From television
celebrity to tequila
entrepreneur, we talk to
one of the nicest people
in show business, Cleo
Rocos about everything
from partying with
Princess Diana to the
power of positive
drinking.
Cleo Rocos will never blend into a crowd. Whether
it’s her fiery red hair, wild style or infectious laugh,
she definitely knows how to work a room. Her
speech is peppered with words like “fab” and there is
little doubt she knows how to have a good time. She
clearly loves socialising and has spent years rubbing
shoulders with some of the biggest and brightest
stars in both Britain and the United States, usually
armed with one of her famous margaritas.
Rocos’ break into show business sounds like the
stuff of Hollywood legends: a chance meeting with
BBC director, Alan Bell while still in drama school
led to her being cast in a small role on a BBC comedy
series. “I was late for a ballet class and I was
running, clutching my ballet shoes, and I didn’t see
him”, Rocos remembers that Bell spotted her and
took a shine to the then fourteen year-old, who
looked more like a woman of twenty.
THEGAYUK FEB/MARCH
CLEO ROCOS
INTERVIEW
2014
INTERVIEW
Rocos and
Kenny Everett
would often
have lunch with
Princess Diana,
where they
would trade
showbiz gossip
for palace
gossip. Rocos
says, “Diana
always wanted
to know who
[on television]
was really
gay.”
Bell invited her to the BBC for lunch where she was
introduced to the head of the BBC’s live
entertainment, Jim Moir who asked her to audition
for the part of a jingle girl on a new programme, The
Kenny Everett Show.
Upon meeting Everett, she says it was love at first
sight. “Kenny and I got on so well that they asked me
if I would like to do the series and be Kenny’s costar”, she explains, “and it was fab. We just laughed
from edge to edge.” You can hear the affection she
had for Everett in her voice when she talks about
him.
They called each other “fellow Martians” because
they felt different from others yet fit perfectly
together. But Everett was gay and passed away from
AIDS related complications in 1995.
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