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And Finally Beef Of The Week
CMU Beef Of The Week #16: Brian McFadden v Queensland’s naughtiest female comedian
By Andy Malt | Published on Saturday 1 May 2010
Former Westlifer Brian McFadden has had two rows this week. One was with his ex-wife, Kerry Katona, in which she said he rarely speaks to their two daughters and he called her a “pig-faced mole”. But I’m sure you’d rather hear about him swearing at a TV talent show contestant. Good, I thought so.
Down in Australia, where he now lives of course, McFadden is a judge on the country’s equivalent of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, which they’ve cleverly called ‘Australia’s Got Talent’ to avoid any confusion. He is the Piers Morgan of the judging panel, which is enough to put anyone in a bad mood.
On the latest edition of the show, British ex-pat Anne Ferguson-Howe, who brands herself “Queensland’s naughtiest female comedian”, got up on stage and did a turn. Having already been subjected to various insults about her weight ahead of her performance, she didn’t take kindly to being buzzed off by all three judges, and began to throw insults back. The full sequence was cut from the show, but McFadden says she began swearing, too.
Incensed that she might be corrupting the youth in the audience, he leapt up on stage and told her to “fuck off back to England”.
In an interview, Ferguson-Howe described the incident, saying: “Brian pulled his mic off, climbed on stage and very cleverly, without anyone hearing, said, ‘Why don’t you just fuck off back to England?’ I’d whack him. I’m a thick-skinned woman of 50 who loves a laugh but if it had been a 20 year old girl the size I am with low self-esteem, I think I would have gone home and shot myself. It was horrific. If I saw him again, I’d whack him. I’d spit on him. I’m spewing that they’ve edited it in their favour”.
A spokesperson for TV network Channel 7 responded: “All contestants who take part in the auditions know what to expect. Usually everyone joins in the spirit of the day and has a lot of fun. In this case the exchange was unacceptable and didn’t fit with the vibe of the show, so was deleted”.
Here’s Australian current affairs show Today Tonight’s coverage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=feu9ftVrOrw
This Beef Of The Week comes from this edition of the CMU Weekly. Subscribe to the CMU Weekly here.
