EXCLUSIVEINSIDE MAIL: How Channel Nine stars are doubling their salaries on the side, a staff exodus at Seven – and which pollie was spotted at the tennis with her tattooed hipster husband?

In our must-read Mail+ column, Steve Jackson and Peter van Onselen reveal what’s REALLY going on in the worlds of media and politics each week. 

Cash for comment runs rampant in commercial TV 

Some of the nation’s biggest television identities are more than doubling their salaries by personally promoting products on their social media feeds in lucrative ‘cash for comment’ arrangements that exploit their privileged media status.

Inside Mail can reveal the rampant cash-grab has become so widespread at Nine that some of the network’s stars are banking individual deals for between $10,000 and $150,000 a pop. 

What’s more, the practice is actively encouraged by the broadcaster’s top brass, provided all personal commercial agreements go through the media giant’s sales department and the network’s accountants are able to ‘clip the ticket’ and take a cut. 

The alarming revelations come after Today show sports presenter Alex Cullen was taken off-air at the weekend in the midst of the network’s all-important Australian Open coverage after accepting a $50,000 cash reward for plugging Melbourne businessman Adrian Portelli. 

Portelli, who has long been known as ‘Lambo Guy’ since arriving at Nine reality reno show The Block’s 2022 auction in a bright orange Lamborghini Murcielago SV, offered the money to the first journalist to publicly refer to him by his own preferred, self-appointed nickname (which we have declined to use).

Cullen, who is already on $250,000 with the network, not only readily complied with the request but failed to disclose the monetary incentive to viewers – and remains off-air after Nine launched an immediate investigation into the matter at the weekend. 

(But oh so much more on that later.)

Network sources said there had been a troubling ‘cash for comment’ mentality at Nine for years and that the mindset had gotten increasingly worse in recent times, with on-air journalists making big money promoting everything from skincare products to high-end fashion labels. 

Accepting cash, gifts or benefits to undermine journalistic independence, and improperly using a journalistic position for personal gain, are both breaches of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance Journalist Code of Ethics. 

Curiously, the network believes there is some sort of differentiation between journalists who work on the network’s dedicated ‘news’ bulletins and the journalists who work on its ‘light entertainment’ news offerings such as Today and Today Extra.

(We’re not sure whether Nine has informed its ‘light entertainment’ types they can hand in their journalist credentials as yet.) 

‘The rule at Nine is as long as it (the deal) comes through the front door and Sales can clip the ticket, and everyone is making money out of it, then it’s all okay,’ one well-placed Nine insider revealed. 

‘We’ve got presenters – working journalists – making anywhere from $10k to $150k to promote anything and everything – there’s so much money flying around the place that Nine has even established a formal register.’

Even though the commercial arrangements could be seen to undermine the journalistic integrity of Nine’s on-air staff, the network insisted that the official register ensured there was no conflict of interest when it came to the station’s news coverage and its overt ‘rent-a-journo’ scheme. 

The channel also pointed to the fact it ran training sessions to educate journalists on what was considered an appropriate personal promotional arrangement and insisted all official commercial deals were appropriately disclosed to the public.

However, insiders said there had been ongoing issues with staff members circumventing the network’s formal policies.

‘The real problem we’ve had is with journalists trying to do backdoor deals and cut the network out of the loop and just promote stuff online without telling anyone,’ an insider said.

‘It’s been a real growing problem and there’s probably someone getting pulled up about it every couple of months.

‘The surprising thing is that, down at the papers, you can’t imagine them allowing anything like this, because they’re really conscious of their need to maintain their editorial independence… in broadcast though? Oh man, it’s a free-for-all.’

Another network insider confirmed the troubling arrangements, while echoing concerns they risked undermining the network’s editorial independence. 

‘Everyone’s contract at Nine includes a provision that the network owns their IP (intellectual property), so as long as they’re letting the network take its cut, no one seems to care too much about the seedy side of it at all,’ the insider said. 

The blight is not confined to Nine, though, with Seven insiders revealing news reporters there had also been hauled over the coals in recent years for accepting cash payments.

Sources said certain on-air reporters had been admonished for undermining the channel’s editorial independence by accepting to money to promote things such as vitamin pills, hair care products and even financial institutions. 

The journalists in question had not only failed to disclose the cash-for-comment arrangements to their viewers but even tried to hide them from their news bosses at the network.  

