‘Can’t even get on Today Extra’: Nine’s secret list of banned talent – and why the network refuses to work with them. Plus, a uni romance between political rivals becomes the talk of Canberra: INSIDE MAIL

Where stars are born… and buried

Here’s a story that’ll give reality TV stars nightmares. 

We hear Channel Nine has an unofficial ‘blacklist’ of former contestants from The Block, MAFS and even Beauty and the Geek who’ll never be welcomed back on network programming. Ever.

That means no spin-offs, no ‘second chances at love’, no appearances on Celebrity Lego Masters or The Hundred with Andy Lee, no gushing articles on 9Honey, not even an invite to the Upfronts.

You’re banned. For life. And there’s no way off the list – unless you literally die and 9News might run a story about it.

We even hear Australia’s biggest media company throws its weight around the industry to make sure other brands don’t give out opportunities to banned talent.

The blacklist has long been an open secret, with several disgruntled stars revealing the invites dried up after they publicly criticised the network.

But now we’ve been passed what looks to be a fairly comprehensive list of ex-stars whom Nine considers to be personae non gratae.

Married At First Sight participants who play ball, such as Jade Pywell (right), are rewarded with appearances on Today Extra, invites to industry events and even networking opportunities 

But those who publicly criticise the network and producers, such as season 12 bride Jacqui Burfoot (pictured), risk ending up on Channel Nine’s ‘do not engage’ list

Outspoken former MAFS stars Olivia Frazer, Domenica Calarco, Hayley Vernon, Harrison Boon, Bronte Schofield, Alyssa Barmonde and Tim Smith are all on the list.

They are joined by Carolina Santos, Daniel Holmes, Ben Walters, Bryce Ruthven, Dean Wells, Amanda Micallef, Jessica Seracino, Janelle Han, Tamara Djordjevic, Ines Basic and Sam Carraro.  

They drew the ire of Nine by speaking out about deceptive editing tricks, production pressure or the alleged trauma experienced during filming.

The list stretches beyond MAFS. Other names associated with it include Sharon Johal and Ankur Dogra from The Block who blasted the producers for giving them the ‘villain’ edit during their season.

Beauty and the Geek star Josie Werner was backlisted after she called the show ‘overproduced’ and her romance ‘fake’.

Even make-up artists and stylists have been added to the internal ‘no-go’ list after leaking behind-the-scenes gossip or staging unauthorised content.

‘One hairdresser was caught tipping off paparazzi. She hasn’t been hired since,’ says a well-placed Nine insider.

Insiders say the list is ‘unofficial but widely known’ – a sort of whispered warning passed around between producers, talent agents, glam squads and PR teams. 

Sharon Johal (right) and Ankur Dogra (left) from The Block season 18 blasted the producers for giving them the ‘villain’ edit during their season. As a result, Nine has steered clear of them

The big no-no that gets you on the blacklist is criticising producers, but Nine bosses especially hate it when they are accused of failing in their duty of care.

‘They take [duty of care] really seriously, and when someone suggests they were put in danger, it really gets their backs up,’ says our industry source. 

Some stars have been blacklisted for just hinting at producer manipulation, with one ex-MAFS contestant iced out for saying in an interview that ‘viewers don’t know the full story’. 

‘It’s all about loyalty,’ adds our spy.

‘If you play nice and take your edit on the chin, you get a friendly chat with David [Campbell] and Sylvia [Jeffreys], and you might get other gigs at Nine. Publicity may even help you get an agent.

‘But if you go rogue on Instagram, show up in the Daily Mail office or do interviews with podcasters, you’re sent to Siberia. You can’t even get on Today Extra.’

One former MAFS groom who regrets speaking out because he says it cost him a media career tells us: ‘Once you talk, you’re finished. It’s like you never existed. No more invites, no media deals. Total blackout.’

Rumour has it the latest additions to the list are Jacqui Burfoot and Clint Rice from the most recent season of MAFS who ‘drove Nine mad’ by refusing to play ball…

Jilted staffer parachuted into power

A former big name in the Young Liberals who was given the flick by his girlfriend before she appeared on The Bachelor is now enjoying a meteoric rise as his boss Sussan Ley ascends to leader of the Liberal Party.

Dean Shachar, a long-time Liberal media flack who has worked for former PM Scott Morrison and deputy PM Michael McCormack in the past, has been Ley’s chief of staff for almost three years.

Well-known in the Canberra bubble – but almost completely unknown outside it – Shachar is one of a number of backroom staff riding high after pilot-turned-cleaner-turned-farmhand-turned-cook-turned-taxwoman-turned-politician Ley became Opposition Leader.

We say ‘almost’ because Dean has had at least one brush with fame in the past.

Dean Shachar (left), a long-time Liberal media flack, is having a meteoric rise in Canberra now his boss Sussan Ley is the party leader. During his years in the Young Liberals he was in a relationship with Labor staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn (right), who later starred on The Bachelor

The former Vice President of the Young Liberals previously dated Labor staffer Alisha Aitken-Radburn, who used to work for Bill Shorten when he was party leader.

Who said that love can’t blossom across the political aisle? 

Well, whoever it was maybe had a point… because Aitken-Radburn ended their romance shortly before appearing on season six of The Bachelor, where she vied against 27 other women for the heart of rugby player Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins.

The show was the beginning of the end of her career as a political staffer and we’re happy to report she’s now making an honest living. Good on ya, Alisha.

She didn’t have luck with Cummins on the show, but did later return for spin-off series Bachelor in Paradise where she fell for Glenn Smith. They now have a daughter.

