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NZ Herald
Jury told to be prepared for 'sordid' details about McNee's life
26.07.2004
6.15pm
A jury heard sordid details today about the sex life of gay television celebrity David McNee.
The high profile 55-year old interior designer, who appeared in several television shows, was found beaten
to death wrapped in clothes and bedclothes at his Auckland home on July 22 last year.
Police say his assailant was a 24-year-old homeless man, Phillip Layton Edwards, picked up by Mr McNee on
Karangahape Rd.
In his opening address to the High Court at Auckland, Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins said that Mr McNee,
who was found in his blood-spattered bedroom two days after the attack, had been ferociously beaten around the face and head.
Friends, concerned that he did not keep appointments and hearing his dogs barking inside the house, alerted
the police.
Mr Perkins said that after the attack, Edwards washed the blood off his arms and hands in the shower, took
everything he fancied in the house, especially alcohol and clothes and loaded them into Mr McNee's Audi TT convertible coupe.
In the following days, Edwards drove around in the distinctive black car and was eventually arrested eight
days after the killing.
Mr Perkins said the jury might wonder how the paths of a talented TV personality and a vagrant might cross.
"Even the most public figure has a private life and the circumstances of Mr McNee's death mean that we need
to probe to some degree at least, the private circumstances of his life," Mr Perkins told Justice Marion Frater and the jury.
He said that Mr McNee, who was openly gay, visited two establishments, the Den and the Owl on K Road, on
July 20, the night he was killed.
Mr McNee went there, the prosecutor said, for the purpose of meeting one or more male sexual partners.
"His visits to these establishments will help you to understand how it is that the path of these two men
happened to cross."
About 6.30pm Mr McNee went into the Den, where men were "able to meet and have sex on the premises."
He went down the back of the building and emerged about an hour later, left the premises but then returned
about 7.45pm before leaving again at 8pm.
He then went to the Owl Bar in K Rd, and after leaving was seen picking up Edwards in his "flash black sports
car" as one witness would describe the Audi.
Mr Perkins said that that was the last positive sighting of Mr McNee before he was found dead two days later.
Mr Perkins said that based on his earlier activities at the two K Rd establishments, "you may readily infer
from this evidence Mr McNee permitted or more likely invited the accused into his car for the purpose of having a sexual experience
with him...
"You may think based on his earlier activities, particularly at the Den, that that is the only logical reason
that the deceased would have let him into his car."
Edwards, he said, "fitted the bill" as Mr McNee's type of sexual partner.
Mr Perkins said that people were free to have consenting sexual partners in this way, but it was also elementary
to observe that he was running a certain risk picking up someone he did not know in his expensive looking car and taking him
back to his nice home.
Although Mr McNee was interested in sex, what Edwards wanted was Mr McNee's property.
Mr Perkins said that Mr McNee made a "fatal mistake" in picking up the wrong person.
He said witnesses would give evidence that after the killing Edwards said he had "bashed this man to death
using his bare hands."
"It's my suggestion to you that he had no qualms about the means justifying the ends here, that is that
a man should lose his life so he can enjoy his property."
Mr Perkins said in a five-hour video taped interview with police Edwards eventually admitted to the killing
telling officers he killed Mr McNee because "he thought I was gay" and said he had bashed Mr McNee 30 to 40 times around the
head knowing it could cause a blood clot on his brain and either knock him out or kill him.
He said he had lashed out after McNee tried to touch him telling police, "I had a fight with him, told him
I'm not gay."
"I punched him heaps of times in the face, blood started coming out of his face," Edwards said in the interview.
Defence lawyer for Edwards, Roy Wade told the jury to listen carefully to the pathologist report which he
said, suggested Mr McNee did not die from his facial injuries but from inhaling his own blood and vomit.
He said Edwards never intended to kill Mr McNee nor did he plan to rob him.
"The reason Phillip Layton Edwards killed William David McNee was because of what the deceased did to him
in the bedroom of his house which resulted in the accused attacking him."
Doreen Agassiz-Suddens:
New breed of Rogernome kills community cohesion
NZ Herald
28.07.2004
COMMENT
My street has died; I mourn for my street.
Many words have been written lately about the demise of the community, and of community spirit. Worst-case
scenarios have been put forward to account for this loss of cohesion and caring among people.
It is seen as the fault of solo parents, drug-taking (especially P), perverts, politically correct politicians,
immigrants and any manner of "not like us" people.
But there is another threat to a sense of community, and of neighbourhood, and that is the influx of upwardly
mobile people with outsized pretensions. They are moving into established inner-city suburbs and wanting everybody else to
conform to their view on what society should be.
