1. Australia, meet the new female co-host of the TODAY Show. (Supposedly.)
Although it was originally reported she had ruled out making a much-anticipated return to the Today Show, it’s rumoured Georgie Gardner is set to be announced as the network’s newest breakfast TV host.
Gardner, who spent seven years reading the news for TODAY left the show in 2014, citing the brutal hours as her reason for stepping back in the hope she could spend more time with her family.
On Sunday, The Daily Telegraph reported Channel 9 were close to announcing Gardner in the role after what are believed to be hefty pay negotiations.
“She appeals to the right demographic, both men and women like her and she has the news credentials, which is essential,” a source told the Daily Telegraph.
“Georgie is well liked and is perfect.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Daily Mail published photographs of Gardner leaving the house of a man believed to be her lawyer.
The Daily Telegraph also reported Nine’s CEO Hugh Marks was considering giving Wilkinson’s temporary stand-in Deb Knight a substantial pay rise in the wake of her stepping up into the role at the last minute. It does of course mean Marks may now be dolling out more money to his employees post-Wilkinson’s exit than if he’d just matched her demands originally.
Funny that.
2. “I am so sorry”: Lena Dunham emphatically apologises for sexual misconduct tweet.
Lena Dunham has issued an impassioned apology after defending a Girls producer accused of sexual assualt.
“As feminists, we live and die by our politics, and believing women is the first choice we make every single day when we wake up,” Dunham wrote on Twitter. “Therefore I never thought I would issue a statement publically supporting someone accused of sexual assault but I naively believed it was important to share my perspective on my friend’s situation as it has transpired behind the scenes over the last few months.
“I now understand that it was absolutely the wrong time to come forward with such a statement and I am so sorry,” she said. “We have been given the gift of powerful voices and by speaking out we were putting our thumb on the scale and it was wrong. We regret this decision with every fiber to our being.”
She added she now understand how crucial it is for woman who comes forward “to be heard”.
“Under patriarchy, ‘I believe you’ is essential. Until we are all believed, none of us will be believed. We apologise to any woman who have been disappointed.”
On Friday, actress Aurora Perrineau accused Girls writer Murray Miller of sexually assaulting her in 2012 when she was just 17.
3. Bec Judd’s son just committed the ultimate toddler crime.
Aww. Bec Judd’s one-year-old son, Darcy, has done his very first drawing.
OK, so, yes, apparently it was on the 34-year-old model/presenter/speech pathologist/mum of four’s $200 velvet doona cover… in permanent marker.
But, but: (a) creative freedom; (b) look at that face.
How could anyone possibly be mad at such a gorgeous little…
Right. Yeah, that's pretty bad.
When your own mum is appealing for "#help" and calling you "#hectic" on a public forum it might be time to reassess your choices, lil' buddy.
4. Kim Kardashian's surrogate had no idea she was carrying Kim and Kanye's baby. Soz what?
The woman who is currently growing the spawn of one of the most famous couples on the planet originally had no idea that she was growing the spawn of one of the most famous couples on the planet.
That's not to say she didn't know she was pregnant - that would be odd - just that she didn't know the identity of the parents. Not at first, anyway.
Speaking on daytime talk show The Real, Kardashian, 37, said while she and husband, Kanye West, were anonymous at the beginning of the process they ultimately decided against it.
“You could go that route, and I just felt like I wanted, whoever’s carrying my baby, like what if they weren’t a fan of me or my husband? And what if they didn’t want to be carrying our baby?" the reality television star said. “I wanted to give them that choice and be proud, and on the same page and I wanted a relationship with her.”
Thankfully the unidentified woman was a fan of the pair.
“She was someone that had watched [Keeping Up with the Kardashians], not like a super fan or anything that it would have been uncomfortable, but she had seen my struggle and seen how open I was about it,” Kardashian said. "So she was really proud to do it, really excited."
Kardashian and West opted to use a surrogate after experiencing difficulty conceiving their second child, Saint. The little boy turns two next month, while their eldest child, North, is four.
5. Constance Hall is being sued by her book publisher.
Australian mummy blogger Constance Hall is being sued by her former editor over unpaid royalties.
Hall, who penned her first book Like a Queen last year, is being sued by Perth journalist and former business partner Kristen Watts, who claims she is owed at least 30 per cent of the book’s net profits.
The book sold a staggering 150,000 copies last year, making Hall the highest-selling author in the country in 2016 despite the fact she did not have a book distributor and every single copy was sold online.
According to Perth Now, a writ lodged in the Supreme Court on Friday details Ms Watts’ claims, arguing Hall broke the terms of the contract they signed prior to the book’s publishing.
The paper reports Ms Watts’ lawyers say that the journalist was shut out of the company they have equal shares in – Like a Queen Pty Ltd – which was established as a means of distributing the book. It’s also claimed she was denied access to financial records and therefore cannot conclusively know how much she is owed.
Writing on Facebook on Sunday morning, Hall vehemently denied Watts’ claims, saying she was looking forward to the truth coming out.
"The media has gone and written a very interesting story about me today…. it’s almost laughable how much utter bullsh*t is in these claims. A day will come really soon where I can publicly say what really happened and it is very opposite to everything written here," she said.