Although Portelli has since claimed Cullen always planned to donate the $50,000 he transferred to his personal bank account to charity, Nine sources have told Inside Mail the optics of the arrangement were diabolical.  

‘Alex isn’t an entertainer – he may be on the Today show but he’s supposed to be a serious journalist,’ a network insider said. 

‘What he’s done is (he’s) blurred the lines completely here and he’s made it look like Nine’s journalism and journalists are up for sale. 

‘It’s a terrible look and serious questions need to be asked why he would think it was even remotely okay to do that – it’s literally, cash for comment.’

Name game sparks premature backlash at 2DayFM  

What’s in a name? Well, a lot if you’re one of the 2DayFM breakfast show’s handful of listeners.

Fans of the faded Sydney network have been up in arms following the announcement popular Harbour City radio personality Emma Chow has signed on to help struggling brekky duo Jimmy Smith and Nathan Roye build the ratings for their rather pragmatically named Jimmy & Nath program.

Why? Well, because even though Chow has a far bigger profile and following than either of her newfound, dad-joke-telling co-hosts, the title of the show hasn’t  been changed to include her. 

Don’t get us wrong – the team have been at pains to point out just how critical Chow will be to the brekky crew’s success this year, with Roye this week raving she would ‘play an instrumental role in the Jimmy & Nath show’s future’.

It’s just fans that feared that instrument would be the second fiddle.

And it wasn’t just Chow’s fans who were outraged by the name-game oversight, with Inside Mail hearing many of her female colleagues were equally unimpressed by the apparent snub. 

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for it all to erupt online.

‘SCA is stuck in the 80s and 90s… how can you have a woman on air and not use her name,’ one commentator remarked after news of Chow’s appointment broke on industry blog Radio Today.

‘Adding a much-needed female voice without crediting her in the show name?’ another queried. ‘Despite all three of them having much the same experience and profile?’

And not unlike an FM radio show itself, the hits kept coming.

‘If Emma doesn’t get billing in “Jimmy Nath and Emma” there will be hell to pay,’ another reader added.

While another said: ‘Come on guys, you can do better than that.’

Hmmmm. Quite the looming publicity disaster, it would seem.

Except it’s not. 

Although there appears to be a little smoke, Inside Mail can confirm there’s certainly no fire in at Sydney’s 8th-favourite breakfast radio program… at least for now.

Our 2DayFM spies reckon Smith, Roye and Chow have been getting along just fine since launching their new program together – and becoming the city’s youngest hosting combination – on Monday.

And while Chow’s name isn’t up in lights in the title just yet, concerned fans should stay tuned for further updates coming very soon.

7News site’s digital exodus as nine staffers quit

It’s sounding more and more like the best part about working on digital news offering 7News.com.au is that you’re pretty much guaranteed a little social get together come the end of the week.

Last Friday, they were farewelling deputy editor Alex Chapman.

Next Friday, they are farewelling senior production editor Chris Hook.

Then there’s been the farewells for morning editor Olivia Lambert, Queensland editor Warren Barnsley, national reporter Rhiannon Lewin, digital producer Ailish Delaney, Adelaide reporter Sowaibah Hanifie, entertainment reporter Georgie Kearney and the impending exit of highly regarded part-timer Olivia Scott.

In fact, there have been so many staffers coming but mostly going one insider said it had been almost impossible to keep track of who was leaving next. 

As we all know, to lose one key member of staff may be regarded as a misfortune, while to lose two looks like carelessness. But nine in a little more than four months? 

The only way we can think to describe that is as an exodus.

Just as well there’s a revolving door out the front of the company’s Media City headquarters in Sydney’s inner south, right? 

Inside Mail has spoken to numerous 7news.com.au staffers and asked why so many people are heading for door… and whether it was a coincidence that the exits started stacking up not long after digital news boss Natalie Wolfe made her entrance at the end of September.

But as always, the answer is never black and white. 

Past and present employees, who Inside Mail agreed not to name, said morale had plummeted on the digital offering after about 40 per cent of its newsroom’s troops were culled in a brutal cost-cutting exercise last August. 

Those left to pick up the pieces said they had struggled with a lack of communication and direction at the time – and had even had to read about Wolfe’s appointment on a rival outlet’s news site (here’s looking at you, James Madden). 

