Breakdowns, break-ups and bankrupts
IT was a year of weddings, deaths, celebrity splits, costly back operations, rumbles in Ranelagh, tales of cocaine madness and expensive trips to Morocco.
But first out of the celebrity scandal traps in January was famous curmudgeon Van Morrison when a posting on his official website claimed that Van had become a father again — but not with his wife, former Miss Ireland Michelle Rocca.
Instead it was claimed the mother was an American woman named Gigi Lee. A spokesman here immediately denied the claim, insisting that Van The Man didn’t even know a Gigi Lee, even though it was revealed that she had toured the US with him and was a director of some of his publishing and music companies.
Van then went to ground, called his lawyers and it was insisted that the whole thing had been planted on the site by somebody who had it in for him.
Also making headlines at the start of the year were TV presenter Glenda Gilson and her estranged elder boyfriend, the bearded businessman Johnny Ronan. After leggy model Glenda and pals met up with Ronan in Ranelagh, she allegedly gave him an almighty kick between the legs with her stilettos. And more fur flew after Johnny then spirited off Rosanna Davison and a female friend for a night of fun and frolics in Morocco.
But it all died down when Johnny’s advisers told him his playboy antics were out of order in recession-hit Ireland and that he should take a long break abroad. But that didn’t stop VIP publisher Michael O’Doherty from poking plenty of fun at Rosanna when she failed to turn up at the VIP Style Awards in the Shelbourne Hotel in March. Instead, Glenda was the heroine of the hour.
The nation went in to complete shock early in the year when famous ‘shock jock’ Gerry Ryan died suddenly from a heart attack in his Leeson Street apartment.
But further shocks were to come later in the year when the results of his postmortem would be released and reveal that cocaine had been a contributory factor. But in early May, thousands turned out for his funeral in Clontarf with Bono sending a special message and a song from his New York base.
Even President Mary McAleese attended and many of the socialites, celebrities, stars and hangers-on made their way back to the Shelbourne Hotel for an expensive bash to remember the always larger-than-life Gerry.
Meanwhile, former Celtic Tiger golden boys Christian and Simon Stokes could only stand by and watch as their eaterie Bang and their private member’s club Residence both went, er, bang. And there was little sympathy for the clean-cut twins when Mr Justice Peter Kelly heard they had not handed over tax deductions from staff. Both venues are now open again under new owners/managers.
In May, former Westlife singer Brian McFadden briefly jetted in to Dublin for the christening of his two young daughters. McFadden ignored the media and by that evening could be found partying the night away with pals in the Wrights Venue nightclub in Swords before flying back to Australia.
Bono turned 50 on May 10, but only had a small celebration a few days later in New York. He was soon in hospital in Germany undergoing a serious back operation and having to cancel the band’s tour for the next four months. Dates were rescheduled for next year and insurance companies no doubt checked their policies in horror over all the millions of lost euro.
The year also saw two ‘celebrity chefs’ back in business in Dublin city centre. Dylan McGrath and Conrad Gallagher, put the bad times behind them (again) and opened new restaurants. Whether they’re both behaving themselves in the kitchens and out front these days remains to be seen.
RTÉ news-hound Charlie Bird flew home to Ireland from Washington, claiming it was lonely over there, Sheana Keane was dropped from RTÉ’s afternoon shows, while Grainne Seoige’s new gig with the Daybreak show in London proved to be very much a background role.
Meanwhile, Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy revealed he had been approached initially by RTÉ chiefs, who called to his home, to take over from the late Gerry Ryan. After Ray declined, the gig went to Ryan Tubridy.
Over the summer, the big scandal was provided by Boyzone warbler-in-chief Ronan Keating who had to own up to having enjoyed a secret affair with an English dancer named Francine Cornell. Ronan’s squeaky clean image was buried and wife Yvonne split with him.
The media descended on their mansion in the luxury Abington estate in Malahide, to the horror of the well-heeled neighbours, and Ronan himself, who was seen screaming at photographers on occasion. Ronan begged for forgiveness, and when Yvonne and their children followed him to Australia, where he was judging a talent show, it looked like he was getting somewhere.
After several months in the doghouse, Yvonne finally took him back and the family moved into a new house in Abington at the end of the year.
On a happier note, rugby player Brian O’Driscoll and actress Amy Huberman tied the knot at a ceremony in Mohill, Co Leitrim. They were welcomed by locals, feted by fans and had the dignity not to sell photos of their big day to a glossy magazine.
And still with celebrity weddings, chick-lit writer Cecelia Ahern managed to marry her highly enigmatic long-time boyfriend David Keoghan in a ceremony at the Lyon’s Estate, completely giving the media the slip. The couple had led gueststo believe they were going to a christening instead.
