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Rupert Everett is one of Britain's most admired actors (as well as being one of the most lusted after -- the fact that he has made no secret of being gay has hardly dented his female fan base). But he is also one of our most liked actors, and the reason for that is simple to discern. As his charming (and often hilarious) memoir,
Red Carpets and other Banana Skins proves, he is not given to the self-important, self-aggrandising manner of so many actors (notably those in Hollywood). And, in fact, his winningly self-deprecating manner is reminiscent of an earlier generation of British actors, such as David Niven. It's not surprising that
Red Carpets and other Banana Skins has invoked favourable comparisons with Niven’s classic autobiography
The Moon’s A Balloon.
Theatrical/showbiz memoirs need to be frank and candid, without too many worries about decorum (the actor John Mills’ autobiography some years ago was so anodyne in this respect that many readers yearned for a little unbuttoned candour along with all the praising of famous colleagues -- but there need be no such caveats for Rupert Everett). Everett’s descriptions of working with such stars as Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone and Madonna are hilarious and revealing (with some side-splitting anecdotes), and his book is equally diverting when dealing with the author’s chaotic childhood and adolescence. Actors from an earlier generation -- Niven (as mentioned above) and Dirk Bogarde -- showed that certain thespians could be just as adroit as writers as they were in front of the camera or on stage. To their illustrious (but small) number, Rupert Everett's name may now be honourably added. --Barry Forshaw
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
'You don't need to be a soothsayer to know that, amidst the volcanic spew of fourth-rate celebrity memoirs launched this autumn, only one will be worth the paper it's printed on. I was salivating over my toast and marmalade at last week's serialisation of Rupert Everett's exemplary stab at the genre, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins' Rowan Pelling, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Hilariously honest. . . a kind of rake's progress. The accounts of filming with stars such as Madonna, Sharon Stone and Julia Roberts are as good as Evelyn Waugh. The earlier scenes from childhood to unruly adolescence, to drama school and a belle epoque beyond, are like Brideshead in Doc Martens, shocking and hilarious . . . His autobiography is funny, outrageous and extremely well written' DAILY MAIL 'The most keenly awaited celebrity autobiography is Rupert Everett's RED CARPETS AND OTHER BANANA SKINS, an urbane charmer in the manner David Niven's THE MOON'S A BALLOON' John O'Connell's, TIME OUT 'Lush, profoundly reflective, and thoroughly satisfying autobiography . . . Definitely several cuts above the conventional showbusiness memoir, laced with quirky insights and dazzling phrases it reads like a lurid dream, recalled in deliciously acute detail - in short a heady triumph of observation and reverie' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'You'll enjoy the hectic energy of Everett's engagement with the beautiful and the damned . . . it's impossible to begrudge Rupert his repetitive ecstasies when the result is a book as glowingly resplendently alive, as beautifully written and as damnably charming as this' INDEPENDENT 'Now here's your chance to find out even more about this enigmatic actor and engaging storyteller as he reveals all about his glam and energetic life' OK! HOT STARS 'I couldn't put it down and by the last page was thinking: much more of this, please. As a natural outsider, he is a first-rate observer and a born commentator: perspicacious and quite venomous when it suits' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'It's extremely well-written, very funny and manages to balance satisfactorily high levels of bitchiness with equal amounts of personal candour' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'This is a fun read, refreshingly candid and deliciously gossipy. They're all here - Andy, Bianca, Julia, Liz, Roddy, Rudolph and Sharon - and in each case he offers some engaging new insight' Paul Burston, TIME OUT 'A masterpiece . . . If Lord Byron's memoirs had been grabbed from the flames, they'd have been like this . . . soulful and brilliant' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Wise, witty, bitchy and generous, it's also hilariously funny. If Everett can act even half as well as he writes, there's a new Olivier slouching around the St Tropez bars' J. G. Ballard, OBSERVER 'His writing is distinguished - indeed, his pen portraits of Madonna, Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone are among the best things that have ever been written about those stars. This is a heady triumph of observation' SUNDAY TIMES 'Without a doubt, the funniest book of the year is Rupert Everett's Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, a well-written memoir that commits the deliciously cardinal sin of telling the truth about show business. It is not only candid, though, but unvain and thoughtful' Andrew O'Hagan, GUARDIAN 'I'm eking out Rupert Everett's autobiography Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins', I don't want it to finish but can't put it down. I was laughing like a hyena at 2am at his sex scenes with Sharon Stone. While being super frank about himself and everyone else, he manages to remain courteous and disarming' Bella Freud, STELLA 'Everett's prose is elegant . . . there's more than a hint of the 19th century vie Boheme through his account of his early adulthood, as a sort of Grand Tour takes him to Paris and the Riviera, only for him to fall in love with hookers, transsexuals and refugees in the same trendy nightclub where he meets Andy Warhol and Catherine Deneuve' EMPIRE 'Rupert Everett writes quite brilliantly . . . Everett's description of [Paula] Yates are among the best things in the book - tender, exquisitely drawn and psychologically acute, as indeed are his accounts of all the other female stars he has worked with (Madonna, Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone) . . . In the flesh he's probably a complete nightmare, but on the page he's delectable . . . one of the showbiz greats' LITERARY REVIEW 'The showbusiness book of the year . . . it's like Everett's best acting - elegant, seductive and full of fun. It's a wonderful surprise to find that he's a brilliant autobiographer - witty and evocative, with a cinematic eye for mood and detail' INDEPENDENT 'Genuinely revelatory, something increasingly atypical in celebrity memoires.' HERALD MAGAZINE 'Apart from the salacious, scandalous gossip, he describes honestly his own self-destructiveness and apalling behaviour, and the melancholy of the Aids generation.' HARPERS BAZAAR 'He's spent 30 years in an exciteable whirlwind, and relays it her with the chamr of a great raconteur.' GAY TIMES 'This hilarious memoir bridges the eccentricities of the English upper classes and Hollywood hierarchy.' GLAMOUR 'Everett combines a delicious sense of humour with a natural instinct for storytelling in this gripping account of his life so far.' SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE 'Rupert Everett's tantrums-and-tiaras tell-all tale is a well written romp through fashion and luvvieland. Think Stephen Fry written by AA Gill.' TATLER 'Rupert Everett is one of Britain's most admired actors (as well as being one of the most lusted after -- the fact that he has made no secret of being gay has hardly dented his female fan base). But he is also one of our most liked actors, and the reason for that is simple to discern. As his charming (and often hilarious) memoir, Red Carpets and other Banana Skins proves, he is not given to the self-important, self-aggrandising manner of so many actors (notably those in Hollywood). And, in fact, his winningly self-deprecating manner is reminiscent of an earlier generation of British actors, such as David Niven. It's not surprising that Red Carpets and other Banana Skins has invoked favourable comparisons with Niven's classic autobiography The Moon's A Balloon. Theatrical/showbiz memoirs need to be frank and candid, without too many worries about decorum (the actor John Mills' autobiography some years ago was so anodyne in this respect that many readers yearned for a little unbuttoned candour along with all the praising of famous colleagues -- but there need be no such caveats for Rupert Everett). Everett's descriptions of working with such stars as Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone and Madonna are hilarious and revealing (with some side-splitting anecdotes), and his book is equally diverting when dealing with the author's chaotic childhood and adolescence. Actors from an earlier generation -- Niven (as mentioned above) and Dirk Bogarde -- showed that certain thespians could be just as adroit as writers as they were in front of the camera or on stage. To their illustrious (but small) number, Rupert Everett's name may now be honourably added.' - Barry Forshaw, AMAZON.CO.UK
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by Rupert Everett
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