Peter FitzSimmons and Stan Grant's falling out over “unfair” chapter
<p><span>Peter FitzSimons and his former mate, Stan Grant, have had a major fall out over his portrayal of the Wallabies player turned author and his wife Lisa Wilkinson in a new book.</span><br /><br /><span>Grant contributed to <em>The Australian’s</em> serialised murder mystery, <em>Oh Matilda : Who Bloody Killed Her?</em> – and mentioned “Fitzy and Lisa’s Australia Day barbecue at their grand house overlooking Sydney Harbour”.</span><br /><br /><span>What unfolded was an unflattering description of FitzSimons and his wife, which in result reignited a deep-seated rift between the pair.</span><br /><br /><span>The former friends publicly fell out in April of 2020 over a disagreement about Captain James Cook’s legacy, and traded barbs in the pages of <em>The Sydney Morning Herald.</em></span><br /><br /><span>In an opinion piece at the time, Grant, who is a Wiradjuri man, accused FitzSimons of making Cook “the prototypical Aussie good bloke”.</span><br /><br /><span>He added that his description of the explorer as being far from “an enthusiastic imperialist” was “ludicrous”.</span><br /><br /><span>However, FiitzSimons defended his work and said that it had been meticulously researched by his team over the course of four years.</span><br /><br /><span>Grant’s <em>Oh Matilda</em> chapter set their relationship on fire again, with reports claiming it resulted in a terse text message exchange and “the complete collapse of their relationship”.</span><br /><br /><span>FitzSimons’ and Wilkinson’s annual Australia Day party has been renowned as one of Sydney’s most prestigious socialite events of the year and was also the backdrop of Grant’s piece of fiction.</span></p>
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<p><br /><span>“It’s like one of those ‘end of year cartoons’ you see in the newspapers: every time you turn around, you bump into somebody more famous than the last person,” one former guest told The Australian today.</span><br /><br /><span>In Grant’s piece of work, he described one of the characters as “what a woke leftie love-in that was”.</span><br /><br /><span>“Journos, actors, writers, a couple of ex-Wallabies (well it was the north shore), a few washed up politicians, even a couple of Liberals (small 1 of course) and a former managing director of the ABC for good measure,” the chapter reads.</span><br /><br /><span>“Everyone there voted yes for same-sex marriage – the year before last, they’d all tearily applauded their first gay married couple guests – they hated the Catholic Church and had cried when Kevin Rudd said sorry.”</span><br /><br /><span>When referring to FitzSimons and Wilkinson, jet said they “adored Indigenous culture. There were dot paintings on the wall, a photo with their arms around Cathy Freeman at Sydney Olympic Stadium and a framed copy of Paul Keating’s Redfern Statement signed by the last great Australian Prime Minister himself.”</span><br /><br /><span>Things “did get a bit weird” for the novel’s character, Indigenous woman Matilda Meadows, “when Fitzy excitedly gave her a copy of his latest book, a biography of Captain Cook”.</span><br /><br /><span>“Apparently Cookie was actually not a bad bloke once you got past his order to open fire on the blacks at Botany Bay,” the character said.</span><br /><br /><span>Woke Grant told the paper he was trying to “be a bit silly and have a crack about race, political correctness, left-lovey society”, it may have just hit a little too close to home for FitzSimons.</span><br /><br /><span>“It’s always been Chatham House (rules) – nobody takes photos or tweets or hashtags; it’s private hospitality, and I think what’s put Pete out is he invited Stan into his home, and three years later got sideswiped,” the former party guest said.</span><br /><br /><span><em>The Australian</em> has reported that FitzSimons felt Grant’s words were unfair.</span><br /><br /><span>He was also reportedly concerned that many of the details – like him owning a framed copy of the Redfern Speech or a picture of himself with Cathy Freeman – were completely untrue.</span><br /><br /><span>But Grant has maintained the chapter was obviously and clearly fictional, telling <em>The Sydney Morning Herald</em>: “I mock myself as much as anyone else in it”.</span><br /><br /><span>The 57-year-old told friends “there are more important things to worry about in the world” than FitzSimons’ reaction to the piece.</span><br /><br /><span>“People who can’t laugh at themselves aren’t one of them,” he also said.</span></p>
