Paul O’Grady once said he wanted to come back as a plate throwing poltergeist and it feels like exactly the sort of thing he might do.
Paul, dead at 67. It’s young isn’t it? Sleb Safari remembers him as Lily Savage, the self-professed “blonde bombsite”. But that was Lily on TV, presenting shows like Blankety Blank, not the Lily who worked clubs the length and breadth of Britain and dealt with discrimination and police raids.
The day after Paul’s death, his friend and fellow LGBTQ+ advocate Peter Tatchell shared a story of the night the London Met raided the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
“He was backstage at the Tavern in 1987, preparing for his performance and adjusting his wig, when suddenly the police burst into his dressing room. At first, he thought they were strippers and part of the show. When Paul came out on stage, they were manhandling customers and staff. There was pandemonium as officers marauded through the pub. People were scared,” Peter told The Guardian.
“This was at the height of the Aids panic and the police were all wearing rubber gloves – because they thought you could get HIV by touching a gay person. Paul took one look at the gloves and quipped to the officers: ‘Oh good, have you come to do the washing up?’”
Friends and colleagues have all been sharing memories. His one-liners, his kindness, loyalty, advocacy and his love of animals. For Sleb Safari Sunday evening commutes on the M2 were nothing but nice thanks to Paul and Malcolm on Radio 2. Paul had a segment on his show where listeners would share news of their pet’s death and he handled each with compassion and grace - and how on earth did anyone know that would make good radio?
News publishers have shared old interviews with a warm and witty Paul. Asked once by The Guardian whether he would rather have more sex, money or fame he replied: “I am not bothered about sex, money or fame, I just want a mongoose. A wild baby mongoose took a shine to me in Namibia, and I fell in love.”
Paul also had a ghost in his house which guests alerted him to because they always smelt perfume when visiting. Finally, one night when he was downstairs for a glass of water he met the wall of scent. A random encounter with a young woman who knew the story of the sweet-smelling previous owner confirmed what his friends had been telling him for years.
Paul told the story to Yvette Fielding on her Paranormal Activity podcast and they discussed whether they would come back as ghosts and that’s when Paul shared that he’d like to cause mischief.
"If there is an afterlife, I'm coming back as a poltergeist. I can't wait. You'll be in your kitchen and a plate will go flying, and you'll know it's me."
Yvette fancied the sound of being naughty.
"We could be bad together. We could be really bad together, couldn't we?," she said.
And while she started the sentence "We could go to the Houses of Parliament…" Paul finished it with "Oh, we could do all sorts. I'd pee in the members' drinking tank and all manner of stuff. I'd do terrible things. It would be such a hoot.
"And anyway, they'd get an exorcist in and that would be the end of us. Woof, puff of smoke, down to hell for bad behaviour."
Paul O’Grady. RIP.
Hugh Grant, grumpy again
Hugh Grant is doubling down on his “And the award for grumpiest person at the Oscars goes to…” appearance.
He’s promoting the new film Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves and sat down with Stephen Colbert to chew the fat. When he was being a curmudgeon on the Oscars’ red carpet Ashley Graham asked him if he had fun filming Glass Onion and he replied: “Almost”. His appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert offered a glimpse of the reason Hugh is almost enjoying his job this weather.
“In the old days, by the end of the second week, you were all getting drunk in the evening and having dinner and falling in love with each other and all that,” he told Colbert.
“And all that stopped because of telephones. Really, everyone goes home and looks at Twitter. It’s so sad”.
Sounds like a man who’s tired telling his children ‘no phones at the dinner table’.
Tom Brady is out 'shopping' for a girlfriend
How do you make a celebrity sound like Leonardo DiCaprio in a couple of sentences?
If you’re Tom Brady you get a ‘source’ to tell the New York Post you’re dating by describing it as “shopping”.
The source told the paper’s Page Six that Tom is “dating around.”
“He’s shopping. He is out and about.”
There’s nothing hotter than being described as a piece of merch, right ladies?
