“He must have needed the excitement, the thrill . . . and the risk,” the hooker, 25-year-old Divine Marie Brown, told The News of the World. The British tabloid paid her a reported $160,000 for an exclusive interview. Grant himself quickly issued a public apology for doing “something completely insane.” But Grant – called “Huge” by chums – is far from the uptight characters he often plays. Reportedly a devotee of topless bars, with a sense of humor that runs to farts and hemorrhoids, he’s an Oxford grad with a distinctly raunchy underside.
His eight-year romance with Hurley, who recently signed a lucrative contract with cosmetics giant Estee Lauder, may not be the stuff of storybooks either. In recent interviews Grant has said, “Liz stopped fancying me years ago,” and both have described their relationship as siblinglike. Still, Hurley was evidently wounded by Grant’s brief encounter. “I am very much alone,” she said. On Friday Hugh appeared at the couple’s British country house near Bath, preceded by the delivery of a large bouquet of flowers and a double bed that was installed in a spare room. While paparazzi clicked away over the garden wall, Liz, fetching in a white miniskirt, scolded her wayward boy.
Is Huge’s career now in jeopardy? “I think he granted one too many interviews,” jokes leading Hollywood publicist Gene Schwam. But “scandal is hard to come by these days,” says Art Murphy, veteran industry observer for The Hollywood Reporter. Compared with the escapades of Peewee Herman, Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, Grant’s fall from grace is relatively minor. The hooker episode could actually improve his image, giving him a bit of a dark side-and quelling rumors he might be gay. According to a poll by the “Mr. Showbiz” Website on the Internet, 41 percent of participants said the incident made them more likely to pick a flick starring Grant. (Twelve percent said they’d stay away.)
Mike Newell, who directed “Four Weddings,” dismisses the tabloid frenzy that has spawned such headlines as TART who BLEW IT FOR HUGH. “They’re going to be through all that tomorrow, and back onto ‘Aliens Ate My Hamster’,” he predicts. Grant put just the right spin on his sin by confessing it, says Murphy. “Nowadays,” he quipped, “you’d expect he might hire Johnnie Cochran to say that the LAPD, by putting Heidi Fleiss out of business, had forced him into the streets.”
Brown told the tabloid that her client, who called himself “Lewis,” asked for intercourse. But she wanted $100 for that, and he had only $60 on him. She said he told her he fantasized about black women. Commenting on the actor’s most private part, she said, “I’d give it 6. I’ve seen bigger, and I’ve seen smaller. But his was cute.” When the cops told her who Lewis was, she asked: “Who the hell is Hugh Grant?” Few people are asking that question now.