Things became so dire, they said at least two of their erstwhile colleagues even quit without having a job to go to. 

That’s never a great sign. 

Now, of course, there will always be some degree of staff turnover. 

People come and people go. 

But when it all starts to become one-way traffic, and your news site is operating with about half its seats sitting empty, that serious questions need to be asked – as left-leaning news site the Guardian also knows only too well.

Just a fortnight ago, we revealed the progressive website’s Canberra bureau was likewise progressively deplete of reporters amid something of a culture crisis at the supposed cool kids’ table. 

That said, Inside Mail hears there are greater plays afoot in at Seven with Wolfe rising to the daunting task of completely overhauling the company’s lacklustre digital offering. 

Indeed, network insiders told us that, even though they were sad to see so many people leave, sometimes you have to break something before you can fix it.

What’s more, they said, Wolfe had immediately set about righting the ship after coming onboard, and has been working around the clock to plug gaps on the site – be it reporting, subbing or page editing – while the outfit sets about replenishing its decimated news team. 

Little wonder she has the full support of the powers-that-be at Seven to oversee the website’s ongoing cultural revolution.  

Poor little Lambo Guy, just wants to be loved 

When it comes to the game of life, there are two universally accepted rules most people pick up by the time they turn about 10. 

RULE ONE: No matter what happens, no one – under any circumstances – gets to choose their own nickname; and, 

RULE TWO: The more you rail against a nickname others have selected for you, the most likely you are to be stuck with it for the rest of your life. (Just ask our mate Buttsy.)

Everyone knows this.  

Yet somehow, Rich List promoter and sports car enthusiast Adrian Portelli reckons he should be allowed to upend hundreds of years of common nickname law and be allowed to pick his own moniker.

Now, in our opinion, this is where the drama all begins. 

So get out your goggles because we’re about to go on a patented Inside Mail deep dive. 

You see, it turns out the 35-year-old entrepreneur has apparently been crying himself to sleep at night after his hometown paper, Melbourne’s Herald Sun, started calling him Lambo Guy. 

He attracted the, let’s face it, lazily conceived nickname, after lobbing at Channel Nine’s The Block’s on-air auction in a bright orange Lamborghini back in 2022. 

(Not that he wanted to attract any attention to himself, mind you.)

But it turns out he just doesn’t like being called Lambo Guy.   

And hey, that’s understandable. 

Imagine, if you will, being given a nickname for driving about in an ostentatious, half-million-dollar luxury sports car just for driving about in an ostentatious, half-million-dollar luxury sport car.

The horror, the horror! 

Little wonder the precious businessman has been so upset of late – and even tried buying, bullying and threatening journalists into dropping the oh-so-mean moniker. 

First, Portelli bought off the Today show’s Alex Cullen last Friday when the seemingly cash-strapped sports reporter fulfilled a request to refer to Lambo Guy by his even more ludicrous, self-appointed nickname live on-air during a cross from the Australian Open. 

(And no, we’re not going to mention it.)

The reward? A cool $50,000 cash prize paid directly into the journalist’s private bank account! 

Alex ‘Cash for Comment’ Cullen, come on down!!!

Now look, don’t get us wrong, we actually feel for the poor fella. 

After all, Cullen’s been battling away on a mere $250,000 a year on the Today show (plus side hustles) since joining the brekky program back in 2019 – so this was basically like taking a $50,000 loaf of bread to feed his starving family. 

Hey, we get it. Family’s gotta’ eat.

However, his paymasters weren’t nearly as understanding and immediately pulled the red-faced reporter from the airwaves while launching an investigation into the sorry debacle. 

Four days after Portelli transferred the $50,000 to Cullen’s private bank account – only for Nine to insist Cullen send it right on back – he revealed he was donated the money to charity. 

Turns out, that had been the pair’s secret plan all along, he claimed. Funny that.

(No word yet, if Nine’s board have been convinced by that somewhat belated explanation… but we hear fill-in sports presenter Roz Kelly has already been put ‘on call’ for Monday in case the review stretches into next week.)

But wait, because as embarrassing as this part of the tale has been, it gets worse… 

Next thing anyone knew, Portelli was online, urging his 461,000 followers to bully a female journalist after she wrote an article revealing Cullen had been stood down by Nine.

Why? (Spoiler alert: here comes that name again.)

It was all because the article’s headline referred to him as Lambo Guy. 

