FANTASYLAND

I see that Hendo's celluloid exercise in self-promotion is on TV2 tonight.

We're Here To Help was released in 2007 and as I said at the time, no-one in the media bothered to check the credentials of either Hendo or the movie. The day after the movie premiered in Christchurch I wrote.

...Henderson has had a truckload of uncritical and sympathetic media coverage - including TVNZ, TV3 ( a totally uncritical and gushing John Campbell interview), radio reports and various newspaper stories. In fact, Henderson has had for free the kind of coverage a PR company would normally have to pay for.

But these were the days when the property market was booming and the finance companies (eg Hanover) were more than eager to lend millions to people like our mate Dave.

Hendo was one of the new faces of New Zealand business, an entrepreneurial 'hero' leading us all to the promised land.

The level of sycophancy in the media was particularly vomit-inducing. I've never quite managed to forgive John Campbell for the pathetic boot-licking interview he did with Henderson.

But, of course, it all came to a screeching halt when an over-heated property market blew up and Hendo's business 'empire' began to disintegrate.

This movie is best viewed as an historical oddity of those peculiar times and it certainly should not be treated as the 'true story' it claims to be.

I would have thought that the media would have learnt by now that Hendo is always economical with the truth.

But what do I see in my TV Guide? The film reviewer gives We're Here To help four stars and comments ' Dave's trials and tribulations will have you grinning in disbelief as well as amusement.'

Some people obviously never learn...