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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisp...ws&thesubsection=general&thesecondsubsection=
Barrymore's kiss leaves former Governor-General stunned
10.05.2003
By CATHERINE MASTERS
The snog went on and on, two sets of lips locked together.
By the time Dame Cath Tizard emerged gasping from Michael Barrymore's sudden and passionate clinch she was looking slightly stunned, but barely ruffled. The rest of the room was in hysterics.
"You filthy bitch, you opened your mouth," said Barrymore to former Governor-General Dame Cath who then looked a little bit more aghast.
She tried later to explain to the Weekend Herald there had been nothing tongue-in-cheek about the kiss, but had to break off when she became distracted by the man himself waving and grinning at her from his table across the room.
This was the Aotea Centre Performing Arts Centre's luncheon, a fundraiser to help develop the country's performing artists.
It was also Barrymore's first outing on stage for several years, a kind of warm-up to his tour of the country which kicks off on Wednesday.
The scandal-plagued entertainer says his tour of New Zealand and then Australia is not a comeback tour, that he is here because New Zealand promoters asked him to come and that when he gets back to the United Kingdom he is doing a musical at the West End.
The lunch-time show went well in the big-windowed room at the Ellerslie Convention Centre. If a little nervous beforehand, afterwards the British comic was sparkly and animated.
The crowd of nearly 200, mainly older ladies and gents who paid $65 for the lunch, giggled and snorted their way through the smut and inoffensive innuendo Barrymore made his own before controversy ruled his life. Dame Cath's table giggled and snorted possibly the hardest.
But it was not quite the Barrymore of old. Once he was bigger than big and his family audience-participation television shows beamed into living rooms around the world.
Those were the days before he came out as gay, before he was outed as a drug-taker and alcoholic, before a man was found dead in his swimming pool and before the British press turned on him.
This Barrymore has a slightly puffy, ruddy-coloured face. This Barrymore is older and a bit slower around the stage.
But he is still more at home on stage than off it and he still knows how to wrap an audience around his little finger.
Backstage before his appearance he is warm and friendly. He offers a Silk Cut cigarette from the new leather case partner Shaun Davis gave him for his 52nd birthday two days ago.
Davis "married" Barrymore in a gay ceremony in 1999, but left him before the body in the swimming pool incident. He is studying for medical exams in England, but is due in New Zealand on Wednesday for opening night.
He has relatives in New Zealand and Barrymore hopes the pair will come and live here.
Backstage you get to see Barrymore's serious side. He seems a little awkward but says he feels at ease.
He would not wish anyone to go through what he has been through, he says, but he is not bitter at the media who made his life hell. Nor is he angry. 'Disappointed' is the word he settles on.
On stage though he cannot resist having a go. "Don't believe anything you read in the media," he tells the paying guests who have feasted on salmon and chicken breasts and have moved on to the cheese and crackers.
Barrymore spots the Herald photographer in the audience. Are you a member of the media, he bellows. Do you want a front page picture? Here sit on that, he says, offering a one-fingered salute.
He's been a bad boy, he tells the audience, but he is not in New Zealand to relaunch his career, he is here looking for a wife.
He believes there may be one available in the audience who used to be a governess. Tizard, he reads out, "is that a name or an expression?"
Dame Cath was not the only victim in the audience and she took her taunts on the nose.
At the end, after Barrymore had mingled and shaken hands around the room, she grabbed his arm and tried to drag him away. He tried to pick her up.
Then they kissed - but this time it was a much more seemly peck on the face.
Larking about, but with a more polite reserve.
While yesterday may have been a warm-up to resuming his comic antics of old, next week is the real thing.
Barrymore will be on stage at the Aotea Centre with the eyes of the British press watching for a fall.
Barrymore's kiss leaves former Governor-General stunned
10.05.2003
By CATHERINE MASTERS
The snog went on and on, two sets of lips locked together.
By the time Dame Cath Tizard emerged gasping from Michael Barrymore's sudden and passionate clinch she was looking slightly stunned, but barely ruffled. The rest of the room was in hysterics.
"You filthy bitch, you opened your mouth," said Barrymore to former Governor-General Dame Cath who then looked a little bit more aghast.
She tried later to explain to the Weekend Herald there had been nothing tongue-in-cheek about the kiss, but had to break off when she became distracted by the man himself waving and grinning at her from his table across the room.
This was the Aotea Centre Performing Arts Centre's luncheon, a fundraiser to help develop the country's performing artists.
It was also Barrymore's first outing on stage for several years, a kind of warm-up to his tour of the country which kicks off on Wednesday.
The scandal-plagued entertainer says his tour of New Zealand and then Australia is not a comeback tour, that he is here because New Zealand promoters asked him to come and that when he gets back to the United Kingdom he is doing a musical at the West End.
The lunch-time show went well in the big-windowed room at the Ellerslie Convention Centre. If a little nervous beforehand, afterwards the British comic was sparkly and animated.
The crowd of nearly 200, mainly older ladies and gents who paid $65 for the lunch, giggled and snorted their way through the smut and inoffensive innuendo Barrymore made his own before controversy ruled his life. Dame Cath's table giggled and snorted possibly the hardest.
But it was not quite the Barrymore of old. Once he was bigger than big and his family audience-participation television shows beamed into living rooms around the world.
Those were the days before he came out as gay, before he was outed as a drug-taker and alcoholic, before a man was found dead in his swimming pool and before the British press turned on him.
This Barrymore has a slightly puffy, ruddy-coloured face. This Barrymore is older and a bit slower around the stage.
But he is still more at home on stage than off it and he still knows how to wrap an audience around his little finger.
Backstage before his appearance he is warm and friendly. He offers a Silk Cut cigarette from the new leather case partner Shaun Davis gave him for his 52nd birthday two days ago.
Davis "married" Barrymore in a gay ceremony in 1999, but left him before the body in the swimming pool incident. He is studying for medical exams in England, but is due in New Zealand on Wednesday for opening night.
He has relatives in New Zealand and Barrymore hopes the pair will come and live here.
Backstage you get to see Barrymore's serious side. He seems a little awkward but says he feels at ease.
He would not wish anyone to go through what he has been through, he says, but he is not bitter at the media who made his life hell. Nor is he angry. 'Disappointed' is the word he settles on.
On stage though he cannot resist having a go. "Don't believe anything you read in the media," he tells the paying guests who have feasted on salmon and chicken breasts and have moved on to the cheese and crackers.
Barrymore spots the Herald photographer in the audience. Are you a member of the media, he bellows. Do you want a front page picture? Here sit on that, he says, offering a one-fingered salute.
He's been a bad boy, he tells the audience, but he is not in New Zealand to relaunch his career, he is here looking for a wife.
He believes there may be one available in the audience who used to be a governess. Tizard, he reads out, "is that a name or an expression?"
Dame Cath was not the only victim in the audience and she took her taunts on the nose.
At the end, after Barrymore had mingled and shaken hands around the room, she grabbed his arm and tried to drag him away. He tried to pick her up.
Then they kissed - but this time it was a much more seemly peck on the face.
Larking about, but with a more polite reserve.
While yesterday may have been a warm-up to resuming his comic antics of old, next week is the real thing.
Barrymore will be on stage at the Aotea Centre with the eyes of the British press watching for a fall.