We are now reaping the dubious rewards of the Rogernomics generation. These people were impressionable children
in the 1980s, a time when society revered those making money, living lives that got them into the "Out and About" photo sections
of glossy magazines, and who thought only about themselves and what they wanted.
The children of the Rogernomics era have now grown up with a "me, myself, and I" attitude, mainly because
they do not know any other way of looking at life. The new Rogernomes have been brought up on a steady diet of lifestyle magazines
that tell them what wine to drink, what to watch on television, how their home should look and, more importantly, how their
neighbours should behave.
And this last "must have" brings me to the point. Nearly 20 years ago I moved to my street in Kingsland.
It was a wonderful street filled with a diversity of people. My neighbours were old, young, actors, musicians, people who
worked at steady jobs, others on welfare, solo parents, gay, and with all manner of animals in tow. Pets included chooks,
dogs, cats and a goat.
We all loved our street, and the people in it. We looked out for each other, we went to parties in each
others' homes, and we even had a successful street party.
But all that has changed. Kingsland has become a much-wanted inner-city area, a place to be seen to be living.
My once-friendly street has become an alien place that I do not feel comfortable living in. The sense of a friendly, caring
neighbourhood has been lost.
The street has been taken over by the children from the 1980s, who have surrounded their homes with white
picket fences. Their superior attitudes imply that only their way of life is correct. In sum, their selfish individuality
has killed off the sense of community we once had in our neighbourhood.
They have changed the meaning of "neighbourhood watch". Once we all banded together to keep a watchful eye
on our street because we had a genuine concern for our neighbours' health and safety. We were ever alert to burglars, and
other evil-doers, appearing in our street.
On one occasion, we even had the police helicopter flying overhead because a suspicious young man in a "hoodie"
was seen walking up the street.
Now neighbourhood watch does not mean that you watch out for your neighbour; it means you watch your neighbour.
It means you police the neighbours to see how many pets they own, if the lawns have been mowed within the past week, if the
house has been painted a nice, approved colour, and what plants they have (or have not) planted in their gardens.
All this concern involves spending much time peering through bushes, doing things such as counting cats,
and getting upset when a poor confused moggie uses their designer-white crushed gravel for a toilet.
But how do you explain to a cat that the neighbours are not being generous and making them a big dirt box
filled with cat litter?
The new generation of neighbours has developed a close relationship with the city council's environmental
health officers, for they are forever making complaints about pooing cats, barking dogs, squawking parrots, and whatever else
they do not approve of and which does not fit their lifestyle.
But although they want other people to conform to their lifestyle and view of society, they are intolerant
of other people's way of living. The house in my street that receives the most disapproval is the one which has two gay couples
living in it.
They are hold-outs from the past when we had many more such households. The couples have to run the gauntlet
of censorious looks when they go up the road to catch the bus. No doubt the new neighbours are disappointed they cannot get
help from the environment health officers to also do something about the presence of gays. Then again, they might have done
so. It is not something I would put past them.
The 1980s generation in my street has taught me there are more insidious ways for a community to break-down
besides the blatant example of P, or the many varieties of abuse.
My street has died; I mourn for my street.
* Doreen Agassiz-Suddens is a PhD student at Auckland University
Murdered designer's sex life 'out of control'
28.07.2004
Television personality David McNee used to cruise red light districts looking for rent boys, a murder trial
in the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.
According to a friend, David Matulovich, Mr McNee preferred "darker skinned, burly, biggish Polynesian or
Maori male types".
Mr McNee was found battered to death in his St Mary's Bay home on July 22 last year. Friends alerted police
when they could not contact him.
Mr Matulovich went into Mr McNee's Hackett St home with police to pacify his two dogs, unfed for two days
since Mr McNee's death.
The Crown, represented by Aaron Perkins and Natalie Walker, claims that the interior designer, who has appeared
on several popular television programmes, was murdered by a homeless man he picked up for sex on K Rd.
Phillip Layton Edwards, 24, who is represented by Roy Wade and Adam Couchman, denies the charge.
In a statement read to the court Mr Matulovich, who is abroad, said that Mr McNee would constantly brag
about his sexual exploits.
"Some of the things he would say - it just got to the point where I would say, 'I don't want to know'. It
wasn't that it bothered me. It was just a bit tedious at times."
He said Mr McNee used to cruise around trying to pick up young Polynesian men in his new Audi TT convertible
coupe.
"The car was like a magnet to pick up guys. He used to impress people," Mr Matulovich said, adding that
Mr McNee's television celebrity was also a drawcard.
Mr McNee's favourite haunt for cruising was a park in Manukau opposite the council offices. He also frequented
K Rd.
Mr Matulovich said that Mr McNee's many sexual partners would come over at all hours of the day and night.
"Guys he would sleep with for a week or so would then say they were going back to their wives and then one
month, two months later ... would show up at David's again."
