Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins
by Rupert Everett
Published by Warner
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
The brilliant Rupert Everett lets us into his world: friends, celebrities, some of his successes and some of his outstanding failures. He came from an upper class family--fox hunting, private schools, but rebelled quite early on.
Everett's earliest memory of a film was seeing Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins," and he was totally enraptured. He left school, went to study theatre in London, and lived a wild life--odd jobs in theatres, and lots of clubs, even meeting Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger. He worked at the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre, and eventually got a part in the play "Another Country," which was filmed in 1984, and brought him his first brush with fame.
Everett manages somehow to sabotage his successes, however and he recounts his errors with great humor. Known primarily for his Oscar Wilde characters (in "An Ideal Husband" and the "Importance of Being Earnest"), he has also been in "Stage Beauty," "Shakespeare in Love," "My Best Friend's Wedding," and the voice of Prince Charming in "Shrek!" The 2004 production of "And Quiet Flows the Don," where he plays a Cossack, stands out as one of the most outrageous flops, as the film has never been released except in Russia.
Everett knows all the great celebrities: Madonna, Julia Roberts, Tony Richardson, Gore Vidal, Colin Firth, Elizabeth Taylor, and Joan Collins.
He has lived and worked on films all over the world, from India and Italy to Russia and France. He has had homes in Florida, the south of France, Paris, Los Angeles, New York and London. His sincerity rings true even when he talks about his time visiting Haiti and Dr. Paul Farmer, and traveling to Africa to visit AIDS patients.
Armchair Interviews says: You will find some chuckles, some insight in to an actor's life, and insight into life in the fast lane in this
autobiography.