There may be rumours that Hugh Grant has been linked to the upcoming movie about Prince Andrew’s headline-grabbing BBC interview, but the actor has poured cold water on the claim.
Back in 2019, journalist Emily Maitlis sat down with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, asking him directly about the allegations surrounding his friend Jeffrey Epstein.
The BBC Newsnight interview was secured by Sam McAlister at the time, who celebrated the announcement of the film called Scoop about the disgraced royal by tweeting: ‘So here’s some news… can’t actually breathe with the excitement!!!! So…. Who should play me?’
While it was initially reported that Notting Hill star Grant was in discussions to play the Queen’s third eldest child, he has since spoken out to rebuke the source of gossip.
Responding to a headline about his supposed involvement, which claimed he was ‘in talks’ to play Prince Andrew, the actor tweeted: ‘No I’m not. Never heard of it.’
‘Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on their part,’ one Twitter user theorised in response, while another wrote: ‘You could pull that role off no sweat,’ referring to Prince Andrew’s previous claim that he ‘can’t sweat’.
McAlister, who spent a decade producing interviews for BBC’s flagship news programme Newsnight, recently published a book with a similar title to the movie – Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, which came out today.
Your Honor screenwriter Peter Moffat is attached to write the script, while a director has not yet been announced, with shooting expected to begin in November.
Moffat explained to Deadline that the film will be ‘about how the BBC’s Newsnight team got the scoop, then the actual filming of it’.
He added: ‘The other thing is, “Why did he agree to do it?”.’
In the aftermath of the BBC Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew stepped back from his royal duties, before permanently resigning from public roles in May 2020.
In February this year, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre in a civil sexual assault case to avoid going to trial.
He has consistently and vehemently denied all allegations against him.
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