Taiwanese Animators Bring You: Thunder Down Under!

This is an animation of a recent brawl involving James Packer, David Gyngell, and Lachlan Murdoch.

While my (probably very few, I don't know) Aussie followers no doubt know all about this little incident and need no introduction, here's a go at what this is all about for those who have never heard of these folks.

James Packer.

James Packer is your ordinary, everyday billionaire from Down Under. He is the son and grandson of other famous businessmen and controls various media holdings and gambling outlets. He's newly single and probably the most eligible fellow in Australia.

David Gyngell.

David Gyngell also is an Australian businessman who happens to be CEO of Nine Entertainment Co., which runs, among many things, the Nine Television Network in Australia.

These guys are both fairly young, both wealthy and powerful, and both in each others' business.

Packer lives on the famous Bondi Beach. Something upset Packer this past Sunday, though it is not completely clear what it was. One credible report is that Packer saw one of Gyngell's news trucks (very noticeable) parked near his home and figured that Gyngell was planning to film Packer dallying with one Miranda Kerr, Packer having divorced from his wife.

Miranda Kerr - you didn't think I'd get away without a picture of her, did you?

Miranda Kerr is one of the top models in the world, of course. Filming the two together would be a major celebrity gossip news event. In fact, other paparazzi were staking out the Packer home for just that reason. Packer was upset at the thought that his erstwhile (apparently) friend and Best Man at his wedding would stoop so low as to join them with his own crew.

In fact, here's another!

Turned out that the news van was only there by coincidence. Oops! But Packer didn't know that.

Packer got on the phone and commenced berating Gyngell about betraying this and stabbing him in the back that. Gyngell was flying in on his private jet at the time. Not being a shy one, Gyngell took the bait and went directly to Packer's house to continue the, er, discussion.

Now there's a classic mistake.

Once there, Gyngell and Packer not only talked but also embarked upon a wild fistfight that was happily filmed by all the paps who were there for other reasons, namely, catching Miranda Kerr in the act. Packer wound up with a nice shiner as a memento.

This being the media version of Woodstock, the tale would not be complete without an intrusion from another Australian media baron, one Rupert Murdoch. The News Corp. website quickly uploaded 50 beautifully shot color photos of the fight and some video, for which it shelled out $210,000 smackers (nice payday for the lensmen, now you know why they sit out there at all hours for events like this). News Corp. carefully marked all the photos so they couldn't be used elsewhere, much to the frustration of every other media outlet.

Lachlan Murdoch.

All of this media attention now being seen, naturally, as a betrayal of Gyngell and Packer by an apparently erstwhile friend, Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. and eldest son (and heir) to Rupert. Lachlan wound up laughing all the way to the bank.

To say that this was a media sensation in Australia is like saying that World War II was a bit of a tussle. Even media outlets that didn't pay for the pictures played it up with recreated sketches. Now that's desperate.

Obviously, these bad boys are now ruing the day that they took their dealings to the street corner like that.

Taiwanese Animators couldn't resist something this juicy, and so we have their video.

The fight!

2020