But those breaking up during the year included Grainne Seoige and Stephen Cullinane, Ben Dunne and Vivienne Connolly, Andrea Roche and PJ Mansfield and Alan and Ruth Quinlan.
In November, nightclub king Robbie Fox finally managed to get back on his feet, opening a new nightclub called Pink in La Stampa on Dawson Street. Pat Kenny and his wife Kathy, who met in Robbie’s original Pink Elephant nightclub all those years ago, were among the first night revellers.
In the year before, Robbie had lost his Renards club along with a couple of restaurants after the recession all but wiped him out.
Towards the end of the year a host of celebrities decided to publish books, including well-known authors Lorraine Keane, Ryan Tubridy, Dave Fanning and Lisa Fitzpatrick.
In his tome Dave paid more homage and undying devotion to his all-time hero Bono, Tubridy got all in a tizzy about the late lothario JFK, while all the hoopla and fuss over Lorraine’s Working The Red Carpet was unfounded. Something of a damp squib, there were no revelations or scandals in it and any harsh words were reserved for soft targets like poor ol’ Daniel O’Donnell. Shame.
Musically, 2010 will be remembered for the dire ramblings of homegrown joke acts Crystal Swing, Jedward and the Rubberbandits. Although, the Rubberbandits do have a strong comedy element to them, whereas Crystal Swing’s is unintentional.
And that’s without even mentioning the X Factor TV show carry on. Fix or no fix? And did anybody care?
Colourful Cork radio DJ and restaurateur Neil Prendeville gave a new meaning to flying solo when details of his own personal ‘in-flight entertainment’ were revealed. On a flight from London to Cork, a well-refreshed Prendeville pleasured himself under a copy of Cara magazine. He later claimed he didn’t remember a thing, blaming the incident on a heady combo of Nurofen Plus and alcohol. Nurofen’s makers were less than thrilled.
In December, the dirt well and truly hit the fan with the long-awaited inquest into Gerry Ryan’s death. Celebrity pals and colleagues all ran for cover when it was revealed that cocaine use had triggered Gerry’s heart attack. Most claimed they had no idea he was a cocaine user, despite it being the worst-kept secret in society and showbiz circles for decades. And those who did speak out saying they knew about it, mainly 4FM presenter Gareth O’Callaghan, were lambasted.
The scandal intensifies, with Gareth naming drug dealers and other celebrities, RTÉ finally speaking out against any drug use at the station, and even the gardaí getting dragged in after it was alleged corrupt cops left dealers to the stars, and the stars themselves alone, for some mysterious reason.
In the end there were no winners and Gerry certainly left this earth with an almighty bang that we will hear right through into next year.
LESLIE NIELSEN: ‘... And don’t call me Shirley.’
MALCOLM MCLAREN: Punk master.
LUIS GARCIA BERLANGA was a major figure in renewing Spain’s film scene after the end of the Spanish Civil War. His best known works included Welcome Mr Marshall (1952). He died on November 13, aged 89, in Madrid.
The diminutive GARY COLEMAN made his name as a child star in the 1970s TV series Diff’rent Strokes with his signature phrase “What’choo talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?”. He died of a brain haemorrhage on May 28, aged 42.
TONY CURTIS was an American actor best known for his roles in Some Like it Hot and Spartacus. He never won an Oscar, but remained one of the great stars of his age. He died on September 29, aged 85.
Director BLAKE EDWARDS immortalised the Pink Panther with his movies, but was also known for his celebrity marriage to Julie Andrews. Other films to his credit include Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Days of Wine and Roses. He died on December 15, aged 88.
From Charlie’s Angels to Dynasty, JOHN FORSYTHE, was a major television and movie star through the 1970s and ’80s. He died on April 1, aged 92.
DENNIS HOPPER was an American actor and star in memorable films like Easy Rider, Rebel Without a Case, Apocalypse Now, and Blue Velvet. He embraced the counter culture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Hopper was an Academy Award nominee and also directed. He died on May 29, aged 74.
Filmmaker MARIO MONICELLI took his own life on November 29 by throwing himself from a hospital balcony. He was famous for his mastery of the commedia all’italiana (Italian-style comedy) cinema.
LESLIE NIELSEN taught a generation to answer the question “Surely you can’t be serious?” with “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” Although he started his career as a serious leading man, he is best known for a series of slapstick movies, including Airplane and The Naked Gun, made later in his life. He died on November 28, aged 84.
LYNN REDGRAVE, a British actress, died at 67 on May 2. A member of a family known for its acting talents, she was twice nominated for the Oscar.
GLORIA STUART died on May 26, aged 100. Although she made more than 50 films, her most prominent came toward the end of her life, when she played the older version of Rose in the blockbuster Titanic.
