O'Keefe gets a laugh out of drunk video
ANDREW O'Keefe has used humour to make light of video footage showing him wildly drunk on his return to live television.
Back alongside co-host Samantha Armytage on Weekend Sunrise after a holiday break, the nephew of rock legend Johnny O'Keefe tackled the subject of his headline-making Melbourne bender.
He raised the incident - filmed by nightclubbers who had befriended the star - after pregnant fill-in newsreader Jessica Rowe mentioned putting on weight because of too much Christmas cheer.
"We all know about a bit of extra Chrissy cheer," O'Keefe responded, before admitting that what he wanted for Christmas was "a gift voucher to a rehab centre in Miami".
Having spent the festive season in Chicago with wife Eleanor and sons Barnaby and Rory, the Deal Or No Deal host went on to semi-sarcastically describe the turmoil surrounding the release of the footage, before thanking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for his support.
"Thank you, K. Rudd," O'Keefe said. "Thanks very much.
"And by the way, just on the whole 'thing', thank you to everyone who wrote in with your letters of support.
I really appreciate that.
"And to whoever sent me that case of beer, I appreciate that too. Thank you very much," he said jokingly.
It's the first time O'Keefe has talked publicly about the four-minute mobile phone footage, which featured images of the intoxicated star lying in a gutter smoking a cigarette outside Revolver nightclub, in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Prahran, in mid-December.
Channel 7 allegedly paid $25,000 hush money to a bouncer in an attempt to prevent the video being made public.
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