Mixed feelings over gay star’s return - from Pink News - all the latest gay news from the gay community

Mixed feelings over gay star's return

By Marc Shoffman • February 6, 2006 - 0:00

Michael Barrymore's comeback has been met with mixed feelings

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The comeback of gay TV entertainer, Michael Barrymore, has been met with mixed reactions in the press and media world, this weekend.

PR guru Max Clifford, a former friend of Mr Barrymore and his ex-wife Cheryl, who died last year of cancer, told the Independent, "I know Michael and he is both manipulative and a very convincing actor. This is just a desperate attempt to get back into British television."

Social Anthropologist Kate Fox, told the paper, "The English have a strong and distinctive sense of fair play. We prefer moderation in all things. Barrymore got it absolutely right - the rueful smile, the sad look, the permanent air of saying, 'Oh dear' I am sorry.'"

The Sun last week brought Mr Barrymore and Terry Lubbock together for the first time since the death of Mr Lubbock's son, who drowned in Michael Barrymore's pool. This signalled a message of forgiveness.

However, Lynda Lee-Potter wrote in the Daily Mail that she would "rather stick pins in my eyes than watch Barrymore on TV again."

Meanwhile, Express On Sunday columnist, Christa Ackroyd said the former prime time figure made her blood boil. She criticised him for blaming his downfall on his deceased wife, Cheryl, just since she died.

Mr Clifford added: "In Celebrity Big Brother, he wasn't trying to make people laugh but that's what his own shows are about. Will we still want to laugh with him given all we now know and all the questions that still remain unanswered about Stuart Lubbock's death? And will the TV executives be so keen to employ him when the negative publicity starts kicking in, as inevitably it will."

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