Forced to take on wildman Ollie in a drinking contest
Don with Cliff Richard and pal Olivia NewtonJohn in the early 1970s
DURING his heady days as a serial charttopper, there was one memorable lunch with clean-cut pop idol Cliff Richard when he drank two Bloody Marys and a half-bottle of hock – which, at the time, struck me as being slightly at odds with
THERE are times in life when we all do foolish things. None more so on my part than when notorious star Oliver Reed duped me into accepting his challenge to a drinking contest.
In readiness for my arrival, two bottles of brandy were on the table in Ollie’s hotel suite in Madrid, where he was filming 1973’s The Three Musketeers. I wanted to talk to him about the film but he shook his head, insisting we all loosen up before we got to it. Then he threw down the gauntlet...
“There’s a bottle of brandy for you and one for me. First one to finish wins,” he said. I tried to abstain but Ollie refused to listen. He opened the bottle, pushed it closer to me and filled a glass to the his personality. But as we left the smart West End restaurant, Cliff had an answer for it...
He declared: “The greatest Christian that ever lived was a sinner.” Cliff hasn’t ever pretended to be an exception. brim. “Right, away we go,” he stormed, demolishing his first glass in one gulp. I picked up my own glass and sipped it tentatively.
One hour later, just as Ollie looked as though he was going to be the clear winner, he slumped back on the couch, appearing completely inebriated. His friend smiled: “That was Ollie’s second bottle of the day. He drank a bottle of brandy before you arrived!”
THE 26-year-old Royal Shakespeare Company actress had begun her film career but was finding the nude scenes difficult.
Helen had an idea she wanted to put to Equity, the actors’ union, that when an actress filmed a nude scene, everyone in the studio should strip.
She told me over lunch in London: “Why should the producer, director and whole crew get away with it? People are sensitive about their naked bodies. They think of their ugly features first.”
She asked me: “How would you feel if you had to strip in front of 40 fully-clothed women?”