Rachel Glucina: The radio quip that may affect a TV career

Rod Cheeseman may have cut ties permanently with former colleague Simon Dallow after siding with Dallow's ex-wife, Alison Mau on radio. Photo / Supplied

Remember when Rod Cheeseman was the goofball sports presenter on Sunrise who would make wacky offside comments in response to Oliver Driver's look-at-me quips and Carly Flynn's flat one-liners? When only Jack the dog displayed any form of decorum?

Then Sunrise set and Cheeseman moved to rival TVNZ where he is a freelance cog in a heavily oiled machine of sports presenters. Last week, however, he may have said goodbye to any last vestiges of a relationship he may have with TVNZ co-star Simon Dallow when he hit the radio airwaves and bagged him - in favour of his ex-wife and her lifestyle choice.

The suicide kamikaze mission took place on rival MediaWorks' radio station More FM on Tuesday, where Cheesy was called on to fill in for fill-in co-host Alison Mau who was absent on Day Two of her five-day gig because of a previous commitment to MC the Global Women Forum.

The Cheese started the show by explaining his presence: "Neither of us can stand Simon Dallow and we both like hot chicks. So, it was a natural replacement for me to step in [for Mau], really."

Perhaps it was nerves, perhaps it was early morning joshing, perhaps it was a barbaric reflection of his thoughts towards gay women, I'm not sure.

Cheeseman said it was all in good fun: "It was just a throwaway line. It was early in the morning. I meant it just as a joke. I hardly know Simon."

To be fair, in the radio land of jibes and jokes Cheesy's celebrity crack would barely make a blip on the Richter Scale of jests, but in the conservative world of the nation's network, where television personalities make believe all relationships are rosy, tongues will be wagging.

No one disses the anchors.

If TVNZ is a bootlegging crime family and Anthony Flannery is the Don of the newsroom, Dallow and Petrie are the goody-two-shoes government agents clamping down on wayward activities. They are the Untouchables.

Added to that, Mau, too, is an A-list star at the network. Which makes The Cheese's barb all the more bizarre.

While it was fantastic publicity for More FM, it may not be so great for Cheeseman's ongoing relationship with his employer, TVNZ, and two of their biggest names, I suspect.

Ole: The cost of the high life

I like David Henderson. I didn't mean to. It just happened one day. We met over champers at his then home-away-from-home: Euro. That was when he played lord of the manor; when he was riding high in the big money world of flashy property developers who were forgiven for their brashness and vulgarity because money talked.

That money has since gone mute. Now Hendo's bankrupt, and yet that didn't stop him from taking a laze-about luxury sojourn on the Spanish high seas.

He's been criticised for acting inappropriately by not asking permission from the Official Assignee for the trip - a no-no with a possible punishment of up to three years in the clink.

Hendo returned last Saturday and had to provide a mea culpa "please explain" to the Insolvency Office on Wednesday. But like all naughty teenagers hauled before the principal knowing they're facing detention, was Hendo really sorry?

The Official Assignee has reportedly found sufficient grounds to refer Hendo's breach - that pals refer to as "the holiday hiccup" - to the National Enforcement Unit for a formal prosecution investigation.

Hendo has support from his many friends in Auckland who, like me, hope this asinine incident will be sorted satisfactorily. Despite his financial ups and downs, he always remains sunny, loyal and brazen. He's there for the good times; he's there for the bad times. Auckland would be a very dull place without him.

Henderson is a colourful, charming character with a taste for the high life that has cost him dearly. I just hope those tapas and sangria were worth it.