Bardot: Becoming a Popstar

buckled under the intense media pressure to stay thin. So was life as a pop star really worth it. We are journalist Sophie Kate and Amy Torbert, and this is our new series Unspoken, where we bring you the unspoken stories behind the biggest pop culture headlines to rock the nineties and early naughties. Welcome to the first installment of our deep dive series on pop stars. Now. We were just eleven when the show came out and I remember

at the time being so infatuated by Bardo. I remember having to beg our mum to take us down to their instore appearance in Adelaide and it was absolutely packed. Oh, these in store appearances were unprecedented. They had thousands of young girls lining up for hours to see them. I think the show was even shocked by how big the crowds got. And everyone had their favorite. I don't know who were your favorites. Kane so oh like any other kid.

My favorite Sophie Monk. Watching the show back, it's quite clear that she was the standout favorite. I also had a soft spot for Belinda Chapel as well. Yeah, they were my two favorites, along with Sally because she was an Adelaide girl. I want to take you back to

September nineteen ninety nine. That is when Channel seven announced it was set to bring out a new show called Pop Stars, and at the time, the term reality TV didn't really exist, with the show instead described as a thirteen part doc u soap which followed the creation of an all female pop group. Now, this was at a time when the Spice Girls were still top of the charts and Aussie music producers were desperate to create their

own homegrown supergroup. Now, while the format of the show was unlike anything we'd seen on our screens before, the concept actually originated from New Zealand. So in nineteen ninety nine, the show followed the journey of a girl group called True Bliss. Now, there was a lot of publicity around True Bliss, but they didn't have the success of Bardo or the longevity, and this was because the show failed to select the girls and they failed to actually place

them in the right market. So it seemed like Channel seven were able to see where this show failed and when they brought out Pop Stars, it was so important for the producers to actually select the right group of girls, which they obviously did so well, and the show really did act as a blueprint for singing competitions going forward, because after that we saw Australian Idol launch, We've seen

the Voice. There's been so many singing competitions. It's pretty interesting because Channel seven decided to buy the rights to this show and have it screen just before the Sydney Olympics, so it started screening in February two thousand and I loved seeing all of the signage for the Olympics in the background of the additions. It made me feel extra

nostalgic watching this bag. Well, they really wanted a show that was going to draw in ratings so that people stayed on Channel seven, and this is exactly what they got. Because the show was a huge success. They ended up buying the franchise from New Zealand for a really small sum. So I wonder how the original creators of Pop Stars

felt about it. They'd be so pissed off now. Auditions were held across the country in July nineteen ninety nine, with a three person judging panel made up of Warner Music executive Chris Moss, band manager Michael Naphthali and radio host Jackie O. Henderson. Is crazy to think Jackieo was only twenty four at the time that she was appointed as judge, so she was the same age as many

of the band members. She went on to select I feel like this is the reason why she just never seems to age, because I didn't realize she was so young at the time of being on Pop Stars. The craziest thing was she wasn't even paid for being part of the judging panel, which blew my mind because, as we said, this was the biggest show on television at the time. Yeah. Well, it's kind of a theme that we'll see throughout this whole process that the young women

on the show really weren't compensated for their efforts. Yeah. So, in twenty nineteen, JACKIEO told Kiss listeners that she did Pop Stars for free. She said, no one mentioned anything about money, so I didn't mention money. I remember we were in Adelaide doing auditions, and you know how they hand out per dims, which is like sixty dollars. They handed me this envelope and I didn't know what appear was.

So I opened it and I saw sixty seven dollars in there, and I went up to the executive director and gave him a big hug and said thank you so much. I was stoked I was getting cash. I would love to know if the mail judges were also paid in per deems or if they actually got a

proper salary. Well, I would hazard a guess that Michael Naphthaalaie didn't actually get paid too much because he was a ringing at the last hour because his boss, Grant Thomas, who owned Grant Thomas Management, declined from being filmed, so he was their first pick and he suddenly goes, no, I don't want to do it. So they brought in Michael and he was really popular with the girls. Belinda Chappele actually said in her book that he was the

least intimidating judge of them all. He was really qualified at the time because he was an entertainment lawyer and also, as you say, okay, he worked at this management company and they managed the likes of the Finn Brothers, Split Ends and Crowded House. So this was a huge opportunity for five unknowns to get managed by a huge company like this. Yeah, but I suppose it's an opportunity for Michael himself because you see Jackie O also jumped at

the chance to be on primetime TV. And nowadays we've got social media where everyone's got an opportunity to get their face out there. But at the time, being on TV was such a massive thing and so many people would do it for free. It's ironic because, as you touched on Kate Grant, Thomas didn't want to actually appear

on camera. But Belinda said in her book that there was a judging panel for the cameras and there was also a judging panel behind the scenes, so although he wasn't on camera, he was there every step of the way through the audition process helping them make the decisions. Well, Michael would go up and ask his opinions, so it was kind of like a group vote yeah, and Belinda described this as the first taste of reception that was going to unfold behind the scenes of pop stars Now.

