Day I snubbed heart-throb McQueen, by Twiggy
TWIGGY has revealed how she rejected Steve McQueen’s invitation to dance at a Hollywood party as she was with her boyfriend.
The bash was thrown for her in Los Angeles by duo Sonny and Cher when the Great Escape star McQueen turned up on his motorbike.
It was previously suggested that the former model was “too shy” to accept his invitation when she was 17.
But Twiggy, whose real name is Dame Lesley Lawson, said: “He was gorgeous.We somehow got introduced and he asked me to dance and I said no. I was just 17 and I was with my boyfriend anyway.”
She was 19 years younger than the King of Cool and at the time in 1967 was embarking on an incredible rise to international fame.
Dame Lesley said: “I was literally flying around the world and being given parties where Clint Eastwood was there and Barbra Streisand.
“It was mad... Sonny and Cher threw me a party on their lawn in Los Angeles. It was a daytime party.
“The funny thing about that party was one of the biggest film stars of that era was McQueen [who] turned up on his motorbike on the lawn.”
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, Dame Lesley, 70, added that snubbing McQueen was not even a big regret of hers. Black and white photos from the party show the two of them meeting but it was claimed she was “too shy” to dance as opposed to her being at the party with a boyfriend.
Dame Lesley went on to marry American actor Michael-Witney in 1977, who passed away in 1983, and then English actor Leigh Lawson.
She got a break when a Daily Express fashion journalist saw photos of her in a hairdressing salon and then arranged to meet her.
The paper declared her as “The Face Of 66” and after our article she appeared inVogue magazine and went on to become a global fashion icon.