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Paper Giants case settled

A defamation lawsuit between the former husband of Ita Buttrose and the ABC has been settled out of court.

A defamation lawsuit between the former husband of Ita Buttrose and the ABC has been settled out of court.

Alasdair Macdonald was suing over his depiction in Paper Giants, claiming the miniseries depicted him as a ”man so threatened by the success of his wife that he deserted her and his family”.

Last month footage from the miniseries was played to the court, including a scene in which his character, played by Nathan Page, tells a pregnant Buttrose that he is leaving “to be a free spirit”.

“I want to go away for a while. I have got to think things through. I need to find myself. I need to be a free spirit,” said ‘Mac’ (Nathan Page).

MacDonald has previously claimed no attempt was made to verify the facts with him before going to air and that the ABC refused to withdraw the program or offer an apology, even after he put his concerns in writing.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the  NSW Supreme Court ordered a mediation between the parties.

A spokeswoman for the ABC said the case had been settled but the terms were subject to confidentiality agreements.

One Response

  1. I guess that’s what happens when you hire the subject of your movie as a consultant and blithely commit to presenting her version of events.

    I hope Alasdair Macdonald did well out of the settlement. But I wonder if it will serve as any kind of lesson to the ABC. The pact with Buttrose made Paper Giants a reprehensible piece of hagiography, especially in the way it happily glossed over her “relationship” with Kerry Packer. God forbid they should let the truth get in the way of a retro-feminist feelgood story about a visionary woman who makes it on her own merits. Ahem.

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