The Project host Hamish MacDonald hits back at Richard Dreyfuss
Hamish MacDonald has hit back at claims from Richard Dreyfuss that he was ambushed in an interview on The Project.
Appearing on Channel 9’s Today Extra on Thursday morning, the Jaws star read a lengthy prepared statement slamming his appearance on The Sunday Project.
He claimed he was promised a “light, friendly chat” but hosts MacDonald and Lisa Wilkinson “mugged” him when they questioned him about an allegation of sexual misconduct and the #MeToo movement.
But in a segment on Thursday’s episode of The Project, MacDonald denied he and Wilkinson had ambushed the movie star.
“We did not mug Richard Dreyfuss. I have got to say I’m shocked and actually a bit disappointed in this whole thing,” MacDonald said.
“I don’t really even understand it. Some things that are worth pointing out: His people were very clearly told that we intended to ask questions about allegations that had been made about him and that he had spoken about in the past in that written statement.
“We have also got the emails to prove that we told them we were going to ask questions about that.”
MacDonald further argued that at journalists, there was “no way” he and Wilkinson could have let Dreyfuss appear on The Project without asking him questions about the sexual misconduct allegation.
“Don’t forget, this is man who publicly said that in the 1970s at the height of his fame he’d disrespected himself and women and ignored his own ethics,” MacDonald said.
He also expressed confusion at Dreyfuss’ response to the interview given that his answers had been “honest and thoughtful”.
“For what it’s worth, Richard gave a really frank, honest and thoughtful response to our questions. I don’t understand why he’s said what he’s said today,” MacDonald said.
Wilkinson also publicly responded to Dreyfuss’ claims on Twitter, saying that The Project’s producers had written to his publicists three days beforehand to inform him of the questions.
We wrote to Mr Dreyfuss’ publicist 3days prior to our Sunday @theprojecttv i/v informing we would ask about #metoo allegations against him & his statement. If he didn’t want to discuss it, we were happy to have Kathleen Turner alone. We were assured in writing he was OK with it. https://t.co/59fqHhwKF4
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) June 21, 2018
A Channel 10 spokesman rejected Dreyfuss’ allegations against The Project.