In the two or three months before his death Mr Matulovich said that it started to "become more entwined,
more out of control".
Mr McNee started having multiple sexual liaisons "threesomes, sometimes more, I think".
"Some of these people knew he was seeing someone else and having many other relationships.
"There could have been maybe 20 or 30 men ... these people, David would tell me were getting jealous," Mr
Matulovich said.
But Mr McNee also recognised the risks he was running.
"David was apprehensive about the situation. He was concerned about the lack of control."
Mr Matulovich said Mr McNee told him a couple of days before his death that he used amylnitrate, a sex stimulant.
He said he noticed a scab on Mr McNee's nose, a sign of overuse of amyl, also known as "rush".
The court also heard that on Sunday, July 20, last year, the night of the killing, Mr McNee visited two
K Rd establishments. At the Den where he was a regular, he went to the back, to the "gay cruise area", with a Maori man in
his early 30s.
Part-time shop assistant Rawiri Keelan said the gay cruise area was where "gay guys go to meet each other
and, if they choose, to go to a private room and have sex".
Sometimes Mr McNee brought a male partner, but mostly he met men in the cruise area.
Later that night, Mr McNee went to the Owl Bar, which is patronised by gays, lesbians, transsexuals, transgenders
and on Sunday nights, by street kids. He would often leave with young Maori or Polynesian men.
The court heard that friends alerted the police when Mr McNee had failed to keep appointments and contact
them. He was found, severely beaten, wrapped in bedclothes on his bedroom floor.
The trial before Justice Marion Frater continues today.
Jury told of McNee death song
29.07.2004
The man accused of murdering television personality David McNee made up a rap song about the killing, a
jury in the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.
Phillip Layton Edwards, 24, is accused of murdering the 55-year-old interior designer on July 20 last year
after Mr McNee picked him up in his Audi sports car while cruising for rent boys on K Rd.
Yesterday a friend of Edwards, who has name suppression, told the jury that Edwards admitted killing Mr
McNee.
"He said he has got the fella's car and he killed him. He said he bashed him, punched him, killed him."
The witness said Edwards loaded up Mr McNee's car with alcohol, clothes and shoes from his St Mary's Bay
home.
He and another man helped Edwards unload the property in a side street near where they slept rough under
a bridge in Lower Hobson Street.
The witness told prosecutor Aaron Perkins that in the following days Edwards made up a song about the killing.
He said Edwards told him a rhyme while they were "rapping around Albert Park". The rhyme was: "Combinations
to strangulations ending in suffocation."
The witness said that he saw Mr McNee in the Owl Bar in K Rd the night he was killed.
Later, as Mr McNee cruised K Rd, Edwards got into his car.
Cross-examined by Adam Couchman, appearing for Edwards with Roy Wade, the witness said that Edwards had
a girlfriend: "He is not gay." Earlier the jury heard from people who saw Edwards driving the Audi. They said he could not
handle it and they knew it did not belong to him.
Mr McNee's body was found wrapped in bedclothes on his bedroom floor when friends became concerned at not
hearing from him.
The trial continues.
Strange Bedfellows
31.07.2004 By RETER CALDER
(Herald rating: * )
Addressing the preview audience of this film on Monday, Caton (The Castle's unforgettable Darryl "Tell him
he's dreaming" Kerrigan) told us to tell our mates if we liked it and "if you don't, keep it to your bloody self". Sorry,
Michael, but it's me job, mate. So here goes: I hated it.
As an utterly charmless comedy about two true-blue Aussie blokes who pretend to be gay to get a tax break,
it's bad enough. But there's something almost obscenely dishonest and ingratiating about it.
In short, it wants it both ways. It purports to be a film about how we should love and tolerate each other
and how the world - and Australia in particular - would be a better place if all the homophobes got in touch with their feminine
side. But first it must wring every last laugh from the tired stereotypes - a sub-plot in which our heroes are taught to mince
and strut is simply the most offensive of many - and every odious appellation: poofter, pansy (I stopped counting at nine).
Caton plays Ralph, a mechanic in Yackandandah in northern Victoria, who agrees to help out his lifelong
mate, Vince (Hogan), whose divorce settlement has left him with the local cinema and five years of back taxes.
They decide to take advantage of a law change allowing gay couples to income-split, but when an inspector
(Postlethwaite, who looks like he phoned his performance in) comes to check, they have to look like, you know, poofters, while
not letting the gossipy townsfolk twig.
Though it must be said that a few in the preview audience were doubled over with mirth, I was not among
them.
The film certainly proves what we had all long suspected - that Paul Hogan can't act to save himself. As
a result, the genuinely talented Caton looks better than he really is.
