Leo’s got a date with Cher
but unlike his Kylie love-in there will be... No photo No meeting No letter
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar will be adopting a low-key approach when he attends a Cher concert in Dublin this week, and has vowed that he will not be writing any ‘Dear Cher’ letter in advance, nor seeking a personal introduction.
Mr Varadkar told the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday that he would be ‘attending as a private citizen’.
There would be, he said, ‘no photograph, no meeting and no letter’ in contrast to when the delighted Taoiseach was close to Spinning Around when he posed with Aussie singer Kylie Minogue previously.
It was reported earlier this week that the Taoiseach told Fine Gael colleagues in a relaxed moment that he ‘wants it [Brexit] done’ by October 31, as much as Boris Johnson does, but for a very different reason.
He has tickets to see the 73-yearold Do You Believe In Life After Love? singer when she brings her Here We Go Again world tour to Dublin’s 3Arena next Friday, November 1.
Mr Varadkar is a self-confessed Kylie Minogue fan – and as revealed by the MoS this year – he sent her a personal letter seeking an introduction.
Undoubtedly, in hindsight Mr Varadkar will soon be singing along to If I Could Turn Back Time and wishing that he didn’t write that Kylie letter on Government headed paper.
Or he might be bopping along to Strong Enough thinking of the next general election and his plans to stay in a Fine Gael-led coalition – probably with any party except Sinn Féin.
The MoS revealed in March, in a piece which later garnered headlines around the globe, that Mr Varadkar sent a handwritten letter to Kylie. His department twice tried to prevent the letter’s release under the Freedom of Information Act.
The letter, dated October 3, read: ‘Dear Kylie, Just wanted to drop you a short note in advance of the concert in Dublin. I am really looking forward to it. Am a huge fan! I understand you are staying in the Merrion Hotel which is just across the street from my office in Government Buildings. If you like, I’d love to welcome you to Ireland personally.’
It is understood that Ms Minogue subsequently telephoned the Taoiseach to apologise for the cancellation of her October 7 gig due to a throat infection.
Commenting on the Taoiseach’s more low-key approach on this occasion, one Cabinet source said: ‘He was a bit bruised by the whole Kylie experience.’
That occurred, they said, ‘in the days of innocence. He is a lot wilier now. There will be no entourage. And having been Taoiseach for a couple of years he is a lot less star-struck. The days of Love Actually are long gone.’
This is a reference to when, after becoming Taoiseach, he visited 10 Downing Street for the first time in
June 2017 in a meeting with thenBritish PM Theresa May and confessed in a press conference that it reminded him of the Hugh Grant film Love Actually, where the actor danced around the corridors of power.
Clearly, being the country’s youngest Taoiseach he has his finger on the popular pulse, and like the Love Actually star, also likes to let his hair down.
Cher’s Here We Go Again tour is considered one of the hottest tickets in town, with ordinary seats for Friday’s show priced at €190.
‘He was bruised by Kylie experience’