Roxy Jacenko has come out swinging over a savage takedown in yesterday’s The Sunday Telegraph that claimed, amongst other things, Jacenko had partly bankrolled 10’s fly-on-the wall doco I Am Roxy and that recently retrenched staff at Jacenko’s PR arm, Sweaty Betty, had “blown the whistle to media about their unhappiness working for her”.
In a withering takedown of the PR maven and socialite, Tele entertainment columnist Annette Sharp called Jacenko a “high-energy spin doctor whose cosmetically corrected smile is the envy of real estate agents and luxury car spruikers from here to that sweaty international global dental tourism hotspot Bangkok”.
In her opinion piece, Sharp claimed that Network 10 had decided to shelve Jacenko’s “profanity-laden pilot” I Am Roxy.
B&T contacted 10 for confirmation, who simply said: “No decision has been made” on the future of the show.
Sharp also quoted articles on B&T last week that reported Sweaty Betty had lost 85 per cent of its clients in a 72-hour window due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
“But at least 10 isn’t using the COVID-19 crisis to hide behind any decision it’s made to scrap the show — in stark contrast to Jacenko herself, who last week cried poor to media about the downturn of her once-lucrative PR business,” Sharp wrote before adding that Jacenko had “consistently used reality television to position herself as one of Sydney’s top PR operators”.
“And as clients departed, so too have some of the young staff who idolise and emulate Jacenko, almost exclusively young blonde women, who now join a long line of former Sweaty Betty employees, some of whom have previously blown the whistle to media about their unhappiness working for Jacenko,” Sharp mused.
Not that Roxy was having any of it. The 39-year-old PR maven telling B&T this morning: “In true Annette Sharp style, I was not approached for comment,” she raged.
Adding: “I find it remarkable that this woman is able to continually bully, she uses the News Corp platform to air her misguided and ill-informed personal opinions – it’s disgraceful.”
When it came to the future of I Am Roxy, Jacenko said “no decisions had been made” before adding: “The show’s concept is the brainchild of Michael Wipfli (aka NOVA’s “Wippa”) and produced by Matchbox Pictures. It was also the highest rating pilot in the history of Channel 10’s Pilot Week”.
As for Sweaty Betty’s current woes, Jacenko also debunked Sharp’s claims that she had “cried poor” over the loss of clients.
Jacenko previously telling B&T that it was the agency’s exposure to high-end luxury and beauty brands that had led to the exodus in the face of CV-19.
“I have not cried poor, like many other businesses one of my five companies, Sweaty Betty PR has been hit hard by COVID-19,” Jacenko railed.
“I am not ashamed to admit that I like many others have been affected by this unprecedented pandemic. Fortunately and as any research would show, I diversified my business interests some years ago and am in a position that I have luckily got The Ministry of Talent (digital influencer agency), 18Communications (Chinese communications and media buying agency), Social Union (content creation) and Pixie’s Bows (hair accessories retailed online and via MYER stores nationally) in addition to other business interests.
“Does Annette Sharp forget I also have an online branding course in partnership with [Mamamia’s] Mia Freedman and annual seminars around Australia which see some 600-plus people attend?” Jacenko said.
