No-one is recognised as knowing more about Hollywood and celebrities than David Hartnell MNZM. He’s not only spent a lifetime reporting on Hollywood’s trivia, gossip and scandals, but he counts many celebrities among his personal friends.
David is an award winning broadcaster and columnist and he is also the patron of The Variety Artists Club of New Zealand Inc.
Her Majesty The Queen, awarded David the Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (formerly an MBE) in the Queen’s birthday Honours list 2011 for his recognition for his services to entertainment.
In 2012 he was made an Ambassador of St. James Saviours, the trust formed to save the iconic Auckland theatre. In 2014 he was made an Ambassador to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.
In 2016 he was made Patron of the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians. In late 2017 he was awarded the prestigious VAC Presidents Medallion from The Variety Artists Club of New Zealand. The medallion acknowledged his lifetime commitment towards excellence in the entertainment world both here in New Zealand and Internationally.
Read more about David at Wikipedia
Hollywood comes to Auckland! David's Spicy New Venture
October 2023
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Seasons Magazine
February 2022 | Waikato and Bay of Plenty
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‘The glamour is gone’: NZ’s greatest gossip on celebrities then and now.
Sam Brooks | TV Editor The Spinoff
Gossip Week: Sam Brooks meets legendary New Zealand gossip writer David Hartnell MNZM to talk celebrity friends, men in makeup, and the importance of reinvention.
All week, The Spinoff is taking a look at the role of gossip in New Zealand’s past, present and future
“The two worst things you can do to a celebrity are spell their name wrong or not talk about them at all.”
That’s one of the many pearls of wisdom that the Guru of gossip David Hartnell MNZM drops before me when I visit him in his Grey Lynn home. He is charmingly but firmly insists on those four letters being put after his name. Fine by me – he’s earned that honour as much as he has his pearls, with 45 years under his belt as New Zealand’s longest-serving gossip columnist.
The pride he takes in his title is reflected in his home, which he shares with his partner of 28 years. Full of clearly beloved curios like small Queen Elizabeth figurines (constantly nodding), couches with more cushions than any furniture store, and a brightly coloured plastic chandelier, it feels very much the home of somebody who has loved his life, and is deeply proud of what he’s accomplished. Hartnell’s dog, a small wig of a Pekinese called Liza, cheerfully barks upon my arrival and then sits quiet and docile.
Hartnell is kindly, witty and classy as we settle into the interview. This isn’t the first time he’s discussed his career – I doubt it’s even the 50th – and it definitely won’t be the last. Despite this, he remains engaged with me and my questions, asking if I enjoy my job, and reminding me that as a journalist, I am a professional gossip. He is, in short, a well-seasoned pro, as you might expect from someone who has been in the media for the better part of half a century.
After writing for the Guardian in the 70’s, Hartnell’s first gossip column appeared in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, a publication he still writes a trivia quiz for along with a regular slot in the Ponsonby News. He’s interviewed hundreds of celebrities and still maintains a robust black book. This is not just our first full-time gossip columnist, but also our longest serving one, complete with his own winking catchphrase: “I’m not one to gossip.”
Simply put, the man knows gossip better than anybody else in this country. “My gossip has always been tongue-in-cheek, it’s never been nasty,” he says. “Gossip has changed over the years because of emails, because of social media. Everybody thinks they’re a gossip column and they can put out whatever they want, which is terrible.”
When it comes to his own work, he has a few hard and fast rules. First, the obvious ones. He doesn’t dig for dirt, he doesn’t get into politics, he doesn’t out people. He follows the off-the-record rules, and he doesn’t write about who sleeps with who. Then there are the smaller ones: when he brings out his best and worst dressed list, he only looks at celebrities who are out at events, not someone just going to the rugby or getting their shopping.
The golden rule, though? “If I put somebody in my column, and I have to explain who they are, they shouldn’t be in a gossip column. It’s like an MC saying, ‘my guest needs no introduction’, and then they spend 15 minutes introducing them. The name should be enough.”
