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Karl can’t stay away from the Channel Nine precinct
Karl Stefanovic, the independent podcaster now best known for rolling out the red carpet to convicted criminal and right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, is not only back in Australia but was spotted metres from his former workplace on Wednesday, seen exiting Tim Gurner’s Saint Haven health club in North Sydney. And yes, this time we’ve got pictures.
Regular readers of this column will no doubt recall it was only late last week that we got word of Stefanovic’s return to home soil following a trip to the UK, where he interviewed One Nation’s star recruit Barnaby Joyce, and sat for a talk with the British media personality, Piers Morgan. But these photos are the first taken since he’s been back (or at least the first that we’re aware of.)
Stefanovic refused to be drawn on rumours that one of his upcoming podcast guests would be accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith. “I haven’t chatted with him yet,” Stefanovic said. When pushed on when he would interview him, he said, “You’ll have to watch, my friend.”
Stefanovic dropped by Saint Haven, which is a stone’s throw from Nine’s North Sydney headquarters, around lunchtime, when the streets would’ve been crawling with his former colleagues. Our guess is he’s got himself locked into a pricey gym membership he’s struggled to get out of.
Gurner announced late last year that he’d bring Saint Haven to Sydney in February of this year. The club, according to the Australian Financial Review, promised to offer guests advanced hyperbaric oxygen therapy, cryotherapy, IV infusions, red light beds and PEMF mats and lymphatic drainage boots. Memberships start at $170 a week and go up to more than $40,000 a year.
Ghost of Karl Stefanovic descends on ABC studios to haunt Nine boss
Given Stefanovic is no longer a member of Australia’s media establishment, he was not among the who’s who that gathered for the ABC’s annual Andrew Olle lecture at the broadcaster’s Ultimo studios on Tuesday evening. Still, his ghost hovered over the event – and haunted his former boss.
Matt Stanton, chief executive of this masthead’s parent company Nine Entertainment, should’ve known he wasn’t yet done with Stefanovic. Still, the Nine boss, usually a steady performer with investors and analysts, clearly had other things on his mind.
He was searching for words in response to questions about the former Today show co-host. He hesitated on the role of AI in the 30 redundancies announced at the company’s metro publishing division earlier that day. And, in trying to pay a compliment to the ABC, he accidentally called Media Watch “Media Week”, at one point slouching so low in his chair he appeared to be at risk of sliding onto the floor. (Media Watch host Linton Besser sat in the room watching on.)
The ABC’s Hamish Macdonald led proceedings and hosted the panel. He noted that Stefanovic said he was free and truly independent after he left Nine. Macdonald then asked Stanton whether Stefanovic wasn’t free at Nine. The Nine boss cited editorial standards across the business, including its publishing division.
“There’s different editorial standards and genres – not genres, but audiences and stuff,” Stanton said.
Then Macdonald asked Stanton if the company knew the direction Stefanovic was planning to take the podcast, presumably referring to the Tommy Robinson episode that fast-tracked Stefanovic’s exit.
“Yeah, we did know as part of the process – he was coming towards the end of his contract with us and we absolutely did allow him to do the podcast, and he wanted to do the podcast and explore in that area,” Stanton told the room.
Stanton joined a high-powered media panel for the event. Alongside the Nine boss sat this year’s guest lecturer, Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni, ABC boss Hugh Marks, News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller, and SBS boss Jane Palfreyman.
Their cheer squads trickled out into the foyer afterwards. ABC stalwarts Leigh Sales and Laura Tingle both showed face, along with the broadcaster’s chairman Kim Williams, and, of course, Besser. From News, meanwhile, there was Google whisperer-turned-tabloid boss Nicholas Gray, and the company’s government relations chief, GK Schubert.
The Nine contingent was also out in force. Nine chairman Peter Tonagh was there, along with Nine’s publishing boss Tory Maguire, and broadcasting boss Amanda Laing, perched in the second to last row alongside the company’s corporate affairs boss, James Boyce.
Packer’s Top Gun entourage
Usually, CBD’s spotted items originate a little closer to home, but a curious sighting in the superyacht-infested waters off the south of France could not pass without comment.
James Packer’s gigantic 108-metre superyacht, IJE, named after his children, Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle, has had a small fleet of pleasure crafts lingering in its vicinity in recent days. While there is nothing strange about small crafts buzzing around the big boats in those warm European waters, it was the names of these smaller vessels that caught our attention – Maverick, Hollywood, Cougar and Hangman.
If only there was an Iceman and Goose in the south of France pack. It is unknown if there is any link between the crafts and Packer’s tub, but the names were enough to amuse CBD’s film fandom.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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