The last judge was Chris Moss, who was the managing director of Warner Music and he was set to sign the group to a three album deal. You'll probably remember him because he used to wear these really bold, wacky T shirts. He also looks a lot like Ian Hewitson,

who was a TV chef at the time. He was described by Belinda as being very kind and genuine with a good high but my perception of him on the show was really different because I always remember he would oggle at the young women who were auditioning, and in a bonus episode, he was actually caught out staring at a number of the girl's boobs or either gushing over them behind the scenes. Yeah, it's interesting that the TV stations decided to portray him like that when Belinda actually

said he was so genuinely kind. It was clear from the start of this show that the TV network and music bosses really wanted this to be big. They seemed to throw everything at it. They enlisted the help of a lot of Australia's top music professionals and dancers to act as coaches for the girls. There were some huge names that they selected. Now as we touched on, the first episode did air in February two thousand and Who

could forget this iconic theme song. This song has been in my head ever since we decided to do this deep dive and it really does take me back. It really takes me back to Sunday night during summer. That feeling. I still that feeling when I hear that song, And it was a really positive feeling that you got when you watch this show because you think about talent competitions now and it's very cutthroat and negative and people are pitted against each other. But it didn't have that vibe

at all. It was a bit more wholesome, it really was. And when you go back and you watch the show, it was really shot so differently to say how Maths is shot now, because it was that doco style filming. There was no sensationalized music which set the tone like we see now on reality shows, and there weren't those quick edits which made people look really bad. It was sort of more a really genuine fly on the wall experience.

Belinda Chapple mentioned in her book that the girls had no idea what the TV series was going to look like. She did say that everything was being filmed, but because they didn't have a template for what this show looked like on TV, they're like, how are they going to make this interesting? But it was interesting. It drew you in straight away. We've obviously watched it back, yeah, and

I couldn't stop watching like it was really good. It was just so raw and authentic because no one knew how they were actually going to come across on TV. So people haven't tried to create these personas and if it couldn't get any more nineties. In order to actually audition for pop stars, you had to buy New Idea

magazine which had the audition form inside. Yeah, it was quite funny because Belinda said that the headline on the magazine was Australia's answer to the Spy Skirls, and the premise was that every girl who filled out the form would get a shot at being signed to Warner Music. And in the first episode we see all these girls with the magazine in the line filling it out, so it was great promotion for the magazine. Well, that magazine

ends up being quite a contentious topic. We will get into all of the scandals later down the track, but one of the contestants that actually made the band was accused of stealing the magazine and twist. Now, there was such a huge response to the auditions, with thousands showing up to get their chance, and the show kept reminding us that the judges were plucking five unknowns off the

street and turning them into pop stars. The concept of being plucked from obscurity and then receiving this instant fame, it was completely new to all of and it led to a lot of intense media scrutiny and think pieces at the time about whether the band members were worthy of the fame that they were receiving. And I think the popularity of this show really came down to the timing because it was the first time we'd seen anything like this before, and we weren't jaded or cynical about

the concept. We were really rooting for the girls in the group. We wanted them to be successful. We were out there supporting them, buying their CDs. Now, in what they called a cattle call, the girls were shepherded into a conference room and asked us seeing three lines from one of four songs and this really takes me back

to the late nineties. They could choose from Wanna Be Respect, My Heart Will Go On for Ain't No Sunshine, and they auditioned in a line of five girls and they had a couple of seconds to impress the judges, and if they made it through the first round, they'd come back for the second day of auditions, where the judges would then make a short list of twenty five to go to Sydney for a week of what they called