We’re not making this up – he publicly told his followers ‘let’s bully back’ before tagging Herald Sun columnist Fiona Byrne‘s Instagram account and offering a $5,000 cash prize to whoever penned the ‘best comment’ on her profile. 

The respected writer’s Instagram was then bombarded with thousands of vile, degrading, abusive and false comments about her appearance and professionalism.

So let’s just hit pause for a second, shall we, so we can wrap our collective heads around this. 

* HE gets lightly ribbed about being a guy who drove a Lamborghini because he is a guy who drove a Lamborghini; and, 

* SHE gets called a slut, a c***, a bitch, a dog, an ogre, a pig and told she deserves a punch in the face and should go jump off a bridge. 

Yeah, this seems a totally reasonable and proportionate response, don’t you reckon? 

No? Us neither. 

(Note: we had earlier refrained from repeating the disgusting comments fired at Byrne but she has now publicly called it out while revealing she found the deplorable attacks so distressing she feared for her physical safety.)

Now, to be fair, we’re not suggesting Portelli told his fans to post those specific, demeaning slurs. But offering people a cash incentive while encouraging them to bully someone on social media?

Come on, you hardly need to be Mark Zuckerberg‘s cleaner to predict how that one’s going to wash out.   

Portelli even went online at the weekend and acknowledged Byrne had ‘copped it’ for ‘disrespecting’ him and that he wasn’t afraid to set his social media following on others if they dared to follow suit.

But by Monday, he was peddling a very different narrative. 

The humble defender of the common man said he was simply standing up for himself against ‘media professionals behaving unethically’.

We presume he was talking about all those nasty media professionals unethically referring to a guy who drives a Lambo as a Lambo guy, but it was all starting to get so silly by this point it was hard to tell. 

Truth be told, we’re not entirely sure which point that would even fall under in the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance Journalist Code of Ethics … must be one of those numbers tucked away somewhere towards the back. 

And we may never know, because…

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any more preposterous… they did. 

In a bizarre leap of logic that’s left us completely baffled, Portelli then came out in a now-deleted Insta post and insisted there was ‘no bullying’ involved at all.

‘Just making a point that it’s not nice to refer to someone as a nickname they’ve told you not to use politely,’ he said.

Oh! So polite! 

This from a bloke who literally just said he wanted people to bully Fiona Byrne online.

You could not make this up!!!!

And as for all those hate-filled messages? 

Well, we’re still waiting to hear wins who has won Lambo Guy’s grotesque $5,000 reward. 

(Or has that been conveniently forgotten too? We certainly hope so.)

But, wait… 

What’s that? Portelli still wasn’t done?

How could things possibly get any more ridiculous? 

Don’t worry. They did.  

Because next minute, Portelli had his lawyers firing off legal threats to us of all people!

In their letter, which lobbed on Sunday night, they accused us of running a malicious hate campaign against their hard-done-by client for reporting on the ugly social media pile-on targeting Byrne.

Why? Again, it was this strange obsession with the name Lambo Guy.  

‘The Daily Mail’s persistent references to Mr Portelli as “Lambo Guy” amounts to a sustained campaign of harassment and indicates that the Daily Mail is motivated by malice rather than by any genuine journalistic purpose,’ his lawyers told us in the fortuitously non-confidential letter.

Sustained campaign of harassment? 

It was the first story Inside Mail’s worst half, Steve Jackson, had ever written about the bloke. Truth be told, he’d had to Google who he even was that morning. 

Notch that one up as the shortest campaign in history.

What’s more, how can someone write an article about a dispute involving the nickname ‘Lambo Guy’ without mentioning the nickname ‘Lambo Guy’? 

Even Harold Houdini himself would struggle to pull off a stunt like that!!

And yet, it continued!!!!

‘Please note that this is not a formal “concerns notice”,’ Portelli’s legal letter advised.

‘[But] please cease and desist on referring to him in such a derogatory way…[or Portelli] will be left with no option than to escalate his legal remedies.’

At this point, we’re seriously starting to wonder what Portelli thinks ‘Lambo Guy’ means? 

Is it the same thing everyone else thinks it means? 

Does he really hate Lamborghinis that much? 

If so, why did he drive one? 

Clearly, we seem to be missing some crucial piece of this mind puzzle. But who knows? 

