Susan Hannaford thought it was wise to do an A Current Affair exposé and it went awry

IN A strange and ill-conceived attempt at repairing her reputation after being labelled a “fraudster”, former child star of The Sullivans, Susan Hannaford, has wisely put her life in the hands of A Current Affair.

The segment, which aired Monday night, went awry within seconds.

You’d think Susan had learnt her lesson. Just weeks ago, she fell under the spell of dreamy Sunday Night reporter Matt Doran and welcomed him inside her palatial Beverly Hills mansion.

The resulting story was glorious. Shots were shown of a personal pianist dabbling away on a grand piano in the living room, two chefs scooping caviar on to canapés and her adopted granddaughter cruising around one of the mansion’s mezzanine levels in a miniature Mercedes.

And then Doran accused the former star of owing more than $6 million to various institutions.

It was honestly exquisite.

Susan was left scorned. And it was a harsh reminder of why she left Australia two decades ago and moved to LA to make it as a property mogul.

But Susan — best known as red-headed Kitty on The Sullivans — wasn’t going to take this lying down. The cutthroat world of Hollywood has toughened her. So she hatched a plan to get payback.

The plan? Exposing her life and home again to Nine’s A Current Affair. It was completely sensible and foolproof.

In a promo for the segment, the platinum blonde 65-year-old stood in the middle of her living room with a grand piano in the background and stared witheringly down the barrel of the camera.

Utilising every skerrick of acting training she could remember, Susan delivered the following dialogue with varying pitch, pace and volume, and effortlessly changed gears between an extreme range of emotions — from angry disbelief and snippy hostility to sweet innocence.

“TONIGHT! On A Current Affair. I’m going to reveal to you the REAL STORY. On how I was SET UP. And defamed. To look like a FRAUDSTER. Tonight … Channel 9, A Current Affair DON’T MISS IT,” she said, delivering those final three words in such a menacing way that we were frightened for even considering watching The Project.

Introducing the segment, Tracy Grimshaw did her best to not laugh at what she knew was coming.

“Welcome to Palazzo Beverly Hills,” Susan said, swinging open the doors of her mansion before posing in the grand doorway while wearing a racy black dress and strappy platform wedge-sandals.

“She’s shitty Kitty,” a sarcastic voiceover said over a series of shots showing Susan looking, well, shitty.

Easily fooled by the faux concern of television producers, Susan teetered around the glossy floors of her home giving the grand tour.

“Hmmm just over here we have Jay Z and Beyonce,” she said, pointing vaguely across the Hollywood canyon.

While Susan was under the impression the interview would be used as a platform for her to deny claims made in the Sunday Night segment, things veered of course when she was asked about bold statements she made to Australian media in the ’90s that she had just been cast on Seinfeld.

“That just didn’t pan out. I love the way it’s a stigma,” she said dramatically, squinting her eyes and nervously fingering the ends of her hair.

No stone was left unturned.

Sunday Night alleged Susan’s mum once lived in a car park and is now dead and is also the person whose name the star’s properties are signed in. In response to the claims, Susan hit back by supplying a photo of her mum looking like the owner of a rap label.

Eventually, Susan was given the chance to declare she was now suing two Australian media organisations for $100 million for their claims about her wealth.

Camera’s then suddenly cut back to Tracey Grimshaw a little too quickly and she was busted actually cringing.

Twitter and Facebook: @hellojamesweir

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