Posted in: BBC, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: bbc, eric idle, graham chapman, john cleese, michael palin, monty python, terry gilliam, terry jones

Monty Python: Eric Idle Goes Public with Issues; John Cleese Responds

Seems there's no love lost between Monty Python's Eric Idle & John Cleese after Idle went public with issues regarding the comedy troupe.

They say you should never meet or get to know your heroes, and maybe we should add social media to that expression – as we've seen recently from Monty Python. John Cleese and Eric Idle have made what seems to be a decades-long antipathy public on social media after Idle stated he was happy to not see Cleese again because Cleese allegedly bullied the late Terry Jones when they were all working on Monty Python together. Cleese then minced no words in replying, also on social media and thus in public, that "We always loathed and despised each other."

It all began when Idle lamented that he still couldn't retire at 80 years old and still had to work to keep a roof over his head since money earned from Monty Python had dried up. The stage shows have not been making much at the box office, and he blamed Terry Gilliam's daughter Holly for mismanaging the Python intellectual property to the point where it was no longer a regular earner. Idle recently put his Hollywood Hills home up for sale, which led to fans worrying he was broke.

Idle posted, "I don't know why people always assume we're loaded," he wrote. "Python is a disaster. Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for a living. Not easy at this age." And "We own everything we ever made in Python, and I never dreamed that at this age, the income streams would tail off so disastrously. But I guess if you put a Gilliam child in as your manager, you should not be so surprised. One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company."

Idle also stated that Cleese bullied fellow Python member Terry Jones. Cleese's constant disagreements with Jones when they worked on the Monty Python BBC show together have been mentioned publicly in the past in interviews and even a book that's now long out of print.  "No he bullied Jonesy. I always felt ashamed we did nothing."

After implying that a joke from a fan that the 2014 Monty Python stage show was to play for Terry Jones' mortgage and John Cleese's most recent divorce was, in fact, true, Idle posted that they had to spend a lot of money on legal fees against a lawsuit from a producer on the Monty Python and the Holy Grail stage show: "More specifically it was to pay for the lawyers and the seven years that jerk spent pursuing us. Entitled git." Idle ended up having to pay that producer $1 million.

Idle then said, "I don't mind, but once they put Gilliam's daughter in as Manager and Cleese fires Jim Beach, well, it's over."

When asked if Jim Beach was originally in charge of the Python IP, Idle replied, "He was until John Cleese fired him, peremptorily and foolishly, without coming to the Board, when he discovered Jim was to be Executive Producer of Spamalot the Movie. He was only put there by me to look after the interests of the Pythons – as he did on the Queen movie."

Idle has vowed that he will not be joining any more Monty Python reunions. "I'm doing no more Python. I gave already. Ungrateful bastards."

Idle posted, "I still love and am proud of what we did as Python. It was a very unique group. I think of us as an ex Liverpool team. We played together well. Way back in the day. But it was never very supportive of people's feelings and emotions. Not Brothers. Colleagues."

In response to Idle's posts, Deadline had Cleese responding, "We always loathed and despised each other, but it's only recently that the truth has begun to emerge," but that remark has since been deleted. His other post defending Holly Gilliam, however, remains: "Holly Gilliam I have worked with Holly for the last ten years, and I find her very efficient, clear-minded, hard- working, and pleasant to have dealings with Michael Palin has asked me to to make it clear that he shares this opinion Terry Gilliam is also in agreement with this"

Comedy troupes are like rock bands, full of talent and ego, and the members don't always get along. It seems Monty Python is the Fleetwood Mac of comedy, creating some brilliant, innovative work while some of its members hated each other. Don't be sad. What would "new" Monty Python even look like now anyway? Graham Chapman and Terry Jones are long gone. Michael Palin is successfully hosting travel shows on British television and writing books. Terry Gilliam is directing movies, and Cleese has just written a stage version of Fawlty Towers, is developing a new sequel series to his classic sitcom, and has a stage musical of A Fish Called Wanda in the works. Just let it go and enjoy the original shows if you still love them and haven't outgrown them. Or if you're Gen Z and don't know who they are and what this fuss is all about, don't worry about it. It's just some old guys who apparently have hated each other for quite some time and now have zero F's left to give about airing their dirty laundry in public. It seems getting old and cranky is the time to burn bridges and watch with popcorn.

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