The Project responds to Richard Dreyfuss' allegations

On Thursday, US actor Richard Dreyfuss took aim at Lisa Wilkinson and Hamish Macdonald for allegedly “mugging” him on the Sunday Project.

In an interview on Channel 9’s Today Show, the 70-year-old Jaws actor read out a statement scolding Wilkinson and Macdonald and comparing them to petty criminals.

Now, the Network Ten show have responded.

“We did not mug Richard Dreyfuss,” Hamish said, addressing the issue on Thursday’s show.

“I’ve got to say, I’m shocked and little bit disappointed in the whole thing and I don’t really understand it,” he said.

“Some things worth pointing out. His people were very clearly told that we intended to ask questions about allegations been made about him and that he had spoken about in the past in that written statement.”

Hamish then went on to say that Network Ten have the “emails to prove” that they told the actor what the interview was going to be about.

“Don’t forget, this is a man who publicly said that in the 1970s at the height of his fame, he’d disrespected himself and women and ignored his own ethics.

“So as journalists, there was just no way that we could not ask about it and we also gave him the option in writing of not appearing on the program if he wasn’t prepared to talk about it.”

Last year, Dreyfuss was accused of sexual misconduct in an alleged incident that happened 30 years prior.

During the interview with the Sunday Project he said:

“It was apparently a flirtation that I was involved in and did not know was not consensual.”

“And her [Wilkinson] question to me was, ‘Richard did you express your shame because you had worked at realising you had done something shameful or because you had been accused and caught out?’”

“So why they had made such a point of repeating we were going to have a light and friendly chat while keeping their real questions so secret, I have no idea.”

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