Londoner’s Diary: Seann Walsh brings his Strictly scandal to the stage
SEANN WALSH has opened up about the incident that destroyed his career — his kiss with married Strictly Come Dancing partner Katya Jones in 2018.
The comedian, right, who says “I’m still sorry now,” had a vertigo seizure — a form of panic attack — soon after the picture of the kiss was released. In a newly released tape of a stand-up show addressing the incident, Walsh explains how after his first outing in public he found himself lying face down screaming in the street in Notting Hill.
A woman asked him, “Excuse me sir — drunk or panic attack?” before a male passer-by said: “Err Seann we know who you are and we don’t think you should be out here like this. Would you mind if we picked you up and got you in the car?”
Shortly after the kiss in 2018, Walsh’s then girlfriend, Rebecca Humphries, released a statement accusing him of “aggressively and repeatedly” calling her “a psycho/nuts/mental” because she had questioned his behaviour in the previous weeks. Walsh later claimed he was “not the person I’m being portrayed as”.
He told his stand-up show, recorded last year, “Only I could go on Strictly Come Dancing and come out ‘the most hated comedian in the country’”.
PMs bid Maitlis a pointed farewell
EMILY MAITLIS has prime-ministerial pulling power — both David Cameron and Boris Johnson sent in messages for her leaving video as she departs the BBC for Global. While Johnson said he thought she would thrive at “Glo-bal”, as he pronounced it, The Londoner hears Cameron told the ex-Newsnight presenter, right: “Famously you used a lot of words to describe Dominic Cummings. You should have just stuck with mine — ‘career psychopath’.”
America misses out on Oscars drama
American audiences watching the Oscars “live” on ABC last night missed out on Will Smith’s expletive-ridden rant because of a two-second delay implemented by Oscar producers in the event that anyone swore. Our mole in America tells us “all we saw was the screen going fuzzy. It froze when Will slapped Chris Rock, then it froze again when Will started swearing but it did show Chris’s response”. Naturally, savvy viewers immediately consulted Twitter for the full, uncensored version.
Fiction becomes a casualty of war
ANDREY KURKOV is one of Ukraine’s most famous living authors, but he says he can’t put pen to paper at the moment when it comes to fiction. “I stopped writing fiction weeks before the beginning of the war,” he told a weekend event at the Conduit Club in Covent Garden.
“Today we have writers who are fighting as soldiers on the front line, we have writers who are in occupation,” Kurkov said. “The war we have now, will not be over in one month or two months.” He added darkly: “It can be over quickly if the person who started it dies of natural or unnatural causes.”
Sir Elton’s away ... but the stars still play
Sir Elton John’s Oscar Party
SIR ELTON JOHN’S Oscars party drew the stars in LA last night — even without the singer himself. He had to miss his bash, which raises money for his Aids Foundation, because he was performing in Nebraska. Happily that didn’t stop actor Billy Porter, model Heidi Klum and actresses Christina Milian, Lea Michele and Christina Hendricks making the bash, along with designer Donatella Versace and social media star Di Mondo.
SW1A
THE Oscars aren’t the only awkward awards ceremony in town. At the Legal Cheek awards last week, lawyer James Cox won the gong for best Legal Cheek journal contribution for his piece on “why the new policing bill threatens our right to protest”, written in the aftermath of Attorney General Suella Braverman’s proposal to take away protesting rights. And who presented Mr Cox with his award? A bemused Mrs Braverman.
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TORY MP Simon Hoare declared this morning: “I’d just hope if someone thought it in good taste to make a joke at the expense of a medical condition of my wife then I’d get up and lamp him.” Punchy.
