Monday, February 08, 2010


More on Pauly Fuemana - it's Pauly, not Pauley
Yesterday the Sunday Star Times managed to produce a tawdry little story by Tim Hume with the headline "Pauly Fuemana: the money, the violence, the drugs." It depicts Pauly as a rock'n'roll victim.

Hume talks with Ermehn about Pauly, who tells a funny story about how he and Pauly stole one of Dave Dobbyn's guitars from a concert: "We took the nicest one off the stands and put it in the car. When we came back, everyone was upset -'Somebody's taken Dave's guitar'!"

The Sunday News ("Pauly Fuemana: The real story") managed to get extensive interviews with Pauly's brother, Tony, and Pauly's wife, Kirstine.Tony talks about some of the things he saw on tour with his brother - Tony played bass in the OMC touring band...

"We had taken a 20-hour bus trip and we got there at six in the morning. They wanted a TV interview at 6.30am. Pauly asked them if he could just have a shower and something to eat before he left," Tony said.


"They threatened to pull the concert that night, if he didn't [do the interview]. The rep said, 'You have to be there at 6.30 or we will pull the plug on your show and the rest of your shows'. Pauly said he wanted to go back and talk to me, but they got him and pulled him from his shoulder off the bus.

"Paul turned around and pushed him back, he [Pauly] didn't want to be manhandled, and he [the rep] fell through the window. The guy said, 'I am going to sue you'.

"Not being pushed around and standing his own ground counted against him," he said.

Thankfully, some clever person at stuff.co.nz (which hosts content from both the SST and the Sunday News) chose the Sunday News story to put on their front page, not the SST one.

A large part of the SST story is sourced from the 20/20 interview I highlighted last week, and also, I suspect, taken from this comments pages on TV3's website, regarding Pauly's unhappy neighbours in Beachaven.

On Friday the NZ Herald published this story by Kara Segedin, which failed to even spell Pauly's first name right - "Pauley Fuemanas funeral today" (it was also wrong in the story and the photo caption)I emailed Kara via the link at the bottom of the story on Friday, and also asked the NZHerald late Friday via Twitter to fix it. (and again on sunday) It's still there, four days later. UPDATE - I emailed someone at the NZ Herald and he was able to go and stand over someone til it was fixed. The NZHerald never responded to me via Twitter or email.

THEN I was sent another NZ Herald story by Vaimoana Tapaleao , headed "Singer broke down cultural barriers" from Feb 1st. The photo caption says "Pauley Fuemana shot to fame..." and in the story it happens again... "Mr Kightley said Pauley Fuemana's passion and knowledge for music was still growing..."

Clearly, spelling someone's name correctly is no longer a priority for the NZ Herald. And Pauly isn't around to complain about it.

ADDED: The Sunday Star Times also features an article on female singer Sheba Williams, who will be performing at the Big Gay Out. The SST described Sheba as a drag queen. Ah, NO.  No link to the story, as they had the good sense not to put that blooper online.

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