How Byron Bay’s ‘tidal wave of celebs’ inspired columnist James Weir’s first novel

When a columnist visited Byron Bay last year, he found a lot of tension between locals and the influx of celebs and influencers — and the plot for his first novel.

When columnist James Weir visited Byron Bay last year, he discovered tension between locals and the influx of celebs and influencers to the town about to boil over — and the plot for his first novel.

During high school in Queensland, Weir realised he had a knack for writing. But when the time came for him to pursue a career, he initially flirted with the idea of working in courtrooms.

So he opted to pursue a law degree, only to give it all up after just a few weeks.

“It was very dry,” the now Sydney-based journalist tells Stellar.

“I thought I would be like Calista Flockhart in Ally McBeal, but it was nothing like that.”

Still, taking his cues from the foibles of those he watches on TV has ultimately worked out quite well for Weir, whose witty musings for news.com.au about drama-packed reality series such as The Bachelor Australia, SAS Australia, Farmer Wants A Wife and Married At First Sight Australia have become essential reading for reality TV fans – and even those who have never seen a minute of those shows – since he began writing them in 2014.

“I have spent a lot of my days just watching episodes of television and transcribing word for word what people say,” he says.

“You learn a lot about people’s characters and human behaviour, and even their internal thoughts, through their piece-to-camera interviews. You also learn about patterns of speech and weird details, like the words they mispronounce, and it all helps create characters and a picture of who this person is in the way that they talk.”

Columnist James Weir has made his first foray into fiction writing.

But Weir, 33, admits he only fell into the role of reality TV raconteur by accident and that, left to his own devices, he would prefer to spend his time watching old episodes of Just Shoot Me or Becker on YouTube rather than dissecting yet another MAFS cheating scandal.

As he explains of his unyielding appetite for those slightly daggy ’90s sitcoms, “Most people’s music tastes don’t change after high school. I’m the same way with my TV choices.”

And, he adds, he only discovered that he had a flair for the fine art of episodic recapping by chance, when his editor asked him to watch a new Channel 9 program with an overly sensational yet strangely captivating title.

Even though he wasn’t thrilled to find himself dissecting the minutiae of a show called Married At First Sight, Weir says he pounded out a somewhat snarky (albeit funny) observational piece in response.

It would change the course of his entire career in the process.

Of course, MAFS wasn’t yet the juggernaut that viewers would come to know and love, or simply love to hate.

“When it started, it was (based on) a Danish format and was only about five episodes,” Weir says.

“It was one episode a week and it was shot in a very fly-on-the-wall style, almost like an SBS documentary.

“It wasn’t flashy. These people didn’t have lip fillers; they didn’t stay in fancy homes that the production had paid for. They were in their suburban crap shacks and living regular lives.”

That bygone era remains Weir’s favourite. Back then, very few journalists made their living just writing recaps; today, the internet is filled with them.

Even so, Weir’s words remain the ones that most Australians – including the participants themselves – want to read. His theory as to why?

“A lot of (contestants) get the joke because, for the most part, if you behave in a ridiculous way on TV, you can expect (some commentary about it). But it’s mostly gentle teasing. Often, you’re just pointing out their behaviour and raising an eyebrow at it. All you need to do is quote what they’ve said and the joke’s already there.”

Weir was inspired to write his novel after a trip to Byron Bay where he noticed an influx of celebs like Chris Hemsworth was changing the landscape. Chris Hemsworth with Tommy Kerr at The Pass in Byron Bay on Tuesday. Photo: @tommykerr17

Keen observation paired with expressive wit served Weir well when he sat down to write his first novel, The Hemsworth Effect, its genesis springing from a trip he took to Byron Bay in winter 2021 and the resulting series of columns he wrote for news.com.au and The Sunday Telegraph.

“It was that time (of year) when everyone would usually be going overseas and posting pictures on Instagram to make everyone back in Australia jealous,” he tells Stellar with a laugh.

“But because of the border closures and the lockdowns, there was nowhere else to go and the one place in the news – because of all the celebrities that were going there – was Byron Bay.

“So I spent maybe about two weeks there, just to see what was going on. I didn’t know what I would find, but I suspected there would be some humorous things to write about.”

And were there ever. A key element of his visit was witnessing first-hand the unfolding frustration of locals disheartened by the ongoing influx of uber glamorous blow-ins, what he calls “a tidal wave of celebrities” who have altered the NSW coastal town’s once laid-back and louche charm.

Some, like Matt Damon and Liam Hemsworth, were there to spend time with Byron’s most famous residents, Thor star Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky.

Others, like Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy and Zac Efron, had breezed in for work.

All the while, prominent Australians such as Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Shelley Craft and Elyse Knowles were settling into the region, having made a permanent sea change in recent years.

“There were all these celebrities and influencers going there for the summer,” Weir says.

“And then they just brought a whole bunch of rich and fancy people from the big cities. While some locals didn’t care, there were a lot of them who were very unhappy with the intrusion on the town. And that tension was building.”

That deliciously simmering environment ends up forming the backdrop for Weir’s foray into fiction, which is narrated by Aimee Maguire, a second-generation Byron Bay resident who is grappling with an indecisive fiance, a micro-influencer niece who has come to town for a bit of brand building, and the prospect of eviction from her bookshop, now under threat from a glittery new development.

Writing about fame-hungry wannabes already came naturally to Weir, who also says he had little trouble telling his story from a female perspective.

That’s because, he cracks, “It’s a scientific fact that all gay men really just come out of the womb as middle-aged straight women. So it’s really just my voice that you’ll be reading. I have no interest in writing from a male point of view.”

The Hemsworth Effect by James Weir (Simon and Schuster, $32.99) is out Wednesday

This interview was originally published in Stellar, available in News Corp’s The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland), and Sunday Mail (SA)