[imagesource: Channel 4]

You may have gathered that a much-anticipated interview aired this weekend.

We are talking about Meghan and Harry’s sitdown with Oprah, which contained more than a few bombshells about how the Royal Family really operates.

In honour of that interview, we’re looking back at some from years gone by that sparked controversy, having started with David Blaine’s 2001 appearance on former brekkie show GMTV  for a chat with Eamonn Holmes.

Moving on from magicians, movie stars must grow very tired of all the press ahead of the big movie release, but that’s part of the game.

After all, Robert Downey Jr was paid a cool upfront salary of $20 million for reprising his role of Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, so that should take some sting out of the tail.

Oh, he also had an 8% back-end deal, which scored him an additional $55 million payday, for a grand total of $75 million.

For what is perhaps the most awkward interview of Downey Jr’s life, we go back to 2015, while he was promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The actor sat down with Channel 4 News reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and as the line of questioning shifted into uncomfortable terrain, he stood up and walked out.

If you start from around the 3:10 mark, you’ll start to see the wheels come off.

From around 5:45, we rapidly reach a total breakdown of the relationship between the two:

In the wake of the interview, Downey Jr wasn’t backing down, calling Guru-Murthy a “bottom-feeding muckraker”.

Here’s The Guardian:

Speaking to US radio host Howard Stern, Downey professed himself unrepentant about the incident, saying: “I just wish I’d left sooner.”

…Downey told Stern he did not believe that promoting a film meant that he had to delve into his past. “There’s an assumption that … because you’ve sat down there [in the interviewee’s chair], you’re going to be scrutinized like a kiddie fiddler who’s running for mayor,” the actor said.

“What I have to do in the future is … give myself permission to say, ‘That is more than likely a syphilitic parasite, and I need to distance myself from this clown.’ Otherwise, I’m probably going to put hands on somebody, and then there’s a real story.”

In response to the criticism for his line of questioning, Guru-Murthy said he went into the interview wanting something “serious and illuminating”, whereas “they just want publicity”.

All in all, not how you want your sitdown with a movie star to end, but both sides still emerged with their reputation in better shape than the Royal Family after this weekend’s bombshells.

[source:guardian]