Otherwise, it's a slightly depressing confirmation that poking fun at poofters is easy. If you can give
the impression you actually like them, it's a bonus.
CAST: Michael Caton, Paul Hogan, Pete Postlethwaite, Roy Billing
DIRECTOR: Dean Murphy
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes
RATING: M
TV star McNee 'choked on vomit'
30.07.2004
Television personality David McNee choked to death on his own blood and vomit, a pathologist told a jury
in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
Professor Rex Ferris was giving evidence in the trial of a homeless man, Phillip Layton Edwards, 24, who
is accused of murder.
The jury has heard that the 55-year-old interior designer picked Edwards up in Karangahape Rd last July.
Mr McNee was found dead two days later in his St Marys Bay home.
His naked body was wrapped in bedclothes, and his head and face were severely beaten.
Professor Ferris said at least 10 blows, and perhaps as many as 40, rendered Mr McNee unconscious and also
caused him to bleed from the nose and mouth.
Lying unconscious and face upwards, Mr McNee choked to death.
Cross-examined by defence counsel Roy Wade, Professor Ferris said Mr McNee might have had a better chance
of survival if he had fallen differently.
He said Mr McNee was probably naked and upright when the beating started, but lost consciousness and fell
to the floor, where the beating continued.
Professor Ferris declined to comment on a suggestion by Mr Wade that it was a "frenzied" attack.
Earlier in the trial, Mr Wade said Edwards attacked Mr McNee because of what he did to him in the bedroom.
Timaru Herald
City 'unsafe' for gays
31 July 2004
By JANINE BURGESS
Timaru must be such an unsafe place for gay and bisexual people to live honestly and with pride that they
have to use a public toilet for sexual encounters, the New Zealand Aids Foundation says.
Rachael Le Mesurier, executive director of the foundation, was commenting on a police operation at the Port
Loop Road toilets which has seen five men arrested for offensive behaviour.
In a letter to the editor published today, she said the foundation was saddened to see the police resources
used for what was "a victimless crime" had resulted in the arrests of men engaged in consensual sexual activity. Police conducted
the operation in response to complaints from members of the public and council workers.
When asked whether the foundation saw a public toilet as an acceptable venue for these activities, she said
in some situations it was inevitable where people had nowhere else to go.
She also suggested publication of the men's names and the details of the police operation would likely make
it more unsafe for Timaru's gay community to socialise in more acceptable environments.
Being gay comfortably and outwardly in a town such as Timaru would be unusual she commented, but could not
point to any evidence which supported this claim.
She suggested readers consider their local pub or social meeting place is it a place where two gay
men or women who are attracted to each other would feel okay to meet socially? If not then where else?
In the letter, Ms Le Mesurier said the only danger experienced from the whole event had been the distress
and trauma imposed on the men, their families and their community. It was almost unbelievable to read comments that referred
to gay men as `creepy' inferring they were a danger to the community, and associate them with paedophilia, she said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe officer in charge of the operation, Senior constable Kevin McErlain, had commented
earlier this week on the safety of the toilet area, admitting there was a risk. He had also noted a known paedophile had been
seen in the area.
He had also commented that what he had personally been involved in during the operation was "by far the
creepiest situation to date".
While Ms Le Mesurier described the crime as "victimless" when questioned as to whether she believed the
police officer who witnessed an offender masturbating in front of him in the toilet was a victim, or the potential for general
members of the public using the toilets to be confronted, she replied most crimes had an obvious victim such as the victim
of an assault. The concerns of the foundation and comments made by the officer had been raised with the Timaru police, she
said.
Timaru Herald
'Homophobic' Timaru claim
31 July 2004
By JANINE BURGESS
Conflicting views were expressed yesterday by members of the Timaru gay community both as to how difficult
it was to live in the region and on why the Port Loop toilets were being used as a meeting place.
A gay man who has lived in the community for some years described the toilet scene as one very separate
from the gay scene. Even when groups were operating which enabled gay people in the community to meet on a regular basis,
the toilet scene was still preferred by a sector of the community who preferred that meeting place.
"It seems to be a closet scene. We have tried to reach them but you just can't reach these people."
He stressed the liaisons occurring at the Port Loop toilets were nothing new and said the police operation
would not stop the men meeting, saying they would find somewhere else to go.
"It only drives them deeper into the closet. It's in people's minds that they can't tell anyone about it."
He said the scene had never been a part of his or his partner's lifestyle nor that of their many gay friends
in the community.
"It's a shame, if they only realised the support was there."
As far as claims made by the New Zealand Aids Foundation were concerned, he did not believe Timaru was a
particularly unsafe place for people who were gay or bisexual. He did question how the foundation would describe the use of
a public toilet as a meeting place for sexual activity as a venue for a 'victimless' crime.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, a gay woman living in the community spoken to yesterday painted a different
picture, suggesting Timaru's homophobic community would have driven these men to using the toilets as a meeting place.
