Sir Ian McKellen felt ‘ashamed’ and ’emotional’ after stage fall
Sir Ian McKellen has said he felt “ashamed” and “emotional” after falling from a stage in the West End earlier this year – and that it has made him “aware there isn’t much time left”.
Star of stage and screen, including portraying Gandalf in the Lord Of The Rings series, the British acting legend suffered a chipped vertebra and fractured wrist during a performance of Player Kings in London in June.
In August, he said the fact he had been wearing a “fat suit” had “saved” his ribs.
Almost three months on from the incident, “everything is physically mended” and the 85-year-old is now “mobile, pain free and ready to go”, he told Sky News in a new interview.
Ian McKellen stars in The Critic. All pics: The Critic/True Brit Entertainment
However, he admitted he is still “having to deal with it emotionally”.
“I felt ashamed of myself, I felt I let the audience down and I felt guilty,” Sir Ian said.
The actor had been playing Sir John Falstaff – one of Shakespeare’s most famous creations – in the modern reworking of Henry IV, parts one and two, when the incident occurred.
Despite being fit again, he said he was allowing himself “a bit of a rest” before he gets back to work.
“I’m just aware there isn’t much time left and so I’m giving myself three months off instead of six months, I don’t need six months,” he said.
But fans will still get to see Sir Ian on screen in his new film, The Critic, in which he plays a powerful London theatre reviewer in the 1930s who lures a struggling actress, played by Gemma Arterton, into a blackmail scheme.
The veteran actor stars alongside Gemma Arterton in The Critic
Promoting the film, he admitted, has meant fielding countless questions on his health.
“There was such a hoo-ha in the press, it was as if I’d died and I was reading my own obituaries! I must say there were some very nice ones but it wasn’t as bad as it sounded,” he insisted.
Alfred Enoch also stars in the film
While Sir Ian plays a ruthlessly catty critic in the film, in real life he said he has actually confronted one or two journalists who have dared question his artistic methods.
“I’ve nothing bad to say about critics and occasionally when I have done I’ve said it to their face… to no effect, of course,” he said. “And invariably they say, ‘you’re absolutely right, I was wrong’, and so I say: ‘Print that in your damn newspaper!'”
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While the beloved actor will be taking a little break for now, with news of new Lord Of The Rings films in the works, fans hopefully won’t have to be without a certain wizard leader when the franchise returns.
“I’m told Gandalf’s involved but I’m not yet told how much he’s going to be paid or how much he gets to say, so I think we’ll leave it there,” he laughed.
Audiences will no doubt just be relieved to hear he’ll be back on screen soon.
The Critic is out in cinemas on 13 September
The mother of Cassie Ventura has told a court she felt “physically sick” when her daughter told her Sean “Diddy” Combs had threatened to “release two explicit sex tapes” after discovering his long-time girlfriend was dating someone else.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, the seventh day of the trial, Regina Ventura said she did not initially understand the email Cassie sent her in December 2011, saying, “The sex tape threw me, [Diddy] was trying to hurt my daughter.”
The email said Combs was planning to release two explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt her and the man she was seeing, rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi.
Regina said the family took out a home equity loan and paid Diddy $20,000 to recoup money he had spent on Cassie “because he demanded it,” angry that Cassie was now dating Cudi.
She said the money was returned days later.
During her evidence, jurors were shown photographs of bruises on Cassie’s body Ms Ventura said were taken when her daughter returned home for Christmas in 2011.
Regina’s time on the stand was fairly brief, as the defence declined the opportunity to question her.
Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, who dated Cassie in 2011. Pic: Reuters
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 7 – As it happened
Prosecutors say Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, forced women to take part in days-long, drug-fuelled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” from 2004 to 2024, facilitated by his large retinue of staff. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty.
The rapper faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs and Cassie pictured in 2015. Pic: Reuters
Last week, the prosecutors’ star witness, Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs for over a decade, spent four days giving evidence.
Combs’s legal team has sought to show jurors that his relationship with Ventura was complicated, and while they acknowledge he was an abusive partner, and had substance issues, they say the sex acts described by the prosecution were consensual.
Read more:
Everything you need to know about the Sean Combs trial
The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
‘Diddy wanted our bodies to shine’
A male exotic dancer nicknamed “The Punisher” also gave testimony, telling jurors that in the autumn of 2012, Cassie contacted him asking him to “create a sexy, erotic scene” Diddy, and using the pseudonym “Janet”.
Male exotic dancer Sharay Hayes, aka The Punisher. Pic: Reuters
Sharay Hayes said he went on to have eight to 12 more encounters with the couple, having sex with Cassie, while Diddy watched from a distance.
He described the hotel rooms as routinely being dressed with electric candles and sheet-covered furniture, and says Cassie told him not to “acknowledge” her husband, and to “try not to look at him and no communication”.
He says Diddy would often wear a cap, and he could not see his face, but he later realised it was the famous rapper.
“The Punisher” mentioned using a “considerable amount of baby oil” during the performances, saying “[Diddy] wanted us to keep our bodies covered, to shine”.
He later described the acts as “a fetish type thing,” and while he said he believed Cassie was fully consensual, he also said he “did occasionally see her sigh or wince” and said she would frequently look at Diddy “for cues”.
Paid between $1,200 (£900) and $2,000 (£1.500) for each performance, he said he was not called back after struggling to get an erection during one encounter.
He said he never saw Diddy use drugs or saw filming during any of the performances.
Car park dispute with Suge Knight
David James, Diddy’s ex-personal assistant, also completed his evidence and testified that he never saw physical violence between Cassie and his former boss.
David James, Combs’s former assistant. Pic: Reuters
James, who worked for Diddy for two years, said he left Diddy’s employment after he realised his “life was in danger” following a dispute in a car park with rival record label owner Suge Knight, which culminated in Diddy bringing three handguns to try to find Knight and his entourage.
He also detailed an altercation between Diddy and his personal chef, Jourdan Atkinson, and said he refused to file a police report after Diddy told him to say “Chef Jourdan hit him first”.
The final person to give evidence was a special agent responsible for planning the March 2024 raids on Combs’s Miami home on Star Island.
Steve Gannon showed photos of items taken during the raid, including sex toys, high heels and loaded guns, and explained how an armoured vehicle was used to break down the mansion’s front gate to gain entry while the family was away on a trip.
Combs has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since September and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.
The trial is set to last for around two months.
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