CELEBRITY WATCH:

Hopes of a lucrative sideline acting career held by one of Australia’s most-loved newspaper columnists and authors have been dashed on the set of a commercial being filmed in Sydney.

The production company filming a commercial for a new range of Lowes menswear yesterday sacked The Australian‘s foreign editor Greg Sheridan after he repeatedly fluffed his lines in what turned out to be a very frustrating day of filming in the grounds of an aged-care home in inner-city Ultimo.

A company spokesperson who asked that neither his or the creative agency’s names be used told The Bug: “After we saw Greg’s appearance on Insiders recently (at top) we thought he would be the perfect fit for the campaign for Lowes’ new range of winter cardigans.

“During our research for the advertisement, we showed many middle-aged men the image of Greg on the Insiders set and asked them simply: “Is this how you expect to look when you’re old and you really have left yourself go?” and while the general response was “Hell no!” they all agreed the cardigan he was wearing was really nice!

“There’s no way to explain it but they seemed to have a connection with Sheridan.”

So what went wrong on set?

“It was an absolute disaster from the get-go,” the spokesman said. “The grounds of the aged-care facility looked lovely, we had some amazing looking residents as ‘extras’ in the background in their wheelchairs and grasping their oxygen masks, the sun was shining and filming conditions were perfect and all Greg was asked to do was both wear and hold up a series of gaudily coloured cardigans, ham it up a bit and shout: ‘At Lowes!’

“To be fair, his nose was out of joint from the outset because he thought the project involved trying on cardinals for size, fit and, of course, comfort.

“That’s a mistake anyone could make but still no reason to try to sabotage the entire project like he did by simply refused to stop ad-libbing at each take. The cameras would start to role and Greg would shout out: “Jesus Saves and so can you… At Lowes!”

“He thought it was a brilliant addition to the script and repeatedly refused the director’s demand that he stuck to the script as presented. These ads are very expensive to make and are timed to the millisecond.

“Steve Roach, Ray Hadley and Daryl Brohman just stood at the back of the set just fuming at his delaying actions.

“Eventually the director lost his patience and sent Greg packing. Greg went off in an absolute hissy-fit, shouting ‘Rupert Murdoch’s not going to like this!” but still managing to scoop up a half a dozen cardigans and take them with him.

“Still, we’ll find someone else before the ads start appearing in June. These amazing cardigans are really going to fly off the racks over the winter months at only $9.99 each.”