The Grand Entrance

Anna Hutchison's grand entrance onto Australian television involved stripping naked for more than 2.5 million people in her raunchy role in the Underbelly prequel. While some viewers and family groups condemned her steamy sex scenes with Matthew Newton and frequent exposure of her breasts as soft porn, others drooled. Acknowledging the attention and backlash as "controversy the producers will be loving", the New Zealand actress said she dared to bare and would do it again. "A lot of women's roles you are up for call for nudity and it is just up to . . . whether you think the role needs it, and this one did," Hutchison, 23, said.

"Sometimes in maybe a comedy or something like that you might think, 'Yes, I've got funny-looking boobs so that would work'. It didn't worry me, but it's not the only thing I am capable of. I knew at the beginning there was nudity involved. I liked the real passion (Allison Dine) had. You want something that will challenge you and this has. I'm lucky the roles I've had since I was 16 have been totally different to how I am."


Hutchison's big Underbelly break came after years of chipping away at her showbiz career. Since landing a regular role in New Zealand soap Shortland Street in 2001, she has been juggling completing a business degree with featuring in local productions. After exposing so much flesh, it's probably no surprise a conservative role is next on Hutchison's agenda. "Probably a librarian or a nun," she laughed.
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Underbelly As Soft Porn

Bare breasts and raunchy sex scenes have sparked fierce debate following the second outing of the Underbelly prequel on Monday. While the premiere telemovie, Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities, kept nudity and foul language to a minimum, viewers and family groups expressed their concern over intimate scenes between heroin kingpin Terry Clark (played by Matthew Newton) and his drug-running mistress Allison (Anna Hutchison) saying they edged on soft porn.

The prolonged nudity of Hutchison, a lead character in the one hour episode, raised concerns about the M rated gangland crime drama screening at 8.30pm. Under the Commercial Television Code of Conduct, Channel 9 is within their rights to telecast the program at 8.30pm, the first available time slot to show M rated material, as it's considered the beginning of adult viewing in prime time on weekdays. TV networks self-regulate their show's classifications and time slots, which includes enforcing general (G) ratings between 4pm and 7pm and parental guidance (PG) zones between 7pm and 8.30pm on weekdays.


Mature audience (MA) classifications come into play seven days a week between 9pm and 5am and adult violence (AV) ratings are recommended from 9.30pm to 5am. Pay television follows almost identical guidelines. "The 8.30pm time slot isn't a family friendly zone, it's always been the adults time slot,'' Nine's chief classification officer Richard Lyle says.

However, the excessive nudity in Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities, which attracted a national average audience of 2.46 million on Monday evening, was condemned by Australian Family Association representative Joe Lopez yesterday. Lopez called on the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to review the self-regulation codes because the 8.30pm time slot is still open to teenagers.

"The laws governing censorship need to be reviewed because teenagers are still up at this time,'' Lopez says. "There's no excuse at anytime to show excessive pornography or violence like they do in Underbelly. They are trying to put a dramatic representation of how crime was in relation to the illicit drug trade in that time by glamorising it with sex. If you are trying to show that illicit drugs are a driver for criminality, why lump the whole thing with pornography? This isn't soft porn, it's pornography.''

With one season of Underbelly, which showcased Melbourne's underworld blood-drenched shootings, breasts galore and potty mouths, down, Lyle says the network received just three complaints following Monday's episode. "Those people who says it's soft porn have clearly never actually watched soft porn because you see actual intercourse,'' says Lyle, who also said offensive swear words including 'cunt' would usually only be shown under an MA classification.
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Underbelly Sex Controversy

The opening scenes of the Underbelly prequel viral campaign show a naked Matthew Newton, as 1970s drug kingpin Terry "Mr Asia" Clark, peacefully painting before launching into a tirade of explicit sex and painfully violent scenes. "So you’re an artist," a woman asks Clark to which he responds with a made-for-criminal smirk, "When I’ve got time", before orchestra music begins. The leaked 37 second Internet video campaign is shocking and crude, cut together to showcase the most violent and sex-charged scenes of the new series Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities.

The clip has already sparked outrage from Christian Democratic Party leader Reverend Fred Nile, who labelled the video “pornographic” and will concern family groups. “I think it’s disgusting and shocking,” Reverend Nile said. “Even for a viral campaign there are standards and this would come into the category of pornography. The worst part about it is that it’s making the criminals heroes when that’s a black page on the history of Sydney. There is nothing proud about it.”


Reverend Nile said the Christian Democratic Party would hold protests, the same held when the original Underbelly screened early last year and call for advertisers to boycott the program, when the show premieres on Channel 9 in February.

“TV is a family medium, it’s in family homes and needs to meet a tougher set of standards,” he said. “I know this is the most elicit parts all cut together, but this shouldn’t be shown on television. We will be lobbying for a screening to be held before it goes to air, authorities need to intervene over this.”

Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities, which began filming on October 17 and features a stellar cast including Matthew Newton, Asher Keddie, Peter Phelps, Roy Billing and Peter O’Brien, revolves around the two biggest crooks of the late 1970s and early 1980s era - Robert Trimbole (Billing) and Terry “Mr Asia” Clark (Newton). The tale follows their drug and gambling-filled lives.

In the lead up to the official ratings period beginning on February 8, Nine are feeling the pressure to produce a gripping drama to trump the exceptional ratings of the first season, which attracted an average of 1.26 million viewers during the 13-part series. This excluded Victoria where the show was banned due to a court injunction.

Series writer Peter Gawler admitted last year that despite an email from Channel 9’s in-house censor to tone down some scenes, most scripts were staying as they were delivered.

“I got an email that just said ‘omit pubic hair’,” Gawler said.

“I sent a one-word email back – ‘no’. There will be male nudity and female nudity.”
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