2000s
For the 21st century, Everett has decided to write again. He has been a Vanity Fair contributing editor and wrote a film screenplay on playwright Oscar Wilde's final years, for which he seeks funding. In 2006, he published a memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. In it he revealed he had a six-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates. "I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs – but then I am mystified by most of my relationships," he wrote. Although he is sometimes described as bisexual as opposed to homosexual, at a radio show with Jonathan Ross, he described his heterosexual affairs as resulting from adventurousness: "I was basically adventurous, I think I wanted to try everything" and in an interview on This Morning he simply described himself as homosexual, making a joke of any suggestion he might find a woman attractive.
Since then, Everett has participated in public activities (leading the 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras), played a double role in the film St. Trinian's, and has appeared on TV several times (as a contestant in the special Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, as a presenter at Live Earth and as guest host at Channel 4 show The Friday Night Project among others), but has made much news for making shocking comments and remarks at interviews that have caused public outrage.
In 2009, Everett told British newspaper The Observer that he wished he had never come out of the closet as he feels that it hurt his career and advises younger actors not to:
| “ | The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work and you're going to hit a brick wall at some point. You're going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure they'll cut you right off... Honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out. | ” |
In May 2007, he delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral of fashionista Isabella Blow, his friend since they were in their teens. He currently lives in London.
Read more about this topic: Rupert Everett