Friends scripts of iconic Ross wedding episodes sell for £22,000 after being found in bin 25 years ago
A pair of Friends scripts found in a bin 25 years ago have sold at auction for £22,000, despite their value previously estimated to stand at no more than £800.
Auctioneers at Hanson Ross in Hertfordshire said they were “flabbergasted” by the “phenomenal global interest” in the scripts of The One With Ross’ Wedding, season four’s famous two-part finale.
The saleroom’s head of operations, Amanda Butler, told Sky News their phonelines were swamped with bids far exceeding the initial valuation on Thursday, the day before the auction.
But bidders “went crazy” for the scripts – which were meant to be destroyed after filming for the episodes in 1998 – and went beyond expectations.
“I just can’t believe the result and the impact this find has had,” she said on Friday. “The global interest was phenomenal, we’ve all been flabbergasted.”
A total of 219 bids were made in advance of the sale on Friday afternoon, with interest from all over the world, including the US, Germany, Spain, Australia, Ukraine, Dubai and Switzerland.
While it is not clear who the scripts belonged to, they have the name John Lanzer on them, who was a British set designer.
Part 2 of the script. Pic: Hanson Ross
Both episodes were filmed and set in London and the scripts were found a couple of weeks after all the scenes had been wrapped up at Fountain Studios in Wembley by a now-retired Londoner.
“It was part of my job to ensure everything was tidy and no rubbish was left around,” said the 60-year-old, who worked in admin support and helped to distribute tickets for the studio audience.
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“I wasn’t sure what to do with them so just put them in my office drawer. I remember wondering which member of the cast they might have belonged to.”
The seller left her job in 1999 and “swept everything into a big cardboard box” when clearing her desk, admitting she forgot the scripts were among the pile of paperwork.
Part of the script. Pic: Hanson Ross
They had remained in her bedside drawer ever since.
“I could have quite easily thrown them out,” she said.
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“Recently I’ve been clearing my house ahead of a move and I came across them again.”
The unnamed 60-year-old discoverer said the scripts “deserve to be owned by a huge Friends fan”, as she admitted she’s not crazy about the show as American humour is “different to ours”.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
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