Front Row is a new weekly column on nine.com.au bringing you behind the scenes of some of the Aussie entertainment industry’s biggest parties, premieres, and more. Got a tip? Email us at frontrow@nine.com.au.
This week, Front Row chatted to two different types of Aussie heroes: wildlife and sporting. We got all the goss about life at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, and spill some of our own, about what the nation’s favourite wildlife warrior is truly like.
Robert Irwin is a national treasure but what’s it really like to talk to him? Instagram/@robertirwinphotography
Our 15 minutes with Robert Irwin
They say you should never meet your idols, but a 15-minute phone call with Aussie TV royalty Robert Irwin proved there’s really only one thing to be disappointed about.
As an entertainment reporter, there are certain interviews you hold your breath for. For this Front Rower, a chat with the undisputed nicest guy in showbiz was easily high up on the list.
Naturally, the stakes were high. What if he fell short? What if Australia’s favourite golden boy wasn’t actually as sweet or charming as we’ve all been hoping? That was a genuine fear heading into a chat with the 22-year-old conservationist about his upcoming Logies hosting gig.
His publicists were already running a tight ship. Strictly 15 minutes with the Aussie royal, and keep your eyes peeled for the dreaded two-minute warning that time was nearly up. Noted!
With the phone ringing and anticipation building, Robert answered the phone: “Hello! How are you!?” Hearing that giddy greeting alone and I could already tell he had an ear-to-ear grin on the other side of the line.
Off the charts with his signature positive energy, Robert was every bit as delightfully wholesome, hyper-focused, and genuinely lovely as advertised.
He was practically bouncing through the receiver, speaking with the kind of infectious enthusiasm that makes you want to immediately go out, hug a tree, and wrestle a crocodile.
Which brings me to my biggest and possibly only grievance of the entire interview: He didn’t say “Crikey” once.
Not even a cheeky little “Crikey, mate!” when I brought up his historic achievement as the Logies youngest ever host. Nothing. Just pure, articulate, top-tier Aussie charm. Honestly, how dare he?
No smoke and mirrors here. Robert Irwin is every bit as charming in real life. Photo by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images
I’ll forgive him, considering he was likely dialling in from a mud pit after asking his family to cover his crocodile-tagging duties so he could host the Logies.
He did, however, tell me to “full send it” at one stage – maybe that’s a new catchphrase he’ll be flinging on us in future, who knows.
I decided to grill him on what his ultimate, money-no-object TV project would be once the red-carpet glitz wraps up. And his answer did not disappoint.
Forget Hollywood blockbusters or glam US chat shows. Rob’s absolute dream TV project? A revival of Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures alongside comedy legend Glenn Robbins.
“I play Robert Irwin, and I’m doing an actual serious… like, I’m the straight, serious guy in it, and Russell Coight is being Russell Coight!” he pitched, laughing.
“I’m just like, ‘Who the heck is this guy?’ Wouldn’t that be the funniest show ever? I don’t know who I have to talk to to make that happen!”
Can someone make this happen!? Fairfax Photographic
Honestly? Somebody call the TV executives immediately because a show with Robert Irwin playing the straight man to Russell Coight’s chaotic bushcraft is the Australian television crossover event the nation desperately needs.
So, did Robert Irwin live up to the hype? Absolutely. My fear of him being a closet diva was completely unfounded – though I’m still holding out for that “Crikey” next time.
What it’s really like to be an athlete at the Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games are underway, but we have some sad news to share: anyone hoping for salacious stories of the saucy going ons in the athletes village will be sorely disappointed.
This year, there are no condoms flying as the world’s hottest athletes congregate in one place – because instead, everyone’s been put up in much more sensible hotel rooms.
Weightlifter, three-time Commonwealth Games athlete and former MAFS groom Ridge Barredo told us that what this set-up lacks in atmosphere, it makes up for in proper, non-cardboard beds.
“We had a cardboard bed in Gold Coast and that was something getting used to,” he said. “A real bed is definitely preferable!”
Ridge at the 2022 Games in Birmingham. Getty
One ‘rule’ he wasn’t able to clarify was whether partners, or uh, temporary partners, were welcome in an athlete’s space.
“No one’s really said no girls in boys’ rooms or no boys in girls’ rooms, but I mean… we’re all adults, we can all make the decisions,” he said.
“But I guess if you make a silly one, you have to live with the consequences, so you’ve got to be clever about what you’re doing. Common sense, but you know common sense isn’t exactly common these days!”
The athlete was coy about the type of debauchery we all love to read about, but as a three-time Commonwealth Games star, he did admit things tend to get a little … looser as the Games go on.
“Towards the start, especially when everyone gets there, everyone’s focused on business and focused on what they need to do, but it can get like that – especially after you’re done competing. Everyone gets a bit more loose and lets off a bit of steam, and you definitely can see it, but it’s not really until towards the end,” he said.
“A lot of athletes do abstain for performance. So that’s what I mean by the steam off afterwards – you’re holding on for weeks on end, and then you compete, and then it’s time to have some fun.”
As for a few other, less juicy details, he told us the food in their particular hotel was great.
As it needs to be – these people are peak specimens, after all.
“It’s definitely good food because they’d get a lot of complaints, especially because there’s a lot of weight cutting at the moment, there’s a lot of people dieting and having to make certain conditions. If it wasn’t good, people would be quite vocal,” he said.
Pretty much anything else you could possibly want as an athlete is available too – from ice baths to physios to massage therapists.
Soooo, sports (and gossip) fans, don’t hold your breath for super sexy tales of dalliances with foreign sports stars, but hey, at least our Commonwealth Games team will return with a fascinating ice bath yarn or two.