One thing he admires in the people he’s written about, or at least his favourite people he’s written about, is their ability to reinvent themselves. He namechecks Joan Collins (a friend of his), Madonna (Madonna) and Cher (probably somewhere in the middle) as people who have all done it right. What might be surprising is that Hartnell has done more than a little reinvention of his own.
David Hartnell lived a few lives before he became a gossip columnist. Born in Auckland’s Sandringham suburb as David Segetin – he changed to Hartnell as a homage to fashion designer Norman Hartnell – he had a keen interest as a young man in magic and rollerskating. After leaving high school, he became a champion roller skater, scoring runner up in the dance pairs at the World Roller Skating Championships in Christchurch.
He later became Australia’s first in-store male makeup artist, working for Revlon in the 1960s. It was a role that would later take him around the world, from Hong Kong to New York to London; he even had a piece about him in the UK’s News of the World about how he was the only man allowed in the dressing rooms of the Miss World contest. This is where his love for, and his dedication to, gossip began. “It’s where you hear all the gossip – in the makeup room.”
Sometimes, it was what happened before stars even arrived at the make-up room that would raise eyebrows. “You have to send the car to pick up the celebrity,” Hartnell explains. “If they’re not home, you know they spent the night somewhere else, with someone else. So you find the gossip there. When I went to lecture on makeup, they asked me what Elizabeth Taylor was like to work with, and I would talk about it.”
After years of giving his good celebrity gossip away “for free”, he decided to start writing it down. “If I had listened to people 35 years ago who said, ‘you can never make a living writing gossip’, I don’t know what I’d be doing now. So I just got onto it.”
Getting “onto it” is underselling what happened next. Hartnell has written 10 books, fronted multiple TV shows, and is the patron and ambassador for many charities and causes, including the Variety Artists Club, the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians and the St James Saviours. His latest accolade? A star on the New Zealand Walk of Fame in Orewa, alongside local luminaries like Hello Sailor and Sir Howard Morrison.
The only thing that Hartnell might have more of than achievements are contacts. He mentions the names of several people he considers personal friends which, from anyone else’s lips, would clatter to the floor with an echo. He’s proud of his friends – not because they’re famous, but because he seems to genuinely respect their achievements. Phyllis Diller, comedy’s first major female stand-up, and Edith Head, the costume designer famously spoofed in the movie The Incredibles, were among his closest celebrity friends, he says.
While most of his references are from an age that predates every celebrity having access to a million people at the swipe of a screen, Hartnell is still up to date. He has opinions on the Kardashians (“trailer trash”), Meghan Markle (“come on”) and the only star he thinks is going to last, Lady Gaga (“she’s come a long way since being on Graham Norton with telephones on her head”). Not a single New Zealand celebrity is referenced during our interview. Why would you bring up a Real Housewife of Auckland when you can bring up your close friends Joan and Jackie Collins?
While happy to drop names – although from him they feel laid out gently, rather than dropped – Hartnell honours the trust that his famous friends have placed in him. “A lot of these people you meet once, you interview them, and you never see them again.” Only a handful ever come back into your life, he says, and that is not something he takes lightly. “These people would confide in me. We would just talk, and they’d say, ‘well, we can’t say anything about it’, and I would always stick to that. Their friendship was far more valuable to me than doing a little headline and losing a friendship of 40 years.”
His best dressed list remains an annual must-read. Last year, when voting The AM Show’s Duncan Garner the “Supreme Best Dressed Man of 2020”, he gleefully complimented the presenter’s “happy go lucky wardrobe” and his ability to “come off sleek rather than slick”.
That’s another thing that sets him apart from other gossip columnists: Hartnell bears no ill will towards his subjects. “I have seen Kiwi gossip columns come in guns blazing. Most of them fall on their sword and are never heard of again. They do not understand the art of writing gossip.
“My gossip is never nasty. It is always entertaining. That’s why I’m still here.”
