Max Beesley: January 2006

British pop singer ROBBIE WILLIAMS' newfound sobriety saved his longterm friendship with actor MAX BEESLEY.

The pair met during their teenage upbringing in the north of England, and cemented their friendship when Beesley toured as a percussionist with Williams' former boyband TAKE THAT.

But Beesley, who abandoned music to act in Hollywood movies including the MARIAH CAREY-starring GLITTER, lost touch with the ROCK DJ hitmaker, when his addictions spiralled out of control.

Of their 2001 reunion he says, "He was sober for a start. I didn't see much of him when he was drinking. I think that is one of the reasons we are such good friends now.

"I wasn't part of that culture and wasn't really around during that period of his life."

And the actor blasts the popular image of Williams as a talented depressive, insisting: "He's stronger than a lot of people think."

Source: Contactmusic

Max Beesley reveals all about life at Hotel Babylon The TV hunk swaps his doctor's whites for a swish Savile Row suit in Hotel Babylon, and uncovers the secretive, sexy world of the BBC's very own five-star hotel. GRAHAM KEAL met Max in London Graham Keal IT'S a glamorous, obscenely expensive world of indulgence, dripping in luxury, a place where every whim is catered for, but hunky actor Max Beesley has seen the world of the five-star hotel from both sides now he's starring in Hotel Babylon.

BBC1's incredibly glitzy new creation makes the excesses of Dallas or Dynasty seem positively restrained, and Max is in the thick of it as head receptionist Charlie Edwards, promoted to deputy manager by boss Tamzin Outh waite in Thursday's opening episode.
As ruthless general manager Rebecca Mitchell, Tamzin asks him why she should promote him when he's the perfect receptionist - "flirtatious, handsome, yet strangely asexual".
But neither fitness-mad Max nor his screen creations have ever lived up to that puzzling 'asexual' tag.

Recent BBC2 medical drama Bodies showed him stripping off for intensely passionate scenes with Paisley-born co-star Neve McIntosh, while Hotel Babylon wastes no time in showing his sexy side.

Apart from flirting with the guests, episode one sees Charlie embarking on a scorching affair with gorgeously pouting Head of Housekeeping Jackie Clunes, played by Natalie Mendoza. Max says: "It was quite embarrassing because the first time I met her, within 10 minutes of shaking her hand, we were into our first bedroom scene. But they're thankfully not as revealing or as heavy duty as they were in Bodies."

The accent in Hotel Babylon is on glamour rather than the grittier, in-your-face drama of Bodies. But surely Max isn't trying to convince us that those intensely intimate scenes with a naked Neve weren't one of the main attractions of the Bodies job?

"They were horrendous!" says Max with feeling. "The only thing that makes those scenes seem okay is Neve's warmth and understanding of the business. She was amazing. For a woman to be completely naked in front of camera and just go 'Let's do the business', that's a pretty strong testament to her character.

"I always get nervous doing these things with actresses and I always want to make sure they're at ease. But she had to put me at ease with those scenes. I was not comfortable with them at all. It's a strange thing to do.

You're in a room with eight or nine people and you're naked and it's quite weird. Unless you're a voyeuristic freak, which I'm not."

He is, however, a superfit handsome hunk with several Hollywood films under his belt and a long line of ex-girlfriends including ex-Spice Girl Melanie Brown, TV presenters Dani Behr and Melanie Sykes, and ex-Hollyoaks actress Davina Murphy.

As if he wasn't already enough of an object of desire, we must factor in Max's talents as a classically-trained musician who earned a living as a multi-skilled session musician until he turned to acting in 1995.

He usually plays drums but turned to the piano for Robbie Williams at Live 8 and has toured with Robbie and Take That as well as backing George Michael, Paul Weller, Jamiroquai, Chaka Khan and many more.

