STEVE COOGAN: I'M SINGLE AGAIN

Jun 14 2004


STEVE COOGAN ON WHY HIS MARRIAGE LASTED ONLY 16 MONTHS

By John Hiscock


THE suite at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel is a world away from
the Norwich Travel Tavern which comedy chat-show host Alan Partridge
made his home.

Deliberately so. Sitting on a plush sofa, Partridge's creator Steve
Coogan reveals for the first time that his marriage is at an end and
he has quit Britain for the bright lights of Hollywood.

The reasons for his flight to the US run far deeper than simply
shrugging off Partridge's Pringle sweater. Coogan, 38, is determined
to bury the drug and drink-fuelled sex scandals of his sordid past.

"I was the village idiot," he says. "Here, I'm a new face with new
opportunities."

His 16-month marriage to 32-year-old society beauty Caroline Hickman
has finally foundered in the wake of his self-confessed drug-taking
and constant womanising.

"Right now, I'm single," he says, "but I have a seven-year-old
daughter who is a very important part of my life. People don't
recognise me here. In England I have a lot of attention and I'm
often pursued by the paparazzi, so it's kind of nice not having to
deal with that."

He fidgets uneasily when confronted with some of the more shameful
episodes which have dogged his personal life. He hit rock-bottom in
April when he was caught with a buxom lap dancer Joanne Young and
her friend Jenny Ryan after a performance at a charity gig at the
Royal Albert Hall.

Joanne revealed that he had joined in the hotel-room antics while
repeating Alan Partridge's comic catchphrases "A-ha" and "Back of
the net".

"I'm such an idiot for doing it," he says. "I did a few lines of
cocaine. It is madness - getting drunk, doing drugs, then going back
to the hotel with two girls."

Today he is promoting his first Hollywood starring role in Around
The World In 80 Days and he clearly does not expect to be asked
about sex, drugs and alcohol.

When I ask him about his alleged intention to seek professional help
for his sex and drug problems, he stammers: "I was misquoted. I
didn't say that. I sought help once before, seven years ago, but I
never made those comments."

His long-suffering wife - great-niece of the late Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Westminster, Basil Hume, is expected to file for
divorce soon because of Coogan's womanising.

Caroline has moved out of their £850,000 double-fronted home in
Hove, West Sussex, to a flat in West London. She insists she doesn't
want his money.

When they married in December 2002 Coogan described it as "the best
thing I've ever done", but their relationship soon foundered under
the weight of his infidelities. There were early warning signs. Just
eight months before they tied the knot, they split up temporarily
and Coogan had brief liaisons with US gossip columnist Catherine
Townshend and lap dancer Terina Newman.

Even before Caroline, the comic genius had set the pace for his
troubled private life. In 1996 he was dumped by solicitor Anna Cole,
the mother of his daughter, after affairs with THREE women.

One, topless model Nancy Sorrell, revealed how Coogan flung £5,000
in £10 notes on his bed and told her: "Lie on them. Go on - lie on
them." Now, sheltered by his virtual anonymity in the US, Coogan,
the fourth of seven children born to an Irish Catholic family in
Manchester, is hoping to immerse himself in work and distance
himself from his messy past. But he is looking forward to showing
daughter Clare his new life in America.

He gives a rare smile: "I think she'll love Disneyland and we'll do
all the tourist things that I haven't done since I've been here.
It'll be fun."

He adds: "I would never abandon England. I love England and I like
working there. " But so far the move to Hollywood has been good for
him. His starring £3million role as pompous adventurer Phileas Fogg
in the remake of Jules Verne's comedy adventure Around The World In
80 Days has set him on the brink of international stardom.

He has finished two other films - Happy Endings with Friends star
Lisa Kudrow and Coffee And Cigarettes with Cate Blanchett, Alfred
Molina and Bill Murray. And he is about to start work on a thriller,
The Alibi.

He says of his role as Fogg: "I was a maverick choice because I'm
not a big international name." And filming his first big-budget
movie was certainly an eye-opener. "One scene was quite surreal -
when I was sitting in the Jacuzzi with Arnold Schwarzenegger on one
side and Jackie Chan on the other," he remembers. "I phoned home to
tell my mum, because it was quite an unusual situation to find
myself in.

"They're both big-muscle guys and I'm not the same shape as either
of them. We had to be in swimming costumes, so before we did the
scene I did as many push-ups as I could to build myself up so I
didn't look too wimpish between those two guys.

"I was in awe of Jackie Chan but in the end he became a friend. We
made each other laugh and he made me feel at ease. He couldn't have
been more sweet. He had an assistant who would peel grapes for him
and take the pips out, which I thought was the height of luxury, and
he would give me half the bowl."

Whether his new-found success in Hollywood will help Coogan put his
philandering days behind him remains to be seen. His off-screen
antics could have easily warranted a triple-X rating, but on it he
is now trying to keep his work suitable for young children.

He explains: "As a parent, you become concerned about the sort of
things children see. A lot of the work I have done in the past
hasn't been child-oriented, and the opportunity to do something like
this that appeals to children is something I really want to do.

Whatever the critics say, the person I want to like it the most is
my daughter. If she likes it, then I don't care what anyone else
thinks."



















Ok Steve has turned into an even bigger ARSEHOLE!! I mean lets
examine the evidence...Firstly, he said he's giving up comedy to
JUST do acting! Which is just RIDIC! Secondly, it looks as if he
wants to up and move to bloody America! Well "THEY WON'T TAKE YOU!!"

And WHAT?! Caroline doesn't want his money?! Just take it you stupid
cow!!! Well I'm just glad she's fucked off back to London!

And Hove is in EAST Sussex..."Prick."