Alan Joyce is the CEO of Australian airline Qantas. He’s also gay, a fierce advocate for marriage equality, and the latest victim of a cream pie attack.
While delivering a speech to 500 people at a business breakfast in Perth this week, a man casually walked up to 50-year-old Joyce and smashed a pie in his face.
The man was Tony Overheu, a senior member of the Church of Christ in the southern Perth suburb of Willetton who once ran a failed campaign for Senate. Overheu was detained by security until the police arrived. He’s currently in custody.
Joyce, who had been discussing the airline’s new non-stop services from London to Perth, managed to make light of the situation in the moment.
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“I don’t know what that was about,” he told the audience. “Now, if there are any more pies can you get it over with now.”
He exited the stage to clean himself up. A few minutes later he returned to the finish his speech and was met with a round of applause from the room.
Of course, not everyone has been as sympathetic. Facebook trolls wasted no time making fun of the situation:
After the attack, Joyce told media this sort of thing is just par for the course when you have a high profile job at a high profile company.
“When you’ve been CEO of an airline for nine years, there’s a lot of things that have happened over that period of time,” he said. “This is different, this is certainly an unusual event, but things like this have happened in the past.”
He added that he didn’t actually get a chance to taste the pie, so he’s not sure what flavor it was.
“It was mostly on my glasses,” he said. “My issue is I need a good dry cleaner before I leave Perth, so if you have one, please recommend it.”
See video from the pie attack below…
Pie thrown in face of Qantas chief
Pie thrown in face of Qantas chief Alan Joyce while in Perth.Story: https://yhoo.it/2poPEKSReport on 7 News at 6pm.#ausbiz #7News
Posted by 7 News Sydney on Monday, May 8, 2017
dinard38
So this is how a Christian behaves. Shocking!!
So damn childish.
fur_hunter
Dinard38…….Now, remember. We did the same thing to that 8itch, Anita Bryant back in the 70s. If you haven’t seen that video, check it out.
batesmotel
We the gays did the same thing to Anita Bryant. Is that still childish? Or is this more double standard hypocrisy where it’s okay that we do it, but no one else can.
ChrisK
Yeah, but i didn’t realize that the CEO was trying to steal the civil rights away from the the Pie smashing Christian Loon. When Bryant got the pie in the face everyone at least understood what it was about.
One is made up persecution and the other was real persecution.
1EqualityUSA
Somebody’s luggage will be lost.
DarkZephyr
Seriously Bates and Dinard? So is that what this was? Retaliation for Anita Bryant who was going out of her way to successfully destroy civil rights for LGBT people in America for years and years and YEARS to come? So… They waited 40 years to get revenge for that and did so on another continent to some random gay man after a significant number of the American gay men that were around back then are decades dead from a terrible plague and aren’t alive to even see it? I hope you’re both being ironic.
DarkZephyr
Sorry about that Dinard. My comment was meant for Bates and Fur_hunter and not you.
Heywood Jablowme
@fur_hunter, @batesmotel:
Christians claim to be forgiving and all that cr@p. Gay men generally don’t claim that sort of stuff. So there you go, no double standard. They’re the hypocrites and we’re not.
Jere
Christianity has very little to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ anymore.
Dakotahgeo
AMEN! The conservatives in the USA have made sure of that! Pastor George M Melby.
Minerva pomerantz
More Christians behaving badly. Just wait till he says that he was the one victimized. 3….2….1…
batesmotel
Well we did the same thing to Anita Bryant, so you can’t really say that.
ivanw222
@batesmotel, yes but when we did it to Anita Bryant we were…wait for it…fabulous!
Captain Obvious
Australia is very known for being racist and homophobic. I’m not remotely surprised. It’s been said that there was a huge mob waiting for Heath Ledger’s body during his burial so people could spit on the casket. All because he starred in Brokeback Mountain. If they could be that petty then smashing a pie in a guy’s face is nothing.
