The star of Matthew Vaughn’s new film, Argylle, could turn out to be a cat called Chip who belongs to the director’s family. Vaughn tells Empire that he had originally hired a professional feline actor. “It was very expensive but it wasn’t very cute and it was useless,” he said. So, in a move that may upset the unions, he fired the cat and went up to his daughter’s bedroom. “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your cat for three months,” he said. Chip turned out to be a natural. “He was always looking at the right place,” Vaughn says. “I don’t want to be rude about some actors I’ve worked with, but Chip was easier.” A Chip book and merchandise are coming soon. “Nepo babies” was coined recently for the children of celebrities who mysteriously get a break in the same industry. Is this the dawn of the nepo kitty?
Far from avoiding his recent by-election defeats, Rishi Sunak saw one almost as a gain given the trouble he had with Nadine Dorries. At PMQs yesterday, the prime minister joked: “The new member for Mid Beds may actually support me a little more than the last one.”
Kenwright’s critic control
Bill Kenwright’s theatrical shows had a reputation among some actors for parsimonious pay but the impresario, who has died at 78, generously gave critics the five-star treatment, even those whose necks he would cheerfully have wrung. On opening nights, there was always a hospitality room set aside where critics could gather beforehand and in the interval to fill up on booze and grub. It was partly a charm offensive, but Kenwright admitted to one scruffy scribbler that there was another motive: to keep them out of the bars. “I don’t want you spreading your poison among my customers,” he said. “Another drink?”
Goggle box theatregoers
As was noted in his obituary, Kenwright started his career as an actor in Coronation Street, leaving in 1969 to produce theatre. An early coup was to get Pat Phoenix, his former co-star, out of the Rovers Return and on to the stage in The Miracle Worker. It broke box-office records but Kenwright had to put up notices advising new theatregoers not to talk during the performance. “They all thought they were in their living rooms watching Elsie [Tanner] on the box and could just chat away,” he said.
Glen Matlock tells Record Collector that he thought his band had made it in the 1970s when he visited the loos at the legendary London venue The Marquee and saw “Sex Pistols” written on the wall. “Hey, we’ve got fans,” he told Johnny Rotten, only for his bandmate to laugh and pull out a Magic Marker. He may have been a punk but the future face of butter knew the value of marketing.
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McEnroe met his match
The tennis champion John McEnroe has been with his rock singer wife Patty Smyth for 30 years. The secret of their longevity may be that she put him in his place at the start. McEnroe tells the SmartLess podcast that Smyth, who’d had a No 2 hit single before they met, had confessed to feeling disillusioned, saying that she wasn’t treated fairly as a woman. McEnroe’s response was to suggest that he, a reasonable guitarist, should join her band and give it more energy. “Yeah, and we should play mixed doubles at Wimbledon also,” she returned. “But you don’t play tennis,” he volleyed. “Exactly,” she said. John conceded the point.
