How Sam Armytage sparked a Succession-style meltdown at the Murdochs’ Christmas party – and staff pick sides in Nine star’s lawsuit: INSIDE MAIL’s most explosive revelations yet

In our must-read Mail+ column, Steve Jackson and Peter van Onselen reveal what’s REALLY going on in the worlds of media and politics each week.

Knives thrown at Murdoch bash over Armytage splash 

Few things get News Corp’s tabloid bosses all hot and bothered like a juicy page-one celebrity scoop… except a juicy page-one celebrity scoop while media empire patriarch Rupert Murdoch is in town.

Little wonder the Daily Telegraph’s excitable editors were wantonly bouncing off the walls when they rocked up to Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch’s sprawling Bellevue Hill mansion, Le Manoir, in Sydney’s east last Thursday for a star-studded Christmas bash.

Not only was Rupert holding court, having made a flying visit to the Harbour City for the first time since 2018 with new wife Elena Zhukova, the giddy eds were about to drop an ‘exclusive’ story about one of the country’s biggest break-ups on their front page.

What’s more, it all revolved around one of their own employees: one-time Sunrise breakfast show star and News Corp Stellar magazine columnist Samantha Armytage, who had just split with husband Richard Lavender.

Talk about Christmas coming early!

That is, of course, until Inside Mail had to come along and spoil the party… 

We’d also been tipped off about the sad news – and broke the tragic tale a little after 9pm just as the Murdoch’s champagne-soaked soiree was really getting under way.

It was after our news alert went out, we’re more than reliably informed, that all hell broke loose at Le Manoir and the Tele chiefs’ hitherto collegiate backslapping devolved into crazed corporate backstabbing as they all began blaming each other for ‘leaking’ the details.

Decorum be damned. 

(Now, we’re not entirely sure what led them to suspect each other of giving us the heads-up – but we greatly encourage the practice and our email addresses can be found at the end of the column).

Meanwhile, back at Tele HQ in Holt St, the night crew was sent scrambling to get their version of the story up and running online as soon as possible.

In their mad rush, they forgot to remove their exclusive tag and also hurriedly sent out a push notification to all the paper’s subscribers with a link that went, well, absolutely nowhere.

All a bit like the hastily convened witch hunt the Tele’s execs embarked on the following day as they slipped on their best sleuthing hats and carefully dusted their story’s production history for clues, still convinced one of their own staffers was to blame for our scoop.

(Seriously, guys, those email addresses can be found below).

We thought Succession was exciting but we genuinely can’t wait to hear who gets stitched up in the next instalment of the real-life News saga.

At least one person will be enjoying all the commotion and ensuing publicity: Nine network Svengali and part-time Simon Cowell impersonator Michael Healy.

We hear the broadcaster’s director of television is already toying with the idea of pairing the headline-grabbing Armytage up with Karl Stefanovic on the channel’s perennially second-placed breakfast show Today for a real tilt at the title in the new year.

At least someone is happy with their Christmas gift. 

Nine’s baffling investigation into Georgie Gardner 

Across the bridge at Nine’s North Sydney HQ, the network’s hard-pressed HR team has been caught up in a baffling investigation of their own.

The internal review relates to scurrilous allegations weekend newsreader Georgie Gardner had been the subject of an official complaint from a junior staff member after an allegedly heated encounter back in September.

You remember that one? Headlines everywhere in just about every outlet?

Well, here comes the baffling part: no one at Nine seems to.

We asked for an update on the probe this week and were met with furrowed brows of confusion.

As far as we can tell, Gardner may or may not have been investigated, over an incident that may or may not have involved an issue with an autocue reader, and she may or may not have received a warning.

Who can say?

Well, Nine could… but for some reason they’re not telling us. Thank God for this new era of transparency they’ve ushered in.

All we know for certain is that she’s still on air and still getting paid $600,000 to do little more than read the news headlines for one hour twice a week.

Baffling, no?

Albo’s tennis buddy

The PM hasn’t had a good week (again) having been chastised for hitting the lawn tennis courts in his whites in the affluent Perth seaside suburb of Cottesloe rather than hastily making his way to the site of the firebombed synagogue in Melbourne.

When he did finally get to Ripponlea, he was heckled and forced to make a somewhat hasty exit.

Some of the barbs thrown his way included comments that it was a ‘nice day for a game of tennis’, which Inside Mail can confirm it certainly was.

Anthony Albanese has long enjoyed a hit on the tennis court, especially grass courts, which are that little bit more traditional than those modern knee-spoiler hard courts. 

