Lara Bingle films her reality show at her rented home at Bondi Beach. Photos of her nude on the balcony have caused a stir. Picture: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Daily Telegraph
- Lyons finds Bingle's outrage hard to believe
- Model's manager confirms she asked to see proofs
- Ten denies whole thing was a stunt
PAPARAZZI boss Darryn Lyons claims his agency sent Lara Bingle photos of her naked on her balcony last week for her approval.
Lyons, who is close friends with Bingle, told The Daily Telegraph that he found it hard to believe she was outraged by the photos, which she claims left her feeling "violated" and "embarrassed".
"Lara was notified of the pictures and her manager Hermione Underwood asked to see a contact sheet (proofs of the pictures) last week, so for them to say they had any objection to the pictures seems a bit stiff to me. They didn't come back with an objection," he said.
"I have a really good relationship with Lara and if I were her, and my body looked that good and I had a reality show out in a matter of weeks, I'd want the whole world to see it."
He refused to confirm Big Australia had yet to find a buyer for the photographs, which were taken last month and showed Bingle naked on the balcony of her penthouse flat overlooking Bondi Beach.
Ms Underwood's office confirmed last night she had requested the proofsheet.
Violation of privacy
Bingle, whose reality show, Being Lara Bingle, will make its debut on Channel Ten, complained on the Kyle and Jackie O Show that the pictures had upset her.
"It's a complete violation of privacy; I was so unaware of it," she said.
"There should be a law against someone shooting inside your house... it's just not right. I wouldn't be walking around nude on the balcony. I'm so embarrassed."
Bingle was unsure whether Lyons had bought the photos to protect her, or sell them on, but she said their friendship would be over if he sought to profit from the situation.
The proofsheet of the photos was broadcast on Tuesday night by A Current Affair.
Lyons said he had sent Channel Nine a bill for $110,000 for using the photos without permission and threatened the network with legal action if it didn't pay up.
Expose grubs
A Current Affair producer Grant Williams said he was within his rights to broadcast the photos.
"My job is to expose grubs who think it is all right to take photos of naked women through bedroom windows, not to do business with them," he said.
But Lyons said he was "95 per cent" certain Bingle had been standing naked on the balcony of the luxurious penthouse apartment TV production company Eyeworks rented as a stand-in for Bingle's less spectacular flat for Being Lara Bingle.
Channel Ten and Eyeworks denied the pictures were a PR stunt: "Eyeworks did not stage this and did not ask Lara to stage anything," Being Lara Bingle producer John McAvoy said.
A spokesman for Ten said: "This particular show is totally organic - unscripted and unpredictable. Drama seems to happen naturally around Lara."
A stunt or not, the pictures are a further black mark against Lyons, who is already facing tough questions over the ethics of his photographers and his business.
No code of practice
Last year he was brought before the Leveson media inquiry in the UK to explain the relationship between the media and paparazzi.
He admitted to the inquiry his own business did not have a code of practice, but his photographers all knew where to draw the line on decency. However, last month he was accused of having a secret deal with a Virgin Atlantic employee to tip him off on the movements of celebrities.
He's not ashamed of the word paparazzi - "it's only another word in the English language" - and runs a website called MrPaparazzi.com that invites members of the public to send in shots of celebrities.
Lyons and Bingle are partners in Growlers restaurant in Torquay.
The balcony expose marks the fourth time nude photos of her have surfaced publicly. Photos of her topless in a field, taken seven years ago, appeared on websites in 2007.
A mobile-phone snap of her in a shower, allegedly taken by her then lover, former AFL player Brendan Fevola, when they had a brief fling in 2006, was first published in 2010. Those pics contributed to the breakdown of her relationship with cricketer Michael Clarke, to whom she was engaged.
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