'Cont. living memorial to an unforgettable humanitarian!
Irwin puts Greer out of the picture Ben Packham
February 16, 2007 12:00am
SHE attacked him barely hours after he died, but now Steve Irwin has had the last laugh.
A portrait of Germaine Greer is gathering dust in a storeroom as Irwin's photograph hangs in its place in Canberra's National Portrait Gallery.
The switch, made by gallery management last Friday, was branded "sweet justice" by Irwin supporters.
But gallery officials said it was just a coincidence, and they needed the space.
Greer, the expat Aussie feminist who regularly bashes her homeland from abroad, unleashed a storm with her comments after the TV wildlife presenter's death in September last year. In a newspaper column soon after Irwin was killed by a stingray, Greer accused him of torturing animals and of being a bad influence on children.
"The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin," she said.
"But probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing 10 times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn."
The Irwin photograph, taken in 2005 by Australian Robin Selleck, shows him smiling, with his arm around an elephant's trunk. It replaces a 1988 photograph of Greer, 68, by Jacqueline Mitelman.
Irwin's manager, John Stainton, welcomed the news. "It's sweet justice, to be honest," he said.
"I don't bear any malice towards Germaine Greer. I think anyone is entitled to say what they like.
"I just think the timing was very bad, and it was insensitive towards the family and people who loved Steve."
Greer was highly amused when told of the portrait switch last night.
Asked if the author laughed upon hearing the news, her agent Delena McConnell said: "Yes, she did."
But the agent, who described the portrait change-over as "an amusing coincidence", said Greer would not make any public comment.
A spokesman for the National Portrait Gallery, which is housed in Old Parliament House, said the decision was made because the gallery was too small to show all its works at once.
"She hasn't been bumped," spokesman David Edghill said of the Greer portrait.
"She is just down in our registration office with our other works.
"At the moment we only have space for 100 works, so we rotate our images all the time.
"Obviously, with Steve Irwin, there has been a lot of public interest in that portrait."
Irwin's photograph hangs alongside portraits of former prime ministers, judges, cricket captains, generals and Australians of the Year.