Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Posted in Blog by: LottieThis conversation has come up many a time over the dinner table and a few too many bottles of vino.
If you would have any eight people (dead or alive – clearly for the purposes of this question they would be resurrected otherwise that would be just weird..unless you’re into that kind of thing and then that’s even more weird and you’re never allowed in my house) come to yours for dinner who would they be?
For me - Stephen Fry is always top of this list. He’s a genius – a complete and total brain box. But he’s also side-splittingly funny. I luv him so much. I am forming a plan to turn him and run off to his cerebrum space ship in the sky where we will spawn curly headed brain box children who will one day take over the world(of entertainment that is).
Then there would be Samuel L Jackon. He is possibly the coolest man in the world. He even gets away with wearing a beany hat and he’s still the shit.
Beside Sam, I would sit Paul Noonan. He wouldn’t need to engage in any conversation. Instead he would just sit there looking spectacularly cool and maybe he could sing us a song at the end of the night. I bet he rocks at Sing-Star.
Joss Whedon is a must – I might have to call off the whole thing if he couldn’t make it. He’s a different kind of genius. Some people have brains that just don’t work in the ordinary human manner. I believe that Whedon hears the whole world in symphonic sarcasm.
Bill Murray mainly because I need to now what was said at the end of Lost In Translation…no not really…well maybe a little for that reason. I like people who don’t take themselves too seriously. This guy is a major league actor and a damn good one at that yet he is happy to play a tree just to be part of the fun. I think he and Stephen would find a lot of common ground.
Marilyn Munroe – I would just really like to meet her. She’s such a cult symbol and has essentially created the label of “dumb blonde”. But how dumb could she have been, really? She’s iconic. One of my favourite films is Some Like It Hot and she’s incredibly funny in it. I find her very endearing on screen and I would like to find out the truth about JFK.
On a similar theme, James Dean. This might cause a bit of a stir. I can see Paul and James eyeballing each other both vying for the title of the coolest guest. Things could get very ugly.
Harper Lee would be in there for a little culture. I was going to choose Thomas Harris however I think I would spend the entire time pestering him to write another thriller. I would end up locking him in a room with an old typewriter and he would only get a morsel of food on the completion of each chapter. The other guests would all feel very uncomfortable, except for Whedon who would find it bizarrely amusing, and it might put a downer on the evening.
Sorry. Digression. Back to Lee. One of the first books I ever read and understood the power of was To Kill A Mocking Bird. I read it when I was about 11 and then studied it for my Junior Cert. I don’t think I understood the concept of racism before reading this and it opened my eyes with some shocking results.
I would love to say Gandhi or Mandella, or someone who has made a real and substantial difference to the landscape of our world but to be honest, I know a hell of a lot more about pop culture than world politics and I can’t imagine I would find very much to talk to them about.
Is that 8 already? Oh I have tonnes more. Is it possible to bring fictional characters? Can I have a shin-dig rather than a soirée?
September 12th, 2008 at 2:35 am
OMG I’m so in love with Stephen Fry, too. Gotta love a well spoken, witty, intelligent man! I have one really embarrassing crush which I might reveal one day
September 12th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Nice guest list. I LOVE what you said about Joss Whedon and symphonic sarcasm!
September 12th, 2008 at 9:46 am
@Tina – Go on. No-one judges in here (much).
@Jo – I have my poetic moments I do.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Seriously, you don’t want to know
September 12th, 2008 at 10:59 am
oooh this is a good challenge! i’ll have to think about it!!
September 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Make this a meme, NOW!
September 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
@Tina – Don’t make me beat you!
@Max i – technically it is….just go with it. Okay I tag you!. There you go. Usual rules apply.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
8 people why 8 why 88? mm that’ll take thinking? i mean there’s 6 people in monty python?!!!
September 12th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Brilliant post! Out of curiosity, am I allowed to come to this dinner party?
September 12th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
@T-Cup – 8 puts the pressure on otherwise it would go on to infinity. John Cleese was booted from my list – I would annoy him anyway. Apparently he doesn’t like doing the funny walk on request. He has a bad hip you know. I regret that now but it’s online and there is no way of going back now.
