I finally managed to introduce my niece (Central School of Speech and Drama Year 2) to all round theatre legend PG yesterday. She, he, I and her flat and class mate met for a leisurely lunch at Sam's.
I collected PG from his place, and as we were walking down Crisp Street to meet the girls, someone hailed him from outside Cafe Plum on the other side of the road, and crossed to talk to us.
It was Simon Curtis. Apparently PG gave him his start in the business as a sort of dogsbody when he turned up at Riverside as a star struck boy looking for Julie Covington's autograph. Now he is married to Elizabeth McGovern and has directed Downton Abbey: A New Era, a movie that is due out at the end of the month. Boy done good.
When he and PG had finished their hellos I told him how much I had enjoyed his old lady's performance in Ava: The Secret Conversations, also throwing in the anecdote about me, mum and dad meeting Ava Gardner in the park when we were up in London for my Imperial College interview all those years ago; exactly the period in which the play is set.
Looking at Curtis's Wikipedia page, I can see that he personally approached and persuaded Harvey Weinstein to finance his 2011 film My Week with Marilyn.
To think that I could introduce Mia to someone who, in turn could introduce her to Harvey Weinstein. (I hope that neither she nor my brother John, her father, read this or I will never be allowed to return to the family home again.)
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