John Cleese: Last News

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John Cleese will remove racial slurs from stage version of ‘Fawlty Towers’

Fawlty Towers.Confirmation of the new incarnation of the beloved comedy came in February, when Cleese revealed he had written a two-hour play based on three episodes from the series – ‘The Hotel Inspector’, ‘The Germans’ and ‘Communication Problems’.The production will debut at London’s Apollo Theatre on May 15, nearly five decades after the first episode was filmed at the BBC Television Centre in December 1974. Tickets can be found here.And now, Cleese has said that the slurs from the original version of ‘The Germans’, which he co-wrote with Connie Booth, will be taken out of the new adaptation.In one scene of the original, the army veteran Major Gowen uses the N-word when referring to a Caribbean cricketer, and another racial slur to describe an Asian cricketer.At the press conference launching the stage show, Cleese said: “Those scenes where the Major used a couple of words you can’t use now, racial slurs they would come under, we took them out.”“There’s always a problem with comedy that you deal with the literal-minded,” he continued.
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Miriam Margolyes says Steve Martin was “horrid” on ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ set
Little Shop Of Horrors.Margolyes, who played an assistant to Martin’s sadistic dentist character Orin Scrivello in the Frank Oz’s musical, shared her experience working with Martin in her new memoir, Oh Miriam! Stories From An Extraordinary Life.In the film, the pair appeared together in the musical number ‘Dentist!’, where Martin’s character slams a door in her face.“I was hit all day by doors opening in my face; repeatedly punched, slapped and knocked down by an unlovely and unapologetic Steve Martin – perhaps he was method acting – and came home grumpy with a splitting headache,” Margolyes wrote (via The Huffington Post).She later described Martin as “undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me”, adding: “Let it not be said that I have never suffered in the name of art.”Margolyes went on to compare him to her “unerringly sweet” Ed And His Dead Mother co-star Steve Buscemi, who she said “knocked spots off Steve Martin”.In recent years, Martin is best known for starring in Hulu series Only Murders In The Building opposite Martin Short and Selena Gomez. At the time of writing, he’s not responded to Margolyes’ claims.Recently, Margolyes expressed her disdain for Monty Python actor John Cleese, who she described as “poisonous” and “irrelevant”.“John was a brilliant comedian in his day, but something has turned,” she told the Guardian.
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