very intense auditions. What I noticed about these auditions whether the judges weren't act like you're so used to seeing, you know, Ian Dicko Dixon just absolutely tearing someone to shreds. But they were all kind of positive about it, like yeah, yeah, that's enough. There seemed to be a lot more care and almost dignity given to the girls that were auditioning, because they seemed to gloss over a lot of the bad auditions. And also the judges were shown being quite

supportive of the girls. I mean in one of the episodes, we see a girl visibly shaking and they're given a lot of support instead of being made fun of. Their faces were quite hilariously, like you could tell instantly if Jackie O was a bit like yeah. I loved the shot from behind the contestants and it was you know, you can see the contestants singing and just the judges' faces and they were classic. It's almost that trying not

to laugh. And I did love how Chris Moss would have this certain hand movement that he would do when he'd heard enough. Yeah, sometimes it was quite quick. One thing that I couldn't get over was the eyebrows. I just can't believe it because they were plucked within an inch of their life. Like every girl had pencils in eyebrows. Everyone was so thin, like thin you forget that diet culture. Back in the nineties, it was the Kate Moss era. I did love the fashion though, because we are seeing

the nineties come back in a big way. Everyone was trying to emulate the spice perse. Now in the first episode, we meet the five girls who do eventually go on to join Bardo, and from the start, Sophie Monk was a fan favorite. As you touched on. She was only nineteen at the time, and she'd driven nine hours through the night to make the auditions, and at the time she was working on the Gold Coast performing as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. And I feel like he can really

pick that up in her audition. Let's throw to it that the hardly goal. You could just tell that Sophie Monk had that instant star quality when she performs. I still can't believe she was only nineteen. It really blows my mind. Now. The next girl was Katie Underwood, and the judges weren't really sure about her. She clearly had the X factor, but there were concerns that her voice wasn't strong enough. What love got to do got to

do with it. She made quite the impression because I still have a vivid memory of what she wore to this first audition. So she had this silver reflective top on that looked a bit like a metal shield. And while it made hers stand out to the judges, they actually ended up asking her to change her outfit. Let's throw to what they said, we're.

and a striking look. Yeah, but I thought it came across that she was trying too hard and you know those people that go for that shock factor, they end up being the center of the show for five minutes and then they get kicked off. Well, when Belinda Chappel auditioned,

she made a big impression. She was actually working as a model at the time and her agent had actually booked it in for three catwalk shows that day, so she knew in order to be seen by the judges she had to talk her way in to getting into one of those early audition groups. They must have known she had star quality then, because we did see a lot of duds performing and she did bring along her CV to show, look, I actually am a performer. They would have taken one look at her and gone, yeah,

you can go to the front. Ye go straight through, because we know that so much of it was about the look and having that right pop star look. Definitely in her book, I found it quite interesting because she said that she'd always dreamt of being a pop star and when she saw it advertised a new idea, she just had this feeling that she was going to land the job. It seems to be this gut feeling that a lot of people get for something like Sadly, there are a lot of people that have no chance also

a cut feeling, which we saw on the show. I do recall when Michael was saying, there are some people that really thought they had a good chance. And I suppose it's because, again, they'd never done big auditions like that in the past, because Belinda Chappele in her book talks about the fact that she used to go to auditions all the time, but these were professional auditions where they just don't let anyone in. But with pop stars,

anyone who bought a new idea could audition. Now, Belinda did opt to sing respect, and in the book she said that it was a fairly average rendition of the song, and she explained that she was so nervous that she felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest. So she made this very impromptu dance move actioning her pounding heart. And I always remember watching this thinking, what's that about? Yeah, I never knew what it was about, but I thought it was kind of like she was

showing that she was fun and creative. Let's throw to her audition, Ah that scared. It's for their respect when you come home, hey, baby, when you get home, mister. It's so funny watching this show back more than twenty years on, because there are so many things that just wouldn't fly now. One of them that really stood out was the ageism. So in the first episode, they make fun of a group of women in their late thirties to early forties auditioning for the show. Let's throw to the clip.

they just weren't what they were looking for. Maybe if it was the voice and they're particularly looking for a voice, but it's clear they were looking to manufacture a pop group of five twenty something. Something that was also really evident was the lack of diversity, because this show claimed that it wanted five different girls, that girls at home could relate to. However, the five women that they ended

up choosing were all white and straight sized women. In saying that when watching the auditions, there were quite a few different nationalities that were actually put through the process, but they just went picked at the end. I also found it really uncomfortable because the judges would use someone's dancing ability as this thinly veiled excuse to reject plus

size contestants. So in the first episode, we see an eighteen year old girl called Beth Huddle get through the first stage of the audition process and at the time she was working as a hairstylist and a cake decorator.

