Famous people you thought would be nice, but were tw*ts?

[Moodershewrote]

Have you met someone famous and they turned out to be a bit of a twat?

I once met Steve Coogan (who I thought was hilarious as Alan Partridge) who was a sexist, lecherous buffoon IRL.

Share your tales!

Mariah Carey, nice.

Kate Beckinsale, nice.

Timothy Spall, very nice.

Jon Bongiovi, met him a few times, lovely man.

Simon Day, nice.

Natalie, not Cassidy from Eastenders, rude.

When I was at Goldsmith’s a million years ago, the Glitter band came to play and someone slept with the drummer. She was 18 and he was a grandad 🤮

This is the least surprising thing in the world to me.

Comedy is entirely subjective. Virtually nothing will be universally popular and there’s no reason at all for you to find something funny when you just don’t. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that Victoria Wood’s work resonated hugely with a lot of people and is critically acclaimed - and across the board too. Her not being particularly nice or sociable or whatever it was doesn’t change the value of her work and what it did mean over the years to a lot of people.

I know someone who was sat next to PP at a meal as her husbands role saw him sat with the Queen. Whilst her husband had a perfectly pleasant time, she had an absolute ball. Apparently PP was hilarious and extremely good company.

Diana was a teenager when 30 year old Charles decided she “would do”. He continued to see Camilla (and the woman everyone seems to have forgotten - “kanga”). From his side it was plainly a convenient marriage to a “suitable” girl. At the time a family friend was a trustee along with Diana for a dance charity and said she was besotted with Charles, her “prince charming” in the way that only teenagers can be. That fits with their early appearances. She was far too young for him, they had almost no shared interests and was too young to choose a marriage where her role was solely to produce boys and wear expensive clothes and look the other way when her husband strayed.

Diana’s affairs started after the marriage had broken down, due to Charles’ ongoing infidelities and being in a “firm” where infidelity by the men was the norm. Fidelity has never been one of the Royal’s strengths but at 19 most women would convince themselves otherwise - that their marriage would be different. Charles’ envy at Diana being better and more hard working with the public than he was just petty where it should have been a source of pride if felt anything for her.

Charles has spent many, many millions for years on PR to improve his and Camilla’s images. Its worked, they have fostered the “loveable old hippy” and “enduring lurve story” images very effectively and played down his attempts to interfere with democratic government and character flaws.
His day job is literally to pretend to enjoy pressing the flesh. Of course public meeting him will experience this positively. Try speaking to his minimum wage gardeners at Highgrove or some of the other staff who have witnessed the non public side, the tantrums and the entitlement and the ostentatious living compared to QE2 who famously lived quite simply by billionaire standards.

Danny Sapani
(of Killing Eve/ Star Wars / Black Panther /Penny Dreadful etc)
He was my boyfriend for about 6 months in the late 90s.
lovely man.

Just throwing in a couple of interactions I had that were positive - Katie Price was lovely as was Professor Green. Met both while on work experience many moons ago. I was very young and both made an effort to chat to me.

I worked as a hotel receptionist in the early 90's in a plush hotel in Cheshire...We had Ronnie Corbett staying as he was performing somewhere locally...I remember him coming back late at night and absolutely screaming at me because the restaurant was shut and room service had finished...absolute tosser....was such a shame as I grew up watching The Two Ronnies.

As a reverse on positive meetings.
If you are of a certain age and had nights listening to 'promise me' when you were in love and the future stretched ahead and everything seemed possible, then meeting Beverley Craven won't disappoint you. We've met her twice and she is lovely and genuinely friendly. She funny too and doesn't take her fame too seriously. Had a long enough chat with her in a church in Nathwich a couple of years ago and also in Ireland when she did 3 shows. She's definitely one who lives up to expectations.

I didn't say anything about what she may or may not have been like as a person.

Jonny Wilkinson. Walked through a bunch of kidsdesperate for his autograph as if they weren't there.

I met Queen Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall as she was then..... She got told off for chatting too long to me. She is lovely, listens and asks and answers questions. I could happily share a cuppa and a few biscuits with her.

Really pleased about Tim Spall, Simon Day and Joh Bonjovi!

My only claim to fame is that I once got in a hotel lift in Chicago with Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster. But he didn't say a word, and I was too tongue-tied to thank him for the music. If I'd known then about his model railway, and how he would book another hotel room to continue working on them, I would have flung myself at his feet and chewed at his ankles until he took me to see it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50403561

Oh I just remembered another one from YEARS ago: seeing Bobby Gillespie in an airport lounge in Paris. Screamadelica was my favourite album at the time and I introduced myself to tell him. He was very shy, and understandably nervous when I got out my huge camcorder (this was about 1990) to record him so that I could prove to my husband back home that I had actually met BG! I can't believe I did that, like he was a circus animal. I have sometimes wondered about contacting his agent just to pass on a heartfelt apology, but don't want to intrude on his life any more than I already did... and hopefully he wouldn't remember anything about it 🤦🏻‍♀️😢😢😢😢😢

Lesley Manville - and it wasn’t a one off as I’ve seen her several times, and she’s just very offish and quite rude to the public.

Met Andrew Lincoln a few times and he is has always been lovely.

😀

This thread, apart from contributions from a few posters who worked with people so they were in contact with them for longer than a fleeting request for a selfie or sharing a lift, certainly doesn’t demonstrate anyone listed ‘isn’t nice’, only that they were brusque or actively unpleasant at one moment in time to one person.

I met Dennis Hopper once many years ago. He said "Hi there" to me. I still tell that 'story' 30(ish) years later 😆

He recently did Dr Stangelove at the NT which was originally a Sellers film.

I knoiw quite a lot of musicians who've worked with Amy Macdonald and none of them have got a good word to say about her. Nasty piece of work.

Jane McDonald. Massive "Do you know who I am" attitude when she couldn't get what she wanted.

That matches my one experience, where he was a self-entitled arrogant little shit
A train was only half-length, so the announcement went out that it was now single class, anyone could sit anywhere
He, his wife, and ... a child? Two? had grabbed a first class compartment for themselves, and he had his feet propped up on the seat opposite (disgusting behaviour in and of itself)
When I opened the door he said "This is first class, you can't come in here"
I replied that a) he had no idea what class my ticket was, b) this was now a single class train, and c) he hadn't reserved an entire compartment for himself
"Well, you still can't come in here, we're here"
His wife was clearly mortified by his behaviour, and I wasn't putting up with it, but before things could escalate, the guard came, and I asked him to confirm this was now a single class train and we could sit where we liked, which he did - and also told him to get his feet off the seats
He sulked all the way from Egham to Weybridge

I have RTFT and can't see any mention of David Attenborough. Seeing as he has practically been elevated to sainthood despite still being with us I'm curious to know if anyone has any stories, good or bad.

Conversely I’ve seen quite a few threads like this over the years where people have said how lovely someone is who I have experienced very differently while knowing them better. I never say as I don’t in general want to talk about people like that on the internet and it doesn’t remotely matter if someone came away with a charmed impression of them in a single interaction. I’ve said upthread though that I agree that judging someone from a single bad encounter is often unfair. It’s fair easier for someone horrible to put on a good public face than it is for anyone generally lovely to be permanently in a good mood.

I used to fancy Joe 90. Still do, in a way. I've always gone for skinny geeks in glasses.