What does Hartnell think about the world of celebrity today? “It’s a whole new ballgame,” he says, with the resigned air of a zookeeper who has had to watch meerkats be dumbasses for decades. “It’s more accessible. With social media, everybody wants to be a star, and have their say. The glamour has gone. They don’t have any of the glamour side.”
You can’t say he’s wrong. The definition of glamour involves some sort of bewitchment and enchantment; some necessary distance. There’s a reason why glamour was so easy to produce in the golden age, or at the height of the glossy magazine era: the stars were as distant as the ones in the sky. Now, relatability and accessibility trump glamour.
Hartnell has advice for today’s stable of celebs, which might seem quaint in this age where influencers write their own press releases in the Notes App, or craft meticulous apologies to be delivered via a Twitter thread. Unsurprisingly, though, his wisdom is still salient: “Always thank the press. If there’s an area you don’t want to get into then you say, ‘look I don’t want to discuss that, but I’m happy to discuss other things with you’.” (He later notes that nine times out of 10, the celebrity will bring that thing up anyway.)
Towards the end of our conversation, Hartnell returns to the importance of reinvention. “Longevity is about getting back to reinventing yourself all the time. It’s like everything, even a packet of biscuits has a sell-by date. Everybody in the entertainment business has that as well. They think, ‘shit I’ve got to do something!’, so they reinvent. People will admire that sort of thing.”
After our interview, Hartnell follows me out of his front door. He’s going to tell his neighbours they can start working on their house again; he hadn’t wanted any noise to ruin our chat. That’s just the kind of thing you do when you’re a seasoned pro. Clearly, that last bit of advice about reinvention is one that he needn’t follow himself anymore. You only have to look around his house to see the lives he’s lived – the skating, the magic, the makeup. But for Hartnell, he settled on what worked for him 45 years ago. And he got it right.
New Zealand Walk of Fame
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At the 75th Anniversary of the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians (NZ) president Alan Watson QSM presented Ponsonby News columnist David Hartnell MNZM with a BAM Presidential Citation. The award was in appreciation of David's work as patron of the society and his assistance in showcasing the art of magic in the media.
A Cup of Tea with David Hartnell
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David hartnell MNZM on The AM Show 2020
23 Sep 2020
New Zealand celebrity gossip David Hartnell on The AM Show, New Zealand television September 2020.
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Seven Sharp catches up with Kiwi media personality David Hartnell
4 August 2020
Seven Sharp catches up with Kiwi media personality David Hartnell
Hartnell is most famous for his Hollywood gossip columns and best and worst dressed lists.
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Touting tittle-tattle from Tinseltown
19 July 2020
David Hartnell lifts the lid on more than five decades as a gossip columnist and tells Glenn McConnell why anyone can become a celebrity now.
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Godfather of gossip honoured
29 October 2017
Sit down for a cuppa with David Hartnell
With his catchphrases of “I’m not one to gossip, but…” and “My lips are sealed!” David Hartnell forged an international career as the man with all the inside gossip and celebrity tales from Tinsel town. At 75, the gossip columnist is still a busy man! It’s a treat to have a cuppa and a good old gossip with him in Auckland, where he lives with his longtime partner, Somboon.
The Covid-19 crisis caused the pair to return home on just day five of a long-awaited 27-day cruise back in March. They decided to do the right thing and go straight into self-isolation, meaning their lockdown time started two weeks early – and although David laughs that his wheelie bin got to go out more than he did, he was very productive. “I learned to groom the dog, I stopped biting my nails – a habit I’ve always had but managed to stop, in an effort to stop touching my face to avoid spreading the virus! – I cleaned the office and read through six biography books!”
David has written a book of his own, and my word, does he have a story or three to share. From Elizabeth Taylor to the stars of Coronation Street – he can tell you about it all…
Now, take us back to the beginning of it all when you were a make-up artist – actually, the first in-store male make-up artist in Australasia, working for Revlon in Sydney! Who was your first celebrity encounter with?