British cellist MIKE EDWARDS, a founding member of 1970s rock group Electric Light Orchestra, died on September 3 when a giant hay bale smashed into his van. He was 62. His exploding cello was a crowd favourite, as was his party trick of playing a cello with a grapefruit.
OLGA GUILLOT, the Queen of Bolero, was a star in her native Cuba before going into exile in the 1960s. She was known for hits like Mienteme (Lie To Me). She died on July 12 in Miami, aged 87, of a heart attack.
LENA HORNE overcame racism to become the first black movie star to sign a major Hollywood studio contract in the 1930s. She further flouted racial mores by marrying a white man in a covert French ceremony and then made her name again as a jazz singer later in life. She died on October 4, aged 92.
MALCOLM MCLAREN, 64, made his name as the manager of the Sex Pistols. He was one of the first people in the music industry to successfully recognise and market the emerging punk scene in the late 1970s. He died in New York.
JD SALINGER, author of The Catcher in the Rye and other novels died on January 27 at the age of 91 at his home in New Hampshire. He had largely withdrawn from the public eye following the controversy surrounding his most famous novel.
Portuguese Nobel Literature Prize laureate JOSE SARAMAGO died on the Spanish Canary Island of Lanzarote at age 87 on June 18. He published his first novel in 1947 and became well-known for his plots focusing on the human condition.
JOAN SUTHERLAND had a voice that earned her the name La Stupenda and praise for having “the voice of the century” from frequent singing partner Luciano Pavarotti. She died on October 10 at her home in Switzerland at the age of 83.
WOLFGANG WAGNER was the retired chief of the annual Richard Wagner opera festival in Bayreuth, Germany and the grandson of the famous composer for whom the festival was named. He died on March 21 at the age of 90.
LAURENT FIGNON became the youngest post-war Tour de France champion in 1983 and reached superstar status with his second win in 1984. Also remembered for losing the 1989 Tour by the smallest margin ever — eight seconds. He died on August 31 in France of cancer, aged 50.
The death of NODAR KUMARITASHVILI, 21, cast a pall on the 2010 Winter Olympics. Kumaritashvili died during Olympic luge training just hours ahead of the opening ceremony, when he lost control of his sled and was sent flying over the track wall and into a steel pole.
JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH headed the International Olympic Committee for 21 years, through 2001, turning the Olympics into a profitable business. But his term also suffered from doping affairs and bribes-for- votes scandals. He died on April 21, aged 89, of cardiac arrest.
BOB GUCCIONE, the publisher and founder of the adult magazine Penthouse, died at age 79 on October 20. Although his publication was considered smut by many, it had strong sales.
CHRIS HANEY created one of Canada’s most successful exports: the game of Trivial Pursuit. He died on May 31, aged 59.
The international fashion world was left in shock by the February 11 suicide of ALEXANDER MCQUEEN, the eccentric British designer whose outrageous and imaginative work revolutionised the catwalk. Starting dressmaking as a teen, he quickly rose to lead top French fashion houses before creating his own iconic label. He was 40.
WALTER FREDERICK MORRISON took a simple plastic disc in the 1950s and turned it into the world-famous frisbee. He apparently got the idea from playing with a metal cake pan. He died February 12, aged 90.
PAUL THE OCTOPUS died on October 2, just shy of his third birthday. From his German aquarium, the octopus caused a global media sensation by successfully ‘predicting’ many of the games played at the 2010 World Cup in faraway South Africa including the eventual winners, Spain.
JANUARY
“Naked, I look like one of those pythons that have swallowed a goat” — entertainer Frank Skinner on Christmas excesses.
“Why would you want to look in the mirror? I caught a look at my thighs the other day. I have the legs of a shot-putter gone to flab” – Nigella Lawson.
“Fill the sink, get some ice, put some cucumber in and stick your head in it” — Kate Moss’s morning-after cure for a night on the tiles.
“My dog Oliver’s New Year resolution is to have a torrid one-night stand with a street mutt” – Heather Mills.
“People ask me if I would ever run for President, and I say, ‘No, I believe we have had enough boobs in the White House” – singer Dolly Parton.
FEBRUARY
“If there’s a woman in leggings eating chips with a fag in her mouth, sterilise her” – comedian Ricky Gervais, saying there are too many useless people who should not have children.
“No, darling. I don’t make supper. I make reservations” – Nancy Dell’Olio, former girlfriend of Sven-Goran Eriksson, when asked if there was anything she could cook.
“Because I’m just phoney. It’s a lot easier. And I’ll probably still be looking like a silly little thing if I live to 90” – singer Dolly Parton, when asked how she kept her figure.
“My girlfriends used to tell me that no matter what I was wearing, even zipped to my neck in a parka, I looked naked” – Lady Gaga.
