The moment The Project hosts offended Nigella Lawson
Popular TV chef Nigella Lawson didn’t hide her feelings last night when, during an appearance on Channel Ten’s The Project, she was asked a “tasteless” question.
Things became heated when co-host Hamish Macdonald asked the 58-year-old Brit about dropping innuendos in her cooking shows.
“I was really intrigued to read you rejecting all of the analysis of your cooking shows,” Macdonald said to Lawson. “All these kind of innuendo, you saying, ‘I don’t do it on purpose, it’s not part of the plan.’
“But I’ve got some quotes,” he says, before reeling off some of Lawson’s memorable lines. “My empty vessels are ready to be loaded. I adore the way it comes bulging over the rims.”
However, while this elicited some giggles from the panel (and the audience), Lawson wasn’t liking it one bit.
“No, no, no, no, but why, why, tell me this ... why?” she asked, visibly annoyed.
“You have this way of saying things,” Macdonald replied.
“I have this way of people projecting things on me,” Lawson corrected him. “I don’t get it. I need you to explain to me.”
To see the tense moment, skip to 4:00 below.
Social media users were quick to dub the interview “awkward” and the question as “tasteless”.
“Nigella was great, then at the end, the blonde guy (no idea who he is, Hamish?) makes a senseless sexual innuendo about her commentary on her shows,” one viewer wrote on the program’s Facebook page. “Tasteless end to what should have been a great interview.”
Uh oh @hamishnews obviously didn’t do his research on @Nigella_Lawson. Well known she hates the innuendo questions #TheProjectTV
— Mich (@SurfBumMich) January 16, 2018
@hamishNews hope you had fun talking to @Nigella_Lawson, cause that’ll be the last time she’ll come on @theprojecttv. Bit rude. #TheProjectTV
— McSuave (@SirMcSuave) January 16, 2018
Several people pointed out that, had Macdonald done a bit of research, he would know just how much Lawson dislikes accusations that she’s making sexual innuendos on purpose.
“Certainly, I feel that I have an intimate style of talking and have been made aware that can be construed as coquettishness,” she told a reporter in 2014. “But believe me, I have nothing of the coquette about me. And when I’m told that I am full of innuendo, I am mystified. I am the least salacious person.”
Tell us in the comments below, did you think the question was tasteless? Or was Hamish Macdonald just having a bit of fun?