For some reason, I loved the inclusion that she was a cake decorator and apparently she'd had five years singing experience, and the narrator explained that she'd been to many auditions before and during this one on one audition she did, Jackie O said to her, could you move around a bit because we want to see some of your dancing, And during this audition, Beth stuffed up the lyrics a couple of times, and she asks if she can get the lyrics to the song, let's play the exchange. Shall

your hand Tato makes my upholstery. Oh my god, a couple. So, I know this looks really bad. It looks like I'm nervous, but I've just forgot my ways. I only let the song this morning. Is it okay if I get some lyrics? Sure?

that's so true. Now, following this scolding, Beth then sings the chorus and she sounds really great, and the judges basically deliberate and in front of her, and they say her voice is really strong, but they didn't see any movement, and despite the fact that she really did have one of the strongest voices in this competition, they chose to cut her. Here's what they said, what love.

of the contestants asking her what was wrong. This is what she said, you know what, It's all about the image And oh darly, I got offered a contract with PolyGram in London and they told me I had to lose teen heroes, I had to get hair extensions and bleash it. It's all about the image. It was so obvious that the judges were just using Beth dancing as an excuse not to take her on because her image didn't suit the band. Yeah, which I'm surprised about because

I would have thought in the early two thousands. They didn't really care about hurting people's feelings. Yeah, but everyone could see through it. They were even more avert as it went on because there was another contestant called Kara Holdham. Here's what they said about her, like.

like this would not be allowed now. Watching this series back, the entire audition process is really quite quick because by the second episode, the judges are already forming the final twenty five who will go to Sydney for the last round of auditions before the final five are then announced, and I think it was really good to do it this way because a lot of current singing competitions I feel like they really drag out the audition process and they sort of just use it as an opportunity to

make fun of everyone. Australian Idle were the worst at that. The auditions went for so long, you like just get to the good bit, and I think because they wanted to drag it out, that's why they always humiliated people so much, because you can't just show all of the

good scenes. Yes, now, in this episode, it's really nostalgic because the judges sit around watching the auditions back on a VHS player and then they use landline phones to ring the contestants to tell them whether they're going through to the Sydney auditions. And I love it because the girls are either living at home with their parents in a very suburban setup, or they're living in very small, one bedroom apartment and it's just wild to me how

we operated without mobile phones. Then, like the fact that you're having to wait by a landline phone to hear the biggest news of your life. It's fairly obviously. This is set up firstly because the TV cameras are filming the girl's reactions. But if you didn't have a mobile phone back in the day, you have to let that phone call go to the answering machine. Imagine wait getting

that when you got here. Well, they had TV crews set up at the girl's family homes, and it was really awkward to see the ones who didn't get through because basically they'd asked them to gather all of their family and friends over years. But I just couldn't get over the early two thousands decore and some of the homes because there were so many fake gerbras, which I

remember we had them in our house. They also had so much dark wood like as furniture, and one girl she had this turquoise couch that had little swirls on it. Anyone have blow up furniture? No, I mean maybe more in the girl's bedrooms. I feel like that was more of a teenage thing. There was one contestant who was issued an ultimatum by the judges. Her name was Cherry Western Pearce, and she was told if she wanted to move through to the next round, she had to remove

her tongue ring. Now they claimed it's because it made her have a lisp when she sung, but I think it's just that they didn't like the look of it. Now this line really cracked me up. Cherry's got to prove she wants it bad enough.

through their paces. It's pretty classic because when the girls arrive at Sydney Airport, we see Sophie Monk have this really awkward exchange with Ossie TV icon Barry Crocker. So Barry approaches Sophie and another contestant and he tells them that his granddaughter auditioned but she didn't get through, so they must be pretty great. When he departs, he then says to them, I'll see you on the stages of the world. Now, Sophie Monk had no idea who Barry

