A psyschic medium has launched a social media broadside against a comedian and NZ’s biggest 7pm show. Alex Casey retraces the gory details.
It’s official: Sue Nicholson is mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Best known for her recurring role on TVNZ’s Sensing Murder, where she can frequently be found orbiting a paddock in a blindfold, the psychic medium has lashed out online following a joke made about her during an Oscars segment on Seven Sharp.
On Wednesday night’s episode, following a story about plastic bags and another about plastic surgery, comedian James Mustapic was invited onto the Seven Sharp couch to talk about the 2019 Oscar nominations. Everything began as normal. “I’m pretty excited, there’s some big surprises there and some great picks,” he told hosts Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells.
After a few jokes about nominees Black Panther (Pink Panther was robbed) and Amy Adams (he thought she was a National MP), it was time to get serious. “Who got snubbed, James?” asked Wells. “Well look, I thought there wasn’t much Kiwi representation at the Oscars,” said Mustapic. “I’m thinking best documentary: Shortland Street.”
He then dropped a bombshell that sent diamante kaftans rattling across the country. “For another snub: Sue Nicholson from Sensing Murder for Best Actress. I’m still waiting for that one.”
Wells agreed. “She can talk to dead animals. There’s not a lot of people that can do that.” The segment moved on, but Nicholson, who was watching at home, did not. “You TV1 Seven Sharp tonight think you are smart need to grow up taking the piss out of me,” she wrote in a now-deleted post on her public page. “Can’t you find any decent news stories idots [sic]”.
There was more. She took to her personal Facebook page, too. “What a PACK OF WANKERS on 7 Sharp tonight taking the PISS out me,” she wrote, embellished with red-faced angry emojis that suggested she had not foreseen the joke. “I wasn’t the only one on Sensing Murder, this is called bullying.”
Mustapic, a keen student of Sensing Murder from way back, saw both the updates. “Holy fuck,” he wrote soon after on Instagram. “Sue Nicholson of Sensing Murder is so mad at me.”
Nicholson’s supporters have continued to rally around her online, urging complaints to be made to TVNZ1. “I was going to complain” replied Nicholson to one of them in the comments, “but Steve says that’s all they want – to make a stir.” She hit out at Mustapic in the same thread. “I could say a lot about the bloke that said it about him Being gay, how would he like that.”
She added: “But I’m Not that type of person as I have a gay daughter.”
A spokesperson on behalf of TVNZ told The Spinoff that “the comment was made by a guest comedian and was clearly satirical.” They had nothing further to add. Mustapic, who has made multiple videos about Sensing Murder, admits that he “feels a bit bad” about the joke. “I just genuinely think that the Sensing Murder psychics are just good actors.”
He now wishes he had nominated Kelvin Cruickshank instead.
