Don’t mess with Seven (or Stokes). When Seven sues over a contractual matter regarding its on-air talent or executives, assume Seven will win. They’re now two for two in major cases. Remember in 2011 Seven sued to stop James Warburton (then Seven’s sales boss) deserting the network for the CEO role at Ten; Warburton was forced to wait until late 2011 before he could start changing channels legally. His time at Ten was brief — around a year before the board removed him in February.
This morning in Sydney, Seven beat a Spice Girl, or rather, stopped Mel B (Melanie Brown) from decamping to Nine as a judge on Australia’s Got Talent, which was on Seven last year but moved to Nine (after the producers asked Seven for a higher format fee after the program was crushed by The Voice on Nine). Nine recruited Brown after she had moved to the SS for what she said were family reasons.
The NSW Supreme Court this morning issued an injunction which stops Ms B from moving to Nine. Seven claimed Brown had breached her X Factor contract; Justice David Hammerschlag granted Seven the injunction in the stops her working for other networks in Australia until the end of January 2014. The judge has not explained or published his reasons, allowing the parties time to consider what parts should remain confidential.
Perhaps just as importantly, Hammerschlag (aka “the hammer”) has given his legal interpretation of the phrase “totally fully down with that”. During the proceedings, Mel B’s husband Stephen Belafonte gave this evidence:
“And I said there is nothing we are going to be able to do with this, we are not going to be able to do this deal this time around. And he said well, I don’t know, I would like for you guys, I would like for Mel to do something with X Factor, you know, home visits, or, he was thinking about rejigging it where there was another judge that comes in, or whatever it was. And I told him I was totally fully down with that and he would have to send that over as it would be a new deal or whatever. He said he would.”
In his final verdict, Judge Hammerschlag clarifies: “I was informed from the Bar table that the expression “totally fully down with that” connotes — contrary to what I might have expected — satisfaction.” Glad we’ve sorted that out. — Glenn Dyer
Coincidence too big to ignore. Last Wednesday, as Phil Jacob reported for The Daily Telegraph, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry launched a new multimedia campaign on behalf of small business — “Small Business TOO BIG TO IGNORE” …
Yesterday, The Tele reported on the “job killer” that apparently is penalty rates as part of its new campaign — “TOO BIG TO IGNORE” …
The coincidence seems too big to, well, you get the idea. — Matthew Knott
A values typo in the post. News Limited always wears its values proudly — now they’re in handy postcard form. There’s been much mirth in some newsrooms where brightly coloured postcards have been dispatched to staff reinforcing company values — stuff like being “customer-centric” and “collaborative”. The idea is apparently to have staff send the postcards to their colleagues via internal mail to share in the spirit. It’s a shame, then, that subeditors never glanced at them before hundreds were printed — we’re not sure what “boldy creative” is supposed to mean …
Front page of the day. A special edition of Time — to be released later today — features provocative imagery from Boston …
Video of the day. New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson wins the funniest pollie in the southern hemisphere award for this entertaining speech on why he supported the gay marriage bill. “We are really struggling to know what the gay onslaught will look like. We don’t know if it will come down the Pakuranga Highway as a series of troops, or whether it’ll be a gas that flows in over the electorate and blocks us all in.”
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