
I saw on the
BBC news that one of my clients Charles "Chick" Allan, head of the
Clanranald had been visited by his old mate Russell Crowe.
When I first met Chick back in 2002 I had been asked to recreate the famous
Marylyn Monroe "
skirt in the air" shot but using a bearded kilted Scotsman holding a broadsword with a castle in the background for a
marketing pop up stand. No problem then!!!
Chick is standing above an industrial paint dryer which we had buried in the ground in order to get enough updraft to lift a heavy kilt.
The whole shoot was a hoot and I have snapped him many times since.
He met
Russell Crowe on the set of the
Ridley Scott film epic
Gladiator where Chick playing a Barbarian is seen in the opening scene shouting obscenities at the assembled Roman troops
waving a severed head of one of their comrades. This made them really mad and if memory serves me well, Chick didn't last very long after that.
I must get to have a look at his medieval village, it sounds fantastic.