FAY Ripley, actor, recipe book writer and former children’s entertainer who worked under the name Miss Chief the Clown, has been sharing some pertinent life advice.
Chatting to the Radio Times no less, Fay ruminated on age and its accompanying wisdom and harked back to her younger years.
It’s akin to Kirstie Alley’s ‘marry the man with a private jet’ life advice, except more sensible and infinitely more relatable.
Fay at 52 is a lot more savvy than Fay at 20, as you’d expect and hope. At 20 she turned down a record deal with Simon Cowell which was offered because she was off the telly rather than a talented crooner. At 20 she also thought she was overweight.
At 52 Fay knows better.
“They’d [the record company] seen me play a singer in a thing called I Saw You and wanted me to make an album.
“I didn’t want to be like Robson & Jerome and I’m not that good a singer so I said no...”
Artistic integrity be damned, Robson & Jerome had two number one albums and three number one singles and pocketed plenty of cash and Fay knows it.
“If I could go back to my younger self I’d say yes to that, and I’d say ‘Stop thinking you’re fat, because when you’re 50 you’ll really know what fat is.’
“I spent a stupid amount of time thinking I was overweight, but now I’d eat my own leg off for that body. What a waste of energy that was.” Probably burnt off a few calories though, no?
Fay played Jenny in Cold Feet and left the show for a time, because, why not, the grass is greener etc etc. Fay at 52 thinks that was a bit daft and puts it down to the fact she didn’t appreciate how good she had it.
“I wouldn’t make that decision now. I wake up at 50 and go, ‘Thank you, thank you for the job and the nice taxi that’s picking me up, and thank you for the birds and green grass!’
“It was a real bonus when we came back in 2016 and my plan is to do this for another 10 years.”
Hindsight, such a wonderful thing, but spontaneity is pretty great too and risk has its perks. Your twenties and even your thirties are exactly the right time to jack in a job and go off exploring, that way when you reach 50 you realise what’s what and appreciate the good stuff.
How and ever, there is one thing on Fay’s list that could still happen. Come on Simon Cowell, don’t get cold feet, you need to invite Fay down to the recording studio. Just be sure to send a nice taxi to pick her up.
Hugh Jackman proves them all wrong
He’s six feet two inches of loveliness but Hugh Jackman says he was told by Hollywood execs at the start of his career that he was too tall to be a star.
Hugh told Hello! magazine: “I’d walk into people’s offices and they’d go, ‘Oh, man!’ and list all the big actors – and all of them were shorter than me.”
That’s box office big, then, like Tom Cruise.
“To make it worse, my first movie in America was X-Men, where I played Wolverine, who in the comics is short. I met Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman and he said, ‘There’s a problem – Wolverine is only five feet five inches.’
“I squatted down and said, ‘That’s no problem at all.’ I spent my first five years in town doing a squat on the screen.”
He added: “When you get your first Hollywood job, you do what anyone asks. I got used to it after a while – anyway, it’s good for the legs.”
Look at you now Hugh, on top of the world and with the best legs in the business.
Idris Elba v Daniel Craig
Er.... pic.twitter.com/tVqHI5EW0Q
— Idris Elba (@idriselba) January 7, 2019
Idris is having a laugh and it would be cool if he was having the last laugh and had actually been cast as the next Bond. Sleb Safari doesn’t want to hear another word about Richard Madden being lined up for the part.
Social Media Smut
It’s all happening. #BLL2 #BigLittleLies pic.twitter.com/qsfpwH3KzP
— Reese Witherspoon (@RWitherspoon) January 7, 2019
