Stephen Fry has recalled the moment Nigella Lawson ordered a very x-rated drink after his booze advice was hilariously misunderstood.
The English actor, 67, shared the anecdote during an appearance on the latest episode of the Dish from Waitrose podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett.
He revealed that once while on a Qantas flight he had ordered a vodka and soda, which the attendant informed was called a ‘skinny b***h’ – a name he said had been coined by catwalk models as they could get ‘maximum alcoholic bang for minimum calorific buck’.
Stephen was so amused by the name that during a birthday night out for celebrity chef Nigella a week later, he excitedly asked if the bar-tender could ‘do him a skinny b***h’.
Nigella was ‘fascinated’ by the order, he said, so he regaled her his Qantas tale. ‘God, that’s good,’ she had replied.
However when the pair met up three weeks later, Nigella revealed she had ‘made a fool’ of herself after going into a bar and mistakenly ordering a ‘skinny sl**’ instead.
Stephen Fry has recalled the moment Nigella Lawson ordered a very x-rated drink after his booze advice was hilariously misunderstood as he appeared on Wednesday’s Dish from Waitrose podcast (Pictured on Tuesday)
Stephen was so amused by the name for a drink that during a birthday night out for celebrity chef Nigella a week later, he excitedly asked if the bar-tender could ‘do him a skinny b***h’
Speaking to Angela and Nick, Stephen said: ‘I was sitting, waiting for takeoff, on a Qantas flight, and the steward came and sort of squatted in front of me, as if to let me into a very good secret that he was going to open the bar for me rather than just serve the usual coffee, orange juice and warm champagne or whatever that you might get.
‘So, he said, [in n accent] “Would you like anything from the bar?” And I said, “Uh, well, could I have a vodka and soda water?” and he said, “One skinny b**** coming right up”.
‘And so, when he came back, I said, “Did you call this drink a skinny b****?” He said, “Well, that’s what they call it on the catwalk, darling, because you get your maximum alcoholic bang for your minimum calorific buck”.’
Stephen continued: ‘So, I thought about this, and as it happened, it was about this time of year, a week or so later, it was Nigella Lawson’s birthday and she was having a party, and we were meeting in a bar somewhere in London before going off to, to, to eat.
‘And I thought I’d try out my newfound knowledge so I said to the barman, “Can you do me a skinny b****?” and he said, “Sure”. And Nigella was very fascinated.
‘I told her the story of the Qantas steward and she went, “God, that’s good”.
‘And I saw her three weeks later, she said “Oh my god, I made such a fool of myself.” And I said, “What happened?” She said, “I went into a bar and asked for a skinny slut”. Isn’t that fabulous? Oh dear, oh dear.’
The English actor, 67, shared the anecdote during an appearance on the latest episode of the Dish from Waitrose podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett
Nigella was ‘fascinated’ by the order, he said, so he regaled her his Qantas tale. ‘God, that’s good,’ she had replied (Pictured in 2020)
It comes after back in September, the actor opened up on being gay as a teenager and revealed he used to be known as ‘celibate Stephen’.
Stephen publicly came out as gay in the 1980s and has been open about his sexuality for many years.
In a new interview with The Times, Stephen admitted being gay used to feel like there was ‘a horror inside him’ and he felt ‘rejected’.
He explained: ‘In the Eighties, I was known as Celibate Stephen. I was so excited by my work that I forgot to have sex.
‘It was also fear: I always felt rejected in gay bars. I couldn’t dance; I didn’t look cool. All I wanted was to sit and talk. In some ways, though, I was lucky: I lost many friends to Aids.
Stephen and Elliott – who is 30 years his junior – tied the knot back in January 2015, just 10 days after announcing their engagement (pictured at the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party)
‘Being gay gave me years of misery but an education in literature.
‘By the time I was 13 my sexuality was a secret horror swelling inside me and I was desperately trying to find out who I was, what future there was for me. I knew the disgrace and humiliation of gay people.
He added: ‘Oscar Wilde had taught me that it would be a life of mockery, exile and secrecy.
‘And then there were those writers, like EM Forster or Somerset Maugham, who held their heads up high and made me feel that it wasn’t all slime and grim mackintosh people in a terrible world of darkness.’