Monday, November 16, 2009

A sticky situation...



Another very interesting find from "RM" - a newspaper article from 1993 that describes a somewhat unfortunate and sticky scenario for Bill Shatner:

Herald Sun, December 4, 1993

HAIRFREE AND CAREFREE


...Actor William Shatner came unstuck during a television interview to promote the fourth
Star Trek movie in 1986. Shatner, who has carved out a science-fiction legend as Captain Kirk, found the glare of television lights too intense after 49 straight interviews in a long and arduous day - or at least his hairpiece did.

The interviewer, Channel Seven newsman Mark O'Brien, recalls the sight of molten glue streaming from Shatner's forehead during their seven-minute encounter.
"I noticed this green substance trickling from his temple," says O'Brien. "I was totally distracted and kept staring into his hairpiece, which ensured he became ruder and redder in the face."

The interview slid into free-fall and Paramount Pictures, which organised all aspects of Shatner's interview schedule, refused to hand over the videotape.

What can we say in this case other than "oops!"? The alleged tape of this alleged moment will likely never see the light of day, and perhaps that is best...

7 comments:

  1. But in 1986 Bill Shatner was still wearing a toupee that needed some kind of glue? Strange, indeed!

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  2. Hard to beleive they would make toupee glue green and not clear. I give this mostly false on the Shat-No-Meter

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  3. Let's not forget the time of year when Star Trek IV was originally released: Late November. It's possible Shat was in a festive mood and put on some green adhesive to go with his red cheeks in anticipation of Christmas.

    Seriously, they obviously didn't make green toupee glue. It could have been a reaction that mixed with some hair dye he may have been using at the time and with the high temperature under the lights to create some funky mix.

    BTW, this story had been repeated in various papers at the time. It wasn't specific to this one paper in Australia.

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  4. Actually I think they did make green/blue toupee glue! I did a bit of research & this was the type you could use to go swimming with the toup. on...

    I found another vid also of a guy explaining how to put on a toupee -- this is using contemporary toupee technology though, but it's still a really long process:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GXFaHFdvS8&feature=player_embedded

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  5. To vvatima: Yes, after looking online a few minutes, it seems they still make some toupee adhesives that are colored and not white/clear.

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  6. I like how in this photo the background color of green suggests what may have been lying underneath BillShat's hair system at the time.

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