My sister sent me a VERY entertaining article yesterday from the Daily Mail by a journalist called Amanda Goff.
It. Was. Hilarious.
Amanda gave an unflinching appraisal of why marrying someone 30 years younger isn’t the best idea.
It was sparked by 68-year-old Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia’s third marriage ending last week. (They met in a bar when she was a uni student.)
The article was also very deja vu because Amanda noted that he yelled at her a few decades ago.
In case you missed the blog post I wrote about it, Anthony also yelled at me back then.
He made it big in the US in the early 2000s with a starring role in the TV series Without A Trace?
More recently – aside from appearing in in the political thriller Balibo back in 2009 and on stage two years ago in Death of a Salesman – he’s been better known as The Slap and Underbelly star Jonathan LaPaglia’s older brother. That’s Hollywood for you. Cold. Brutal.
But back then he was stalked by the paparazzi whenever he came home for a visit.
At the time I was the editor of Woman’s Day and bought a set of photos of him playing a friendly game of soccer in the suburbs with some mates.
He was snapped taking his shirt off in one of them and … let’s just say he looked like he’d been over-indulging in the spaghetti carbonara.
One of the sub-editors at Woman’s Day thought it would be a lark to call him Anthony LaPudgier in the caption that accompanied the pic. And I didn’t notice when I was checking the page proofs.
But someone did. Anthony’s mum.
Anthony’s mum was really dirty about it – she couldn’t hold her head up in Adelaide because of the shame we’d brought on her family. So she rang Anthony in Los Angeles to let him know his name had been besmirched in her favourite magazine.
So Anthony rang to tear me a new one.
In those good old days I had a PA. I can’t tell you how much I loved having a PA. Especially one that understood the difference between phone calls I wanted to take and ones I didn’t.
The divine Di tried to talk Anthony off the ledge for about 45 minutes before finally admitting defeat and letting me know he wasn’t going to give up, so I’d better take the call.
Anthony then proceeded to yell at me for another 45 minutes while I repeatedly apologised.
In the background I could hear his second wife, Gia Carides, loudly screeching her displeasure and offering creative suggestions on new ways he could castigate me.
Eventually he snapped and told her to SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH. Or words to that effect.
Slice of life that, let me tell you.
Eventually he tired of yelling at me and asked to be put through to my boss so he could abuse someone higher up the food chain. Ninety minutes of venting had not cooled his ire in the slightest.
So he was put through to my boss’s PA, who was so dazzled to have Anthony LaPaglia on the phone that she put him straight through to my boss without checking, and he proceeded to yell at her for 45 minutes …
He was very, very, very cross that we’d dissed his gut and shamed his mama. Very, very cross.
I hate to think what his phone bill looked like because back then the charges were high.
My boss eventually soothed his wounded ego and offered a donation to his favourite charity to seal the deal.
And he finally hung up, appeased.
At the time and all these years later I still can’t quite believe a grown man could yell for that long at three women because aspersions had been cast on his girth.
But he did.
Anyways … fast forward to 2025 and I discover I was not the only one.
Amanda wrote in the article: “As a journalist, I’m no stranger to ruffling feathers – especially celebrity ones. Actors and artists are more than happy for you to plug their latest film, album, ‘must-have’ fashion collab or fragrance.
“But the mood shifts the moment you write something they don’t like. Anthony LaPaglia is one of those celebrities who makes me roll my eyes every time I see him in the press or on the silver screen.
“Years ago, when I was working for a weekly tabloid magazine in Australia, I wrote a story about his second marriage to actress Gia Carides. Reports were coming in that the relationship was on the rocks. The sources were pretty solid – and sure enough, they would later split. Oh boy, did I cop it.
“LaPaglia was furious. I know this because he bothered to call me from Hollywood as I was sitting in my Sydney office. He accused me of fabricating quotes, twisting facts and spreading false gossip. ‘How would you like it if I wrote lies about your marriage?’ he said.
“If memory serves, Gia was in the background egging him on. Whatever issues they were dealing with at the time were clearly put to one side as they united against a common enemy: me.”
Far out! I shake my head. How many journalists has he called over the years to berate? And how many of them have heard Gia screeching in the background?
Amanda might be getting another buzz if Anthony reads her latest article …
Song of the day: Simple Minds “Up on the catwalk”
housegoeshome 
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