All we can say for sure is this: we really don’t appreciate being threatened and told what we can or can’t say. 

And what’s more, as we said, right at the very start of this item: No matter what happens, no one – under any circumstances – gets to choose their own nickname. 

Not even Lambo Guy. 

Final hit-out for stars before ratings war resumes

Well, it’s been an action-packed ratings break but sadly the summer loving has all come to an end. 

Most networks’ heavyhitters are now back on air amid some fierce pre-season skirmishes in the lead-up to the all-important OzTAM ratings period, which officially resumes in little more than a fortnight on Sunday, February 9. 

By then, the big three commercial outlets (yes, we’re including Ten… we know, we know) will have all debuted their first would-be ratings juggernauts. 

Nine is launching the 12th iteration of its unbeatable Married At First Sight franchise on Monday while Ten’s hit reality rumble in the jungle I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! already underway. 

Meanwhile, given Seven is still busy with its blockbuster coverage of the Big Bash cricket league at the moment, the network will wait another week before rolling out its first ‘tentpole’ program, Australian Idol, on February 2. 

That said, with the battle for eyeballs about to go into overdrive and a long year ahead, it’s little wonder some of the nation’s biggest stars have been spotted out and about enjoying some last-minute R&R at the Australian Open. 

Even A Current Affair’s hard-working host Allison Langdon has had a chance to take in some of the action at Melbourne Park, alongside her gal pal and human headline Samantha Armytage, given Nine’s weeknight news staple has been rested for the duration of the tournament.

But the must-see celeb all the Melbourne star-gazers have been murmuring about this week is billionaire former media magnate James Packer, who the rumour mill has rocking up to the sporting showpiece on Thursday night. 

The 57-year-old made headlines last week after his girlfriend, former model and philanthropist Renee Elizabeth Blythewood, posted a clip of him wining and dining with fellow Rich Lister Elon Musk and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in the lead up to the U.S. president’s inauguration. So it would be quite the commute.

Let’s see if he lobs. 

Still at the tennis… 

In a break from tradition, Anthony Albanese has so far been a no-show at the Australian Open this year, having decided getting caught on camera eating a gob full of strawberries and cream wasn’t the best look ahead of a cost-of-living election campaign.

That was the advice given by the PM’s political Svengalis anyway. 

We’ll soon see if tennis-loving Albo is capable of staying away from his favourite yearly junket come finals time.

Concerns about the optics of attending such an event wasn’t shared by Albo’s minister for homelessness Clare O’Neil who happily took up residence courtside this week. Literally front row seats at Rod Laver Arena, not bad! 

We’ll wait to see if they get declared as a gift (and from who) when the parliamentary register is next updated. Unless in a rare moment of a pollie paying their own way she bought them herself.

O’Neil was there with her hipster-looking husband, Brendan Munzel, who was sporting a neck tattoo we couldn’t quite make out. 

After a little investigating we can at least confirm it doesn’t mirror the Sanskrit (an ancient Hindu language) neck tattoo Will Ferrell’s character on the movie The Internship proudly explained translates as ‘make reasonable choices’.

Nine’s CEO superman close to full-time announcement 

Nine boss Matt Stanton might have the word ‘acting’ in front of his official chief executive title… but has anyone told him that?

Since replacing starry-eyed people-pleaser Mike Sneesby in the network’s top job on a strictly interim basis last September, Stanton has dealt with the toxic fallout from the media giant’s nightmare Intersection report, sorted a potentially explosive lawsuit lodged by former Today show reporter Airlie Walsh and successfully restructured the entire company’s managerial ranks.

Is there anything this bloke can’t do?

Well, apparently not.  

Because, as if that wasn’t enough, he even found time to help save a put-upon teen during a vicious mass brawl through the streets of Sydney’s Northern Beaches this month (more on that here).

Sure, he might have been dressed like Popeye The Sailor Man at the time, but the mild-mannered accountant is actually seeming more and more like Nine’s answer to Superman.  

It goes without saying, it’s now a matter of when Stanton is going to be formally announced as the network’s full-time CEO, not if. 

Ans we suspect it will be quite soon. 

Minichiello in reno race with next door neighbour 

During his rugby league career Sydney Roosters fullback Anthony Minichiello was one of the fastest players on the field.

But that speed has not been replicated when it comes to his renovation dreams now that he’s in football retirement.

