Dr Who's John Barrowman took the words right out of my mouth.
Dr Who's John Barrowman took the words right out of my mouth.(Features)
From: Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales)
| Date: October 10, 2006
Byline: By Claire Hill Western Mail
John barrowman stole my joke about American presidents dressing up as women.
Barely was I out of earshot before he started passing off the witty repartee, that I crafted, as his own.
But before I get ahead of myself, let me take you back to the beginning. (WARNING: celebrity content and insider journalist information revealed below.)
An early morning job last week saw me hot-footing it over to the New Theatre to interview John 'you may know me from programmes like Dr Who, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and soon to be Torchwood' Barrowman.
As part of the convoy of journos I arrived for my 15 minutes with him, ready to ask probing questions about his new role as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk.
I was up first and we were soon having a good ol' chat about good guys, a bit about Torchwood and how he and David Tennant inadvertently scare young children on the streets of Cardiff. All was going well, so we got on to the subject of panto in the States.
It went a little like this:
JB: We don't really have panto in America. They don't get it; it's the men dressing up as women. Perhaps if they dressed up as women occasionally they'd be better for it.
CH: Yeah, get George Bush dressing up in the Oval Office. I bet him and Condi swap clothes all the time. Behind closed doors you don't know what happens.
JB: Yeah, Condi definitely wears the trousers.
Well, it's not the world's best joke, but we both laughed; the ice, I felt, had been broken and I had warmed him up for the journalists who were following me.
My job, as it were, was done. The conveyor belt of hacks then started running and as I was walking down the stairs Barrowman was settling in with Radio Wales.
Then I heard it.
JB: We never had panto in America when I was growing up. They don't get it, perhaps it's the men dressing up as a woman thing. If they did then there might be less problems. Maybe they do though. George Bush and Condoleezza Rice probably swap clothes behind closed doors etc etc.
There it was, barely seconds after the witty banter had left my mouth Barrowman was passing it off as his own personal thought in another interview. I hadn't even left the building and it was only his second slot of identical questions of the day. Surely he can't have been bored of his own words already?
But then I took it as a compliment. Barrowman has spent the past year reading the lines of top-class writer Russell T Davies, so he obviously knows talent when he spots it (pause while I polish my knuckles against my chest in an exaggerated fashion).
Me and Russell T feeding lines to John Barrowman ... someone give me a Bafta.
COPYRIGHT 2006 MGN Ltd.