Just when you thought the tea surrounding up-coming Netflix docu-soap Byron Baes couldn’t get hotter, another influencer has come out with more accusations of auditioning under false pretences – with one couple even threatening legal action if any of their audition tape makes it onto the show. Oh buoy.
Sally Mustang (who you may know on Instagram for her fae-woodland vibes, pics of her cute bb, and horny wilderness photoshoots with artist husband Mitch Gobel) initially actually auditioned to be on Byron Baes with fellow influencer and friend Montana Lower.
“They said it was going to be this amazing documentary about new age Byron Bay, how it’s changing and why everyone wants to be here and blah blah blah, so Sal agreed to do an audition,” Sally’s husband, Mitch Gobel told News Corp.
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Montana ended up actually getting the role – only to turn it down when she realised the show wasn’t what was initially described to her.
“Montana was accepted to be part of the show. This is when they sent through a full brief describing what was going to be created and after reading it she (politely) told them to f**k off,” Mitch said.
“I’ve threatened legal action on behalf of Sal if they publish a single second of what was captured in the audition she did.”
Mitch then went on to say he reckons the show will just be about a “bunch of idiots obsessed with Instagram”, slamming it as “superficial rubbish” that doesn’t actually reflect the Byron Bay community.
This isn’t the first time a celeb has claimed that Netflix was luring people into Byron Baes with misleading info, either. We recently spoke to musician Billy Otto, who also felt he’d been lured into auditioning under false pretences.
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Describing how Byron Baes was pitched to him, Billy said he was told the show was all about capturing the “soul” of Byron Bay.
“They told me, ‘Billy we really want to capture the soul and people of Byron, you’d be perfect; your connection to country, your love for the ocean, we love your music, your articulation around spirituality, mental health and masculinity is so beautiful. We want to take the soul of Byron and your story and bring it to the world. And this could be an amazing opportunity for you’,” he said.
But it turns out the show wasn’t what Billy had in mind at all.
“I saw their press release and read that the show was about ‘hot Instagrammers.’ The show covering heartache, flings and drama… Spiritually, I saw that I didn’t align with the show, and the packaging of the thing looked SO fucking cheesy.
“I realised the same week that there’d been no consultation with Bundjalung Elders or the long-standing Byron community. I soon realised that the whole show was going to aid the heightening of homelessness and hyper-gentrification in an already struggling community.”
The drama around Byron Baes doesn’t end there either. The series has been dogged by controversy since day one, with Byron Bay locals having staged a protest and launched a petition to stop the show, as well as accusations of not consulting local Indigenous groups or the Byron Council before filming started earlier this year.
