A former Channel Seven producer was so taken with the looks of Brittany Higgins’ mother that he breathlessly texted his boss to tell her she “looks like Angelina Jolie”.
A long series of text messages between Taylor Auerbach and her boss Steve Jackson, who was a producer on Spotlight, were published on Friday amid Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Messages between the pair were sent on October 12, 2022, when Ms Higgins’ mother, Kelly Higgins, took the stand to give evidence during Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
At the time, Auerbach had been trying to convince Lehrmann to do an exclusive post-trial interview with Spotlight.
At 11:43 a.m., Mr. Auerbach sent a text message to his boss from the courtroom saying, “The mother has been called.”
Mr. Jackson asked, ‘Yours?’
Mr. Auerbach replied: “Hers.”
Brittany Higgins’ mother, Kelly Higgins, is photographed outside court during Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial in December.
Brittany Higgins is pictured, left, with her mother at an event in 2018.
Pictured: Texts between former Channel Seven producers Steve Jackson (in grey) and Taylor Auerbach (in blue)
Jackson noted that it would be the first time Higgins’ mother would speak publicly about her daughter’s alleged rape.
Mr. Auerbach continued: “She’s like a 20/10 glamour.”
Mr. Jackson asked, “Really?”
Mr. Auerbach responded: “Yeah, like a model or something, she looks like Angelina Jolie.”
He then speculated that she was “a rich person who spends a lot of her time abroad”, when in fact she was a real estate agent living on the Gold Coast.
Mr Jackson said: “Not that it’s really important.” But attractive people perform well before juries. Or any. People like to believe in attractive people.
During her evidence at the criminal trial, Kelly told the court her daughter seemed “devastated” in March and April 2019, in the weeks after Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by Mr Lehrmann in Parliament.
Mr. Lehrmann strongly denies these accusations.
‘Britain became very distant. Brittany remained very calm…she had lost a lot of weight. She lost a lot of weight. She seemed pretty devastated,” she said.
Other texts show that Auerbach met with Lehrmann’s former media agent, John McGowan, about two weeks later, while the jury was deliberating, to discuss a possible television deal.
In the photo: Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie at the Academy Awards.
Taylor Auerbach is pictured with her attorney Rebekah Giles, left, outside the Federal Courthouse last week.
Macgowan valued the interview at about $200,000, but suggested that the network avoid paying Lehrmann cash.
“Bruce wants to do a big exclusive interview at the end of this (assuming he’s found innocent) and then move on,” Auerbach’s message to Jackson read.
‘He has received a lot of free legal support but is in huge debts.
‘John Macgowan is also helping to fund things and has set up a trust.
‘It is believed that Bruce should not receive money directly for the story, but that money could be paid into John Macgowan’s trust (which is used to pay legal fees etc.).
He explained that Mr Lehrmann was deciding whether he would go with Channel Nine or Channel Seven for his exclusive interview, but either way he was going to be interviewed internationally by Piers Morgan and Tucker Carlson.
“John said that we are the only ones who have offered what they wanted so far, in terms of format, so we are ahead and if we can reach a mutually acceptable agreement, the story is ours,” Mr. Auerbach wrote .
Auerbach also told his boss that Lehrmann had been planning “massive defamation cases against Ten and other media in every state in Australia, and was also contemplating malicious prosecution”, even though her rape charge was still pending at that time. moment.
The jury in the 2022 criminal trial against Lehrmann was eventually dismissed after one of them brought prohibited investigative material to court.
Another hearing date was tentatively set for February the following year, but former ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold withdrew the charge against Lehrmann, citing concerns for Higgins’ mental health.
Steve Jackson is pictured, left, with Taylor Auerbach. They were friends and colleagues, until they fell out.
Lehrmann subsequently brought defamation cases against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson over an episode of The Project in February 2021, during which Higgins aired her rape allegations for the first time in an interview with Wilkinson.
He also sued the ABC and news.com.au over similar published articles and a broadcast, but those matters were resolved.
The trial against Ten and Wilkinson lasted about a month in December last year but was dramatically reopened last week due to Mr Auerbach’s evidence.
Auerbach, who no longer works for Channel Seven, claimed in the Federal Court that Lehrmann had leaked classified material from the rape trial to the network, something Lehrmann denies.
He also claimed that Channel Seven paid for Lehrmann’s prostitutes and cocaine in an attempt to lure him into the television interview, which the network denies.
Mr. Lehrmann’s two Spotlight interviews aired in June and August of last year.
A third episode was on the horizon, but it’s unclear if it will go ahead.
John McGowan is pictured, left, with Bruce Lehrmann. McGowan was Lehrmann’s media agent in 2022