MAGDA’S BIRTHDAY BLUES!
HER MILESTONE 60TH WAS MARRED BY CONTROVERSY
Under fire and torn to shreds – it’s hardly how Kath & Kim star Magda Szubanski would have anticipated spending her 60th birthday. Yet, new photos of the actress out in Melbourne show her day being anything but fun.
Magda’s downcast appearance came after she was criticised for comparing a photograph of the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny, to the fictional religious extremist television show, The Handmaid’s Tale.
The popular series is set in the fictional totalitarian nation of Gilead, where single women are kept as slaves to breed, and married women are subservient and do not work.
“I genuinely thought this was a photoshopped
Handmaid’s Tale meme. But no. It’s 21st century Aussie life,” she commented, referring to a photograph of the couple.
Magda was subsequently subjected to heavy criticism over the social media post and was even accused of “appalling” conduct by some of her harshest critics – mainly Liberal MPS. But despite the backlash, the new presenter of The Weakest Link doubled down on her comments.
“That was a mild way of drawing attention to the fact I do have concerns about, and trust me this is not about the majority of Christians, but the element of the farright,” said Magda, who later clarified she was not criticising the prime minister’s wife.
“Let me be clear ... I’m not actually making a disparaging comment about Jenny. I just genuinely thought it was a meme!” she added on her Twitter account.
Masterchef is back for another year of amazing food, and New Idea’s on-set spies say viewers can expect fierce competition among all the incredible incoming cooks … and even the judges!
According to our insider, judges Andy Allen, Jock Zonfrillo and Melissa Leong have returned for their second season with a “very healthy and very real sense of rivalry” behind the scenes of the popular cooking show.
“It’s a little bit of positive jealousy,” explains the insider, who insists the trio are all secretly vying to
“be number one and build their public profiles”.
Interestingly, the spy says former Masterchef alum and chef Jock is “quietly jealous” of food critic and author Melissa, who has turned into a in-demand solo star since her appearance on the revived 2020 season. But the drama doesn’t end there, last week Jock revealed he had an allergic reaction on set!
“We were doing a challenge with crayfish the other day and I had to get [medical] treatment because of the shellfish overload,” he revealed. “The reality is, there’s no bad part of our job. We’re very lucky to have a job, let alone a job like this! We all feel it – we all love it.”