Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GRAHAM ON A-LIST’S MILLIONS It’s stupid not paying tax... they’d still be rich but we’d get less crime & better housing
list of dream guests – which includes Meghan and Harry. He has turned down lots of big names too, including shamed film boss Harvey Weinstein.
The mogul, who faces sexual assault and rape allegations, tried to force his way onto Graham’s sofa.
“Harvey got my personal email address somehow and had a specific date in mind,” says Graham. “But the show was fully booked. I said ‘Oh, Harvey, thanks so much but I’m so sorry we can’t fit you in that day. Bye.’ He emailed back as if I had never seen my email, going ‘So I thought when I came on the show I could chat about this or that.’
“Again I told him he couldn’t come on that night and another email came back pretending that had never happened.
“Obviously, this is how he operates. He didn’t even hear No as an answer which made him a very successful producer but clearly an awful human being.”
But he added: “So many of his films were amazing and told really important stories so it would be a shame if those films weren’t seen again.
“But he was also this monster. He may be banished from Hollywood but he doesn’t diminish the work of the actors and directors who made those films. These men have such a sense of entitlement. A sense of ‘Who wouldn’t want to sleep with me?’ and it’s like ‘Well, most of the people you are sleeping with wouldn’t want to, that’s who’.”
Graham is currently single after several long-term relationships but enjoying life.
Last year he admitted: “I’ve failed all my relationship exams but you’re far better off enjoying the life you’re living than mourning the life you’re not.”
He added: “If you want someone to share your life, look like you have fun.”
So for now he is devoted to the chat show he loves after a stint at his second home in West Cork, smiling: “It’s hard to get my head around the fact I’ve hosted a chat show for 21 years. I never thought it would last this long.”
The Graham Norton Show returns tonight at 10.35pm on BBC1.