"The homophobia here is just unreal."
She spoke of instances where she had been confronted about her sexuality in public and nearly beaten up.
And, of an instance in a supermarket where a woman had turned and walked the other way when she saw her walking down the same
aisle.
She had lived in other areas throughout New Zealand of a similar size to Timaru and said she had never struck
such difficulties.
She was seriously considering leaving the district.
"You just don't need it. People here are so old school."
She said she believed gay men were using the toilets as a meeting place because they had nowhere else safe
to meet. She said it was also more difficult for young people to come to terms with their sexuality in a community such as
Timaru.
"It's so close-minded. It's just sick."
She did believe it would be better if the men involved in these activities chose a more appropriate venue:
"They should have a club or something."
Shameful Exploitation of Children by Maxim
Monday, 26 July 2004, 11:15 am
Press Release: Campaign for Civil Unions
Shameful Exploitation of Children by Maxim
“Exploiting children’s innocence is not part of a decent campaign,” is the response of
Cameron Law, a spokesperson for civilunions.org.nz commenting on a submission prepared by the Maxim Institute in their efforts
to oppose the Civil Union and Relationships (Statutory References) Bills.
Maxim are encouraging their supporters to get children to sign a submission, which includes the following
lines:
‘We feel it is important for the government to say it is best for children when parents are married.’
‘We would hate even more the idea of having a second mum in the house, pushing dad out of the way.’
‘Why do you want to take away any reason to get married?’
“Is it ethical conduct to ask children to sign submissions which put words in their mouths? We don’t
think it’s at all ethical. It smacks of exploitation” says Cameron Law.
“This is a transparent attempt to use young people in the service of ideas which they may not share,
or have thought about. The idea that children feel that marriage is under siege by Civil Unions is not logical - there is
no evidence to support it.
“Almost every study done on the topic (same-sex parenting vs different-sex) by respected researchers
using sound methodologies has found no statistically significant differences regarding child development in same-sex households.
Studies indicate that two adults in the household produce on average better parenting outcomes than one and that same-sex
parents produce outcomes very similar to heterosexual parents.
“What evidence does show is that children need loving, stable families to grow up. Civil Unions give
their parents another option in protecting their relationships. They respect the choices adults make and do not dictate moral
positions to them.
“As such, they are in tune with New Zealand values; they are supported by the community; and they
are in line with mainstream international practice.
“Love doesn’t discriminate why should the law?” Cameron Law said.
Murder accused 'sold sex to survive'
04.08.2004
An aunt of murder accused Phillip Layton Edwards says he prostituted himself to men to survive while living
on the street.
Edwards is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of murdering interior designer David McNee at his
home in St Mary's Bay on July 20 last year.
Shona Samuels said yesterday that Edwards, her nephew, preferred women but would "go with a man to get money
or to help him to survive". Ms Samuels said she had never asked Edwards what he did with the men for money.
The jury has heard that Mr McNee used to cruise red-light districts looking for rent boys.
Ms Samuels said she visited Edwards in prison last year to ask him about the killing. He told her Mr McNee
picked him up in town and was giving him a lift.
"When he got in the car David McNee told him that he smelled so offered to take Phillip home for a shower.
"All he said to me was they [Edwards and Mr McNee] were drinking."
Ms Samuels said she wanted to know if Edwards knew Mr McNee was dead when he left the house. "He said yes
and he'd wrapped [Mr McNee] in a blanket because he was looking at him."
Edwards believed he had been caught on a security camera leaving the Hackett St address.
In the final part of a five-hour police interview played to the jury yesterday, Edwards admitted to the killing.
"He thought I was gay so I killed him," he said. "I had a fight with him. Told him I'm not gay. I beat him
up with my hands ... blood started coming out of his face and then I killed him with my hands."
The jury also heard that Edwards had been involved in a relationship with a transsexual named Chrissy for
about eight months in 2001.
n evidence read to the court, the former partner said they lived together in Manukau Heights and Tokoroa.
NZ Herald
David Sedaris: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
04.08.2004 Reviewed by ELEANOR BLACK
It's usually a bad sign when a book's back cover tells you a writer is at the "peak of his power" and I can't
believe the publishers could not come up with something more original for American humorist David Sedaris, whose special talent
for skewering the absurd in everyday life has turned him into a cult figure.
In this elegantly crafted collection of, frankly, twisted personal essays he recalls his North Carolina childhood,
wasted 20s, and assorted weirdos he met along the way. Like all fine satirists, Sedaris dances a keen line between the comic
and tragic. You may giggle at his reaction to the tough nine-year-old girl living next door in his apartment block (at 26
he is forced to move because she bullies him) but you also ache for a child whose mother is too busy working as a prostitute
to care for her.