Alternatively I’ve also heard Australia has a huge gay scene and I imagine they aren’t all being murdered in the street. Who knows. It’s all probably somewhere in the middle and no different than anywhere else.
Gigi Gee
I have a friend who lives in Sydney and it’s VERY gay friendly. It is in most cities. Things change once you leave major urban areas, just like here. The Talibangelists are very hateful and militant, even more so than in America.
ChrisK
Wow. Didn’t know that. I always had this friendly idea of Australia.
I remember hearing the story about gay men being routinely murdered by small town thugs and the American sister trying to find out what happened to her gay brother. The Police turned a blind approving eye.
Captain Obvious
Good to hear that there are at least safe havens in the cities. There are areas in America to avoid too so I guess it’s just not all that different around the world. I’ve always wanted to go to Sydney but the various things I’ve heard about Australia made me hesitant to even consider it.
Herman75
My impression of Australia is similar to the US south, 20 years ago.
Texasholdem
A gay man did this to Anita Bryant once. But she deserved it.
fur_hunter
Yep! I remember it well. I laughed my @$$ off when I saw it on the news.
He BGB
WHEN Anita Bryant was pied, she commented it was a “fruit” pie, which was pretty clever for the old hag. And what’s this Christian think he’s doing? Pies in the face are OUR THING!
He BGB
Pies in the face is our thing.
fur_hunter
He BGB……Do you remember it? I remember it being all over the news back then. We all laughed our @$$es off every time they replayed it. Isn’t her husband the one who runs and oversees the American Family Association? I think he does. Explains why that organization is so backward.
barkomatic
Another scared homophobe who’ll soon find himself on the wrong side of history.
Gigi Gee
“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” — Anne Lamott
tdh1980
Because a pie in the face of your adversary definitely legitimizes your anti-gay cause.
Roan
Being a christian should qualify as a hate crime.
batesmotel
haha, well we did the same thing to Anita Bryant. You can’t say, “Oh it’s okay that we did it, but no one else can. We dominate!” That would be hypocritical. Treats others as you want to be treated.
fur_hunter
batesmotel…….are you old enough to remember seeing it on the news back then? It was glorious. We couldn’t believe someone had the brass to do it. Every time they replayed it on the news we laughed our @$$es off. So….maybe turn about is fair play, but it’s not original anymore. We did it first. And HEY….it got gay press, didn’t it? Who was it that said. “Any news, even bad news, is great. Because you are in the public eye.”
Chris2016
“We” didn’t do anything. One man did.
We also weren’t the ones messing with other peoples lives in the name of a loving and compassionate god.
fur_hunter
Shades of Anita Bryant back in the 70s. I remember it well. Laughed my @$$ off. Unfortunately for this guy, we did it first, so it’s not original. But it got press coverage, didn’t it. Any news is good news because we are in the eye of the public showing them we are not going away.
chuck
Anita Bryant tit for tat, let it go.
Roan
FULL STOP. There is no tit-for-tat here with the Anita Bryant issue. Since that time, we have been subjected to the most heinous of abuse at the hands of every pastor, politician and ideologue to come down the pike. Anita’s pie in the face was cancelled out thousands of times over and for many years to come.
nitejonboy
Damn, get a look at the jawline on that guy ? Dude looks like a Bond villain !!!
Steven
Looks to me like grounds for assault charges. How childish! Is that what Jesus would do?
Billysees
” How childish! Is that what Jesus would do? ”
Good comment.
baal61
Seems a Homoerotic gesture on the part of the Homophobic horse faced dick who did.
DuMaurier
First of all, we have no idea if this has anything to do with Christianity or the ‘victim’s’ sexuality. More importantly, the history of public figures being ‘pied’ is not a blank between Anita Bryant and this CEO. I kinda thought the trend had faded, but Google the dozens of people who’ve been ‘victims’, from Kelly Ripa to the King of Sweden, and those are just two chosen at random.
Billysees
Bill Gates got ‘pied’ some time ago. Reason unknown as far as I can remember.