Rivals keep mag war dramas alive Arch rivals: Nene King in her Sydney office in 1999. Photo: Brendan Esposito Nene King says it is a beat-up and that she needed a stiff drink after watching a preview. Her best friend Val Hopwood burst into tears after the screening. And King's arch rival Dulcie Boling, who had warned the Southern Star production company away from her personal life, says the show is based on King's book, Nene, which is "full of nonsense." Paper Giants: Magazine Wars, the two-parter on the King-Boling publishing rivalry, launches on Sunday on ABC TV and if you were wondering what the two former editors think of their lives being hung out to dry, the verdict is in. Neither is pleased. "I've always liked a good beat-up," King says. As Ita Buttrose said, Southern Star are good at fiction. I mean, I've never worn a dress in my life. Slacks, jeans, long skirts maybe, but no dresses. Yes, I swear and scream and have a foul mouth but I loved my staff, mentored a lot of them, even helped some out financially. Dulcie Boling in 1991. Photo: Supplied And I never yelled at Kerry Packer. Why would I? He always supported me. Whenever I saw him he would pat me on the head and congratulate me. I was making him millions with Women's Day. In fact, Kerry called me in one day and said I could run Women's Weekly too. I walked around his enormous desk and gave him a peck on the cheek. But in this show I am sitting on his knee and almost raping him. I understand that they have to make the show worthwhile but I know the truth. King said the ABC had invited her to Melbourne from her Ballarat home for the preview. Hopwood came down from Sydney because King didn't want to watch it alone. Val and I dissected it on the drive home and by the time we got to Ballarat there was smoke coming out of our ears. We each had a big Bailey's then Val burst into tears. She thought it is most unfair on me," King says. I don't think they show a nice side of me at all. I know I was a beat-up queen myself but I thought, hang on, this is pure fiction! I'm relieved that my mother Emily comes across well but I don't really relate to me. Dulcie Boling, who ran New Idea and was King's boss there for six years, tried to ignore the mini-series but says she was alerted to it by one of her former writers, Bob Gordon. He told her the the production people had spoken to him and they didn't seem to know much about Boling. Then other senior staff from the New Idea days got in touch urging Boling to speak out, she says. I went in to see Southern Star because it seemed the series was being based on Nene King's book. I've never read it but apparently Nene was the greatest and ran the whole show and I was sitting up in the boardroom filing my nails. There was a meeting and I gave them a very hard time. Boling, a formidable lady when stirred, ruled out including her family life. "I took away their best stories," she says. Boling and King have rarely spoken since the 1980s when King left New Idea after a heated office confrontation. Boling says King would never have become the editor. I found out that she had been terrorising staff, saying I would sack them. It was part of her thing, she was a on a serious track to undermine me. She says it is "ridiculous" to describe the rivalry as war. It sounds like handbags at 10 paces. I never considered myself at war with anything - well, maybe Ita in the early days. Producer Mimi Butler, who sat with Boling at her Sydney screening, says everyone involved had varying memories of events. "We got as close to the truth as we could," she said, "but it is a drama." And there is still no love lost between the magazine queens. Boling says King is a "nut case" and King says Boling is a "silly old woman who won't admit defeat graciously." Says King: "Dulcie can say my brain was fried but how come I went on to become the most successful editor of Australian women's magazines? I'll be relieved when this series has been screened and it's over.