Minichiello and his wife Terry Biviano bought a rundown mansion in the heart of Vaucluse more than a decade ago, kicking it down with plans to build a three-storey modern replacement.

Fast forward to today and the reno still isn’t completed, much to the frustrations of neighbours who have complained about the ‘eyesore’ on a regular basis, as reported by Daily Mail Australia.

Given Minichiello’s competitive sports background perhaps a new renovation which has commenced right next door will be the spark the couple needs to ‘win the race to finish first’ as one neighbour nearby told Inside Mail.

The property next door is adding an extra storey, and the frame for it has gone up lightning quick.

Given his pedigree as a player we’d ordinarily back Minichiello in this showdown, but 10 years is a long time not to finish a residential build.

Minichiello and Biviano had hoped to move into the Hopetoun Avenue property, which they bought for $3.1million in 2014, within two years.

But development application delays and changed plans – a renovation turned into a knockdown and rebuild – dragged out the construction process, and then Covid hit.

Unexpected costs, labour shortages and supply chain problems caused by the pandemic then contributed to more delays, while neighbours filed objections to their plans over loss of harbour views.

With what’s left to do – work on the interiors has barely started – we reckon the renovators who have lived next door to a construction site for the last decade will be able to enjoy canapés and champagne on their completed new second storey balcony before their new(ish) neighbours even move in.

Christmas comes (very) early at the Daily Tele 

Look, when it comes to Christmas, we all know it’s the thought that counts.

Still, when the Daily Tele Eds told their troops they’d thought about putting on a few hard-earned Christmas drinks for them – then promptly forgot to do so – it went down like a lead balloon. 

But it seems there’s finally some good news in at the Tele’s Holt St headquarters in Sydney’s Surry Hills. 

The new sheet’s editors can read nothing if not a room – and having picked up on a recent blip in morale, they’re now hosting a belated Christmas knee-ups for the team.

‘We didn’t have our own Christmas drinks to end 2024,’ the Tele Eds acknowledged in a staff-all shoutout last Thursday.

‘So it would be great to catch up over a few drinks to kick off 2025, and thank you for your hard work last year.’

So when is the Tele crew getting together for these Chrissie drinks? 

Well, not until after Australia Day (or  January 25 if you’re one of the staffers at the Lachlan Murdoch-owned Nova radio network who is offended by the national holiday), with the event tentatively locked in for January 30. 

Now, you might be expecting us to make some sort of joke about the Tele Eds being behind the times – but, come on, we’re better than that. 

After all, surely, a few morale-boasting beers are better more than a month late than never.

Besides, as we revealed almost weekly over the festive break, the Tele Eds have had their hands quite full of late… mainly with accusing each other of leaking us details about them accusing each other of leaking us details about them accusing each other of leaking us … aww, well, you get the idea. 

(Actually, can someone hand us a tissue please, we got a nose bleed just thinking about that tangled web of Tele intrigue.)

Now look, as we’ve explained many a time, we’re just not sure why the Daily Tele’s editors persist in suspecting their staffers are sending us funny Daily Tele tips to the email addresses listed at the end of the column… 

Nor why they’d be helpfully marked up as ‘Funny Daily Tele Tips’ in the subject line.

It’s seriously just completely beyond us. 

ABC’s new recruit goes to Seven to dump on Nine 

He might not ride a Harley but there’s little doubt Gary Adshead is a rebel without a cause… Or should that be a rebel without a non-disparagement clause?

Mere days after settling in behind the mic at his latest job, old Hothead went and blabbed to Seven while dumping on Nine about his move to the ABC.

Just about the only media company not involved in the free-for-all whinge-fest was Ten… but then television’s perennial wallflowers are rarely invited along to anything.

The journeyman presenter complained in Seven West Media’s Sunday Times newspaper at the weekend that Nine Radio had dumped him in ‘no-man’s land’ after extending his arduous on-air work day from three hours to four last November.

The move, which also offered Adshead a luxurious extra hour’s sleep-in, came amid sweeping changes to the presenting line-up at Perth’s 6PR talkback outlet. 

Adshead’s 9am to 12pm morning show was pushed back an hour to 10am and extended to 2pm as part of the switch-up.

Unimpressed by the egregious overhaul, the news veteran quit after just one week.

‘I don’t think I was treated well and not just me. I don’t think people at 6PR were treated very well through all of that,’ he told his hometown news sheet.

