As the fallout from child sex abuse claims levelled against the Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes gathers momentum, Hughes's wife, the once powerful Hollywood agent Robyn Gardiner is facing up to her own nightmare.
Since the claims were raised nearly two years ago by the former child star Sarah Monahan, Gardiner has kept out of the spotlight, declining to comment and focusing on her global business, RGM, which counts Cate Blanchett among its stellar clients.
PS understands Gardiner, who has a daughter with Hughes, has supported her husband throughout the ordeal and remains in the relationship, sharing a London apartment with him and a home in Singapore.
''We were very old friends, she started her career by working as my assistant in 1970. She was immensely successful and powerful … When you have Cate Blanchett on your books, people listen,'' a fellow casting powerhouse, Liz Mullinar, herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, told PS this week. Mullinar said she had not spoken with her old friend ''for years'', confirming her falling out was over Hughes and the accusations he now faces.
Indications that Gardiner, who had built a multimillion-dollar empire, was now facing financial strain emerged in August when it was reported Hughes had spent a night in a London jail because his wife was unable to raise the $90,000 bail.
In Sydney, several of Gardiner's clients have quietly left the agency since the scandal emerged, including the actor Ben Oxenbould, who also starred on Hey Dad! Oxenbould went public with his suspicions of Hughes on national television. At the time, he was listed alongside Hughes on the RGM website.
Gardiner's business is also facing other problems internationally, with Singapore's Media Development Authority suing RGM Entertainment and RGM Group - both subsidiaries of One North Entertainment (formerly known as RGM Media and currently in adminstration) based in Australia - to recover $S27.5 million ($21.5 million) of public funds. PS understands the action is being defended.
Gardiner resigned as a director of One North Entertainment in April but remains a consultant to RGM Artists, a separate entity. The Australian Securities Exchange reported last month One North Entertainment had not paid its annual listing fee and was removed from the official list.
According to court documents, RGM Entertainment was set up in Singapore in 2005 with a $S2.5 million loan from the Media Development Authority. A further $S10 million was handed to RGM in 2008 for a film production fund. Two years later, the authority seeded funds to two film studios - $S5 million to 20th Century Fox and $S10 million to Sony Pictures Entertainment - by establishing two agreements with RGM.
According to media reports, the deals were meant to ''make Singapore a vibrant global media city'' but it never materialised. Now the Singaporeans want their money back.
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