TV celeb under attack
2004-06-27 11:05
Pretoria - Television presenter Patricia Lewis is under attack from colleagues in the Afrikaans music industry.
"Her image and music has become sexy and cheap and I'm very disappointed in how she treats people," said singer Jurie Els.
"I made her a millionaire and she didn't even invite me to her wedding. I'm not fretting over it, but a wedding is something special."
In another development this week, there was big drama behind the scenes of the new M-Net reality series, Project Fame. A technician on the production team said interviews were done during the party that was held to launch the series.
He said singer and television presenter Amor Vittone-Van der Westhuizen severely criticised Lewis and her SABC2 programme Blonde Ambition.
A day later Vittone-Van der Westhuizen caused an upset when she demanded an apology from the producers for recording the interview, insisting that they don't air it.
Els was the production leader of Lewis's first two Afrikaans albums and recorded the CD Duet with her.
Els said: "After Duet, Patricia headed into a direction that I, as the production leader, disagreed with - a wrong direction, that of incompatibility between image and sound."
The albums he had directed sold very well.
"She sold 126 000 copies of the first album. Her latest album sold only 9 000 copies - it is frightening to think that she had lost 117 000 fans along the way."
There is also a lot of gossip in entertainment circles about the ongoing competition between Lewis and Vittone-Van der Westhuizen, which apparently started during the days they were together at school.
"She doesn't have sole propriety to motherhood," said Lewis, probably referring to a comment by Vittone-Van der Westhuizen that if she got pregnant and ended up on the front page of a popular family magazine, Lewis would follow suit to get attention.
Sources in the music industry said Vittone-Van der Westhuizen believed Lewis copied her.
When asked about the competition between the two, Lewis said: "Ag shame, I don't really want to comment.
"There is a lot of competition in the entertainment world, and it is healthy. But it must never get ugly. I married my husband because I love him, not because Amor got married.
"And she can say what she wants about Blonde Ambition, it's a very popular programme with lots of viewers."
Elize Viljoen of SABC2 confirmed that the channel was very pleased with the popularity of Blonde Ambition. "We are pleasantly surprised," she said.
Vittone-Van der Westhuizen didn't want to comment.
"I really don't have time for such childish little things," she said.
"Anybody who wants to talk about this must contact my attorney. I suggest you do the same," she told the reporter.