The immaculate suits and the perfectly groomed look he sports in Hotel Babylon can only swell his fanbase further, though the shenanigans going on in the bedroom is only part of the attraction. The series, based on the best-selling book by Imogen Edwards-Jones, lifts the lid on what really goes on at the hotels used by the rich and famous.

Edwards-Jones spent a year researching her book, which reads like a novel but is actually a detailed expose of the scams and scandals of the luxury hotel trade.

She reveals the huge mark-ups that can see a 1796 cognac sold at £750 a tot, the prostitutes brought in to entertain rich clients, and the bizarre strategies hotels adopt to make sure the super-rich not only sleep with them, but also spend with them.

In episode one, scams include evacuating an entire floor by faking A power cut, just to re-let it to a supposedly high-rolling US rock band who should spend a fortune of bar bills and sundry service. When one pair of randy newlyweds won't budge, Max's character disturbs their wedding night by slipping rat into the room.

Does this kind of stunt really happen?

"Initially I thought 'well this is a bit far-fetched. Surely this doesn't go on - the prostitutes the concierge sending out for guests' morning-after pill, all this type of thing? But they do, and in the most exquisite establishment.

"There were some weird things, but it's just like life. There's plenty of stuff going on that we don't know about.

"They often rent out room for the year to rock stars and millionaires who want an apartment always there for them, and if the hotel is caught off-guard, they'll make up millions of excuses so that they don't have to take them into the rooms - water leaks, electrical failures, everything. Meanwhile, there will be someone in there enjoying Bollinger and caviar."

But it's not just the management who take advantage. According to the book, rich businessmen have been known towee into whisky miniatures to disguise their mini-bar consumption, while dirty needles, used condoms and porn mags are common leftovers for the underpaid, put-upon, Eastern European maids who clear up.

Max himself stayed in an (unnamed) five-star hotel in London for four-and-a-half-months during the shoot.

He says: "I used to spend a lot of time watching these guys. You can just sit in reception and watch the concierge doing his business like Dexter Fletcher does in the series. It's quite freaky.

"And in all the five-star hotels I've been lucky enough to stay in over the years, through work, you can see the workings and the mark-ups and it's quite terrifying."

Still down-to-earth and friendly despite his success, Max himself admits to only one conspicuously five-star self-indulgence: "I like wine, and when I was in the Soho Grand in New York a few years ago, I ordered a bottle of Chateau Lafite, but I didn't really think about the mark-up. It was $600 but because it was a bad year, that was double what it was worth. So that was debauched, in a sense."

Max won't entertain any suggestion of debauched behaviour during the eight months he took off from acting to support Robbie Williams on his world tour, and the part-time pop career is definitely on the back burner now.

The BBC hopes to put their lavish hotel set - built in a rented warehouse in Buckinghamshire - to good use, having taken a five-year option on the building. So Max could be there for a long time.

Meanwhile Bodies, axed after two series despite terrific reviews and wails of protest from
famous fans, will be back for a feature-length one-off special, probably filming in April or early May.

But Max has always yearned to play with The Who.

Max groans: "Their room was next to ours at Live 8 and years ago I worked with Simon Townshend, Pete's brother, so we were casually talking and he said 'I had no idea you were here today. We had problems getting a drummer'."

So if the call came, Hotel Babylon might need a locum deputy manager for a few days?
"Definitely. Play the Albert Hall? No problem," says Max.

Hotel Babylon starts on Thursday, January 19, BBC1, 9pm.

'I always get nervous doing these things with actresses. It's a strange thing to do'

Source: Dailyrecord.co.uk

Max Beesley

Friday, January 27, 2006

Look at ttttthhhiiiisssssss!!!!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

BEESLEY CELEBRATES WILLIAMS' SOBRIETY

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

New pics

Monday, January 23, 2006

Busy weekend sigh

Friday, January 20, 2006

New stuff gggg

Sunday, January 15, 2006

I SHOOED NATALIE'S HAND.. 10 MINUTES LATER WE WERE IN BED TOGETHER

Thursday, January 05, 2006

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