THE day that Frank Sinatra caused a furore in Australia by likening women journalists to cheap hookers has inspired a British producer to tell the story on the big screen.

The Night We Called It A Day, which is being filmed in collaboration with Australia’s Ocean Pictures, stars Dennis Hopper as Sinatra and Melanie Griffith as his future fourth wife, Barbara Marx.

Sinatra’s outburst came on the first night of a scheduled five-night tour of Australia in 1974. The 58-year-old singer told his audience in Melbourne: “They (the press) keep chasing after us. We have to run all day long. They are parasites who take everything and give nothing.

“And as for the broads who work for the press, they’re the hookers of the press. I might offer them a buck and a half. I’m not sure.”

Nik Powell, of Scala Productions, said: “This was hardly a PR masterstroke and to do it in politically correct Melbourne in 1974 — the city which gave birth to Helen Reddy, not to mention educating Germaine Greer — was particularly brazen.”

Sinatra had wanted to go to Australia because he saw it as somewhere quiet to tour. However, all hell broke loose after his comments and the singer refused to apologise the next day.

Australian unions were up in arms and the singer’s private jet was grounded because workers were refusing to refuel it. No member of any Australian union was permitted to provide any services to Sinatra. However, Bob Hawke, the future Australian Prime Minister but then a powerful union chief, was persuaded to calm the situation.

The Australian Journalists’ Association contacted Hawke, who told the American star: “If you don’t apologise, your stay in this country could be indefinite. You won’t be (able) to leave Australia, unless you can walk on water.”

Only then did Sinatra agree to sign a statement to the effect that he regretted any inconvenience caused to patrons of his shows.

He later apologised “very grudgingly through gritted teeth”, according to one report. Mr Powell, who is showing work-in-progress at the Cannes Film Festival, said: “It is a weird and wonderful story. The film is a fictional story spun around a real-life event.”

His co-producer, Emile Sherman, of Ocean Pictures, said: “It’s a story that couldn’t happen today. It was a time when Australia felt it could put two fingers up to the world.

“Casting Frank was key. It sets the tone for the film, and with Dennis Hopper people realise this is a theatrical, edgy film. He has that element of danger that Sinatra had.”

Sinatra was known for his temper and had a reputation for getting into fistfights with the press.

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