Luckily for Albo he’s had a long time tennis partner to hit with who owns a grass court.

Red-bandana-wearing opinionista Peter FitzSimons is the proud owner of a grass tennis court as part of his luxury Mosman estate. And over the years a frequent on court rival has none other than Albo.

Their catch ups have allowed them to exchange political ideas, strategise about how to beat Scott Morrison, and (maybe) even discuss how to ‘smash Tories’ as Albo once described his primary goal in politics.

We hear they don’t catch up as often as they once used to – even though there isn’t a grass tennis court at either The Lodge in Canberra or Kirribilli House in Sydney.

More Nine stars rallying around Airlie Walsh 

Nine staffers continue to rally around Today show political reporter Airlie Walsh following revelations she is suing the network for sexual discrimination.

Some of the channel’s most recognisable women joined her for a spot of lunch over the weekend in a sign of support, including reporters Gabrielle Boyle, Kate Creedon, Sophie Walsh, Tiff Genders and Zara James as well as Seven’s Madeleine Kennard.

It comes after Sydney talkback radio king Ben Fordham became the first network star to come out and publicly back Walsh last week.

The mum-of-one, who is currently on maternity leave, filed her human rights claim with the Federal Court two weeks ago and the specifics are yet to be aired publicly.

And the way these things tend to go, we reckon it’s unlikely they ever will be.

The Federal Court has so far rejected attempts by several newsrooms to access her claim before the case-management hearing and we suspect this is one matter that’s destined to be resolved in mediation and wrapped up in a tidy non-disclosure agreement.

Of course, we’ve been wrong before, so let’s sit tight and see.

‘Lucky’ Ray Martin’s plan for 80th birthday

What do you get for a man who has everything? How about a top-rating news and current affairs special.

As Ray Martin prepares to mark his 80th birthday next week, the veteran newsman once again proved he is one of the nation’s best storytellers after his heart-felt documentary about the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami became one of the most-watched shows of the month.

The anniversary special, produced by Eddie McGuire‘s JAM TV and broadcast on Nine, finished fourth overall last Sunday, trailing only Seven and Nine’s flagship nightly news bulletins and the cricket.

We asked Ray the secret behind his enduring success after almost six decades in the game and he revealed it all came down to one thing.

‘Oh mate, it’s not about ability or ambitions, it’s purely about luck,’ he told us in his trademark self-effacing style.

‘Making your own luck is a cliché that’s rarely true [but] it’s much easier to be born lucky!

‘My biggest exclusives have been the result of luck rather than diligence and hard slog.

‘I’ve been lucky by the bucketload – mother, wife, kids, grandkids, friends and even the border collie dog, Jed (world’s best dog).

‘Luck overcame danger on a number of scary assignments.

‘I’d love to give you some pearls of wisdom, mate, but I don’t have any [except] get born in Australia to kickstart the “good life” and pick your parents carefully for longevity!’

Amen to that. And as for how he plans to celebrate the landmark birthday next Friday?

‘My kids have organised a few drinks with family and friends for my big birthday,’ he said.

A lucky man, indeed. What a dead-set legend.

ABC chair Kim Williams spills the (coffee) beans 

He may be frank and forthright, but newly minted ABC chair Kim Williams is nothing if not approachable…

At least he certainly didn’t seem to mind Inside Mail approaching him (and inviting ourselves to sit down to discuss all things Aunty) after we spotted him quietly working his way through a stack of reports at an inner-city café this week.

Indeed, the ABC boss was happy to have an amicable chat about everything from ABC Radio to Joe Rogan without so much as hinting we were intruding on his ‘me time’ or that his cappuccino was clearly getting cold.

Which, funnily enough, was precisely the sort of big-picture topic we wanted to ask him about.

After all, when Williams first got his feet under the desk as News Limited chief back in 2011, he promptly issued a company-wide decree banning all staff from eating at their workstations.

There are plenty of great cafés and parks in the world, he insisted, go out and enjoy your lunch. The work will wait.

It’s an edict Inside Mail (then an impressionable young chief of staff at The Sunday Telegraph) has subscribed to ever since – particularly when it comes to our morning cup of joe.

So, does Williams still believe life is too short to sip coffee out of cardboard?

Too right, you better believe he does… which should be music to the ears of every single latte-sipping ABC staffer at the public broadcaster (and, according to legend, there’s more than a few).

We’ll certainly drink to that.

