My 10-year mission to find out what happened on the Outrageous Fortune set

This is the closest I've come to getting to the bottom of this rumour...

• Sometimes journalists spend years sitting on a story. They want to publish it, but can’t. Maybe it’s because someone won’t talk, or they can’t quite get the information they need on record. Here’s my version of exactly that, a rumour I heard over and over again, but could never confirm. I still haven’t, but I’m closer than ever. Maybe this will help loosen some lips. Let’s go…

If there’s one thing journalists love more than coffee, or free pies, or open bars, or a new office chair, or a good headline pun, or home time, then it’s gossip. No kinky rumour is too small to discount, no improper suggestion too minor to ignore.

When it comes to gossip, our motto is: Tell me more, and tell me everything - now.

Sometimes, that attitude can lead to good stories. Other times, it’s nothing more than a yarn you end up swapping with others over a beer.

I’ve lost count of all of the rumours I’ve heard over the years and couldn’t report on. Sometimes we’d try. There’s this one about Lorde and her record executive “boyfriend” which The Daily Mail scooped us on and continues to rinse.

Sometimes you’d just hit a brick wall. There’s the curious case of The Naked & Famous, the Auckland rock act who lost three band mates and became a duo last year, then changed their sound completely for a new album called Recover. Clearly something went down. I asked, but none of those ex band members would talk to me. I still want to know what happened. I probably never will. Sometimes you just have to live with that.

But a rumour I kept hearing over and over again came from the set of Outrageous Fortune. One thing I’ve learnt covering entertainment in New Zealand is that Kiwis freaking love Outrageous Fortune. It’s our biggest and best drama show. People send the DVDs to friends suffering homesickness overseas. The cast still get recognised for their roles on it. Six seasons were made of Outrageous Fortune and another six of the spinoff prequel Westside. There will almost undoubtedly be more.

Ever since Outrageous wrapped in 2010, I’ve been hearing about this thing that happened around the show’s fourth season, and I don’t know what it is. But I’m a little closer to finding out.

That thing involves Antony Starr, the award-winning Kiwi actor now blowing up in The Boys, the anti-superhero caper that’s become one of America’s biggest shows. Starr played twins Van and Jethro in Outrageous Fortune, pulling dual duties - double the work of other actors. I’m guessing here, but sometime around the show’s fourth season, it may have gotten too much: Jethro all but disappeared for a season. I want to know why.

So, when Outrageous Fortune celebrated the tenth anniversary of its finale late last year, a date that coincided with the end of spinoff show Westside, I thought I had my chance.

I pitched a story in which I’d talk to as many Outrageous Fortune stars as possible about their memories making the show, then sneak in a few questions at the end of each interview about what really went down.

Here is that story. It was a blast to work on, and while I didn’t get my questions fully answered, I did have my suspicions confirmed. Yes, something definitely happened on the set of Outrageous Fortune. And I’m a little closer to finding out what.

My first piece of info came from a South Pacific Pictures publicist. I’d be able to talk to everyone I wanted to from Outrageous Fortune, except for Starr. She said something along the lines of: “He’s acknowledged the role the show played early on in his career, but he’s said all he wants to say about it.”

That got me intrigued. So I went to James Griffin, Outrageous Fortune’s OG, the show’s co-creator who wrote much of it, along with Westside, from his Grey Lynn bungalow.

When we sat down in a Grey Lynn cafe, he told me this about the end of Outrageous Fortune:

“It became a beast … Where it was fun, it became work. Which is a weird thing because it was successful, it was rating, it was doing all the things. Instead of getting easier, it got harder. I’m not going to go into details … I just don’t want to. This is not Outrageous Babylon. It just got harder. It was good that we … kind of got to the point where we had to end it for a whole bunch of reasons, but I was actually really glad we ended it. I think the network would have loved us to go forever, but there were other … much bigger fish at play … you want to go out when it’s fresh, when it’s not a chore. We’ve all seen those shows that have dragged on for a season or two too long.”

“I’m not going to go into details” is the key line that stands out to me. As in, stop asking questions. I don’t want to talk about it. But, later on in the interview, I asked Griffin if he liked The Boys, Starr’s Amazon Prime Video hit in which he plays an abusive, milk-loving, all-American superhero lunkhead villain called The Homelander who thinks nothing of crashing a plane full of passengers just to save face.

It was then that Griffin said something interesting, words that got just a little closer to addressing those Outrageous Fortune rumours I was trying to confirm.

“I love The Boys. Ant is playing, essentially, Antony. I saw a thing, one of those Comic Con panel things, where the cast were asked which (actor) was most like their character, and they all pointed at Antony. He’s knocking it out of the park. He must be having a ball playing this fascist narcissist.”

Ant is playing … Antony. If that’s not a dig at something that’s happened in the past, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, my final interview was with Nicole Whippy and Tammy Davis, who played Kasey and Munter, two of the show’s funniest and most-loved characters.

On a grey Auckland day last October, I met the pair outside the house in Te Atatu where much of Outrageous Fortune and Westside was shot. It caused a stir. Traffic slowed to a crawl. The sound of horns rippled towards us. Fans ran up to greet them, and asked for selfies. Neighbours ventured down driveways to see what the commotion was about.

Whippy and Davis were whipping up a storm, hugging for photos, pulling ‘Westside’ hand gestures, reminiscing and genuinely having a blast. Ten years on and Whippy and Davis together can still create a scene because of Outrageous Fortune. What a legacy. That’s pretty cool.

But as they posed for photos, the pair told me things they probably should not have been telling a reporter with a tape recorder rolling. Like the time they got drunk while shooting the Christmas special on location and Davis skinny-dipped in front of the entire cast and crew. Or when Whippy hid her relationship and pregnancy from the crew in case it meant her character got written out of the show.

And, apparently, a time when someone’s ego maybe got just a little out of control.

I caught some of their interaction on tape. It wasn’t clear, and it was just a brief moment, but it nearly gave me an answer to all those rumours I’d been hearing.

Here’s that exchange, which happened as the photographer was messing around with lights in between shots, and the pair were busy reminiscing.

Whippy: “It was so much fun. Even when Ant was being …” (Her voice tails off as she spots my recorder and screws up her face)

Me: “Even when Ant was being what?”

Whippy: “Nothing. It wouldn’t happen these days.”

Davis: “We had a lot of fun.”

Whippy: “We had a lot of fun.”

I asked! I tried! In 10 years that’s the closest I’ve been able to get to someone confirming what happened on the set of Outrageous Fortune all those years ago.

Whatever happens, I’ll keep at it, keep trying to find out. I’ll give you another update by 2030. That’s a promise.

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