Shortly before The Temple site went missing, Jolie alerted me to a curious short little movie that featured REG walking down a street in his Larry Lefferts persona. Obviously it was an opportune moment for a person who just happened to have a movie camera with them at the time and who also knew who REG was, but was there more to it than that?

I did a bit of sleuthing and managed to find an email address belonging to the “owner” of the film and quickly sent an email to them requesting permission to use the clip on the site. I also asked them for a little background to help set it up. The next day I received an email from Monica Bretherton telling me how it all came about and giving me the go ahead to use the clip on The Temple.

The footage is digitized from a VHS dub of a HI-8 home transfer and was compressed to run as a flash film, so the quality isn’t great. However it’s still pretty cool to see Richard in “costume”. Anyway to see the clip and read Monica’s explanation, just click here.

I also have a short passage from an article about Steve Martin which appeared in The Observer a few years ago. It describes what happened when he first met Richard. You can read that here.

It appears that the reporters at The Daily Express can’t understand the difference between what’s real and what’s not as they’ve mistakenly reported Richard as “retired from the film industry.” This, of course, is not the case but I’ll let REG speak in his own voice:

I have not “retired” – this came about as a joke. I was pestered about stuff by The Daily Express tabloid at a charity function two nights ago and kidded them that I had retired and two nano-seconds later, it’s in print. Not true.

Anyway, for those of you who may have missed the Daily Express article you can read it here.

The Daily Express – Thursday 1st May, 2003

NOTE: This is a falsely reported news story.

RICHARD E GRANT – who achieved iconic status for playing the anarchic and constantly inebriated toff Withnail in the 1987 film Withnail And I – has surprisingly told us that he has retired from the silver screen at the age of 45.

Grant, whose film catalogue includes Jack & Sarah, Hudson Hawk (opposite Bruce Willis), Robert Altman’s The Player and Spice World, claims that he “quietly stopped acting two months ago” and is now devoting himself to charitable causes.

The lofty actor, known for his cut-glass accent, made his bizarre declaration at Tuesday’s Laurent-Perrier Tickled Pink Party, held at London’s Clarridges hotel, where he drew the raffle in aid of breast-cancer awareness charity, The Haven Trust.

“I’ve retired from acting,” he announced. “I just withdrew quietly. I thought my time had come, really.”

Grant, who will next be seen in Bright Young Things, directed by Stephen Fry, insists that, even if offered a once-in-a-lifetime role, he would turn it down. “No, I wouldn’t do it,” he said. “I’m now concentrating on working for a whole variety of charities.”

He was at the glitzy bash because Laurent-Perrier champagne had in the past supported his bursaries in South Africa where he was born as Richard Grant Esterhuysen. 

Also known by many for being the swashbuckling hero in the BBC adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Grant has recently been on television screens in adverts for Agos in which, alongside actress Julia Swawhalha, he pays a comic, over-the-top rock star.

While he claims he will eschew any more acting roles, Grant – who has a daughter Olivia, with his dialect coach wife, Joan, and a stepson, Tom – will remain an Argos man for a while longer.

“I’m carrying on doing the ads for another year and, yes, I do shop at Argos. You can get anything from there. My best buy was a dishwasher.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson would not comment on the actor’s declaration, but we wonder if a plum role in the next Harry Potter film would persuade him to change his mind.

Richard’s reply to me on the same day that the news “broke”

“I have not ‘retired’ – this came about as a joke. I was pestered about stuff by the daily express  tabloid at a charity function two nights ago and kidded them that I had retired and two nano seconds later, it’s in print. Not true.”

To see a scan of the actual print story click here.

I have another article up on the site about the REG designed boots. I actually got this one before the one I got from Nikki the other week, but with the troubles of the site over the past month or so it kinda got left behind. Anyway this article here was sent to me by Jolie (so you can thank her for that when you see her.)

I also have a short snippet from an article here which talks about the various landmarks in Dublin that may be of interest to movie and theatre buffs. There’s not a lot to the paragraph I’ve included but it does namedrop REG so I though “Why not?”

I also have a ton of new stuff that I’m working on so expect to see that happening fairly soon.

Tuesday 29th April, 2003

The Haven Trust

Here’s a pic or two of Richard at the Laurent-Perrier Tickled Pink Party, held at London’s Clarridges hotel, where he drew the raffle in aid of breast-cancer awareness charity, The Haven Trust.

Richard was at the glitzy bash because Laurent-Perrier champagne had in the past supported his bursaries in Swaziland.

Some chance throwaway lines to an annoying Daily Express reporter sparked a “Richard E. Grant has retired” article in that particular paper, as well as being reported in some of the online media. You can read that article here.