Magda Szubanski defends Jenny Morrison photo tweet
After sparking criticism with her comments on the Prime Minister’s wife, Magda Szubanski has made demands of her own.
Victoria
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TV star Magda Szubanski has declared she wants to know “what kind of woman” Jenny Morrison is after coming under fire for comments about the Prime Minister’s wife.
Szubanski was heavily criticised for a tweet posted on the weekend in which she compared a photo of Ms Morrison standing behind her husband as he signed a condolence book for Prince Philip to the Handsmaid’s Tale.
On Wednesday, the comedian defended the post saying she never meant to offend Ms Morrison and had thought the “wacko” photo was a meme.
“I think doing a media pile-on about someone’s appearance is not something that I would condone,” Szubanski told A Current Affair.
“When I first looked at it did not realise that it was Jenny Morrison because it looks very different from her, she’s normally got her hair done, makeup, the whole sort of thing.
“I genuinely thought it was a meme, so I was a bit staggered that I got drawn into this over such a nothing observation that thousands of people had already made.”
Szubanski, well known for her role as Sharon Strzelecki in the hit television series Kath and Kim, conceded that her tweet was “silly” and that she was not on Twitter “just to make nice comments all the time”.
But she also said that it was fair for Australians to want to know more about Ms Morrison, including “her values".
“Why would you put something that looks like The Handmaid’s Tale out as a photo op?” Ms Szubanski said.
“Look, I don’t want to hurt her (Mrs Morrison), of course I don’t. I do think that if she’s going to be in public life, we need to know more about her.
“If she’s going to have some sort of influence in public life I want to know, what are her values? What kind of a woman is she?”
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