The entertainment journalist caved in after 2 months of legal threats but has delivered a stinging final word.
TV icon Daryl Somers is celebrating a win, of sorts, after TV and radio host Bazil Zempilas and entertainment journalist Peter Ford agreed to apologise for a story which ran on Zempilas’s 6PR radio show late last year.
The report claimed Somers had been fired from Ballarat’s Carols by Candlelight due to “diva demands”, a claim which Somers denies. Ford reported Somers had run up a bar tab of over $500, wanted a furnished marquee to serve as a dressing room and Plucka Duck to appear dressed as Father Christmas.
Somers has admitted floating the idea of using Plucka Duck, but denies it was a demand.
TV Blackbox understands lawyers for Somers demanded Ford go back on air and say the report is disputed and that he didn’t mean to cause offence. Ford complied with the request with podcast and social media clips containing the original report taken down.
But it didn’t end there.
Ford was informed by lawyers on Christmas Eve that Somers deemed his efforts insufficient and would begin defamation proceedings in the new year. In January Zempilas was added to the suit but, notably, not Nine Entertainment, owners of 6PR.
Tensions have been high between Somers and Ford for over a decade after Ford made public comments about the Hey Hey It’s Saturday! reunion shows, comments Somers referred to as “scathing”.
In fact, Somers was so infuriated by the comments he called Ford a “two-faced p—-k”.
After two months of legal wrangling both Zempalis and Ford agreed to issue an apology to Somers in order to bring the ongoing ordeal to an end. That resulted in Somers going on a PR offensive today in The Herald Sun, saying:
“There were a lot of false allegations made against me and I thought, not this time I need to get to the bottom of this,”
“It came down to a full and unreserved apology been issued to me from Peter Ford and Basil Zempilas.”
When approached by TV Blackbox about the story today, the usually chatty Peter wouldn’t have a discussion about the issue, but did provide an advance copy of a statement he will be posting on social media.
With the title From Peter Ford.: For anyone remotely interested, it reads;
Just wanted to quickly address newspaper reports about me in relation to Daryl Somers. There is so much I’d like to say but I’m unfortunately limited in what I can. However yes, it’s correct, I signed an apology earlier this week. I’d been handed so many versions of apologies and demands (from his 2 legal teams) to sign and/or read on air since December 21 st. But this week I decided I needed to make the pursuit end after almost 10 weeks. It’s been an exhausting, lengthy and expensive saga stemming from a 3 minute report on 6PR back in early December. But now it’s over and I’m moving forward. I’m grateful for those who’ve been very supportive of me in recent months and I know the full story of what transpired and the toll it was taking on me. I won’t be discussing this issue on radio or TV next week. Daryl got what he’d vigorously demanded from me and,I hope, he also considers the chapter closed. Peter Ford
Having personally been involved in a lawsuit I can attest the toll it takes to go all the way to court, so it’s not surprising this matter was settled. Somers got his apology and now everyone can move forward.
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If I were Daryl Somers, I would have been offended too. Pity he had to fight long and hard for a genuine apology.