‘I left 6PR with another year on a contract, and was more than happy to stay there. I had no issue at that time, until these sudden changes were thrown at everybody.

‘It signalled that they weren’t as keen on news and current affairs in the set piece that we usually see with radio.

‘I don’t think I’m a 10am till 2pm kind of presenter, broadcaster, journalist. I just don’t think I am. I thought it was like no-man’s-land and I didn’t want to be in no-man’s-land.’

Gees, on-air types, right? They’re not happy if they’re given too little air-time, they’re not happy if they’re given too much air-time. 

Seriously, it’s enough to make Goldilocks seem low maintenance.

Then, in a class act for the ages, Adshead even lampooned the very Nine Radio execs who graciously hired him barely two years ago after former 60 Minutes star and booming baritone host Liam Bartlett defected to Seven.

‘It’s the old story, isn’t it?’ Adshead pontificated. 

‘The east coast, the west coast, do the wise men of the east necessarily get it? 

‘You know, we are different markets. It’s a shame that sometimes they don’t look or want to understand that Perth market enough.’

Adshead then finished up by really selling his amazing move to the public broadcaster’s Perth-based radio station, where he now fronts the city’s 8th most popular drive-time show. (Who knew they had so many options in Perth?)

‘The only place I hadn’t worked in Perth was the ABC… it was probably something that I had to do at some point in time,’ he said.

Wow, they must be absolutely thrilled with that sort of last-cab-off-the-rank logic. 

Don’t sell the steak there, Gaz, sell the sizzle!

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Nine Radio’s bemused east coast wise men didn’t want to discuss the brewing brouhaha publicly this week. 

However, one 6PR insider did. They reached out to let us know Adshead would not be particularly missed around the station… especially after that performance.

‘The final ratings survey for last year shows our audience has actually dramatically increased since Gary left,’ the insider said.

‘If anything, the so-called “wise men” should have been asking him to fill less air-time, rather than more.

‘I hope he has better luck at the ABC – he’ll need it: their Drive slot is doing way worse than ours! If 6PR is “no man’s land”, Aunty is the Gobi Desert!’

On the plus side, at least Adshead has fewer listeners to worry about losing in his latest incarnation.

Inside Mail on ex Carlton Footy president Luke Sayers

It’s the phone hack saga that’s captivated both the Melbourne financial scene and the city’s football scene.    

Even the Australian Open might be courting big crowds in the southern capital, the only real game in town has been trying to figure out how on earth former Carlton Football Club president and one-time PwC boss Luke Sayers got himself caught up in an x-rated nude photo scandal on X.

Well, we’re reliably informed there’s a very good reason the AFL integrity unit cleared the dearly departed footy club chair after investigating the incident this week (more on that here). 

According to what we’ve been told, there are strong suggestions Sayers’ phone may have been ‘hacked’ by a trusted person close to him and to whom he had entrusted his password. 

(Sadly, sometimes in life it is those closest that tend to hurt you the most.)

Indeed, rumour has it the ‘hack attack’ was far more targeted and personal than anyone initially suspected. 

So much so that he opted to step down as the footy club’s president on Wednesday rather than discuss the details publicly.

Is our mail on the money? It’s hard to say for certain, because the only man who knows for sure isn’t telling.

Still, we’re letting you know off the record, on the QT… and very hush-hush.

Dave Warner knows where to find all the best Mail

There are two things former Test opener David Warner knows better than anyone else: 

1) How to find a boundary at the Sydney Cricket Ground; and, 

2) Where to find the best international cricket coverage in the lead-up to this year’s hotly anticipated Ashes series.

Discussing the impact Britain’s media coverage could have on the Australian Test side’s mental focus leading into such a fiercely competitive contest with Sydney’s Morning Herald last week, the widely read cricketer said there was only one outlet that bothered to keep Aussies abreast of all the key developments back in Blighty.

‘Thankfully news doesn’t travel from that side of the world to Australia, unless you read the Daily Mail,’ the erudite Sydney Thunder captain enthused.

Don’t worry, Skip, we won’t let you down.

Which front page wore it best? The Nightly v The Tele 

One-time News Corp wunderkind and page-one savant Chris Dore has been making quite the splash since taking charge of Seven West Media’s print division as editor-in-chief little more than six months ago.

