It was one of the most talked-about Logies wins in years, and now Amanda Keller has revealed she’s still ‘upset’ by Tom Gleeson’s controversial acceptance speech.
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Speaking on air upon her return to the radio waves, Amanda said she understood Tom was being humorous, but she didn’t like his distasteful suggestions about other celebrities.
‘I think in his speech when he said, “everyone who works in TV, if you want to win this you’re a big wanker”, pretty much, and that upset me because he was mean to Grant (Denyer) I felt,’ she said to WSFM co-host Brendan ‘Jonesy’ Jones.
‘He said “Yeah I won it last year for Grant, and sucker, now I’ve done it on my own for me.”
‘That’s not fair to Grant, he won that last year on his own two feet. And people that have won in the past — Carrie Bickmore changed the world, she’s raised ten million dollars for brain cancer research. Grant spoke about redemption. Waleed Aly spoke about inclusiveness.’
The comments follow Tom’s claims that there was no bad blood between the pair with the star even claiming that Amanda said she found his speech amusing.
‘She has a sense of humour — she would actually be offended by the idea that I felt sorry for her,’ the comedian said. ‘So, I find it hard to do that because if I do, I’m denying her a sense of humour, and she was finding it funny.’
But Amanda says she was saddened by the speech, which left a sour taste for many at the Logies.
‘I like Tom, we saw him at the airport, no problem with Tom. But (his speech) gave everyone permission to say, “yeah you’re all up yourselves, and this is all a big joke”. And it wasn’t a joke to me,’ she explained.
‘I don’t know why in television we’re embarrassed to be proud of our work. The tourism industry has awards, the restaurant industry has awards … He got to a point where he said, “Sucko for wanting this, you know it’s all a dumb joke” — and that’s what made me feel bad, because to the other nominees, it wasn’t.
‘We were all worthy, and I don’t think we should be embarrassed for being worthy.’
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