Well, this has the potential to turn ugly. Earlier today, a purported tell-all memoir by former Sunrise producer and Adam Boland was rush released by its publishers, in defiance of legal threats by Boland’s former employer Channel Seven.
The Sydney Morning Herald report that last week, Seven issued a summons demanding to see a copy of Boland’s manuscript for Brekky Central before the book was published, allegedly fearing that it would breach confidentiality agreements.
In a fiery statement, Melbourne University Press chief executive Louise Adler slammed Seven’s attempts to interfere and defended the rushed publication of the book, saying:
“We don’t yield to pressure from commercial operators with deep pockets and a heightened sensitivity to stories about their own industry while intruding into the lives of private citizens with breathtaking insouciance.”
Literary burn.
Boland joined Seven more than a decade ago, and overhauled the struggling Sunrise, putting together the team of Melissa Doyle and David Koch, and eventually making it the number one show on morning television.
The producer, who has spoken in the past about his struggles with bipolar disorder, left Seven for good in 2013. Shortly thereafter, he joined Network 10, where his rival breakfast program Wake Up proved to be a costly flop, and was eventually axed.
Current Sunrise presenters Koch and Samantha Armytage came under fire earlier this year, after off-the-cuff remarks about mental illness were perceived to be a dig at Boland and his sometimes troubled relationship with Seven.
Boland insists, however, that there is no bad blood between him and the network, and that he is not trying to pick any fights. “This book was always intended as a celebration of breakfast television and a look inside a world people perhaps otherwise wouldn’t see,” he said.
“I certainly recount some of the stars we met along the way,” he continued, “the people with way-too-big egos, the political games and network politics, but this is not about agendas and settling scores.”
Boland says that the book is purely about the ways in which breakfast television enveloped his life, and the relationships and power struggles – both personal and professional – that he encountered in his time at Seven.
Melbourne Uni Press say that the digital edition of Brekky Central is available now, while hard copies should be in stores by Friday, so your weekend reading is now sorted.
Image via Melbourne University Press
