International men of mystery allegedly. Nah, it sounds as though a few dancers got drunk and/or high and had sex after Blackpool.
No idea who. I highly doubt that moniker was aimed at Austin Powers Tony Beak, put it that way! 😂
It would not surprise me that some dancers overindulge, same as journos/entertainers do. Not my bag of coke personally, but Aldi not my business. There was also a story that the previous booker had made "a bag of coke" joke on her holiday packing list and got rebuked for it.
The sex toy story was Wynne sending a dildo to Jamie on tour as an inside joke/call-back to something. He bought it off Amazon and the footage iirc showed Jamie pissing himself opening it/dicking about with it.
Doubt very much there was any kind of threesome involving a sleb but could have been an overlap. e.g. One of Jamie's exes claimed he'd been unfaithful to her.
All of this is tabloid fodder and sleb twaddle and the only thing we do know for sure is that newspapers lie and embellish the truth. They also play people off against each other, strike bargains with them and are very difficult to hold to account.
Wynne cannot afford to sue the Mail.
Do I think he has grounds to?
I think the journo totally spun the story, having seen the footage. The captions claimed "sexually explicit comment".
It was set up to make out Wynne had actually said to Jamie [for them] to spitroast Janette. When the "joke" was he'd warned Janette not to get too close to Jamie, old spitroast boy. That does provide a different context.
You can argue - and someone did on here - that the comment is gross either way and constitutes harassment to his so-called mate, rather than banter, and even if banter, is inappropriate/slanderous to Jamie.
However - offence can only be taken, not given - and it is doubtful that Jamie gave two shits or that the others thought it was a toxic workplace. It was more a young, ambitious journo thinking "I can get a headline out of this" and blowing the story up, by removing the context.
To that end, I can see why Wynne is bitter.
But he was hoisted by his own petard/schoolboy humour/jokes that should never have been made at a public press junket.
Secondly, if it was him that leaked the ableist story, as an insider suggested, then that's chucking Jamie under the bus for no reason I can fathom. To get even? Because he blames him in some way? Because if he's going down, everyone is? But the Sun will never reveal its sources so it is hearsay in any case.
Thirdly, if there were drugs on set, or after filming, nothing afaik was said at the time. Which means leverage tantamount to blackmail, rather than a genuine concern. Or you wouldn't wait.
However, what I do back Wynne on is that any employee is or should be owed a fair and short investigation and doing it in-house, especially if it is HR you're complaining about, cannot guarantee impartiality/fairness.
Wynne did say he was pleased Jamie had been reinstated. I am not a soap fan so no figs to give, and not do I believe in cancelling people who have apologised, but again - and it is a personal opinion only - I fail to see how using the m-word as an insult is better/more forgivable than a sex joke. Both bring the BBC into disrepute/break the charter. (especially poor as aimed at inhabitants of a town that hosts them every year and when the actor plays alongside someone with Downs syndrome. I have only just thought about this but do wonder if Ellie's casting is to help salvage reputation, colour me cynical. I do hope not).
So I am surprised Jamie is back on set tbh. I can only think a) he kept his mouth shut while suspended b) it was a private comment that got leaked (but hey, so was Anton's p* racist comment in the Star Bar, all those years ago).
It does therefore feel a little like one rule for one, one for another.
Should all three have been let go for sexism/ableist/racism at the time. Maybe. Or maybe, you all get a final, written warning. Job done. Lesson learned.
This is where it gets murky as far as Wynne is concerned. Because you've had Gregg, you've had Torode, you've had Gino on itv, you've had Gio and Graz and Huw the year before...and the Beeb was meant to be having a crackdown on both cover ups and toxic masculinity.
So they have to come down hard. And as the contract (same as Torode presumably?) is renewable, easy decision then, you don't renew.
What I think was in the press was there had been other comments/complaints made about Wynne but if this is true
- Not sure he was aware of them
- Not sure one of them could even fit time-wise
- Why was he hired? Due diligence?
Again, some tattle as to whether that was why their old celeb booker was let go, Wynne was viewed as a poor booking in retrospect as well as the coke joke on social media, but the Beeb vehemently denied that/shot it down as false and unfair.
So...guilty of bringing Beeb into disrepute.
Possibly, probably, undoubtedly?
I honestly don't know. Not unless I had the solid facts in front of me, as well as all witness statements. I think also another sleb got dragged into it too, Nikita's partner, whose name I have already forgotten but again, unsubstantiated.