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Morning Show staff called me ‘Aussie bitch’ claims actress Melissa George

Actress Melissa George has claimed she overheard staff on Seven’s The Morning Show describe her as an “Aussie bitch” just before her notorious 2012 bust up on the set of the show.

In an interview published today in Fairfax Media’s Sunday Life magazine, George alleged she heard staff plotting to censor discussion of her work for other networks and to focus only on her previous role in Seven’s Home And Away. Seven denies the claim.

Melissa George in the 2012 Morning Show interview

Melissa George in the 2012 Morning Show interview

According to news reports at the time, George became angry after seeing a trailer which mentioned her former role as Angel in the soap. As a result she reportedly threatened to walk off the set and complained that she preferred to be eating a croissant in Paris to being in Australia. She later apologised for the comments.

In today’s interview, George claimed she thought her role in ABC’s The Slap and spy drama Hunted, which she was there to promote, would be ignored. She told Sunday Life:

“I overheard before I went out on stage, ‘Let’s not talk about Hunted or The Slap or anything, because they’re not our network. Let’s have the Aussie bitch promote Home and Away.’ I thought, ‘You’re really going to do that? Really?'”

However, George’s account does not necessarily accord with how The Morning Show is organised.

A program like The Morning Show would be unlikely to see staff discussing among themselves what to cover in an interview by the time a show is on air. Scripts and suggested questions for presenters are prepared and loaded onto the autocue long before guests arrive, and senior producers would be in the control room away from the guests.

In the interview that followed, hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies spent around three-quarters of the two minute interview discussing Hunted. Throughout the interview, footage of Hunted was overlaid, suggesting that the TV show was always going to be the focus of the conversation.

The caption “Hollywood’s most Hunted” would also have been prepared well ahead of time. The package to introduce her included every show she had appeared in.

At the time Morning Show producer Sarah Stinson told TV Tonight that George had been told the questions beforehand and had been relaxed about them.

A few days after the interview Hunted was axed due to low ratings.

1.24pm update: A spokesperson for The Morning Show told Mumbrella: “We’re a loss on the claim as it did not happen.”

(Declaration of interest: Members of the Mumbrella team have guested on Sunrise and The Morning Show on several occasions.)

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