From youthful summers in bohemian 70s Paris to the years spent in celeb orbit, Rupert Everett’s is a life story that deserves to be told, says Elspeth Waters
Ever wondered what Madonna’s friends really think of her? Or, what Julia Roberts smells like on set? Enter Rupert Everett and his deliciously morish autobiography, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, a catty insider’s guide to a Hollywood removed from the cameras’ glare, wrapped up in poignant episodes of Everett’s personal journey and dripping with his customary sardonic wit.
For most of us, Britain’s beloved poster boy for respectable gaydom really only hit the radar in 1997 with his role as the charmingly demure fag foil to Ms Roberts’ neurotic lead in My Best Friend’s Wedding. Some may have recognised him from The Madness of King George or the more unfortunate Prêt-à-Porter released three years earlier, but it seems unlikely that he would have been considered for such mainstream roles as the wonderful Prince Charming in Shrek 2 and the forthcoming Shrek the Third, without such a blockbuster behind him.
What is interesting, however, is the wealth of headline-worthy experiences Everett had racked up before his unexpected rise to A-list notoriety: from the youthful summers passed in a perpetual coke fest with trannies in the bohemian Paris of the 70s, to the years spent beguiled by Paula Yate’s warped brilliance, not to mention treating Madonna to his one and only attempt at a dinner party and frequent sojourns with Versace, Orson Welles and other Hollywood greats.
We often assume that the pathway to fame for our cherished celebs is tinged with gold from the very start, but not so. Of course, with some good breeding, an Ampleforth education and friends in high places, Everett was never all that close to the bread line, but what Red Carpets illustrates is that his career has been rather more 'clever improvisation' than 'effortless symphony'. Lodged between the delightful recollections of backstage fun and frolics as a teenager, and getting kicked out of the Central School of Speech and Drama are rather more disturbing revelations of prostitution, lonely months in languid hotels and cruising dangerously close to the gay plague.
Granted, this book could be seen as a shameless ploy on Everett’s part to cash in on our modern obsession with the every cough and whisper of our loathed and loved celebrities (during another lull in the stream of movie scripts, perhaps) but his is a life story that deserves to be told and Everett has the talent to execute it brilliantly. It probably won’t change your life, but Red Carpets is the perfect, if slightly guilty, pleasure for anyone who has ever contemplated treading the boards or harbours a wistful allegiance to the glamorous haze of Hollywood history; and for everyone else, Everett’s celeb connections are well documented in some nice pics.
Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins by Rupert Everett is published by Little Brown.
