Cult figure of the fortnight � By Victoria Hannan for Entropy - the newspaper of the University of South Australia� Media tycoon, master chef, enrager of Ray Martin, corrupter of Shane Warne, ARIA nominee � the list goes on and on but one thing is for sure, John Safran is the role model for young people who (and I use the clich� very reluctantly) have had enough; enough of political and media hypocrisy, enough of authority as a whole. In his own way Safran challenges the morals and ethics of a generation that believes that we don�t, and won�t and never will. The face of John Safran, a very proud 26 year old Melbournian, first appeared on our television screens in 1997 when he was chosen as a contestant in the ABC�s illustrious �Race Around the World�. Although Safran came equal last in Race, job offers and interview requests came rolling in, he became a wanted man. His mind was set, however, on his next project: a �realistic� version of Baz Luhrmann�s �Sunscreen Song�, titled �Not the Sunscreen Song�, which became a top 30 hit and won him an ARIA nomination (for Best Comedy Release). Over the past few months John has concentrated on making short films, with a job on Channel 7�s recently axed �Late Report� (along with aged comic Richard Stubbs, journalist Emma Tom and last years Race winner Tony Wilson). His stories have included �The Cigarette Ashes� - an attempt to break Shane Warne�s abstinence from smoking, an insight into his fear of clowns and a story about Australia�s first Kosher burger. Recently, however, Safran�s name has been hitting the headlines through the disgruntled complaints of Ray Martin and the apologies of ABC executives. Footage from a pilot that he made for the ABC in May of 1998, titled �Media Tycoon� and deemed inappropriate for broadcast, surfaced on the ABC�s topical show �Media Watch�. The footage shows Safran waiting outside the house of Ray Martin, rifling through his rubbish and filming his son�s school. But more importantly and perhaps more controversially, the pilot contains footage of Ray Martin confronting Safran and his co-conspirator, Shane Paxton (who you may recall as the long-haired jobless youth who was used as the prime example of lazy teens on �A Current Affair�) after Safran, dressed in a paper mach� Mike Munro head, asked him why he wasn�t at work at 9:30 in the morning. After accusations of �you can dish it out but you can�t take it� etc, Martin grabbed Safran by the collar, screaming of close ties with ABC bosses and loosely threatening him with legal action, until the two were pulled apart by a bewildered Paxton. After many phone calls to many friends in high places, an almost official promise was made that the footage would never surface and apologies were made to Martin and his wife. The footage looked as good as completely censored, until �Media Watch�, trying to �demonstrate a point about thin-skinned journalists,� aired the footage in March. Roger Grant, ABC general manager of corporate affairs and personal friend of the Martin�s had promised Uncle Ray that the piece would �never see the light of day�, but Media Watch saw the ironic and satirical qualities of the footage and chose to show it based on the �merits of the item�, says Media Watch producer Deb Richards. John Safran is yet to comment publicly about the fiasco, but if he does it will no doubt be some smart-arse-I-don�t-really-give-a-damn-type statement, because to be quite honest � he probably doesn�t. While he finds the whole process of annoying people �quite embarrassing� the fact remains he does it with political and social implications. And although those people in our society with unclear consciences are unwilling to admit it, they feel threatened by this funny looking little man, for he possesses influence over our generation just as good-ol� Uncle Ray does over the blue-rinsed population of his � and this scares them shitless. Thanks to UQ student Robert Whyte. � |
