my parent to retire.
“I want to get my brother out of this dirt he is in and help the people I love.
“For my mum, who is a real straighty-180, to experience that is pretty traumatising, but he can’t help it.
“He is battling mental health (issues) and I don’t blame him for it. He can’t help it, he is trying his best but, just to see how much he has hurt my family, it sucks,” he said emotionally.
“But I’m also fighting for myself.
“Of course, I love my family and every family has their issues and my family is no different and we have some things going on in our family at the moment which I probably should be at home for . . . but my parents know this is where I have to be right now.
“I’ll always be there for them and do my best to call them and do all I can for them while interstate.
“Growing up, the biggest factor for me I felt like I wasn’t good enough . . . I don’t know why exactly, but I felt his overwhelming sense I wasn’t good enough.
“People were always criticising my family or judging my family or looking down on my family; I felt that.
“I don’t know whether it’s a story I made up in my head or it’s real, but that’s what I felt most of my childhood.
“I think the big reason I want to be successful is to show people my family is good enough; that I am good enough
“Most people in high performance environments are insecure. They’ve got insecurities. Most people who are really successful are.
“Whether it is some little kid who didn’t get their needs met or wasn’t loved?
“I’m just trying my best to love myself unconditionally, to prove to myself, not to anyone else, that I am good enough.”
Garside’s amateur boxing career of 105 fights will be buried as he fights for the first time as a professional inside Sydney’s Star Event centre this Wednesday night.
Garside will face off against Fijian southpaw Sachin Mudaliar, with plans to become Australia’s next superstar in the ring.
“It’s every boxer’s dream to be a household name and win world titles.
“My aim is put Australia on the map.”
He says his wild haircut was born out of a want to be or look like his AFL idol Dustin Martin, and inspired by the mullet craze that took off a couple of years ago.
HUGHESY: ‘SURRY HILLS IS ST KILDA WITHOUT THE BEACH’
Melbourne funny man Dave Hughes is house hunting for a new home in Australia’s most expensive city as his radio career moves to Sydney.
‘Hughesy’, his wife Holly and the kids are moving to the harbour city to join his breakfast radio show co-anchors from 2Day FM’s Morning Crew on the Southern Cross Austereo network.
Hughesy told Sheahan Ink he is looking at homes in Sydney’s inner suburb of Surry Hills, which is central, has good public transport and close to the Sydney Cricket Ground, where the AFL tragic can watch his team Carlton.
“We’re looking at Surry Hills. It’s St Kilda without the beach,” the soon-to-be former St Kilda resident tells us.
The family’s move north will be welcome news for his radio bosses at 2Day FM which is Melbourne’s equivalent to Fox FM, in order to create greater synergies with his co-hosts Ed Kavalee and Erin Molan.
Austereo understands how expensive it is to live in Sydney and has included an accommodation allowance for their major star.
Now, Hughesy will focus on stealing ratings points off his old sparring partner and friend Kyle Sandilands, whose show with Jackie O has a stranglehold on the FM market.
‘Un-Australian’: Albo under fire over Melbourne Cup call
Anthony Albanese is facing pressure from pollies – and a top horse trainer – to reschedule Question Time on Melbourne Cup Day because it clashes with the race that stops the nation.
Vic Libs in poll position, days after MPs turn on Pesutto
The Victorian Coalition has overtaken Labor for the first time in almost seven years, just days after Liberal Party MPs detailed plans to roll Opposition Leader John Pesutto.