As for Shachar? He remains a bachelor.

Mia’s skeletons rattle as Strife returns for season two

Mia Freedman is celebrating the release of another successful season of her Binge series Strife, an adaptation of her 2017 book Work Strife Balance starring Asher Keddie

You just can’t keep a good girlboss down.

Despite a little brouhaha about her son’s eye-watering salary, Mamamia founder Mia Freedman is celebrating the release of another successful season of her Binge series Strife, an adaptation of her 2017 memoir Work Strife Balance starring Asher Keddie.

The show has received good reviews and apparently done alright business for Binge (although some Mamamia staffers tell us they couldn’t bring themselves to watch their years of underpaid toil be whitewashed for the small screen).

But the launch of season two has brought with it renewed scrutiny of the production company behind Strife, Made Up Stories.

The co-founder and COO of Made Up Stories is American Steve Hutensky, a former entertainment lawyer who helped secure secret settlements with alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein. He was even mentioned in the movie She Said, about the New York Times journalists who exposed Weinstein, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. 

While we do not suggest Hutensky did anything illegal or that he knew the extent of Weinstein’s offending, his past at Miramax Films will no doubt raise a few eyebrows among the sort of suburban middle-class feminists who idolise Freedman.

It’s also worth noting that Made Up Stories has received millions in Screen Australia funding and positions itself as producing women-first stories.

Hutensky is married to Bruna Papandrea, with whom he established Made Up Stories in 2016. Freedman often speaks about her close personal and professional relationship with Papandrea, but has yet to comment on her husband’s past.

We contacted Binge’s publicity team for comment but didn’t hear back.

The season two launch has brought with it fresh scrutiny of the production company behind Strife, Made Up Stories, and one of its co-founders who was a lawyer for Harvey Weinstein

Was our New Idea scoop all pulp and no juice? 

Last week, we reported that thousands of copies of New Idea bound for Victoria had to be pulped because of a front-page story about Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial.

We rather unkindly suggested that publishing a story so clearly likely to compromise a high-profile trial was a perfect example of what happens when a media company sacks all its experienced editors.

Well, it turns out it may have been a case of bad luck and very bad timing. 

A source at magland tells us that apparently the story and the front page was legalled fine and sent to the printers on deadline day – only for the suppression order to come in late ‘and there was nothing we could do about it‘. 

‘So it wasn’t actually an editorial f***-up.’

If they insist. In our view, it was naive of the staff at New Idea to think they could get away with publishing a feature about an ongoing trial in a magazine that sits on newsstands for an entire week.

We all know suppression orders can be sent out unexpectedly and at the drop of a hat. While they may not have ignored an order, surely they were asking for trouble?

Ley off Julie!

Canberra gossips couldn’t wait to tell me how Julie Bishop (right) had ‘failed to congratulate’ Sussan Ley on becoming Liberal leader – completely forgetting that she’s on holiday in Europe with her partner Stephen Gray (centre) and in a different time zone

Bishop did, of course, get round to congratulating Ley, as shown here

Conspiracy theories abounded in the aftermath of Sussan Ley‘s ascension to the Liberal leadership as to why former long-term deputy leader Julie Bishop hadn’t offered her congratulations yet.

‘She’s bitter’, ‘she’s jealous’, ‘Julie can’t stand that someone else got there instead of her’ were just some of the musings Inside Mail picked up from Liberal MPs. 

‘It tells you everything about Julie that she can’t bring herself to congratulate Sussan’, another thundered in mock outrage.

But everyone can stand down from their misplaced views that Julie is suffering from FOMO… she’s actually just in a different time zone.

As per her Instagram, she’s currently holidaying between Tuscany and Rome and it was 2am in Italy when Ley’s appointment was announced.

Far from being consumed by jealousy, it looks like politics is the farthest thing from her mind.

Public frenemy No. 1

While Anthony Albanese has shown just how low he is prepared to go to exact vengeance on those he regards as frenemies inside his own party, his No. 1 frenemy Tanya Plibersek continues to defy the PM’s best efforts to shaft her.

Albo did what he could to sideline Plibersek by gifting her social services without the NDIS as part of it, which is a bit like being given a car without a steering wheel… or the environment portfolio without climate change responsibilities, which was Tanya’s portfolio in Labor’s first term.

But it seems no matter how powerful Albo becomes, nor how thumping his election victory was, he simply can’t kick Plibersek out of his cabinet.

The factions choose who goes into the ministry, not the Labor PM, and Plibersek retains enough seniority to stay on that all-important list.

Which is why, despite Albo’s best efforts to cast her adrift, the new social services minister turned up all smiles at Government House for the swearing in of the new Labor frontbench on Tuesday.

You don’t have to be a winner to be a grinner.

Leadership games are far from over 

After losing the Liberal leadership ballot, outgoing shadow treasurer Angus Taylor released a media statement declaring ‘we must unify’ behind new leader Sussan Ley.

But before the ink on the release had dried, his supporters were already doing the numbers on what his pathway might look like for a second crack at the top job.

Only three votes separated the two leadership hopefuls, so Ley’s mandate to last years rather than months in the leadership chair is pretty flimsy.

Taylor’s supporters certainly think she won’t last long… and they are ready to strike at her first stumble or poor poll.

And finally… guess who, don’t sue

Which politician who drives a Tesla as their taxpayer-funded parliamentary car tried to submit fuel receipts to claim as expenses? 

You don’t need us to tell you what the problem was with that little rort… 

Whose fuel receipts they were is your guess as much as ours, but suffice it to say the claim was quite rightly rejected.

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