The eyewatering price Bruce Lehrmann REALLY wanted Channel Seven to pay for his ... trends now
Bruce Lehrmann's ex-media advisor tried to broker a deal where Channel Seven would pay the former staffer $280,000 for a series of exclusive interviews... along with a ten per cent cut and a slice of the advertising.
The network's Spotlight program struck a deal with Lehrmann last year for two television interviews about his ordeal after Brittany Higgins accused him of raping her in Parliament House in 2019.
He wasn't paid cash in exchange for the episodes, which aired in June and August, but Seven did agree to cover his rent for a year at a cost of about $105,000.
On Monday, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins.
While the judgement was being delivered, Lehrmann's former media advisor John Macgowan revealed on X, formerly Twitter, that he originally met with Spotlight producers and tried to squeeze almost triple that amount out of them.
'The only just outcome is for Justice Lee to order Seven to pay me the originally proposed 10% of 280k plus a point on the back end of advertising which could have avoided this whole thing,' he wrote.
John Macgowan is pictured, left, with Bruce Lehrmann.
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured on an episode of Channel Seven's Spotlight program
Mr Macgowan told Daily Mail Australia he didn't pursue his original offer because Spotlight didn't appear to have the budget.
He wasn't part of the negotiations by the time the deal was signed last April, but he doesn't regret letting the opportunity slip by.
'I didn't get anything, but it's a good thing because if there's one thing this case has proven, it's that anyone whose tried to profit from this has been scarred,' he said.
'It's the Lehrmann curse.'
Three of the major players in Spotlight's interviews with
