Meshel Laurie has blasted The Project on social media, calling out the show’s lack of commitment to diversifying its panel.
The comedian and author left The Project back in 2019, citing personal reasons for the reason for her exit at the time. In several new Instagram posts though, she’s revealed that her political views actually had a lot to do with her departure from the show.
“I tried for years to get The Project to employ Aboriginal comedians by the way and I have the emails to prove it. No interest,” she claimed in one comment.
“All the white guys get credit every year during @naidocweek though. All their hard work for sitting next to an Aboriginal panelist on tv once a year is definitely noticed,” she added.
After explaining that she still had the emails to prove her claims, Lauri duly provided one of them. “One of the three times I pitched regular Indigenous panelists to executives of @theprojecttv This email is dated 25/11/2016,” she captioned the post.
“The reason I’m being so ‘cute’ about the mentoring and feedback aspects of the pitch is that none of us received mentoring or feedback. I never received any negative feedback ever, let alone before I was let go. In fact, I was never notified that I was being let go.
“I asked for leave in February 2019 because my father was literally dying. I called the person who booked the panelists three months later to let her know I was ready to come back and she had to inform me that my spots were filled for the next couple of months.”
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Laurie continued by recalling the treatment she received while attending the 10th anniversary of the show alongside Hughesy one month later. “I stood in the audience as they thanked everyone who helped make the show what it was.
“I’d been a regular host just two months earlier, for four years, and they treated me like I’d never existed. Let’s just say, I got the message that night, and ever since then I’ve wondered why I’ve kept the secrets.”
You can check out the email in question below. Channel 10 hasn’t yet commented publicly on Laurie’s claims.
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