https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/footage-of-d...SLEAZY footage of Don Burke, 70, saying he enjoyed “nothing more than a good bugger” on TV and another asking about a woman’s breasts have re-emerged online.
In the clip from Can of Worms, which aired in 2011, with Jessica Rowe, Burke said the first swear word he learnt as a child was, “f**k.”
“I love swearing, I think it’s absolutely fantastic,” he said at the time.
“And I’ll be perfectly honest, I love nothing more than a good bugger.
“I think (swearing) is wonderful. When you’re talking about whether you can use them or not it’s absolutely fine whereas if you’re at a party and it’s a social event and someone doesn’t like it then you don’t do it. Same as you don’t scratch your balls.”
Burke proceeded to scratch his groin.
He went on to tell now-Studio 10 host Rowe, “I think you’re f**king great” after she called him “offensive.”
In another video with Burke, he is heard asking an attractive blonde actor Annalise: “Are your breasts real?”
The footage re-emerged after bombshell allegations that Burke was a “psychotic bully”, a “misogynist” and a “sexual predator” who sexually harassed and bullied a number of female employees.
Burke has fiercely denied sexual harassment and bullying of women during his time as the star of Channel Nine’s iconic Burke’s Backyard.
The grandfather and father of two sons, has issued a vigorous denial of the allegations, which he says came about because he was a perfectionist in relation to his work.
The claims reportedly come from more than 50 people who worked with Burke in the late 1980s and 1990s.
“He was a vile, vile human being,” Bridget Ninness, a former producer on Burke’s Backyard, told the ABC/Fairfax. “He was lewd and he was crude” and his constant talk of sex was “designed to confront you and to demean you”, she said.
She also alleged he once told her “if anything goes wrong on this trip I’m going to rip your f***ing head off, and s*** down your throat”, causing her to physically vomit.
Burke “absolutely” disputes claims of bullying.
Former chief executive of the Nine Network David Leckie claimed: “I’ve been trying to think of Harvey Weinstein-type people [in Australia] and the only one I can ever come up with is Burke. He was a horrible, horrible man.”
Burke is not accused of rape, as Weinstein is, but he is now denying a string of shocking allegations.
Louise Langdon, a weekend producer for Burke’s radio 2UE gardening show and later a Burke’s Backyard researcher, alleged the star kept up a “commentary about anything sexual” and persuaded her to watch a video of a woman having sex with a donkey.
She also alleged he flicked her bra straps, pushed his foot into her backside and said she hadn’t been working out, and lifted up her shirt to see the colour of her underwear.
On a work trip to the Northern Territory, he allegedly tried to take off her top. “I was sitting next to Don on the bus and he decided that it was OK for him to put his hands on my T-shirt and try and pull my bra strap, my bra off and try to somehow remove my clothing,” she told ABC/Fairfax. “He was trying to take my top off.”
Wendy Dent, who met Burke when she was 21 and performing as a fairy at the Melbourne Garden Show in 1995, said the star knelt in front of her and asked for a wish. She alleged he then opened his eyes and said: “It didn’t work. You’ve still got your clothes on.”
He later offered her an audition, but allegedly said she would have to be topless. Ms Dent said it put her off the “sleazy slummy industry” for good.
Another researcher alleged Burke said, as they stood on the rooftop at his Sydney production company: “You know what I love about cocktail parties? It’s the name tags. I get to grab women’s tits while pretending I can’t read their name.”
She alleged Burke then told her: “You’ve got small tits, no one would want to touch your tits.”
Burke has denied all the accusations, and said “the rooftop incident never occurred.”
A former Nine producer told the ABC/Fairfax of an alleged episode at a boat party at the start of the 1989 season. The producer, who had not been drinking, was asked by a publicity manager to escort an 18-year-old employee who had drunk too much back to her hotel.
The producer alleged they arrived to find the door ajar and Burke “sitting in the shadows” and said he spent an hour convincing the star to leave. The producer also claimed the star sent him a message the next day thanking him for “saving my bacon”.
But Burke denies the incident occurred.
ITS GETTING WORSE..