Oh what a time to be an Aussie TV viewer. In addition to former Big Brother contestants squirming around in piles of bugs in the African wilderness, and the weekly satisfaction of watching overly-confident home gourmands go arse-over-cornichon, we get things like this:
Now, hard as it might seem to find fault with any aspect of Channel 9’s so-bad-it’s-amazing telemovie House Of Hancock, part one of which aired last night, there are some who questioned its overall commitment to the truth.
One of these people, amazingly enough, was Gina Rinehart herself, whose portrayal by Rhonda From The AAMI Commercials turned out to be somewhat less than flattering.
Per a report in Mining Australia, there are some “glaring errors” in House Of Hancock that Rinehart would like to clear up, especially about her relationship with her dad, late mining magnate Lang Hancock.
In the list, released through a spokesman, Rinehart takes issue with the following aspects:
Despite the portrayal, Mr Hancock and Mrs Rinehart had a loving, father/daughter relationship, and were together throughout the funeral of Hope Hancock, and to portray otherwise is wrong.
Mrs Rinehart was very close to her mother and did not continue to holiday or honeymoon in the United States when her mother was dying as the show has suggested. That is a disgusting implication. There was no phone call to Mrs Rinehart to come home during her short honeymoon.
Mrs Rinehart did not participate in or condone doing deals with Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu, nor did she or her father endorse a presentation to an investor group using a nuclear device for anti-environmental intent. That never happened.
Mr Hancock never told Mrs Rinehart that no one could ever love her, or that her husband never loved her. The scene was made up and untrue. Her relationship with Mr Frank Rinehart was very loving, and her mother loved her son in law also.
Nor was there a scene where Mr Hancock said terrible things about his daughter’s appearance.
Rinehart had previously referred to the film as “tacky” and “grossly distorted.”
Nine have refused to comment, except to say that House Of Hancock is a “television drama event,” which sounds like code for “c’mon guys, of course we served up heapin’ helpins’ of dramatic licence, it’s a goddamn TV movie.”
Meanwhile, the real-life Rose Porteous has called the show movie a “tangled web of fiction”, which is probably in the Top 10 most Rose Porteous things Rose Porteous has ever said.
h/t TV Tonight
