to think this is not nice of Richard E Grant

Thank you for this.

There's a lot of nonsense on this thread but this is right up there.

When you say 'it's dated now', what do you mean? Withnail and I was made in the late 1980s and set at the very end of the 1960s. Do you just mean 'it was made a long time ago and I only watch new things'? I would say it's a classic and will never date, but then it's one of my favourite films. That won't change even if it turns out that everyone involved is a nasty piece of work.

Not necessarily anyone well known. My understanding is that when you join Equity, the actors' union, you have to register under a name that's different from all other current members. David McDonald had to become David Tennant, for example.

Richard Grant's real name is Richard Grant Esterhuysen. Very understandable that he didn't want to use a surname professionally that many people would have struggled to spell or pronounce, so it seems he went for his middle name but had to add an initial to distinguish himself from an existing Equity member called Richard Grant.

It was Reach For The Stars by Michael Cragg.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0C9V1VW8P/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

I didn't know that Miranda Sawyer had written a book, that'll have to go on my list too.

I never trusted him

All that gurning online and publishing a book about his wife who he says - was very private!!

One of those professional widow/widowers - see also Esther Rantzen - we cannot comprehend their relationship etc

Was he being sarcastic as she is clearly very attractive.

Yes, it’s a bit odd. He’s worked very consistently on tv, stage and film since Withnail, and has lots of award nominations and awards.

Or.. hear me out. He can be an arsehole sometimes. It’s not exactly an outlandish theory.

But talking about his abusive, alcoholic father and his mother having sex with another man with him in the car isn’t? He had an abusive, shitty childhood and he openly talks about it, which is actually fair enough, and more people should talk about it and feel comfortable enough to do so.

I think it reads like either:

A. he was making a(bad) joke and it’s been reported out of context or

B. He has mental health issues.

I agree, they are such exact things, he’s not just plucked that from thin air , he wouldn’t know her from Adam would he to know such specific things.

To me it says I’m not airing my dirty linen in public so I’m giving you a nothing reply.

weird.

Bloody hell. How needlessly cruel. She’s gorgeous, but the fact that he’s commenting on her appearance at all seems deeply inappropriate and just, well, gross. Also, what clunky and opaque writing. I’d expect someone who keeps a diary every day to have a more elegant turn of phrase.

Why on earth would/should he? His primary concern would be his own child as would most people’s be; the other (presumably adult) child has his own father to advocate for him

I really loved How to Get Ahead in Advertising

This whole thread is very bizarre, a ridiculous pile on to actor based on a really interesting close to an interview, that perhaps needs clarification for those who don’t understand why he said it…but to say he’s done nothing of any note since Withnail and I, is even more ridiculous than this entire thread.

Oh do tell us ALPACA ... which book ... is it the Miranda Sawyer one as that one is on my list!

And re Mr Grant ... shame on you! This is just so very, very disappointing indeed!

Yes, a friend, who is a fairly well-known novelist, published a memoir about a period living overseas some years back, and her teenager didn’t want to be in it, so it seemed as if she’d had only one much younger child living with her. I wouldn’t read anything into that.

I can only assume the REG ‘diary’ entry was a joke that didn’t translate.

@Craquedechevalier yes it’s called protecting the talent. It’s an industry standard you protect the talent… hot mic moments would be an example If star
says something not realizing the mic is on you shut the mic down immediately. If star arrives looking like shit or acting like shit or is giving terrible interview you have to protect them by salvaging the interaction into something non damaging .

I'm pretty sure that there was some kind of joke going on. I worked for years in the red-top media sphere and I never heard a bad word about him. No groping, no boozing, no unpleasantness. Widely liked. Plenty of bad stuff about a number of celebrities you'd probably think were wonderful. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Who's the other actor ?

she says something that stitches them up.

he said something that stitched himself up and he was the one doing the attacking

Celebrities need to rely on journalists having some discretion. Journalists who go for the jugular and damage a celebrity's image will be refused access to other celebrities. Celebrity journalists who attack their interviewees will find themselves out of work. No other celebrity, reading this Times interview, will want to be interviewed by her in case she says something that stitches them up.

Lynn Barber was infamous for her psychologically acute interviews that quietly took famous people apart, with the outcome that for years people refused to be interviewed by her.