‘I bet I can make your tits move’: Author Kathy Lette on first job interview at major TV network

IT WAS her first big job interview at a major TV network. Kathy Lette wasn’t ready for what happened inside a packed boardroom.

HER books describe the sexism and misogynistic behaviour of the ‘70s and ‘80s but for Puberty Blues author Kathy Lette, it’s not just fiction. It’s a harsh reality.

Talking about the tsunami of sexual misconduct claims being made within the media industry in Australia and Hollywood, Lette told news.com.au about her confronting first job interview at a major Australian television network.

“A group of about five men sat there and one slapped ten dollars on the table and said, ‘I bet I can make your tits move without touching them’. And then he leant over and mauled my breasts and said, ‘Haha, you won’,” she said.

“I replied, ‘I bet you 20 bucks I can make your balls move without touching them’. And then I kicked him between the legs. I don’t think I got quite the good enough aim because they laughed and I got the job.”

It was the early ‘80s and a 21-year-old Lette had just published her breakout 1979 coming-of-age novel Puberty Blues.

Last month, veteran television presenter Kerri-Anne Kennerley detailed to news.com.au the “fierce abuse” and “chauvinism and discrimination” she and other women endured at TV networks.

Talking about her own experience, Lette said the behaviour was relentless.

“I think we were just so used to the sexism at the time — you really had to gird you loins wherever you went. All the jobs were run by men — it was like going to battle every single day,” she said.

“It was every single day. You were judged, there were comments made on your appearance, how sexually attractive you were or weren’t, your availability. You were tip toeing through a minefield.”

‘It was like going in to battle every day’ ... Kathy Lette pictured in Sydney.

In her latest book After The Blues — the grown-up sequel to Puberty Blues — readers track protagonist Debbie through adulthood in the early ‘80s. A time, Lette said, was “just as sexist as the ‘70s with much worse hairdos and shoulder pads”.

In 2017, the 59-year-old doesn’t think attitudes have changed.

“I think finally, with the Me Too campaign, we are hoping it’s a seismic shift in the attitudes to women in the workplace,” she said, referring to the movement that was prompted by the endless string of accusations made against disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

At the mention of Weinstein’s name, Lette recalled the time she came face-to-face with the movie boss after he optioned her book Girls’ Night Out in the early ‘90s.

“It was at the Savoy in London and the thing about Harvey is he chose really good projects — there’s a huge disconnect between his creative mind and his carnal behaviour,” she said, adding the producer looked at her with “the slow, lizard blink of a top-order predator”.

“Even the fact he chose Girls Night Out — it’s a funny, feminist, gutsy little book that champions women and yet, in his own life, he was behaving monstrously ... Who can make sense of that?”

Lette, who was 32 at the time, said she was “too old” for him to target her.

“Predators like that always go for young girls who are insecure and vulnerable,” she said. “He’s very engaging he’s very smart and we had really interesting conversation but there was no doubt he had a bullying streak. He’s very domineering and people around him were in overawed orbit around him.”

Talking about the reincarnations of Puberty Blues — which went from novel, to movie, to TV show to it’s current incarnation in After The Blues — Lette said she’s surprised at the interest today’s teens have in the story nearly 40 years later.

So, was it better to be a teen in the ‘70s or 2017?

“What they (today’s teenagers) marvel at is the freedom (of the ‘70s) — no mobile, phones parents never knew where you were, no real healthy warnings about smoking or drinking or sugar,” she said.

“The sex war was raging. The battle lines were drawn but you could see the enemy. Now, some men have learnt to disguise it more. (Back then) In some ways we knew what we were dealing with.”

After The Blues is out now through Penguin.

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Originally published as ‘I bet I can make your tits move’: Author Kathy Lette on first job interview at major TV network