Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo
Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is a 2011 Australian two part television miniseries about the beginning of Cleo magazine and its creator, Ita Buttrose. The series stars Asher Keddie as Buttrose and Rob Carlton as Kerry Packer.
A miniseries sequel, titled Paper Giants: Magazine Wars was screened on ABC1 on 2 June, and 9 June 2013. It features Rachel Griffiths, Mandy McElhinney, Lucy Holmes, and Alexander England as a young James Packer.
Plot
The series follows Buttrose as she creates the fashion magazine Cleo, as well the fashion and politics of the period.Cast
- Asher Keddie as Ita Buttrose
- Rob Carlton as Kerry Packer
- Matt Day as Daniel Ritchie
- Jessica Tovey as Leslie Carpenter
- Ian Meadows as Andrew Cowell
- Maeve Dermody as Rachel Carr
- Annie Maynard as Annie Woodham
- Tony Barry as Sir Frank Packer
- Cheree Cassidy as Ivana Holbrook
- Octavia Barron-Martin as Pat Nigra
- Olivia Pigeot as Rosina O’Casey
- Charlton Hill as Alan Nye
- Simon Lyndon as Jack Thompson
- Nathan Page as Alasdair 'Mac' MacDonald, Buttrose's husband
- Sahara Jones as Kate, Buttrose's daughter
Reception
Reviews for the show were generally positive. The Sydney Morning Herald said:Australian TV blog, TV Tonight rated the series with four stars out of five, and commented:
The program was the subject of defamation proceedings brought against the ABC by the former husband of Buttrose, Alasdair Macdonald, who objected to how he was portrayed in the series. The action was settled out of court in April 2012 when the ABC apologised for what it agreed was an "untrue" portrayal of Macdonald.