Sedaris' mother emerges as the source of some of his funniest moments. A woman who prefers napping on the
couch to setting aside eight hours of night-time for sleep, she seems a breezy, oddly detached parent but she's tough as shoe
leather. Her reaction when the hellcat nine-year-old calls her a bitch? "Sister, you don't know the half of it."
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is darker than Sedaris' best-known book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, in
which he moves to Paris and takes French lessons. It is every bit as funny, but the melancholic vein runs deeper this time.
The most touching chapter concerns the author's expulsion from home after dropping out of university for the second time,
when his conservative father learns he is gay.
It is Sedaris' outsider's sensibility — growing up gay and Greek in Whitebread, USA — which gives
his writing its unique power. He fears his newfound success (he packs auditoriums in the United States) will derail his comic
sensibility. With a screwy worldview like his, there's no chance.
NZ Herald
The untrue man show
05.08.2004 By REBECCA BARRY
Imagine you're Sam Chambers. You're 27, a vineyard worker living on your grandfather's farm in Hawkes Bay,
and you're about to take part in a TV show called Living the Dream.
For the next two weeks you'll be sharing a luxurious waterfront apartment with nine other contestants, competing
for $50,000 while you live out your bizarre existence under the constant eye of the cameras.
Your mates back home reckon it will be a hoot. And, hey, you know what to expect - you've seen Big Brother,
Treasure Island and Survivor.
But what you haven't been told about this "reality" show is that you're the butt of the joke. Your fellow
"contestants" are actors, the scenarios are scripted and the whole thing is a hoax. A hilarious version of Candid Camera meets
The Truman Show? Or a cruel and humiliating deception?
Host and actor Mark Ferguson, (who also fronted the first series of Big Brother and reality show The Mole),
says the ethical implications were seriously discussed. There were concerns Chambers might form inappropriate bonds or become
too close to some of his new flatmates.
"We definitely did worry," he says. "Maybe people are going to think this is unfair. But what we all felt
is that as soon as somebody agrees to be on a reality TV show they agree to have cameras in their face for 24 hours a day
for as long as they're on that show ... He didn't sleep with one transexual on this show, I can guarantee that."
Ferguson explains the comedy and drama stems not only from how Chambers reacts to what's going on around him
but how the actors react to him. The joke is not just on Chambers but on reality TV itself.
Casting, therefore, was paramount. For secrecy reasons, the actors could not be told what they were auditioning
for until they had been signed up, so there was an immediate risk they would refuse to participate once they found out. Pillaging
from the Shortland Street cast would not work either.
So unfamiliar actors had to be found - those with the skill and stamina to stay in character 24 hours a day
for two excruciating weeks.
They found them in Sarah Thomson as the rich bitch Tiffany, Stephen Hall as the former SAS soldier Mule, Jason
Fitch as Mick the prick, Victoria Blackman as Mary the virgin, Awanui Simich-Pene as Rima the schemer, Jeremy Birchall as
Billy the gay guy, Charlie McDermott as best mate Ben, and Kirsty Cooke as new-age counsellor Betty.
Ferguson recalls asking Blackman, a "wonderful" talent, how long she had been an actor.
Her reply: "Since Tuesday."
The other risks were just as complicated - competitions had to be rigged, storylines rejigged. And all of
it had to happen without Chambers twigging.
"We'd be sitting there going, 'Oh my god, they've already started that particular story', and suddenly fingers
would be flying over keyboards.
"Then, of course, there were relationships being formed that we had no control over. We would think that Sam
would form an alliance with one person but of course he would form one with somebody else, which would change again everything.
"There was one instance where it was very important that somebody else won a particular challenge and the
way it turned out was that Sam won, which potentially could have really screwed up the whole game.
"He is a very smart guy. We learned that in the opening episode, where he started asking questions about hoof-prints
on the red carpet which was relating to a certain horse that was used in rehearsals and nobody else saw them except him.
Suddenly it was like, 'Oh my god, he is unbelievably observant and smart and we are in deep shit. He's going
to be on to us in the first episode'."
The reason he didn't, says Ferguson, is because the reality genre is now so entrenched in our minds that we
accept its outrageous nature. Take the archetypal characters with rhyming names, for instance.
In an ordinary situation, the extreme personalities would have been ludicrous - on TV it's what we expect.
"The interesting thing is how quickly genuine contestants in reality shows work out what's required of them
and that's what they play," he says.
"Sam worked out really quickly he was the nice guy, the under-the-radar guy. Normally that guy doesn't get
voted off. But he must have wondered why, after the first couple of episodes, all the storylines started to aim at him."