Krocker was. And for those who might be in the same boat, he is a Gold Logi winning actor and he's also a singer. And there's also a saying that if you're having a Barry Crocker, it means that you're having a bad day or a shocker. So Sophie Monk seemed to be having a Barry Croker that day. Is it bad? All I can think of is Betty Crocker. Yeah. Now, the girls end up being taken to the Noverteale Hotel in the heart of Sydney, where the show puts on

a thank you party. Now, the voiceover says, the girls are dressed up for a night on the town as they meet with the judges at the social event in the hotel bar. And you can really tell at this point how low budget the show is because there's just a couple of counterpas and a glass of wine for

the girls. Yeah. And in her book, Belinda references this event and she said that at this time she became really aware of the cameras, and she noticed that a lot of the camera men were inappropriately zooming up on the women's bodies, and she knew that she had to use the cameras to her advantage, but she said she felt really nervous around them.

who can pick up the moves quickly. Now, Sally Polaronos completely stands out from the pack, which isn't really surprising because it's revealed that she previously trained in dance, tap, jazz, and ballet, and as a child, she was also part of the Johnny Young Talent School. In a bonus episode of Pop Stars, the judges actually admitted that when Sally auditioned, they thought that she was a stripper. It's really awkward to listen to. Here's what they said to her.

a sex worker. But people seem so appalled that one of the pop stars could have previously worked as a stripper. It's pretty funny that they thought Sally was a stripper because in Belinda's book, she spoke about how she shared a room with Sally to begin with, and she was quite taken aback when Sally got out a picture of Jesus and Rosary beads and put them by her bed. Yes, Sally, he was actually one of the most conservative members of

the band. Now back to the auditions, and ironically, Marsha Heines drops past the auditions to speak to the girls and discusses the complexities of stardom, and she tells the cameras that pop stars is such a great initiative and something Australia should do more of, which is quite funny

because years later she then went on to judge Australian Idol. Now, during the auditions, we also meet vocal coach Mark Williams, who was there to assess the girl's voices, and we hear that they don't want to pick girls with the same voice, they want a range of voices which compliment each other. It's pretty funny because by the end of the day Tiffany Wood had lost her voice and she told the judges her voice had gone due to the six glasses of champagne she had at the welcome party

the night before. Now, the group slowly gets whittled down until there's fifteen girls who are put into the groups for the final performance. Now, these girls are given a bit of a makeover and styled to look like pop stars, so think crimped hair, pedal pushes, upper arm brace, flirts, butterfly clips and there's also a lot of fake leather

going on. Now, Interestingly, the judges were supposed to pick the final five from there, but they bring it down to ten girls and they say to the cameras that they're going to send the girls home with the promise that they'll make their final decision within a week now. When the final ten were announced, the producers told them to celebrate with an afternoon at Bondai Beach, and Belinda recalled hearing one of the camera guys say to the others, okay,

ready for the TNA shots. Mate now. Belinda said she was in disbelief and questioned if she'd really heard him say tits and ass shots. I felt really sorry for Belinda in this moment, because it would be pretty confronting being a young woman who is trying to win a singing competition and then you've got these camera guys wanting to take shots of your ars and tits. She did end up grabbing a shirt and a T shirt to throw over her bathers, and the camera guy said, no, honey,

this is a bikini shot. Close off. Yeah. Now. To celebrate making it through to the final ten, the producers told the girls that they had something special planned for them them that evening, and they picked them up at the harbor at seven pm. They also told them to throw on their sexiest frocks and look camera ready. I wanted to include the word frocks because I didn't know this, but that was actually one of the name suggestions for

the band Frocks. Really it was a terrible name suggestion, but it shows that that word must have really been used highly around two thousand. I remember when we were younger, were like, why don't they just call the band popstars? That's what it is. The girls were taken to dinner to meet the company's execs for the first time, and Belinda refers to them in the book as the Gray Suits, and they own the production company, and she was wondering, why are we only meeting them now this far into

the audition process. And I think this was one of the pivotal parts when she realized that the composition wasn't quite what they thought it was. It felt a bit wrong. Yeah. So the next morning, the ten girls were instructed to report to the conference room, but this time there were no camera crews or judges there, just the two TV executives that they'd met the night before. Now they they

walked in and introduced the girls to their lawyers. Blinda said that the room suddenly felt colder, and that the tone of the journey completely changed. She also wondered why there were still ten contestants there now. The execs told the group that they were through to the final stage of the selection process and that they'd liked to give them a contract, so they gave each woman five days and fifteen hundred dollars to get a lawyer to look

over the documents. It's quite clear they didn't want to whittle it down to five contestants because they wanted to use these contracts as a bargaining tool, because if they had selected five girls, these girls would have felt wanted and maybe got together and said no, let's all agree to these terms. However, they ended up feeling pretty replaceable because if one didn't sign the contract, they had others

