It was 2003, and Paulini Curuenavuli was just 21 years old. The Fijian-Australian singer was a finalist on Australian Idol, one of the country’s highest rating shows at the time, and was given a platform that aspiring artists could only dream of.
The hopeful was also a fan favourite thanks to her soulful and powerful pipes. But it just took a total of eight seconds for that 21-year-old’s confidence and self-esteem to take its biggest hit in front of a live audience and a whole nation of viewers.
We all remember it, right?
One of the talent show’s judges, Ian 'Dicko' Dickson told Paulini – who was wearing a fun, fitted, gold dress – to "shed some pounds".
"It’s the real world, you should choose more appropriate clothes or shed some pounds. I’m sorry," he said, seemingly without hesitation.
Watch: The time Dicko told Paulini she should 'shed some pounds' on the 2003 season of Australian Idol. Post continues below.
Instantly, Dicko became one of the most hated people in Oz.
Fast-forward 20 years and he’s still known the guy who body-shamed a young woman in front of an entire nation. And after being called out for it publicly decades later, it seems he still doesn’t quite get what he did wrong.
One of this year's camp mates on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here, Dicko revisited the incident when fellow contestant Domenica Calarco raised the infamous reality TV moment with the Brit. And unfortunately, it seems not much has shifted in his way of thinking over the years that have passed.
Which, honestly, is a darn shame. We really wanted Dicko to live up to the ‘camp dad’ vibes he’s been giving, but alas, it seems it wasn’t to be.
"I've been wanting to ask you this... when you were on Idol and the whole Paulini [thing] with the gold dress, social media wasn't big," asked former MAFS star Domenica.
"I would have been tarred and featured," Dicko said.
When pushed for details of the incident, Dicko continued, "There was a girl on Australian Idol one, 20 years ago – people talk to me about it still. Paulini, beautiful girl, amazing voice. She came on towards the end of Australian Idol when it was massive, 2.5 million [viewers] a show, that's big for Australia.
"She wore a two-piece dress. It looked, it just… didn't look good. And I thought, I went through my mind, 'I could actually shut up because people started to like me now.' That could have been a moment to shut up.
"‘I could shut up or I can do what I said I would do.’ Unfortunately, I said, 'You need to choose more appropriate clothes or shed some pounds.'"
(Cue everyone in Australia gasping at the reminder of what he said because, nope.)
Now, this exact moment would’ve been the perfect opportunity for Dicko to admit that what he’d said was wrong; that he could see now, two decades on, that his words were hurtful, not helpful, and he’d seen the error of his ways.
Unfortunately... he just sort of semi-subtly doubled down on what he’d said all those years ago.
"I said 11 very banal words that sent the whole country into a tailspin," he continued.
And that right there is the kicker, folks – it seems Dicko considers those 11 very offensive, triggering, fatphobic words to be... banal.
Not surprisingly, Domenica was unimpressed.
"If I was on the stage and Dicko said to me, you should, you know, wear something more appropriate for your figure, mate, he wouldn't want to be the one on the receiving end. Because he wouldn't want to know what was coming for him."
But while 28-year-old Domenica could see how problematic Dicko’s statement was, the 60-year-old music exec-turned-reality TV star... couldn’t.
"I'm a straight shooter, but these days I've had my arrows confiscated," he said on the show.
"It's not worth it. You've got find a way to be straight these days."
Oh, Dicko. Have you learned nothing? Commenting on people’s bodies is just a big no, and we’d hoped that the lesson you’d come to learn in the past two decades isn’t that it’s 'not worth' speaking about such things – it’s that you don’t want to because, frankly, it sucks.
"I promise you, there are thoughts going on in this head, on this show, that I can't verbalise," he added, hinting further that he is not, in fact, a changed man at all.
"Would I say it today? No, I wouldn't. But I'm a different person today and the world's different."
"You would have been cancelled," Dom insisted. Preach!
Paulini herself reflected on the incident recently, telling Stellar magazine in February 2023 that Dicko’s comments had dented what little confidence she’d had as a young woman.
"It wasn't like I started with a lot of confidence anyway," she told the publication.
"[It] took me backwards."
Something tells us this won’t be the last time we hear something controversial come from Dicko’s mouth on the 2023 season of I’m A Celebrity – here’s hoping Gen Z baby Dom’s presence in camp can help give Dicko a fresh perspective.
Feature Image: Australian Idol/Channel 10/Mamamia.
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