Jay-Jay Harvey has apologised for a radio prank that left her colleague in tears. Photo/Doug Sherring
Jay-Jay Harvey has apologised for a radio prank that left her colleague in tears. Photo/Doug Sherring
Jay-Jay Harvey says she had no intention of hurting anyone after she organised a fake Tom Cruise interview that left one of her radio colleagues in tears.
Cruise is in New Zealand filming Mission: Impossible 6, and More FM host Simon Barnett had been campaigning for weeks to meet theactor, who he had idolised as a child.
So Harvey arranged for a man to impersonate the Hollywood actor in an interview with Barnett and co-host Gary McCormick on their breakfast show.
Harvey - who works for a different radio station within Mediaworks - has posted an apology to her Facebook page, saying she is "not the sort of person who would ever intentionally want to hurt someone or upset them".
"We sincerely thought Si and Gary would find our prank call funny and laugh it off, calling us out, and maybe even get us back one day. We did not mean to upset them like we did," she continued.
Barnett's producer Sam Baxter could be heard crying on air after the interview. Harvey said on Facebook that at that moment "my heart sunk in my chest. None of us saw that coming".
Harvey said she had personally apologised to Barnett and Baxter, and said she was sorry if anyone else was offended. But she also suggested some complainers lacked perspective.
"Being on the radio, working hard to come up with fresh, fun content every day is not really that easy.
"Sometimes we do great stuff (like giving breast implants to a woman who had a mastectomy), and sometimes we miss the mark completely," she said.
"I am used to getting feedback of all types from complete strangers. I have a fairly thick skin.
"But I have noticed that people who are accusing us of 'bullying' are being much more nasty and personal to us, when in perspective, we just pulled a prank on the radio to our workmates. And we have apologised."