And storylines they are. At one point, Ferguson goes from playing the smarmy host to becoming a contestant,
"being associated with one or two of them in a not particularly honourable way.
"When you start doing that, you start thinking, 'How is he ever going to buy this?' It gets deeper and deeper
and deeper until it's absolute chaos and quite hysterical.
"We go further and further and further into an outrageous reality and at every stage we take a huge deep breath
and go, 'Oh my god, we're about to do this. This is insane'.
It's the most ulcer-inducing show I've ever been involved in."
The star: Mark Ferguson
The show: Living the Dream
The time: Tuesday 8.30pm
The place: TV2
NZ Herald
Accused said prayer after killing McNee
05.08.2004
Murder accused Phillip Layton Edwards told a jury yesterday that he prayed for forgiveness after killing television
personality David McNee.
The homeless 24-year-old is accused of murdering the high-profile interior designer, who picked him up for
sex on Karangahape Rd in July last year.
In a videotaped interview played to the jury in the High Court at Auckland, Edwards said he had not gone with
Mr McNee, 55, for sex.
When Mr McNee made sexual advances he lashed out, Edwards told police.
But in court yesterday he said he went with Mr McNee for the limited sexual purpose of masturbating in front
of him, or "puppetry of the penis", as he called it throughout the day. He was to be paid $120 for the performance.
Edwards said that despite telling Mr McNee he was not gay and not into homosexual activity, Mr McNee sexually
violated him with his fingers.
Mr McNee had changed from being a kind and friendly person to someone who was demanding and who snorted like
a pig after sniffing the sex stimulant amyl nitrate, known as Rush.
Edwards told the jury that Mr McNee was smirking and smiling.
"I said 'Do you think I am a female' and hit him," Edwards told the court.
After hitting Mr McNee a second time, things became a "blur" and when he came to, Mr McNee was lying motionless.
After wrapping Mr McNee's naked body in clothes, Edwards said a prayer seeking forgiveness.
"It wasn't in my heart to kill Mr McNee and could God forgive me," he said.
Defence counsel Adam Couchman, in his opening address, said prostitution was a means of survival for some
street kids.
He said the theft of alcohol, clothes and Mr McNee's Audi sportscar was an afterthought, rather than the premeditated
robbery alleged by the Crown.
Cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins, Edwards said he did not tell police the full story because
he did not want people to think he was homosexual.
Mr Perkins said that it was convenient for Edwards to blank out after two punches, because it meant he did
not have to tell the jury of the 30 to 40 blows to Mr McNee's head and face.
He pointed out that it was inconsistent for Edwards to steal Mr McNee's alcohol, clothes and car straight
after praying for the man he had just killed.
Mr Perkins said Edwards did not express any remorse to people he told of the killing and they might have been
left with the impression that he deliberately killed Mr McNee.
Edwards told the jury he said sorry only to God.
He said he did not want to have to explain the sexual side of what he did to earn money on the streets.
At the start of the trial, co-defence lawyer Roy Wade said Edwards was guilty of manslaughter, not murder.
The trial before Justice Marion Frater continues today.
NZ Herald
All a blur' for McNee accused
06.08.2004
Murder accused Phillip Layton Edwards yesterday denied intending to dispose of the body of television personality
David McNee.
Mr McNee's body was found wrapped in bedclothes in the bedroom of his St Marys Bay home on July 22 last year,
two days after he picked up Edwards, a 24-year-old homeless man, on Karangahape Rd for sex.
Defence lawyers, Roy Wade and Adam Couchman, say Edwards is guilty of manslaughter, not murder.
Continuing his cross-examination yesterday, Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins suggested that the reason Edwards
wrapped up Mr McNee was to get rid of the body.
Edwards denied the allegation, saying that if it had been his intention to dispose of the body he would have
"molitov-ed" Mr McNee's house.
Edwards said he wrapped up the body because he did not want to look at it while searching for the key to Mr
McNee's car so that he could retrieve his bag.
Mr Perkins queried why he did not just put a duvet over him.
He asked Edwards whether the body was too heavy and a bit awkward or did he leave it because there was no
room left in Mr McNee's sports car after he filled it with stolen property?
Or was he going to come back later but got cold feet?
Edwards denied the allegations and said the arrangement with Mr McNee was that he would put on an "erotic
show" and masturbate in front of him.
He said he told Mr McNee he was not gay and would not engage in any homosexual activity, but Mr McNee took
him by surprise and violated him with his fingers.
He said he punched the 55-year-old twice and then everything became a blur.
When he snapped out of it, Mr McNee was lying motionless on the floor.
Edwards told police he hit Mr McNee 30 to 40 times, but yesterday he said that was an estimate.
