In his new book, “The Uncool“, Cameron Crowe recalls the night he got Lucille Ball and Cary Grant’s phone numbers from a friend’s address book and decided to pull a prank on the Hollywood stars.
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According to the “Almost Famous” director, a fellow journalist who was dating Grant at the time gave him the actor’s private number after Crowe promised he wouldn’t cause her any trouble.
“I dialed. After three rings, Cary Grant answered. ‘Hello,’ said Cary Grant, in the way only Cary Grant can say hello,” Crowe wrote. “I took on the persona of a drunk dealer/street character. ‘Hey, man?’”
According to Crowe, Grant never lost his composure and continued the conversation with great politeness. The director explained that he teased the legendary actor, but Grant’s reaction was flawless.
Crowe writes in the book that he told Grant he was with someone else and that this person was armed. According to him, the actor simply said it would be a shame if the gun went off, and calmly asked, “What else can I do for you?”
“In less than a minute, Cary Grant dismantled my prank with delightful humor,” the director commented.
Crowe says that on the same night he pulled a prank on Lucille Ball, but the actress did not find it amusing.
According to him, he pretended to be a hotel porter and told Ball he had found a purse that seemed to belong to her. The actress lost her patience, shouted at him never to call again, and called him an idiot.
“I loved Lucy,” he wrote, “but she didn’t love me,” joked the director as he described Ball’s reaction.
Images: Wikimedia, CBS, Instagram @cameronbcrowe. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