Don’t say a word 

They say feedback is a gift, and anyone working in politics needs to accept that more than most. You know, given the whole democracy thing and voters getting to have their say.

Which is why a tweet from the official @ausgov Twitter/X account about the Future Made in Australia policy that the PM and Treasurer are always banging on about caught our attention this week.

Comments were deliberately disabled, preventing anyone reading the sales pitch from offering feedback. A case of ‘listen quietly to what you’re being told’. Voters will have to wait until election day to provide their feedback…

Brisbane news-sheet’s new conspiracy column 

We don’t know what they’re putting in the water up in Brisbane but it’s got to be more than fluoride.

After all, the ‘gossip’ columnists at the city’s local Sunday Mail news-sheet seem to have broken out the tin foil hats this week and entered full whack-job conspiracy theorist territory.

On Sunday, they dutifully reported Nine had relocated its Brisbane Christmas party from the rooftop restaurant at Flight Centre’s global HQ at South Bank to a more modestly priced venue at Dockside at Kangaroo Point.

Fair enough, times are tough. It’s who you’re with, not where you are, right?

Not according to the Sunday Mail’s muckrakers, who went on to claim their ‘sources’ had revealed the switch-up had little to do with budgetary constraints and was actually because Flight Centre ‘reportedly banned Nine from returning after allegations about the network’s workplace culture surfaced’.

Wait… what?

One of Nine’s biggest advertisers banned the broadcaster from having a Christmas bash in their building’s restaurant because the thought of being even tangentially linked to the network was so unpalatable?

Well, that’s a weird one… and also a load of gibber.  

We asked Flight Centre about the supposed Nine ‘ban’ and they told us the rooftop restaurant in their building isn’t even managed by them. It’s independently run by the Compass Group.

What’s more, neither of them has any problems whatsoever with Nine or the hard-working professionals plying their various trades at the network.

In a separate Nine Network conspiracy theory, the Sunday Mail went on to suggest the channel’s much-loved Queensland news anchor Andrew Lofthouse had been suspiciously absent from its 6pm bulletin for more than a month amid ‘swirling rumours’ about his fate.

Well, we can solve that mystery for them, too. The popular presenter is off on personal leave.

Lofthouse had a tough run in the second half of the year after receiving a very last-minute call-up to replace sports reporter colleague Jonathan Uptin in Paris covering the Olympics.

A true professional, Lofthouse soldiered on throughout the Games even after falling severely ill following a bout of food poisoning in the French capital.  

Surely the bloke deserves a little downtime with the family?

As for Uptin, why was he sidelined throughout the global sporting showpiece?

Well, now, we hear that’s actually a real story for some enterprising young Brisbane newshound. No tin foil hat required.

Kids in charge

While we’ll always defend the importance of feedback here at Inside Mail, is it possible to be too enthusiastic in receiving it?

That seems to be the case at the Productivity Commission these days. 

The government body’s purpose is to use expertise to help offer solutions to the great policy challenges of our time. 

Which is why it receives $40million annually in taxpayer support and has more than 150 staff, most of whom have all manner of high-end qualifications in everything from economics to engineering, to give it the in-house know-how to advise government.

But perhaps to enhance its image as listening to the community before making policy suggestions, the Productivity Commission has increased the number of ‘public consultations’ it does ever since Labor-appointed Danielle Wood as its new chair.

Which is fine – except that recently it hosted a consultation session with a group of four-year-olds, as part of its Early Learning and Care inquiry.

Cynicism aside, we know what you’re thinking: four-year-old couldn’t do much worse running the country than the current lot.

Channel Seven’s incredible shrinking man 

It’s never easy giving up treats at this time of year as we head into the non-ratings period and a seemingly endless stream of Christmas party invites.

But it seems quite a few male television reporters are forgoing the party pies and instead committing to slimming down over the silly season. 

Inside Mail last week revealed two of Nine most-talked about stars, Seb Costello and Karl Stefanovic, had pulled off dramatic ‘transformations’ leading into the festive break.

As you may recall, Costello had lost 19kg according to last week’s weigh-in after going all out on a clean-living health kick and putting in the hard yards at his local Fitness Ring boxing gym in Richmond.

And Stefanovic? Well, he’s bought a new pair of reading glasses.

Now we’re hearing they’re not the only ones focusing on getting in shape and ‘beach body ready’ in the lead-up to the summer break.

