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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Have you met a celebrity villain?

865 replies

pawsies · 13/03/2021 13:29

Someone that is controversial in the media or comes across unpleasant on TV or whatever?

What were they like in real life?

AIBU to think there might be some surprises and some of them will be a persona on TV or whatever?

OP posts:
SourMilkGhyll · 13/03/2021 23:19

I've known a few - football manager, chef, criminal. All delightful (to me and some others) in real life, though I'm sure the media are accurate in describing another side to them.

TalktotheFoot · 13/03/2021 23:35

A friend of mine is a tradesperson who once did some maintenance work at publicist Max Clifford's house. I shall leave it for you to wonder just how many months it was before the bill got paid.

Tistheseason17 · 13/03/2021 23:36

Quite the opposite... "nice guy", Shane Richie - did the whole "don't you know who I am" at bar staff. Pompous arse.

Iamuhtredsonofuhtred · 13/03/2021 23:37

I met Lawrence fox at a wedding. He seemed very nice even though my kid was mean to his kid. This was before he went all right wing and mental in the press.

LunaHeather · 13/03/2021 23:48

@jcyclops

I met Jimmy Savile about 50 years ago in a cafe, and I can't say I remember much.

I've never met any of the current crop of villains you see on TV like Cheryl Cole, Hugh Grant, Stephen Fry or Gino D'Acampo.

How are they villains?

I suppose I have - Ken Livingston. He was very funny and probably knows every Tube pun there is so we had a laugh. He commented on the fact that I don't drink while working, like was he genuinely amazed there are still people with that policy.

Sparklingbrook · 13/03/2021 23:49

I don't know why these two men are in the same sentence, they are in no way comparable

Yes strange to pick those two out of nowhere. PM is a lot of things but he's no Jimmy Saville.

LunaHeather · 13/03/2021 23:50

@Sparklingbrook

I don't know why these two men are in the same sentence, they are in no way comparable

Yes strange to pick those two out of nowhere. PM is a lot of things but he's no Jimmy Saville.

Agree.
candlemasbells · 13/03/2021 23:57

I met jimmy saville briefly, very odd but was very charming and polite to everyone. Glad it was only a brief meeting

Lalliella · 13/03/2021 23:58

Rolf Harris in the queue for ice creams at the cinema. He pushed in at the front. Twat.

GiveTheGirlAGun · 14/03/2021 00:14

Google Shane Richie fan club. I don't like him, despite never meeting him.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 14/03/2021 00:16

I was so chuffed to get a photo with Rolf Harris........ now don't mention it so much. He seemed like a lovely bloke

Good friends of ours invested in some lovely original Rolf Harris paintings a long time ago, assuming that they couldn't fail to end up soaring in value. Slight misjudgment in hindsight, that....

Penguineapig · 14/03/2021 00:23

Like an earlier poster I've also sat next to 'Mad' Frankie Frasier, but in a pub rather than on a bus. He was very polite. I had no idea who he was but the bar staff did as he drank there regularly, they told me who he was after he'd left.

Ccccchanges · 14/03/2021 00:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

viques · 14/03/2021 00:35

We used to have Friday drinks in the pub where Violet Kray drank. She would sit at a corner table with a row of drinks ( g and t I think) lined up in front of her.

When she died the flowers were laid out in of the flats five deep and special branch took pictures of the mourners/ gawkers from our work building.

FortunesFave · 14/03/2021 00:36

@ReverendRicketyCricket

I've met Nigel Farage. As disgusting in real life as he comes across in the media. Also - deathbreath. Vile individual.
Rose West isn't a celebrity!! Ffs.
Beeziekn33ze · 14/03/2021 00:37

A colleague had taught the boys who killed Jamie Bulger when he worked in a secure school.All he said was that they were ‘thick’.

FortunesFave · 14/03/2021 00:39

Why are some posters mentioning murderers as though they're celebrities!?? How disturbing!

Mamanyt · 14/03/2021 00:46

Living in the USA, we have an entirely different set of villains than you do. Are most of you familiar with Howard Stern? I met him. And his wife. He was the most pleasant, respectful person! I almost fell over. His wife saw the look on my face, and said, "Yeah, the Howard Stern you hear and see on radio and television is a made up persona. This is him." Could have knocked me over with a feather.

Also met Tucker Carlson several years ago. He's just as big a bigot IRL as he is on the air.

YouokHun · 14/03/2021 00:48

Jimmy Saville. My father had worked in Leeds during the 60s where JS was known as “an odd man” locally which seems to have been a bit of a euphemism for dodgy pervert. In the very early 1980s my DF was running a large charity and came across him again. JS got involved with fundraising (not my DF’s idea). My DF told me that he loathed him from the off; he wasn’t pleasant to people and was very much on an ego trip, very narcissistic. I met him at a charity event and I remember being disappointed even at 12 with how he spoke to me, my 12 year old self definitely picked up on his lack of authenticity, but nothing beyond that. I think a lot of people who came across him didn’t like him and a lot of people couldn’t really put their finger on what made them uneasy. Now we know.

SirVixofVixHall · 14/03/2021 00:54

I didn’t actually meet him but watched Rolf Harris arrive to visit a relative who lived near me. The doorway was crowded with excited local children all longing to meet him. I found that very chilling when he was exposed.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 14/03/2021 00:58

A certain one who shares a surname with a film was incredibly pleasant to me, but has form for being v rude

Surely not Sir Ernest Returnofthejedi or Baroness Petunia Herbiegoesbananas?!?! Probably just me, but I haven't a clue on this one - unless we're talking projects and witches....

Becca19962014 · 14/03/2021 01:00

@FortunesFave

Why are some posters mentioning murderers as though they're celebrities!?? How disturbing!
If you lived in Gloucester around the time I did and knew the Wests they were "local" celebrities to people. Everyone knew them and their children. But more disturbingly press intervention made them "celebrities" internationally. But the Wests before being discovered weren't what they were portrayed as being AFTER they were exposed.

I think also, it's important, for me at least, to make the point that anyone can do the most terrible things and whilst appearing a bit odd at worst no one thinks of the level of evil that person is capable of.

I guess it depends on your definition of celebrity, doesn't it?
Perhaps it's down to a misunderstanding of the OP? In which case I apologise.

JackieTheFart · 14/03/2021 01:00

@WowIlikereallyhateyou

Had the misfortune of being on a flight in business class at the same time as Wagatha Christie. Everyone else in the cabin could just as well of not existed and she came across just as obnoxious as she does in the media currently.
Who is Wagatha Christie? Confused

Can’t add anything else to the thread I’m afraid!

Becca19962014 · 14/03/2021 01:01

"Local celebrities" to people e.g. Very well known.

MorePotatoSalad · 14/03/2021 01:04

Alan Partridge came onto my 18 y/o friend.