@Darren – Yes – you can come. Probably. Maybe we could mosh your 8 and my 8.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
yea that’s right he never found it funny, when they were doing the live shows and when they came up with it in the first place.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Ah I love Stephen Fry too, it’d be mighty hard not to I reckon. Himself and Alan Davies are hilarious together on QI, so I’d try to sneak them in as a double act to count as one person.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
This is a great idea, I am going with living people, Blondie, Will Smith, Patti Smith (no relation obv,), Portia di Rossi, Bruce Beresford, Hilary Clinton, David Simon and Sarah Silverman. I reckon this is mixed up enough to have some fun and controversy mixed without anyone actually annoying me.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Stephen Fry would be an entertaining guest alright. I don’t know, if I think of such a thing logistical matters of what to cook intrude on my mind, and I end up abandoning the idea on the basis that whoever I’d like to invite would no doubt be deeply unimpressed by my soiree holding abilities. Here Stephen, have a chicken nugget kebab, it’s awfully good.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
stephen fry, david mitchell, stewart lee, jesus, fred phelps(to override my fear of scaring the others with a fear of this fella going mad), john cleese, kurt Vonnegut, jarvis cocker.
I now feel like Dave Couse after he made Endless Art
September 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Fuck yeah, Stephen Fry just has to be there. And I like Kitty Cat’s idea of getting Alan Davies in there too. See, he’s an Arsenal fan so if I ran out of witty repartee for the other guest we could just talk football for ages. Which wouldn’t really be the idea, but it makes for a decent Plan B.
Erm, who’s Paul Noonan? No-one with that surname could be cooler than James Dean.
It would be a toss-up for me between Sam Jackson and Morgan Freeman. I think Morgan would just edge it, due to him being older and probably having more stories to tell.
for similar reasons the late-period Johnny Cash gets to come. Early Johnny might have been stoned and angry and no-one wnats that at their dinner party.
I’d bring Michael Phelps just to expose the fact that being a sporting icon doesn’t prevent you from being a boring bastard.
That’s five so far. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon could also come, due to them being comedy legends and absolutely hilarious together.
Shit, one space left. There’s no ladies yet. Umm, Sharon ní Bheoláin then. She can sit there being a ride and then report about how fucking deadly my party was on the news the next night.
And scratch that Phelps muppet off, I want Russell Brand there too. He can shag Sharon after I crash and burn.
I’ve had similar chats with my bro about who we’d most like to go for a pint with, I suspect my list has more of that kind of vibe to it rather than a sophisticated dinner soirée. Ah well.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
@Kitty – No. Don’t be greedy. Only house hold duos like Laurel & Hardy, Fred Ginger, Torvill & Dea get to classed as one guest.
@ Sarah – Welcome! Which Patti Smith?
@TC – I have decided on Duck and Champagne.
@B’dum – Looks like Stephen Fry is the universal guest.
@Andrew – Paul Noonan is the lead singer of Bell-X1. When he sings he is actually cooler than Samuel L Jackson. Really! Super Hot Boy! He’s just HOT! This is from Duke concert last year where he came on as a surprise guest. Yes that is me screaming frantically in the background.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Andrew was going so well til he threw in Brand at the end
September 13th, 2008 at 2:22 am
B’dum – Let me guess: you hate him?
Ah I can see how he’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I was initially massively put off by the Big Brother connection, but the man really is fucking funny. David Mitchell was also under serious consideration but I thought it would be good to throw someone who’s a bit more of a loose cannon into the mix.
Lottie -Are you trying to win me round to that cut-price Coldplay lot by repeatedly telling me how hot this Michael Noonan fella is?
September 13th, 2008 at 9:24 am
That Noonan guy has nothing on that Breslin boy from the Blizzards. H.A.W.T (and I don’t generally dig white Irish guys [adopts Ja'mie voice: "no offence"]}
September 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
@B’dum – I have been coming around to Brand lately. At first I thought he was vile but watching him on the MTV awards, he was actually quite funny. And he doesn’t appear to be as dirty (physically unclean) as he cone did.
@Andrew – Coldplay are SHITE!
@Daddy or Chips – I have never seen the Blizards live so I can’t agree or disagree. You have to see Noonan in the flesh (swoon) to understand how great he is. As a non-guy DoC I take no offence.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
The Godmother of Punk one, with the album Horses…..I think she’s a combination of fiery and troubled, a total eccentric, I’d be particularly interested in her Will Smith interaction.
I would prefer Russell Brand at a smaller gathering, mostly because he wold dominate which would make having the others there a bit of a waste.
I think you are just inviting Paul Noonan for eye candy, so again I would recommend a smaller gathering, maybe some hot whiskeys on a soft day in November in a little bar up the wicklow mountains. He’d be good to go on a long walk with, which none of my guests would.
September 14th, 2008 at 1:04 am
bring Bogie too and Ms Bacall too……..then it’s a party…….
September 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
This was a fun one to have a think about! Bit of a mixed bag and lord only knows what topics of conversation would arise from the mix but here goes:
Thích Quảng Đức
Buckminster Fuller
Margeret Cho
Oscar Wilde
Gloria Swanson
Keith Richards
Christine Jorgensen
Aleister Crowley
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