How acting opposite a meerkat could have been Gerard Butler’s toughest gig

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2015/jun/18/gerard-butler-toughest-gig-yet-acting-opposite-meerkat-advert


How acting opposite a meerkat could have been Gerard Butler’s toughest gig

The Hollywood hard man thinks he knows what backbreaking work is like, but even he must be relieved that talk of him going up against a cuddly puppet is merely rumour

If only … the Sun was reporting that Butler would be appearing in an advert for a well-known price-comparison site.

Exciting news of cinema’s Gerard Butler, who is one of those actors who literally believes his gig is tougher than going down a mine. As he told an interviewer a couple of years ago: “There’s no one in this world I think that works harder than me.”

Filipino fishermen, hazmat divers, Lagos rubbish scavengers … these layabouts I will give you, Gerard. But what about Mr Tom Cruise, who claimed: “A sprinter for the Olympics, they only have to run two races a day. When I’m shooting, I could potentially have to run 30, 40 races a day, day after day.”

Anyway, I see from Imdb that Gerard worked so hard last year that he has four movies in post-production – though that, of course, tells its own story. Perhaps it is why the Sun imagines him to be in a place where he would agree to co-star with a meerkat in some price-comparison site adverts, in the story of the day Lost in Showbiz most wishes was true. But unfortunately isn’t, according to the client’s publicist.

Such a shame, given that the paper’s “movie insider” had told the paper that the ads would be based on his performance in the movie 300. One of his co-stars on that told me that Gerard was in the habit of viewing the rushes on set and marvelling: “Did you see my eyes in that take?” Perhaps the only way they could be improved is by flashing pound signs, and we must commiserate with the meerkat on failing to pull off this perfect fusion of man and material.