EVEN THE STARS FACE JAW-DROPPING SEXISM
AS A show business agent representing many top female celebrities, I saw first-hand and close up the shocking sexism they experience throughout their careers. Here are just a few of the most blatant examples…
● A senior soap opera executive called me about a very famous client returning to the show – but only on the condition that she had a facelift first. The actress told him where to go and is now happily appearing in a different soap.
● A former Hollywood star who I represented was offered a soap role on the same condition. She caved in and had a facelift and a breast job. She was only 40 years old.
● At the height of Coleen Nolan’s fame – and ironically when she was at her slimmest – I accompanied her to a meeting with a top broadcaster. She was being considered for presenting a shiny floor Saturday night TV show. “You would be perfect,” he told her, “if only you could do something about that!” At that point, he stuck his stubby finger in her stomach, then suggested she might want to get a gastric band. She was a size 12.
● On EastEnders Gillian Taylforth’s character Cathy is constantly referred to as a granny and given storylines about being too old to go on Tinder dates. You’d have to be blind not to see that Gillian is a stone cold fox who looks younger than her TV son Ian, played by Adam Woodyatt.
● Beverley Callard, the Queen of Coronation Street, once told me she was sitting in the green room, watching a monitor showing a romantic scene being filmed with one of the show’s older actresses. A male executive walked past, glanced at the screen and sneered: “Condemned meat.”