If Ollie swears, it’s all down to me

OLIVeR stone is coming to edinburgh. Or at least, that’s what the government wants you to believe…

The auteur behind Platoon, Wall street, JFK, Any Given sunday and Natural Born Killers is giving a talk at the Filmhouse this week, and with any luck it will be an entertaining chat about his work a nd f or t hcoming projects, such as his biopic of edward snowden.

A few years ago, I interviewed stone and at the end of the chat, he invited me out for dinner. As I hoped, it was a brilliantly bonkers night, where our biggest row was about Oliver’s decision to order my pudding on my behalf, then eat half of it, rather than let me have a dessert to myself. ‘Oliver,’ I said hilariously, ‘This isn’t Any Given sundae.’

Despite quickly establishing that Oliver does not enjoy movie puns at all, we still had a great time.

The evening concluded with a bizarre evening stroll together, with his stretch limo crawling behind us like an anxious parent while Oliver, under the impression that all scots speak Gaelic, begged me to teach him a few phrases.

so if you’re in the audience this week, do ask if he can still remember how to pronounce ‘ceud mile failte’ (as recalled from my mother’s porridge spoon), and a solit ary Gaelic s wearword taught to me by someone f rom Dotaman during a Christmas party.