MARCH
“So, Mr Mandela, have you ever been to a lap-dancing club?” – the question Jeremy Clarkson put to the former South African president on being introduced to him.
“I would never fight with her. As a rule I don’t pick on crazy old ladies” — Lily Allen on her feud with Courtney Love.
“I don’t look in the mirror in the morning and think, ‘Hello, national treasure”’ – pop icon Jarvis Cocker.
“My breasts have had a brilliant career – I’ve just tagged along for the ride” – Pamela Anderson, of Baywatch fame.
APRIL
“Everyone says I am terrified of getting old, but the truth is that in my job, becoming old and becoming extinct are one and the same thing” – singer Cher.
“Many women who dress inappropriately cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes” — Iranian cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi.
MAY
“I wrote the worst novel ever. They say everyone has a book inside them burning to be written. Mine was a novel begging not to be written” – singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
“Looking suave and sophisticated comes naturally to me. When I slip back into my jacket, I just ooze charisma and look fantastic. I’m very modest too” - Roger Moore.
“A greedy, gallumphing idiot – vulgar to the power of a hundred” – how New York’s Forbes magazine described the Duchess of York.
JUNE
“In my experience, the average bloke generally doesn’t have the stamina for anything frisky that lasts much more than a half-time break” – broadcaster Janet Street-Porter on the subject of sex during the World Cup.
“I happen to be the world’s worst hypochondriac. I will catch a disease off the telly.” – former Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
“I am a lady in the street and a freak in the bed” – Katy Perry, Russell Brand’s wife.
“It did my ego no end of good to be denounced as one of the three most dangerous reactionaries of the 20th century” Tory peer Norman Tebbit.
“I’ve certainly met David Beckham — one of the most beautiful men in the world” – Cherie Blair.
JULY
“I don’t believe in sharing your bed with the same person your whole life. That might be a reality for some, but it surely isn’t for me” – actress Cameron Diaz.
“Marriage is a wonderful invention: then again, so is a bicycle repair kit” — Billy Connolly.
“I’m relaxed naked as long as there is no one else there. I speed up past mirrors” – actor Bill Nighy.
“It’s a good thing to be old, because that means you haven’t died yet, right?” – actress Penelope Cruz.
AUGUST
“She is as beautiful as she is badly brought up” – Brigitte Bardot on Carla Bruni, France’s first lady.
“I can’t stand light. I hate weather. My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another. The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise” - actor Peter O’Toole.
“I’m a very physical person. People don’t credit me with much of a brain, so why should I disillusion them?” - Sylvester Stallone.
“I felt lonely this morning, so I cuddled and kissed my black spaniel until he begged for mercy” - Elizabeth Hurley.
SEPTEMBER
“A lot of people would say, ‘I would rather have a heart attack at the height of sexual passion’. On the whole I would prefer to be killed by a bookcase” - playwright Tom Stoppard.
“I would rather kill myself than dress like Victoria Beckham” - actress Britt Ekland.
“I am only 90% gay, which is, of course, pretty damned gay, but every now and again on my path through life, I have met a woman in the 10% bracket” – Stephen Fry.
OCTOBER
“The older I get, the more emotional I become. I’m told I cry with the weather. Perhaps I’m turning into a woman” - Dustin Hoffman.
“So many scientific surveys seem to prove nothing except that scientists are handed too much public money to state the sodding obvious” - commentator Julie Burchill.
“I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware” - Joan Rivers.
“Just because I’m provocative doesn’t mean that people have to go around raping me” – artist Tracey Emin.
NOVEMBER
“Someone, I can’t think why, once called me a disfigured albino gorilla” — London Mayor Boris Johnson.
“There are maybe up to 90,000 members of Equity, which means there are a lot of actors out there. But a lot of actors are thick. It’s as much as they can do to learn the lines and not fall over the furniture” – award-winning film-maker Mike Leigh.
“There are a lot of orphans in Romania. They must breed them” – the Duke of Edinburgh.
“It makes one want to take the turkey out of the oven and put your head in it” – Joan Rivers on Susan Boyle’s latest album of “heart-warming Christmas songs”.
“There is someone tweeting out there pretending to be me. That is even more tragic than being me” – satirist and broadcaster Ian Hislop.
DECEMBER
“They are so big that people in the back rows have sat-navs telling them they are still a mile from the venue” – comedian Michael McIntyre on the size of the arenas where he now performs.
“He is clearly a numbskull” – former British chief of the defence Jock Stirrup’s view of Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, via WikiLeaks.
“She always leaves her drawers open and leaves the toothpaste top off too. It’s kind of her mess” – David Beckham complains about his wife Victoria’s “messiness” in the bathroom.
“Enduring an alarming combo of windy chill factor from Siberia and chilli wind factor from last night’s Thai curry” – Stephen Fry on Twitter.
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