It took forever to set up for an interview with Elle Macpherson because she had to approve every camera angle and the all the lighting.
Cameras had to be a certain distance away (from memory it would have been a good couple of metres) and they had to have a soft focus.
She knew all the technical terms and the shot had to be exactly the way she wanted it. Then she asked our soundie if she could have his big belt buckle because she liked it. She was a very nice person, just super controlling.
Lighting issues
Back in the Livin' La Vida Loca days, Ricky Martin demanded that his dressing room have the same lighting set-up as on set.
The set of our show had lots of orange and soft lights so the crew had to put a whole lighting rig in his dressing room. Mind you, nothing was being filmed in the dressing room, he was just hanging out there for half an hour.
His PR person then discovered that Ricky would be exposed to fluorescent lights during his 50 metre walk from his dressing room to the studio and she told us that Ricky doesn't do fluorescent lights.
We couldn't turn them off so we had to get black cardboard and cover the lights and fill the corridor with soft lighting instead.
Dodgy trick
In late 2005, a Brisbane radio host (the late John Miller) was due to appear on our show to talk about his son being attacked during Schoolies week.
He was told to make his way to our studios in Brisbane to talk to our hosts just after 7am.
However as he prepared to leave home, a car arrived with the driver saying he was there to pick him up.
The car took him to our rivals studios in Brisbane where he appeared on their breakfast show at the time he was supposed to be on ours.
The rival network had organised the car and from then on, vital guests on our network were often "babysat" to make sure they weren't snaffled by the opposition.
Taken for a ride
We gave a young Aussie soap actress a cab charge to head to the airport but instead she racked up a $900 bill. She used the cab all day as her chauffeur and even into the night.
She went to bars, it ran errands for her and even took her mum to a doctors appointment.
We sent the bill to her management and after a bit of back and forth, her management agreed to pay it.
Fussy drinker
On her second trip out to Australia, Lady Gaga only wanted to drink tea out of antique china. My colleague went down to Vega and got a floral Royal Doulton teacup.
Gaga had no idea.
Don't look at me
Jessica Alba was a nightmare.
She made us shut down the airconditioning to the whole floor before she'd go in the studio. During the interview she made no eye contact and gave, at best, two syllable answers.
Low energy
Kramer from Seinfeld [Michael Richards] wouldn't light up like his character on the set of our breakfast show.
He sat, slumped in a dressing gown, looking like he didn't want to be there. He wouldn't chime in on any Seinfeld stories, he just wanted to talk about his tour.
Bad support staff
The first time Kardashians came out - before they were big - they were super nice but their 'people' were douches.
They said the Kardashians weren't allowed to be addressed in a certain way and they were only allowed to have certain fruit on the platter.
But Kim and Khloe couldn't care less about any of that.
