Rachel Glucina: Charlotte left NZ because her time was up

Charlotte Dawson will be returning to Australia leaving the NZ media behind. Photo / Bradley Ambrose

Charlotte Dawson, 45, will have us know she left New Zealand because the media - mainly me - drove her out of town. She said as much on TV3's current affairs show (yes, she apparently is current affairs worthy!) last night.

Only problem is, she's banged on about the subject many times before, including in a paid-for story in a woman's rag. I hope the good folk at 60 Minutes didn't fork out big bucks just so Dawson could settle a score again.

It's true Dawson is a star across the ditch as one of three judges on a television modelling contest. She has made a big name for herself and poses, frequently, at red carpet premieres. But her days as a red-carpet celebrity in New Zealand are long gone.

The fact is, Dawson left here and went to Australia because the work dried up. I'm sure, had the big television job offers rolled in, she would have stayed. But Julie Christie and the like stopped calling. Perhaps an alleged sex tape may had something to do with that.

Dawson, to her credit, is a survivor. She is admired for her ability to claw her way back from down-and-out situations to reinvent herself with a new face and a new voice.

Let's not forget, when Charlotte came here she had been ostracised from Australia. Now she's back there and she's launched herself all over again.

But Dawson, it's fair to say, has been despised here, partly because of her incessant desire to be in the public eye. I always found she would bleat on about anything for column inches and airtime - 60 Minutes included.

In the past, I have compared her to the likes of Heather Mills and Sarah Palin, because like the former governor and the ex-Mrs Macca, she always tried to persuade us she was misunderstood. And nothing was off limits.

From the hair extensions to the Botox, plastic surgery, marriage, adoption, sex-tape spat, depression, reality TV shows, plus-sized modelling, psychic celibacy messages, ruptured breast implants and the mean Kiwi media who drove her to Oz, every episode in her life seems to have passed as an opportunity to grasp the spotlight.

Was nothing ever private and sacrosanct?

New Zealanders didn't buy her squeals because we felt Dawson's constant blabbing reeked of self-pity and a desperation to be famous. Was there anything she wouldn't say or do for a quick claim at fame?

The female stars here that we all admire, such as Ali Mau, Lucy Lawless, Petra Bagust, Anna Paquin, Wendy Petrie, Robyn Malcolm and Hilary Barry, know they are high-profile telly names with a celebrity job to do, but they don't sell out their privacy for quick cash and headlines.

I don't know Charlotte Dawson very well and I don't particularly want to. When there's plenty of admirable and talented female television stars here to promote, foster and look up to, why should we go to Oz to keep an old flame burning when we are inundated with wonderful celebrity women here.