Phyllis Diller! Back in the ‘60s the Vietnam War was on and instead of taking the boys all the way back to America for some R&R they would bring them to Sydney. So, the Chevron Hilton Hotel in Sydney would bring out big international American stars and put them on so the boys had somewhere to go that felt like home. I was living on that street and went past the hotel every day and I knew Phyllis was there, so I got hold of a newspaper – as you know, I’ve never been one to stand in the 17th row of the chorus – so I rang the paper and said, “look, let’s do a story on Phyllis” and they said, “great idea!” So from that day on in 1968 until her death we were very good friends. I would stay with her in America and partner her to many things.
And from there your make-up career took you around the globe..
Yes, I went from Australia, to Hong Kong to London to live in New York and then in Los Angeles, because I realised the mountain was never going to come to me, so I would go to it! It’s funny, I just thought of it the other day, I was the make-up artist on the 1970 Miss World contest in London at the Royal Albert Hall. That year they had Bob Hope as the star act and it went live – that was the year a lot of feminists in the audience threw papers and all sorts while it was live. The News of the World did a story on me saying I was the only male allowed in the dressing rooms of a Miss World contest.
And what was it like being backstage at a Miss World contest??
Well, it was like any other show! Backstage is always backstage, it doesn’t matter whether you’re at the Royal Albert Hall or any other theatre. It just feels like a hospital unit, to be quite honest! Just doors and corridors everywhere.
When did you move from being a make-up artist to being a gossip columnist? People do say that it’s the make-up artists who hear the best gossip…
Yes, because, you see the stars would come into the room totally bare, no make-up on and they’re very vulnerable and just talk! If you wanted the good gossip you’d always go to the hair and make-up department on any film or television studio!
When I would do lectures on make-up or when I’d be interviewed for stories, I’d always be asked the same thing, “What was Elizabeth Taylor like?!?”
Well, one day after writing five books about make-up, I’d been in the industry for so long, I was getting a bit bored of it, so I thought I would start writing about what people asked me about: celebrity gossip – but tongue in cheek, not nasty. Everyone said to me, “you’ll never make any money being a gossip columnist!” Well, here I am 53 years down the track still doing it!
Okay, well now I have to ask, what was Elizabeth Taylor like?
Well, she could swear like a sailor! And she didn’t have lilac coloured eyes – she was using contacts way back in the day before anyone did that. She insisted that in any photographs they would bring out those lilac eyes. Now, in those days you didn’t have computers, you had air brushers doing all that work. I’ll always remember them employing the air brushers on Vogue magazine to take out all the kneecaps on the models! I don’t know why, but they had to have entirely smooth knee-less legs!
But back to Elizabeth, she had a wonderful wicked sense of humour. I had a lot of admiration for her. She was a total professional and wonderful to work with – I never heard anybody say a bad word about her. The only thing was, she was always late. If Elizabeth Taylor needed to be there at 11am, you would call her at 8am so you knew you had a few hours up your sleeve. She actually had it written into her will that she was two hours late for her funeral! It was a standing joke.
Who were you favourite celebrities to work with?
Looking back, Phyllis, of course. And Joan Collins, she reinvents herself constantly, even today at 87. She’s extraordinary. And Danny La Rue, the world’s greatest female impersonator. Dick Emery, Bob Hope – he was a bit of tyrant with the ladies though, I must say!
I did a stint working with stars of Coronation Street, including Jean Alexander, who was of course Hilda Ogden. I did a makeover on her and she was an absolute delight – she was never any trouble. I found the English stars were the best to work with, the Americans read into their own publicity – they had too many hangers on!
How did your catchphrases come about?
Well, nobody ever wants to be a gossip, so everybody would say to me, “oh, I’m not one to gossip David, but you might be interested in this… “So, I thought that’d be a great way to start my column too! And the other one, sometimes people would say that to me too – “oh, I can’t say much, my lips are sealed, but…”
What is it about gossip, do you think? Why do people love hearing about celebrity gossip?
