I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

I was reading a newspaper article this week and something caught my eye.

That surprised you, didn’t it? Not the fact something caught my eye, I mean the fact I can read. Well, it did have nice coloured pictures and the stories tend to be fairytales. It’s called the Daily Mirror, a paper where the only commentator you can trust is a bloke called Andy Capp.

Anyway, this piece revealed that an American actor, who starred in the movie Grease with John Travolta, is ill after a very bad fall at his home.

Now, I wish nothing but good things for this actor, and I certainly hope and pray for a speedy recovery for him. However it reminded me that when I last met him he cemented his reputation in my mind as one of the rudest people I have ever encountered or tried to interview.

I had flown to New York for BBC’s Pebble Mill show and, although the televised chat had been fixed up with his agent, the actor refused to do the interview and told us, rudely and repeatedly, that he was going to a club instead. We followed him, cameras in tow, and he kept us hanging around till three in the morning saying he might change his mind. He eventually sneaked off home leaving us all embarrassed.

I thought I’d tell you this week who the rudest celebrities are, the self obsessed nasties behind the public smile. Normally interviewers will rush to tell you about the nicest and most cooperative guests they’ve had, and I’ve certainly had loads of those.

My first ever interview, while I was a student, was with the songwriter Lionel Bart shortly before his death, and if I spent a whole day I couldn’t do full justice to the time he lavished on me, a spotty stuttering oik who couldn’t string two words together. He was kindness and patience itself and he asked as much about my hopes as I did about his career. Class is eternal and I like to think he leads a Pearly Kings and Queens choir upstairs singing songs he wrote for Oliver and making people feel special.

Anyway, back to my theme of spilling the beans on just who the horrible stars are.
Of course it’s the nice ones who make you realise that the self opinionated ones aren’t worth it. Nice ones like Peter Cushing who was a gentleman and whose kindness makes me cry every time I read the dedication he wrote to me in his book, Jackie Collins who always sends a thank you letter after every interview, Connie Francis who asked if I could give her my sweater and sent a lovely thank you note plus chocolate, and Michael Bentine who even turned up on the last show of a series I did just to protest that it was being taken off.

Then there’s Anita Roddick of The Body Shop, Roy Hudd who deserves every bit of success he’s ever had, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott who gave me a book of his poetry, Kenneth Williams who was strange but very kind, the actor Stanley Unwin who couldn’t understand his own fame, Peter Cook who was a fan of a quiz show I hosted and introduced me to Dudley Moore with compliments I would blush to repeat.... the list goes on and on but, sadly, most of the names above are now dead.

I have been very privileged to meet these extraordinary people, and perhaps that’s why I’m always tempted to walk out of interviews when the “star” is acting up. They’re just not worth it.

So, back to the purpose of this week’s blog - telling you about the horrible people I’ve met and naming names.

Actually, on remembering the above, kind people, I think I’’ll take a leaf out of their book instead and just say this. You get back what you give out. Because you can sing or you can dress up and repeat someone else’s words in a movie, it doesn’t make you special. It’s how you treat others that does that. This week’s Telethons for Haiti, featuring famous singers and actors, gives me hope.

I only hope that the American actor from Grease recovers fully, and then that he remembers what’s really important. And it's not his career.


http://www.smoothradiolondon.co.uk/presenters-shows/shows-xmw1/paul-coia-drivetime-show-y43p/pauls-picks-cui1/paul-chats-to-nell-bryden/dr3s159d/