Three years after leaving The Project, Meshel Laurie has dished out on the “insular” culture behind the scenes.
Former The Project presenter Meshel Laurie has taken to social media hitting out against the entertainment industry.
The popular TV and radio presenter spoke about her 2019 exit from the Channel 10 show, claiming executives found her “too left”.
Laurie, 49, left The Project in 2019 citing personal reasons and “burn out” as the reason for her departure.
But in a series of Instagram posts, Laurie claimed that a network intolerance towards her political views in her final year and that years of ignoring her calls to diversify the show were also major contributors.
“I tried for years to get The Project to employ Aboriginal comedians, by the way, and I have the emails to prove it. No interest,” she wrote.
“I wrote a thorough pitch document for the executive. No reply. Ever,” she claimed
“I should really tag @channel10au in this for sure. I’d love a response from their execs. They know who they are and so do I.”
“I still have the emails.”
Laurie’s Instagram posts were prompted after she read a newspaper article that outlined former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s efforts to paint a more “positive” picture of Australia’s colonial history by removing references to the British “invasion” in the school curriculum.
She also claimed that The Project’s Indigenous contributors during NAIDOC week were a “token” gesture.
“(There are) heaps of brilliant Aboriginal comedians … (but) you’ve never seen them on TV … (because networks) still give all the jobs to white men.”
She claimed that her political views began to be an issue for the show after Lisa Wilkinson joined.
“The same @channel10au execs who thought I was “too left” supposedly after Lisa Wilkinson joined,” she wrote.
“Although word around the camp fire was that they thought she was too old, so they wanted to surround her with much younger people.”
“How’s that working out for you?” she added.
Laurie claimed that the lack of effort to include Indigenous voices was an example of how the entertainment industry was “insular” and “full of bulls***” especially when it came to addressing diversity.
“I doubt anyone else will acknowledge let alone join this call,” she said in a post.
“They don’t want to rock the boat in case they get black balled by a publicist somewhere and miss out on an invitation to the MasterChef Final.
“Australian showbiz is all smoke an mirrors and relationships with publicists … it’s all predicated on low self-esteem and how hard you’re prepared to suck up. Just have a look at the Logies red carpet,” she added.
“All good for you, but please don’t pretend you’re fighting for diversity while your contemporaries are unemployed.”
News.com.au has approached Channel 10 for comment.
Originally published as Former presenter on The Project Meshel Laurie lashes out at show
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