Python stars reunite to celebrate the life of Michael – with one notable absence
SIR MICHAEL PALIN has marked his 81st birthday with a Monty Python reunion – with John Cleese and Terry Gilliam joining him for a celebratory meal.
Cleese shared a photograph of the occasion on social media, along with the jokey caption: “An 18-foot Python celebrates Pallin’s [sic] 181st Birthday and 195th Travel Book. Photo taken at cafe on peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.” The actual venue was Fischer’s restaurant in Marylebone, central London.
Asked by a follower on X, formerly known as Twitter, if his misspelling of Sir Michael’s name was an in-joke, Cleese replied: “No, it’s just malice.”
The other surviving Python, Eric Idle, lives in the US and did not attend.
In February, Cleese and Idle appeared to air grudges against one another. Idle wrote that he had not seen Cleese for seven years. “Do you want to?” a fan asked. He replied: “No”.
Later, Cleese wrote online: “We always loathed and despised each other, but it’s only recently that the truth has begun to emerge.” However, he later clarified that he had been joking, and had been referring to all the members of Monty Python.
The careers of the Pythons have diverged over the years, but Sir Michael, Gilliam and Cleese all continue to work into their 80s.
Sir Michael pursued a career in television travel programmes and recently made a 1,300 mile journey across Nigeria for a Channel 5 documentary series.
Gilliam, 83, a film and theatre director, claimed that he was the victim of cancel culture when his revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods was dropped by the Old Vic in 2021.
There were reports that his previous comments in relation to trans rights and the #Metoo movement had upset members of the company.
Cleese, 84, is working on a stage show of the 1979 Python film Life of
Brian, which he hopes to open in the US next year.
Sir Michael is the only Python to have been knighted – Cleese turned down a CBE in 1996 and a peerage in 1999.
Sir Michael rarely uses his title, telling an interviewer last year: “It’s awfully kind of you to address me as ‘Sir’, but you really don’t have to.
“I hardly ever use that title, perhaps only when I want to book a good place in a restaurant.”