He did not know; it could have been 100 times.
The jury heard that Edwards made up a rapping rhyme about the killing, combining the words strangulation and
suffocation.
Mr Perkins: Are you sure that you didn't finish Mr McNee off by suffocation?
Edwards: I said my mind went a blank.
A witness told the jury about gay cruising near a park in Manukau where young street kids either "bash a gay
guy or prostitute themselves" to get money.
"I put it to you, Mr Edwards, that the beating of Mr McNee was all about bashing a gay man to steal from him."
Was it, Mr Perkins asked, a "bash for cash" where initially at least, Edwards did not intend to kill Mr McNee,
just beat him and steal from him?
Edwards denied the claim; he said he hit Mr McNee only when he digitally violated him.
Mr Perkins questioned whether Mr McNee would risk his health and safety by doing something like that with
a fit, strong young man.
Edwards said Mr McNee had sniffed the sex stimulant amyl nitrate, was making animal noises and "his sex drive
was hyperactive".
Edwards said that at one stage he wanted to plead guilty to murder, rather than have details of the sexual
activity come out in the open.
He said that he was naked when the incident took place and he used his clothes to wipe blood off his arms.
Mr Perkins suggested that he had his clothes on, or some of them at least, and he got rid of them because
they got covered in blood during the beating.
But Edwards said he had his clothes off and the blood was applied later.
The trial continues today.
NZ Herald
Murder victim 'like waiting volcano' claims defence
07.08.2004
Television personality David McNee was a volcano waiting to explode, a defence lawyer told a jury in the High
Court at Auckland yesterday.
Roy Wade represents Phillip Layton Edwards, a 24-year-old-homeless man who is accused of murdering the gay,
55-year-old interior designer after he picked up the rent boy for sex in Karangahape Rd in July last year.
The Crown says Edwards was out to rob Mr McNee.
Mr Wade told the jury that Edwards agreed to perform an "erotic" show for money on a "look but don't touch"
basis. But when Mr McNee broke the deal and sexually violated his client with his finger, Edwards launched a frenzied attack
on him.
Mr Wade said Mr McNee was involved in intensive sexual activity on the Sunday he was killed, including hours
on adult chat lines, and was "like a volcano waiting to erupt".
Fired up on the sex stimulant amyl nitrate and possibly Viagra, Mr McNee "would not take no for an answer"
despite being told that Edwards would not allow any homosexual activity.
The rules were "flagrantly" broken, said Mr Wade, and a humiliated Edwards lost control and started beating
Mr McNee.
Earlier, in his closing address, Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins said the jury only had Edwards' word that
he was sexually assaulted.
He highlighted the 30 to 40 punches Edwards told police he delivered to Mr McNee's head and face, though in
court Edwards claimed he could remember only two blows.
Mr Perkins said Edwards admitted to police that he knew that many blows could kill.
The prosecutor said it "screamed" murderous intent. Edwards had robbery in mind and was "just waiting for
his moment".
After stealing clothes and alcohol, Edwards drove around for days in Mr McNee's Audi sports car, Mr Perkins
said He gave associates the impression that it was a deliberate killing.
NZ Herald
Haka launches protest against 'gay marriage'
07.08.2004
By PAUL SMITH
A protest against the civil union bill was launched by up to a thousand demonstrators today.
The campaign against 'gay marriage', led by followers of the Destiny Church, began with a haka involving hundreds
of men in Auckland's Aotea Square.
It culminates in a demonstration outside Parliament in Wellington on 23 August.
A march down Queen Street was due to follow the haka and speeches today.
Protestors, most wearing T-shirts depicting the 'Enough is enough' slogan of the campaign, clapped and cheered
the haka.
Speakers were also applauded loudly as they set out the aims of the campaign, one saying: 'Marriage is between
one man and one woman."
Church leader Brian Tamaki adds on its website: "…marriage centred families are the universally tried
and proven stable basis for raising children.
"Of course not all marriages are perfect, but one of the greatest rights of any child is to be raised and
nurtured by their biological dad and mum."
The Civil Union Bill went through its first reading in Parliament on a 66-50 conscience vote in June after
a passionate, polarising debate which split most of parties.
A civil union will give legal recognition to a partnership and is open to same-sex and heterosexual couples.
The Marriage Act is not changed by it, and remains only for men and women.
Meanwhile, nearly all gay and lesbian New Zealanders want some kind of government recognition of same-sex
relationships, a new survey has found.
The survey also found 23 per cent of gay and lesbian people wanted to eliminate marriage for everybody.
Massey University's survey of 2276 gay and lesbian people across New Zealand, found 94 per cent of respondents
wanted government recognition of same-sex relationships.