waiting in the wing. This part of Blinda's book made me really angry because the production company was acting like they were so lovely giving them money to go and seek out legal advice, but in reality they probably did that. So then if later the girls suit and said, oh, you know, we won't given enough information, they could go, well, you went to a lawyer. Well, the exacts actually told the girls that if they don't sign it, they won't be in contention for a place in the band. That's

how serious it was. These girls were so young at the time as well. Now, after the meeting, the girls were thrown into another meeting, and this time it was with the judges and the camera crew. So Chris Moss from Warner Music was there and he was telling them that as their management company, they will give them a daily schedule of what they're required to do as pop stars, and he explained that there's a fine line between work and entertainment and that's where a lot of people in

the industry fall down in terms of relationships. So he told them that they won't be able to juggle what their life is like now and that they'll need to push themselves through it otherwise they'll buckle and break now.

Belinda detailed in her book that after this meeting, they also had a subsequent meeting with a publicist from Channel seven in a private room without cameras, and they were basically told that if they're selected in the band, they'll have to sacrifice their family time, their friendship time, and also every waking hour will have to be alligated to the band. And this essentially meant that all of the

girls that had boyfriends were expected to dump them. Now, this didn't happen, but it did end up ruining all of the relationships further down the track with the girls because they were told that they wouldn't be able to stay living with their partners and they had to move into a sharehouse with the other girls, and also that they would be traveling so much that it would be

really hard to maintain a relationship. We spoke at the start of the episode about how Channel seven were so eager to choose the right girls to ensure that this group was popular. But do you also think they tried to select girls that they thought, well, we can control you. You know, they have to be young, so they're going to listen to what we say. They have to be young enough to just sign this contract. I definitely think so. I mean, as we've touched on, Sophie Monk was only

nineteen years old. She was highly impressionable, but also highly mouldable to what they wanted. She seemed to be a yes person. I think at this time anyone would have signed this contract because it was a promise of fame and also to live out their dreams. Back to the conversation regarding their relationships, A big part of Belinda's book

was her relationship with her then boyfriend Nate. It was a bit of an undertone throughout the story because they did stay together for a bulk of the time while she was in bar dough, but it seemed like it really did put a strain on the relationship. Do you think they actually wanted them to split up from their partners so they were sort of seen as accessible to the general problem. I think for marketability purposes, they probably wanted them to appear single and as if they were

open to other options for any male consumers. And I think that's also why they made them all live in the same house, because they're taking them away from their boyfriends, but they're also taking them away from the environment that they know, so that makes them feel even more out of control and mouldable to do whatever they want, and that they're not listening to their boyfriends who might be saying,

wait a second, why aren't they paying you promptly? And during this episode where there's still ten girls, we see the huge medium machine that was a on this show. They were already paparazzi following the final ten and they're trying to scope out who was going to make it into the band, and I think that would have also played into the girl's decision to sign on. At the time, a New Idea who published the audition form had exclusive access to the band and they were used to build

the ongoing hype around them. And Osterio was also enlisted in the project because it ensured that they got a lot of radio time. And I didn't know about those past connections and collaborations before. What that makes sense why Jackie Oh was one of the judges. It seems like everybody had these fingers in this pie and it was all part of the money making machining en sure that

this band was successful. Now, after receiving the contract, Belinda and her dad visited a top law firm and her lawyer basically told her that if you sign this contract, you will not make a cent in three years, and he explained that one of the clauses meant that any income made from the band, meaning all the moneies from the income streams, will go straight back into paying all of the costs. So basically the girls were paying the costs of making the album and going on to it. Now.

Another clause which is so disgusting is that the contract stated that the band member's weight or appearance could not change in any significant way or they would terminate the contract. What if one of them got pregnant or something, well, contract gone. I just still can't believe that this was

allowed to happen. Now, clearly it was a very one sided contract, and Belinda's lawyer told her that she was essentially handing over her life and every waking moment to the company that these two men ran, which was the Gray Suits. The clincher was that if they were selected in the band, they would have to survive on just thirty five dollars a day in the form of a

per dim. So, for those who don't know, a per dem is money given to you to pay for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in this instance, so they weren't paid a salary. They were literally just fed. Yeah, because their salary was going in to paying off all these costs that they'd accrued by being picked by this TV company to be in the Bear. And as any good lawyer would do,