The whole thing about gossip is this, I think – the celebrities are living in another world that we, mere mortals will never live in. And, from the outside it looks like it is all glamour, but when you get to look inside, you see it’s not. It’s a fantasy.
It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. Was it a world you admired – did those stars of Hollywood seem like happy people?
No. The comics are the saddest people I’ve ever worked with – people like Frankie Howard, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes – all those English comedians, they seemed to be really sad people.
There were very few – I’ll go back to Phyllis as an example, because she invested well. She invested in real estate and art because she knew that at some stage she wouldn’t have status and wouldn’t work! As it turned out, she worked her whole life until a month before her death. But many others just spend, spend, spend, and the fame wears away and they’re left with nothing at the end of it.
Everyone thinks of Judy Garland – when she died she had so much outstanding debt! That’s one of the things I really admire about Liza Minnelli is she paid all that debt off – which is extraordinary really.
What do you think of today’s celebrities?
Everybody is a celebrity today because they can be on Facebook, Instagram or Youtube and everyone wants to be a star. But the longevity of these people, well, it doesn’t last. It lacks substance. I mean look at the Kardashians, I have to admire them for making something out of nothing, but when it comes to it, they’re just trailer trash really. Back in the golden era, stars were stars – partly because they were owned by the studios and they had a good hold on them, today the studios don’t own anyone so they can say and do what they want.
Do you think that takes away the glamour and mystique of it all? Do we know too much about today’s stars?
Totally. I’m the patron of the Brotherhood of Auckland magicians and I put all of the magic and entertainment business within the same idea – if you show how a magic trick is done, it’s never going to be the same to watch it ever again. It’s the same with celebrities. If you give too much away on Facebook or whatever it is, that whole magic and mystique of that world of glamour and glitz, well, it all disappears.
What’s your favourite memory from your childhood?
I had a wonderful childhood, brought up by my mother solo mostly, and my grandparents had a big hand in bringing me up. They were always so supportive of what I decided to do – even when I left school on the day I turned 15! The saddest thing was when I was awarded the NZMN, that neither my grandparents, nor my mother were alive to see that. When I went to government house in Wellington to receive the award, I had made a bow tie and hanky made out of my late grandfather’s paisley scarf which I always liked. It was also a bit of him with me on the day, because as a child he would always say "what do you want, a medal?" when I did something I thought he may like. So on the day in the grounds of Government house I looked up to heaven and said, "Well, there you are Pop, I have a medal!"
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve taken?
Years ago I remember reading a quote by Mae West who said, “if you keep a diary, one day it will keep you”. And I thought, ‘oh I can’t be bothered keeping a diary’, but instead I kept every article I ever wrote, every picture with a celebrity and in 2011 I wrote my book, Memoirs of a Gossip Columnist, and that really paid off. I thought, my god, Mae West was right!
What matters to you most?
At my age now, my health – which touch wood is going pretty fine. I’ve been in a partnership now for 28 years, with my partner Somboon and that matters to me a lot. When we met he had no idea who I was, which made things quite nice. He’d never seen a stage, had never heard of Joan Collins! And friends matter – I know a lot of people but I can count on one hand my true friends, and they couldn’t care less if I’ve just had lunch with Barbara Streisand, which is great.
And to finish off, who would you most like to have a cuppa with?
The Queen. I’m a royalist at the heart of it. And when you look at it, the royal family, well, it is show business really. And the only person I feel sorry for as we speak today, is the Queen. I mean, will Harry and Meghan last? No! I gave it three years from day one! I’m sure they would have made Meghan welcome, because they would have been scared stiff of doing a Diana. I think Meghan knew what she was getting into, and I think Harry is just besotted with her. In the end I think the royal family will take him back. But that’s what goes on in the royal family – it’s all show business really! But my lips are sealed!