Fawlty thinking? British actor John Cleese charges fans £249 to be insulted in four-minute video ‘shout outs’
- John Cleese, 80, is charging £249 to send a personalised message to a fan
- The Monty Python star has already responded to six requests for a video
- Website Cameo allows fans to pay for messages from their favourite stars
British actor John Cleese has charged fans £249 for four-minute-long video ‘shout outs’.
The Monty Python star, 80, delighted fans with rude messages on the website Cameo – which allows celebrities to connect with fans via personalised messages.
Introducing himself to the site he joked he used to be John Cleese ‘before I died’ and said he could send nice messages but he charges more for them because they’re ‘so f***ing boring’.
John Cleese, 80, delighted fans with rude messages on the website Cameo – which allows celebrities to connect with fans via personalised messages
‘Since my death I’ve received no honest work at all so I’ve been reduced to doing these shout outs,’ he said.
‘I can send messages to your loved ones. I can be sweet and loving and sympathetic if that’s what you really want but I charge more for that because its so f***ing boring.’
Instead, he said, he would rather send messages to ‘your unloved ones’.
‘I can send threats, insults’, he said. ‘I can talk to them, I could say your mother was a hamster and your father smelled like elderberries. and all you have to do is send me money.’
So far Mr Cleese has responded to six people including Graeme, who was celebrating his 70th birthday, and Ellie – whose son booked Mr Cleese to persuade her to stay with him in the countryside during lockdown.
Introducing himself to the site he joked he used to be John Cleese ‘before I died’ and said he could send nice messages but he charges more for them because they’re ‘so f***ing boring’ (pictured in January 2019)
The actor is currently trapped in Los Angeles where he was visiting his daughter just days before the coronavirus pandemic left him stranded in the US.
In one video message he said: ‘I’ve got a little patio here. It’s in the canyon above Beverley Hills. I’ve got my daughter with me which is great because I know she’s safe.’
He then joked: ‘I think isn’t it quite nice to to have to do anything. Every morning I wake up and think all I have to do today is not to die. Then in the evening I go to bed and think what a successful day.’
The father-of-two has been happily married to former model wife Jennifer since 2012 – but famously had to fork out £25million in divorce settlements across three failed marriages.
The actor is currently trapped in Los Angeles where he was visiting his daughter just days before the coronavirus pandemic left him stranded in the US
He married first wife, American writer and actress Connie Booth, in 1968, and the couple went on to have a child together, daughter Cynthia, 43, three years later.
Connie wrote and co-starred opposite Cleese as waitress Polly Sherman in the hugely-popular Fawlty Towers.
The couple were divorced before the second series of the BBC comedy was written and aired, but they remained close friends in spite of their split.
Cleese then went on the tie the knot with American actress Barbara Trentham in 1981, with the couple welcoming their daughter Camilla into the world in 1984.
The pair divorced in 1990, and the actor left the UK in favour of a move to the bright lights of Los Angeles.
In 1992, he married American psychotherapist, Alyce Faye Eichelberger, but the pair went on to divorce in 2008.