I Believe Cher’s top star to visit Ireland
Author reveals favourite interviewees
POP goddess Cher is the coolest celebrity to visit Ireland, a top social diarist has revealed.
Author Damian Corless interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars for decades as an entertainment journalist.
Now in his new book Tax, Drugs and Rock’n’roll: The Years That Went Whoosh, he has revealed the soundest stars were Cher, Carole King and Michael Caine.
But he says music queen Cher – who at 77, is now the grand dame of pop – was the best of them all.
Corless told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “Cher was just absolutely the persona you saw in the mid-eighties and nineties movies and on TV. That impression of being absolutely in control, powerful.
“She stood on the deck of a destroyer for the If I Could Turn Back Time video and dominated. Ask yourself who is in control there?
“When I interviewed Cher, I got all those vibes when she walked into the room. She was charming and professional and treated me with respect.”
Corless told how he grew up in the same Dublin housing estate as Bono – who always had star quality. But as a young lad, Corless was too in awe to talk to him.
He claims the U2 frontman once crashed his second-hand Fiat Uno into the pole outside his house.
“Myself and the bloke from up the road, Paul Hewson, should have been able to have lots of conversations.
“But I could barely speak around him, I was incapable, there was just something about him.
“At the same time myself and my friends were spending every penny we had following U2 around, we would be at all of their gigs and many a night would have spent all our money and had to walk home to Glasnevin.”
English actor Michael Caine is another star who impressed.
“He was charming, witty, highly knowledgeable , someone who wanted to share conversation, not dominate it.”
Singer Carole King – who was here in 1996 for a theatre production – was another who impressed.
“She was completely self-effacing, had insisted on equal billing and listened to every question.
“She was a real, proper New Yorker and she told me that she loved Dublin because like New York, you could walk around the city.”
Tax, Drugs and Rock’n’roll – The Years That Went Whoosh! by Damian Corless is published by Mirror Books and is out now, priced €14.99 in Eason.
I got all those vibes when she walked into the room. She was charming and professional and treated me with respect.