Richard Wilkins was mid-sentence when a commotion off camera caught his eye.
It was June 25, 2009 and the Nine Entertainment Editor was reporting live to air on the Today show about the breaking news Michael Jackson had been rushed to hospital.
It was a day Wilkins would not forget. Hours before the music icon’s sudden death from a cardiac arrest, American actress Farrah Fawcett died.
Then, Wilkins accidentally announced the passing of Hollywood nice guy Jeff Goldblum.
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“Suddenly, we got the news that Michael Jackson was being rushed to hospital,” Wilkins tells 9Celebrity in the latest episode of Dickie’s Diaries.
“It was rolling coverage and we were throwing to various cameras and various other stations around the world.”
Hours earlier reports came through that Fawcett had died from cancer and there were mixed reports on the status of the music icon’s health.
“It was a big, emotional time for everybody,” Wilkins said.
He was in conversation with then-Today co-hosts Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson about reports the Thriller singer had died when he became visibly distracted.
With the cameras back on Stefanovic and Wilkinson, Wilkins gestured towards studio producers. He was handed a piece of paper with further shocking news.
“Then I did get the word, I did have a piece of paper passed to me saying ‘Jeff Goldblum has fallen off a cliff in New Zealand and died’,” Wilkins recalled.
“And I was like, ‘What? That can’t be right?'”
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With no official confirmation of Goldblum’s passing, Wilkins chose to wait.
“About 20 minutes later it has been confirmed by New Zealand police,” he said.
“And so I remember looking at Karl … and so I did say, and fortunately I proceeded it by the words ‘we are getting reports that Jeff Goldblum fell from a cliff to his death while filming in New Zealand’.”
The problem was, Goldblum was alive and well.
“That was about it, really. Until Jeff heard the news and went public and said he was in fact not dead,” Wilkins said.
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“And then I interviewed him not that long after all of that. We did have sort of a bit of fun with it … I didn’t quite know how it would be.
“The first words I said to him were ‘Sorry about that’, and he said ‘Oh, no problem, easy mistake to make’… and we’ve become firm friends.”