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Sunday Night, fairground strippers and fair play

Elton says his comments about Madonna were off-the-record. Should he have expected more from a trusted friend?

Since Elton John’s candid comments about Madonna being a “fairground stripper” have made world headlines, Elton’s camp have said the comments were “off the record.”

Looking at the footage it’s clear the remarks were caught by cameras as relaxed exchange between two old pals, and not as part of the Sunday Night interview.

“We did the interview and, really, the bit about Madonna was more him and I talking while we were doing cutaways,” Meldrum tells the Sunday Herald Sun.

“But unfortunately some of that was on sound and no one, when it came back to Australia, ever thought it was not part of the interview, so they just went with it. It is just one of those things, you know.”

Elton John has surely been around long enough to know the risk of cameras, microphones and YouTube -should he have been more guarded about his private thoughts? Yes.

But he also has a level of trust with Meldrum. It’s reasonable to assume that he would expect his friend to protect him from producers eager for a headline. Molly’s attention to detail may no longer be what it was, and it sounds like he did not view the final edit.

And who was the story producer who did?

Plenty of people have said things in “off-camera moments” that never make it to air, because you trust the people you’re working with.

Sunday Night, which also saw the Beyonce baby bump make world headlines, knows the value of a celebrity moment. They would have deemed the comments made when an experienced subject had agreed to be recorded.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to a basic rule of theatre: trust….

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