Blinda's lawyer said, don't sign this contract. However, he knew how much she wanted it, and she said, it's really difficult for me because I don't even know if I've made the band. So he actually ended up making a phone call to a contact he had and he confirmed that she had in fact made it to the final five, and after a lot of deliberation, she did decide to sign the contract because she knew that if she did, and others would and she would lose her spot in

the band. Do you guys think you would sign that contract? Yeah, I would at the age of nineteen or twenty four, I'd be signing it so far. The sad reality now is if this contract was in place, you probably would sign it because you'd be able to build off maybe an influencing career or something in social media. But the

girls didn't have that ability to be able to do that. Now, by episode five, we finally find out who our pop stars are, and it felt so old school because the judges had these printed at Kodak photos of the girls and they set them out on a coffee table and they used them to move around and work out different combinations of girls for the potential group, and after assessing all of the various possible lineups, they finally decide on

their final five. Now again, the camera crews appeared back at the girls' houses to tell them whether they'd made it or not. The first stop was Sally polar Onus from Adelaide's house. JACKIEO arrives to tell her the good news, and it's such a blast from the past because they asked Sally if she's ever had a real job, and she explains she's currently working in the retail store. A spree. Is a spree still a thing? Now? No, I don't

think it is. It was funny because they made Sally go back and tell her colleagues in a spree that she was joining the band. And I had totally forgotten about a spree. It's all I used to wear in the late nineties and early noughties. I loved in a spree top. How awkward was it watching them break the news to the girls who didn't make it, Yeah, especially when they had their family around. And also it kind of drummed into me how polite girls are more so

back then, because they're all like, yeah, that's cool. That's kind of like on The Simpsons, Ralph Wiggans's heartbreaks, Like you could actually see the moment they were just absolutely shattered. Yeah, and one of the girls who didn't originally get through was Tiffany Wood. So Chris Moss rocked up to her really tiny apartment with the camera crew, and it didn't look like she knew that he was coming, because she opened the door in a nighty and quickly slammed that

she was shocked that he was there. And they tell us that during the day Tiffany works at the Hilton Hotel and by night she's the lead singer in a band, so she had a really strong voice. I think it was a really bad move that they didn't put her in the band to begin with. And it was interesting to see her apartment because begrudgingly after getting changed, she opened the door and the apartment was an absolute shit hole. She even said, welcome to my little hole of a place.

Well as you touched on, Sophie. Some listeners might be surprised to hear that Tiffany would didn't actually make it into the band originally, So she did take the rejection really well and told Chris that she didn't think she'd get in because she was sick during the audition process. It's kind of ironic that she didn't make it because their first single she was basically the main singer in it. Yeah,

she was such a huge part of it. We then see fan favorite Sophie Munk make the cut and she shows Michael her baby videos and her dad tells a camera that she's very comfortable around strangers and can talk to anyone. Next is the infamous Chantel Barry, who is only nineteen at the time, and she's told by Jackie Oh that she's in now. Chantell was very confident. Here's what she said during her first audition, what do you think we're looking for.

production team over the contracts. And I mean that was very evident when you read Belinda's book, because she already had been given the heads up that she was in the band, and she had been asked by the producers to get her mum and her sister around the house, and all her family declined being in the video. Even her boyfriend declined. He was hiding behind a curtain while she was told she made it. I got the feeling that they didn't want any of the boyfriends in any

of the shots. But yeah, she had to basically fake that she was surprised, and she really wanted to ham it up because she didn't want any of the production crew to know that she'd found out either. She did a pretty good job of item genuine. Now, Katie Underwood was the final member to find out that she was through, and Jackie O broke the news by giving her a boarding pass. Now, this is where we're going to leave

you for today. In next week's show, we discuss the fallout as a final five are forced to move into a new house together and start a grueling fitness regime. A storm is brewing, a scandal so juicy. Channel seven couldn't have scripted it better themselves, as band member Shantel Barry leaves a group under suspicious circumstances. We really hope

you have enjoyed today's episode. If you have, could you please make sure you are subscribed on Apple podcast and also Spotify and if you can leave us a five star review and if you want extra content from us, don't forget to sign up to Outspoken Plus. This episode was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plaines. We pay respect to elders past and present, and don't forget to follow Outspoken on TikTok

and on Instagram. We're at Outspoken Underscore d Underscored podcast. We'll be sharing lots of reels and iconic moments from pop stars