CRAIG BENNETT AFFAIRS, TANTRUMS & AN ALIEN ABDUCTION!
The Studio 10 star shares his “war chest” of celebrity secrets in an explosive new book
He has been reporting showbiz gossip for more than 35 years, as well as providing a shoulder to cry on for some of the world’s biggest stars.
And now Studio 10 star Craig Bennett has decided to share some of the juiciest stories he’s kept under wraps in a rip-roaring memoir entitled True Confessions
Of A Shameless Gossip.
“People often ask me for the most bizarre or outrageous showbiz stories I know, and among them is Jeanne Little’s staggering confession she was snatched by aliens as a teenager,” he says.
Craig, 56, and the
Gold Logie-winning
‘To be sidelined as some silly sidekick was never going to work for Denise’
“TV daaaaarling” have been close friends since 1980, and he says Jeanne – now sadly stricken with Alzheimer’s disease – was absolutely serious about her alien abduction. “Jeanne was living with her parents in Sydney and reading in her bedroom when she heard a loud, whirring noise. The bed started shaking and, with that, she flew out of the window and into the underside of a huge spaceship that was hovering over the Hills hoist,” he shares.
“The next thing she knew, she was returned to her bed with a thud. She’d often begin to tell the story earnestly at dinner parties, but her devoted hubby Barry, exasperated, would cut her off, saying, ‘Not that story again, Jean!’”
One of Craig’s more poignant stories is about acting great Carmen Duncan – who lost her fourth battle with cancer in February – and the big secret she took to her grave.
“Carmen and TV current affairs king Mike Willesee had a secret romance in the ’80s, and remained very close, so when Mike was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2016, Carmen became his rock,” he says.
“She had such dignity in the face of unspeakable pain. Bedridden, Carmie feared she’d never see Mike again. But, as fate had it, he was admitted to the same hospice and was wheeled down for a final goodbye, Carmen’s sister Paula told me. I think they held a torch for each other right until the end.”
He also finally sheds some light on the long-running feud between Hey Hey It’s Saturday stars Daryl Somers and Denise Drysdale.
“Many have asked me if the rumours were true that double Gold Logie winner and great mate Denise had issues working with Daryl during her stint co-hosting Hey Hey Its Saturday back in 1989 after Jacki Macdonald left.
“That’s true. Denise told me during a candid interview for Studio 10 there was friction. I look at it this way, Denise is a one-woman comedy force of nature. She’s larger than life, so to be sidelined as some silly sidekick was never going t to work.”
One of Craig’s biggest r regrets is that he didn’t get the l late, great TV talk show king D Don Lane to share some of his r reputedly shocking secrets a about some of our biggest stars before he died in 2009.
“He said he’d smiled through his esteemed TV career, but privately he was mortified by what he’d witnessed – shocking behaviour from some of our most respected stars. He said his revelations, if he went public, would knock the Aussie TV industry for six!”