Elton spills
Di’s fireside date with Richard Gere
She captured hearts around the world but now it has been revealed that Princess Diana almost drove Sylvester Stallone, 73, and Richard Gere, 70, to blows!
In his new memoir Me, Sir Elton John opens up about his friendship with the late princess, including details of one of his famous dinner parties where things didn’t roll out as planned.
The “Candle in the Wind” singer writes that he hosted the bash for Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg while he was working on the music for TheLionKing in 1993. The guest list included the princess and the two actors, as well as George Michael, and Kiwi-born LoveActually director Richard Curtis.
“The most peculiar scene developed,” Elton writes. “Straightaway, Richard Gere and Diana seemed very taken with each other. They ended up sitting in front of the fireplace together, locked in rapt conversation.
“Judging by the kind of looks he kept shooting them, Diana and Richard Gere’s newly blossoming friendship was not going down well with Sylvester Stallone at all.”
This went on for some time before the guests were invited to take their seats for dinner – but the two actors had disappeared!
So David Furnish, now Elton’s husband, went to look for the leading men.
“It transpired that he’d discovered Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere in the corridor, squaring up to each other, apparently about to settle their differences over Diana by having a fist fight,” Elton spills.
The hosts managed to get the pair to the table, but after dinner the princess resumed her place in front of the fire with the PrettyWoman actor – and Sly stormed off home, very unimpressed with the situation.
“I never would have come,” he snapped, as David and I showed him to the door, “if I’d known Prince f***in’ Charming was gonna be here.” Then he added, “If I’d wanted her, I would’ve taken her!”
Elton and David thankfully contained their laughter until the Rocky star’s car was out of sight. Back in their living room, Richard and Diana continued to gaze at each other … with the princess seemingly oblivious to the chaos she’d just caused.
The “Rocketman” hitmaker also opens up about his fallout with Diana, which occurred after she pulled out of writing a forward for his and Gianni Versace’s photography book
RockandRoyalty. But when the powerhouse designer was shockingly assassinated in July 1997, the princess reached out to her old pal.
“She said, I’m so sorry. It was a silly falling out. Let’s be friends.”
The pair reunited at Gianni’s funeral and planned to meet up in London for lunch and to discuss their friendship. But it wasn’t to be, with the People’s Princess tragically killed just over a month later.