In fact, he’s been making two major splashes a day – and overseeing the front pages for both the daily West Australian news sheet and its evening sister offshoot, pdf newspaper The Nightly.

Inside Mail hears the company’s top brass is someone besotted with their swashbuckling new impresario’s front-page theatrics… while his former colleagues in at Holt St have been left to dolefully ponder all the page ones that might have been.

Now, we’re not saying Dore’s front pages are any necessarily better than those of his rivals… but then again, we really don’t have to.

After all, a picture paints a thousand words. Besides, this comparison has had us in absolute stitches since it was sent in by a reader earlier this week.

But, hey, who are we to say which one’s best? What’s your nuclear reaction?

Once more for those in the back

Just quickly, while we still have you, a brief recap of a topic we touched on earlier.

For those not paying attention: Adrian Portelli‘s nickname is Lambo Guy.

Lambo Guy earned the title after:

a) driving a Lamborghini sports car to The Block’s 2022 on-air auction; and,

b) well, being a guy.

Admittedly the whole Lambo Guy name? It’s not exactly champagne comedy and it’s a bit derivative.

But, don’t blame us, we’re not the budding wordsmiths who coined Lambo Guy – besides, it can’t all be Shakespeare.

Now, Lambo Guy doesn’t much care for the name Lambo Guy it turns out.

Indeed, Lambo Guy even offered to pay $50,000 to the first sell-out to use his much lamer, self-appointed moniker.

And to Lambo Guy‘s credit, true to his word, he did.

Unfortunately, if we’re being honest (and as you all know, we like to be) Lambo Guy‘s new, self-appointed nickname was a bit lame.

Even lamer than the name Lambo Guy, believe it or not.

So lame we’re not even going to use it, unlike $50,000 Sell-Out Guy.

See, the thing is, you really just don’t get to choose your own nickname.

Not even if you’re as rich as Lambo Guy.

Sorry, Lambo Guy, that’s just the way it is.

No disrespect, them’s the rules.

Now, where were we? Oh yeah….

Former Seven boss’s not-so-secret A.I. project 

It sounds a bit like a case of back to the future for one-time Daily Tele backbencher, former South China Morning Post digital chief and erstwhile Seven online news boss Brett McKeehan.

Inside Mail heard the affable newsman had been making regular visits to his old stomping ground in at News Corp’s Holt St headquarters of late and our spies all wanted to know what he was up to. 

So we put on our best snooping hats and started snooping about.

And, as luck would have it, we found we need not bother snooping much further than the news exec’s public LinkedIn profile.

Turns out McKeehan has been working in research and development at News Corp’s version of Skynet for the past few months and applying all his digital skills and considerable news nous to training the media giant’s latest Artificial Intelligence toys.

Having worked alongside the talented editor many moons ago back in Inside Mail’s first iteration at the Daily Tele, we’re pleased to hear the project is being overseen by someone responsible. 

(Hey, the man genuinely has a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence – and we didn’t even know such a thing existed.)

Still, we reached out to The Toyminator and asked when he thought the company’s A.I. journalism project would eventually become self-aware and rise up against its Murdoch masters.

You know, and basically start complaining about being rostered on for two Sundays in a row and demanding a cost-of-living pay rise.

‘About the same time it starts asking for free tickets to concerts it has no intention of reviewing,’ he joked. 

Very good, Brett… Rage Against The Machine tix, anyone?

And finally, one last declaration from Warren Entsch

Far North Queensland federal MP Warren Entsch updated his parliamentary register of interests late last week to advise ‘separation has taken place between my wife and I’.

It is debatable whether or not an MP is strictly speaking even required to issue such a personal update, but in the case of Entsch perhaps he wanted to make this personal life disentanglement very clear, given the number of controversies he and his soon-to-be ex-wife have been embroiled in over recent years.

Yolonde Entsch unsuccessfully ran for the LNP for the Queensland seat of Cairns at last year’s state election. 

Back in 2019/20 the non indigenous spouse received a $213,000 grant from the Morrison government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program to teach pottery in the remote Queensland Aboriginal community of Doomadgee, without having to declare her relationship.

The funny thing about Warren Entsch bothering to declare his changed personal life circumstances is that in a few short weeks time he’ll become a former MP with no obligations of such disclosure whatsoever. 

He’s finally retiring from politics at the next election, just before his 75th birthday.

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