Word is one of their chief rivals over at Seven has been hitting the Ozempic hard recently and his colleagues are now referring to him as ‘television’s incredible shrinking man’ behind his ever-more-streamlined back.

We would tell you who we are talking about but what would be the fun in that? 

Instead, we’ll let Inside Mail’s astute readers see if they can pick the presenter… you’re usually pretty good at sussing such things out!

Sunrise star Nat Barr grills 7News bosses

The daggers might have been out at the Tele’s Holt St bunker during the past week but just a couple of kilometres away at Seven’s Media City HQ in Eveleigh, the mood could hardly be more convivial.

Inside Mail hears Sunrise star Nat Barr hosted an end-of-rating wrap for all staff on Tuesday and made the most of the opportunity to grill the network’s news bosses.

And absolutely nothing was off limits… not that it needed be, it seems.

Staffers tell us they were wowed by Seven news supremo Anthony De Celgie‘s candour and encouragement throughout the session, as well as with the vision offered by Seven’s highly regarded director of morning television Sarah Stinson.

The talkfest – piped in to employees across country – also included presentations from director of news ops Gemma Acton, Sydney news chief and network wunderkind Sean Power, and the channel’s widely revered Perth news boss and resident Mr Fix-It, Ray ‘The Wolf’ Kuka.

‘I have to say, it was probably the best staff meeting I’ve ever been too,’ one insider gushed.

‘The old guard never used to tell us anything about what was really going on at the network but this was different – the news bosses all got up and, to their credit, were open and honest with us and answered every single question.

‘It was really quite impressive and such a change from the stony-faced silence we used to get before.’

Another raved: ‘They basically told us to stop worrying about all the doom and gloom and network politics and focus on breaking news – after the year we’ve had, that’s honestly want I needed to hear.

‘It was also fantastic listening to Sarah speak. She’s so switched on, we’re really lucky to have her.’

In a show of solidarity, we hear the love-in was attended by every single member of the network’s news and current affairs leadership team – from the Sydney-based program heads to the interstate news directors, including Melbourne chief Chris Salter and Adelaide head honcho Mark Mooney. 

It comes in stark contrast to the ongoing shambles at Nine where they don’t even have a Sydney, Perth or Brisbane news boss after a somewhat, shall we say, tumultuous period of sustained upheaval – and a number of unexpected departures. 

Instead, we hear Nine staff have spent the week murmuring about The Australian media columnist James Madden‘s revelation on Monday that their national news and current affairs boss Fiona Dear is the latest manager facing an internal investigation following a string of complaints about ‘her leadership and management style’.

Inside Mail doesn’t have any particular insight into that one and, like most Nine employees we’re sure, we don’t particularly want one.

We just hope the broadcaster can sort out the unrelenting executive dramas over the summer break so the hard-working frontline staff can get back to what they do best and focus on breaking news, just like the troops at Seven.

Sam Mac knows his weather… but is no Rain Main

There’s no denying Sam Mac is the most popular roving weather reporter in the country – but when it comes to simple arithmetic, he’s certainly no Rain Man.

While Dustin Hoffman‘s iconic character was a whiz when it came to counting spilt toothpicks, the Mac Attack seems to struggle with simply tallying up his social media reach.

Back in February, Mac’s Pearl Studios outfit boasted the self-deprecating funnyman had ‘amassed a staggering following of almost half a million people’. 

But one eagle-eyed insider pointed out his various social accounts totalled just a touch over 440,000 – and that’s with many of his followers duplicated across multiple platforms.

Hmmm… ‘almost half a million’ fans? That’s one doozy of a round-up. 

Nice try, though, we ‘almost’ fell for it.

No prime minister – dummy spit of the week

Could Peter Dutton be doing too well for some of his less fulsome Liberal Party supporters?

We’ve long heard rumours that senior moderate and Manager of Opposition Business in the House, Paul Fletcher, coveted the leadership, and was just waiting for his moment if Dutton ever fell over.

This week, he suddenly announced his plan to retire at the next election, presumably because he realises that win, lose or draw, Dutton is likely to get three more years as leader to contest a second election.

Having rebuilt the party in the wake of the devastating 2022 defeat, Fletcher is about to turn 60, making him older than Dutton. 

And too old, we can tell you, to develop the sort of personality that wins votes when meeting constituents.

It’s back to the bland world of business (where he came from) for what’s left of Paul’s working life.

Got a tip (or a Daily Telegraph leak) for Inside Mail? Contact us at Steven.Jackson@mailonline.com or Peter.VanOnselen@mailonline.com