It was the early hours of a Tuesday morning, 27 June , and a sex worker known as Divine was about to become an international sensation. And all because the randy, stammering and vaguely annoying Englishman who solicited her services on the corner of Sunset Boulevard was a fledgling movie star named Hugh Grant. The resulting scandal remains one of the most iconic celebrity stories of the s. The incident in question came after a night of drinking and dining, with Grant and his co-stars Jeff Goldblum and Tom Arnold having completed two days of press interviews for their new film, Nine Months.
Nine Months borrowed many of its flibbertigibbet, toff tropes, if not any of the funny lines or heart. It was scheduled to open in two weeks. For both things I am more sorry than I can ever possibly say. The pair had already become two of the most photographed stars of the era, both benefiting from their shared upper-crust glam. Every woman in America wanted him to take her out for a malt.
What happened next was partly guided by contractual obligation. Nine Months was too close to release to postpone, talk show appearances had been booked, and too much money was on the line for Grant to disappear altogether.
Enter Jay Leno. But the openness with which Grant approached the incident was groundbreaking. Grant, in comparison, had made Hollywood sex scandals embarrassing and awkward but, believe it or not, almost endearing. If anything, it appeared to boost his profile and revamp his image. As Grant has become more politically outspoken, particularly in his disdain for the Conservative Party and phone hacking within the right-wing press, that infamous mugshot has resurfaced more and more in his Twitter mentions, trolls determining it to be somehow shameful.
Or at least something that undermines his⦠morality? Or sense of right and wrong? But it overlooks how open and sincere Grant has always been about a night that was regretful and undeniably cruel to his girlfriend at the time, but certainly at the lower end of a ranking of awful deeds.
