Play School icon Noni Hazlehurst’s embarrassing moment with Mel Gibson

Iconic Australian actress Noni Hazlehurst has revealed an embarrassing moment she shared with Hollywood actor Mel Gibson when they starred in a play together. The former long standing host of Play School spoke to The Project on Wednesday about her upcoming memoir, Dropping the Mask. The book is full of anecdotes from her nearly five-decades-long career in film, television, theatre and radio - but it was a cringeworthy moment with Mel Gibson that she was asked to explain. Ms Hazlehurst told the panel of The Project that the pair had been starring together in an Australian play called No Names, No Pack Drill when the mortifying moment occurred. “We played a couple who get together,” she explained. Ms Hazelhurst recalled the on-stage couple were expected to “come together” and “hit lips” for their first kiss just before the interval. On one particular night, she said she felt like she was “going to be sick” and she was “really feeling bad”. “As we were coming together, I was trying to signal to him that I wasn’t very well at all,” the former Better Homes and Gardens presenter said. “And every night when Mel kissed me, because he was so gorgeous, the audience would sigh with longing to be in my shoes.” “(On this night) He came in for the kiss, I ran off and threw up in a bucket and we had to cancel the rest of the show.” Ms Hazlehurst confirmed audience members had received tickets for another night instead. “But Mel didn’t get vomit on his face so everyone was a winner on the night,” The Project co-host Waleed Aly summarised. “It was a win-win,” Ms Hazelhurst agreed. Ms Hazlehurst is no stranger to celebrities, having starred alongside Heath Ledger, Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving. She has been acting since the 1970s and was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2016 for her contributions. For most Australians, she is best remembered as the face of Play School for 23 years and the presenter of Better Homes and Gardens for 10 years.