Royal TV wars
In London for the royal wedding, our biggest TV stars began sniping the minute the cameras stopped rolling, as rivalries ran riot
If looks could kill, then jet-lagged Sunrise stars Sam Armytage and Edwina Bartholomew would have slayed anyone in their path when they arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport last week and found no-one to greet them.
“It wasn’t the best start to the week,” concedes one insider, who says Sam was furious when her driver wasn’t there to greet her and look after her luggage. “Even Eddy, who’s normally easygoing, was tired and angry.”
It only got worse when Sam, Eddy and David Koch arrived at the Pullman St Pancras hotel in London to find they were sharing the plush modern digs with their Today rivals, including Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner.
Fortunately, Karl’s former co-star Lisa Wilkinson was put up somewhere else and their paths didn’t cross while she was in town reporting on the royal wedding for Ten.
You would think having our biggest breakfast TV stars holed up in the same hotel would be a recipe for disaster – and it was – but it was the Sunrise and Today stars fighting with their own co-stars rather than their rivals that had everyone talking.
CLASHING EGOS
Karl, 43, threw a tantrum when Georgie, 47, took too long getting her hair and make-up done midweek, with insiders revealing their relationship has remained icy since the Uber scandal in which Karl and his brother Peter bitched about Georgie.
To keep Georgie happy she was given a lot more say in what happens on Nine’s breakfast show, and it was she who lobbied management to send her mate, Weekend Today co-host Allison Langdon, to London, which meant Peter and his wife Sylvia Jeffreys stayed at home.
“Karl has had to play second fiddle to Georgie all week and he hates that,” our source says, adding that he
was also furious his brother and Sylvia didn’t get to cover the big event, causing even more tension.
“Peter thinks he’s the more senior reporter and should’ve been sent instead of Allison, and Sylvia was furious to be overlooked, especially after finding out they were sending Natalia [Cooper] over to do the weather.”
SHIFTING ALLIANCES
It was not much happier among the Sunrise stars, with Kochie, 62, annoyed that Sam has been revelling in the London nightlife and “burning the candle at both ends”, while Eddy, 34, has been left feeling like the spare wheel because Sam, 41, and Sunrise news reader Natalie Barr, 50, are hanging out together. “It doesn’t help that Sam keeps having little digs at Eddy on air, and she’s really missing her husband – don’t forget they only got married a few w weeks ago, and she really just wants to be home enjoying being ng a newlywed,” our source says.
With persistent rumours that Kochie could be replaced by relatively new Weekend Sunrise co-host Basil Zempilas at the end of the year, insiders have also noted he seems out of sorts and has been spending his time off-air away from his co-stars.
“Kochie has kept his distance from the Sunrise cast and crew during his downtime, opting not to wine and dine with them,” a Seven insider confirms, adding that he also wasn’t a fan of Sam’s increasingly close friendship with Karl.
“He snubbed them both when Sunrise and Today were filming outside Buckingham Palace and the two shows had their outdoor studios set up next to each other. It was pretty awkward. He just walked past them both like they didn’t exist.”
‘Karl has had to play second fiddle to Georgie all week’